10.06
The sermon that our pastor (Doug) taught on Sunday morning was the last in a 4 part series of the high views of God. It was about the high view of God’s work around the world.
What I expected was to hear something about the great commission, or referencing how Paul was all things to all people. But the talk referenced Luke 8.26-39 where Jesus heals the demon-possessed man.
Jesus stepped into this demon-possessed mans’ world (the graveyard) and heals him. When all other people either had tried and given up, or never even approached them man for being unclean, Jesus steps in and treats the man like a child of God.
How would things be different if we viewed everyone we interact as a child of God? How would this change how we treat people – to know that each person we come to contact with is a child of God and has a purpose?
How could this prayer and thought change how you treat the people that you don’t like, don’t agree with, or don’t approve of how they’re living their life?
I began to think of the homeless that I serve as “dearly loved children of God” and it began to break my heart.
Doug talked about driving in the car with his family, and they pull up to a stop in broad daylight to see a prostitute on the corner. His son was staring at the woman and asking “what is that?” and all Doug could think to do was to keep driving.
You could hear the remorse in Doug’s voice when followed up that story with “I should have told my son ‘that’s a daughter of God’”.
To think of what that woman goes through on a daily basis is horrible – That she lets men touch her and do gross things to her, only to be stared at and scoffed at, to have a life saturated in drugs, alcohol, guilt and shame.
Doug ended with the plea that we can’t be okay with that being the summation of her life – she does that every day till she dies alone somewhere never being told she’s a daughter of God and that she has immeasurable worth. People need to hear that.
I kept thinking about the song “Somebody’s Baby” by Jon Foreman while thinking about how this changes everything.
This changes everything. How?
Good thoughts, Dan. Leaving semantic issues aside, I completely agree.
There is a sense in which humanity has separated itself from that which needs the most help. And by help I don’t mean salvation or divine intervention. Instead, I mean concrete, human love and support. Humanity, in the wake of modernity, has become less humane: less loving, caring, more selfish. There was a time when the Golden rule actually meant something, when we cared for people as a group instead of as individuals, when the masses actually wanted to help the less fortunate.
I think this all comes back to the human tendency to avoid suffering: We will avoid suffering at all costs, which includes seeing it. In essence, we avoid the truth of suffering, especially other people’s suffering. Classic example is the one your pastor described. He should have told his son the truth of this woman’s suffering but wished to escape the subsequent awkward conversation with his child. In this case, his feelings superseded the truth of the woman’s suffering, which should never happen, but happens nonetheless.
This changes everything in that we should courageously help the less fortunate instead of doing nothing. Every time I listen to Jon Foreman’s song, I can’t help but put myself in the girl’s shoes. Can you imagine the despair and angst? Just thinking about it bothers me. Her helplessness…Her suffering…Her loneliness…No one should live through such a life. In the end, I think the song and your pastor’s words call us to become more human, yet at the same time less human. More human in that we should actually care for those who live a life of suffering. Less human in that we should ditch the tendency to avoid seeing and feeling suffering. We have a responsibility to care for our brothers and sisters in humanity (Christ). Sadly, most of us–religious and non-religious–fail to realize and act upon this responsibility.
Good post.
-DP