Uncomfortable Christians

Do you remember the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the princess and the pea?  The poor young woman, lost in a terrible storm, came to the gate of a town… soaked to the skin, cold, wet, and tired.  She claimed to be a real princess, but the old queen was skeptical.  So, the queen prepared a special bed for this woman that consisted of twenty featherbeds on top of twenty mattresses… all sitting on top of one lonely pea.  The grateful stranger crawled into bed, but in the morning, she complained of getting no sleep at all.  There was something hard and lumpy in her bed, she said, that was very uncomfortable… and left her black and blue.  The old queen concluded that the young woman must be a real princess, for no one but a real princess… or so the story goes… would have such delicate skin.

It must be wonderful to have such an easy test to tell whether someone is a princess or not.  I am not sure I could come up with twenty mattresses and twenty featherbeds on a moment’s notice… although I have to admit, getting the one pea would be fairly easy.  Still, it is good to know that there is such a test.  How many other tests do we have that determine whether a person is the person that they claim to be.  We claim to be Christians… most of us, anyway.  But are we who we say we are?  Are we truly the children of God… followers of Christ?  And how do we know?

Some people would claim that we would have to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit… you know, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and so on.  Personally, I think I am more comfortable with the list from the Prophet Micah.  After all, it’s a shorter list.  There are only three things on it:  to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.   I wonder if you can really tell whether someone is a child of God using these criteria.  I wonder if I can tell whether I am a child of God... using these criteria?

I thought about that a lot this week.  Oh, sure… I can do the old Boy Scout thing and help an elderly woman across the street.  And I can stop someone from abusing a dog or cat, if I see them doing it.  But those seem to be random things that I might run across serendipitously … on my way to HEB … or coming home from church.  If it is right in front of me… and I can’t avoid it… then I tend to say something or take action.  Is that what the Prophet Micah really meant?  What does it really mean to do justice… or to love kindness… or to walk humbly with God?  Do I just do justice when the opportunity presents itself?  Do I only love kindness when some child with big brown eyes stumbles over her untied shoelaces right in front of me?  Do I make arrangements to walk humbly with God when I am done doing all the other things I need to get done today?  Or did Micah mean every day… all the time… doing justice… loving kindness… and running to catch up with God so that we can walk together?

You see, there is one thing that I am fairly certain of:  God is not standing on the sidewalk waiting for me to decide that it is time to walk.  I am pretty convinced that God is already a block or two ahead of me… if not more… and I need to get moving if I am going to catch up.  But what does that look like… to do justice and to love kindness… and how do I know when to do it?

For example, we don’t have any injustice in our church… in this congregation… do we?  And there is no unkindness here… is there?  I mean, we are all Christians, right?   And these are our brothers and sisters in Christ… so there shouldn’t be… nah, there wouldn’t any injustice or unkindness here.

I am going to let that one slide… and I’ll get back to you in a few months.  You see, I’m too new to know the answer to that one… so we’re off the hook.  Whew!  Let’s go on to a safer subject.  How about Stephenville, Texas?  Is there any injustice in Stephenville?  Is there any unkindness in Stephenville?  Now, I have only been here for two months and I can tell you that I have already heard examples of injustice… and unkindness… in Stephenville.  And it didn’t take long for me to hear about it.

If I know that injustice exists in Stephenville, Texas… if I know that unkindness exists here… what is my responsibility as a Christian?  Well, I know how I would like to answer that question.  I would like to say, “I promise you that, if I’m sitting in my recliner, reading the Sunday paper, and injustice happens to knock at my door… I’ll take care of it… just as soon as I’m done reading the funnies… or the sports section.”  That’s how I would like to respond… but somehow, I have this feeling that that is not what Micah was talking about.  I really don’t think that we can “do” justice from our recliners… or “love” kindness while we’re watching a movie.  Doing justice… and loving kindness… and walking with our God are not passive activities.  They are not things that happen to us in the comfort of our living room.  These are things we are called to seek out… and do.  In fact, I really believe that we will know that we are children of God when we are so uncomfortable with the thought of the existence of injustice… or unkindness… or the absence of the presence of God… that, like the princess and the pea, we actually lose sleep over it.  That was the thought that came to me this week… and, right on the heels of that thought came the hard question:  when was the last time that I did lose sleep over injustice… unkindness… or the absence of the presence of God?  Or am I too comfortable as a Christian?

That’s the question that I want to share with you today: Are you a comfortable Christian … or an uncomfortable Christian?  Can you truly be a Christian and be comfortable?  What keeps you awake at night?  Injustice?  Unkindness?  Is God missing in action in your life?  And, oh, by the way, what are you doing about it?

Lots of things keep me awake at night.  The war in Iraq is one.  The war in Iraq keeps me awake because I am very uncomfortable with the thought of so many people dying every day… especially when our congregation has young men and women who are deployed… or shortly will be deployed… to Iraq.  It makes me uncomfortable that, while we hear about the military deaths in that war, there is no one who is tracking and reporting the number of military contractors who are being killed, even though many operations that used to be conducted by the military are now being conducted by military contractors… who are also citizens of this country… who are also men and women working in a war zone.  It makes me uncomfortable that we never seem to talk about all the young men and women who are injured in this conflict… the thousands who have not died, but have been permanently disabled by their wounds… both physically and psychologically… and, thus, we never see the true cost of this war.  It makes me uncomfortable to think that we, as a nation, are thinking of reducing benefits and availability of medical care for veterans when we have so many returning from this war who need our support and assistance.  And it makes me uncomfortable that the people who are making these decisions are not impacted by them and, thus, do not fully understand… on a personal level… the grief, the pain, and the financial hardship that our military families and our veterans face.

The conflict between Israel and Palestine also keeps me awake at night.  It makes me uncomfortable to think about the injustice of that huge wall that divides Palestinian families from each other… the wall that keeps some Palestinians from their places of work… the wall that breeds even more hatred and mistrust.  I am uncomfortable when I think of Israeli families who live in terror of suicide bombers… who never know when the person sitting next to them in a restaurant… or on a bus… might be someone whose aim is to kill as many civilians as they can.  And I am very uncomfortable when I think of the Christians who live in Israel… and the Christians who live in Palestine… who are caught in the crossfire of this conflict.

The stole I am wearing today was made by a Christian in Palestine and sent to me by my friend, Brice, who is a missionary in Egypt now.  He and I traveled to Egypt on a study tour while we were in seminary together.  We stayed at the seminary in Cairo and visited many Christian groups in Egypt.  Those of you who know your church history know that the Christians in Egypt, like the Christians in Palestine, predate the Muslims in that land by more than 600 years and, yet, now they are a persecuted minority.  Despite that persecution… and the fact that just talking about Christ to Muslims in Egypt is forbidden by law… the church is growing by leaps and bounds in Egypt.  Some day, I would love to take some of you… all of you… there and show you what God is doing in that country… and all the different ways that the church in Egypt worships … and prays… and reaches out to those who have not heard the good news of the gospel… despite the laws… and the persecution that exists there.

Other things that keep me awake at night are thoughts of the turmoil in Sudan… and Indonesia… and India… where poverty… famine… and civil unrest contribute to the misery of the people.  But, you know, we don’t have to go around the world to find injustice… or unkindness.   It exists right here in Stephenville… and my heart aches for folks right here in our own back yard.  The question is:  What are we doing about it?  Writing a check?  Donating a few cans of food?  Or are we walking into the middle of it… taking the time… and making the effort to get to know the injustice that exists here… and the people who suffer from it?  And, when we drive down the streets of this city, do we even notice the forgotten ones… those for whom kindness is an unknown word?  Or are we too intent on the errands we need to complete… or the nice hot meal that is waiting for us… to smile… to offer a word of encouragement… to help… to mentor… to befriend… to invite… to love… those who are in pain… those who are lost… those who are different from us?

Many years ago now, Amy Grant released a Christmas CD that became one of her best selling CD’s.  On that CD, there is a song entitled “Grown-Up Christmas List.”  In it, she sings about the gifts we receive at Christmas and her desire for gifts that do not come in wrapped packages with bows.  Here are some of the things that she mentions in her “Grown Up Christmas List.”  No more lives torn apart… that wars would never start… and time would heal the heart.  Everyone would have a friend… that right would always win… and love would never end.  Not a bad list… but not easy to do either.

What will we… as a church… and as individuals… do differently in the future?  Not to just slap a Band-Aid on the problem… by writing a check… or giving a few cans of food… but to work at systemic change in our society that will eliminate the problem in the future?  Is that part of the future vision of our church?  Are we truly making a difference in the long-term?  Or are we comfortable with what we are doing now?

If there is one thing that I would like to do here in Stephenville… in this church… it would be to create a hunger in each of you… a hunger for justice… a hunger for kindness… and a hunger to always be close to God… so close that you walk with God every minute of every day of your life.  And how will I know that that has happened?  It will be when you come to me and tell me that you lost sleep last night over the thought of the existence of some form of injustice… or unkindness… or some example of the absence of the presence of God.  Then I will know that God is speaking to your heart… and that you… like the princess… are uncomfortable.  For I believe that uncomfortable Christians are the only real Christians in our world.  Amen.

Micah 6:1-8