From the Pastor - "Challenge" November 2015

Dear Friends in Christ,

What is the church?  A variety of aspects describe the church, such as our location, nature, redemption, shape, ministry, mission, inclusivity, and strength.  According to Everist and Nessan in Transforming Leadership, we may also describe the church in terms of our challenge. 

Christians in the Western world have long had to resist a dualistic worldview that presumes that the world in which we live is not the realm of God.  Dualism separates Heaven and Earth.  It suggests that people of faith should be concerned only with “heavenly” things. 

Whom does this dualistic view benefit?  Certainly, it does not help the poor, the sick, the hungry, and those who are being crushed by the effects of globalization.  Some would offer the promise of heaven as thin theological hope for those who struggle in this life.  Asking people to settle for “pie in the sky” in “the sweet by and by” is not an adequate Christian response to human suffering.  Others simply say the church should not engage in the “worldly” matters of society.

If we see social issues as being beyond our Christian concern, however, then we risk losing our soul and becoming irrelevant.  Jesus Christ is t

he antithesis of dualistic thinking.  Both human and divine, he bridges the gap between Heaven and Earth.  He reconciles humankind to God.  By feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and blessing the poor, Jesus has shown us that showing compassion for others in this world is linked to eternal life. 

At the same time, lesser gods are would tempt us with status or security through consumerism, technological wonders, and prosperity through economic globalization.  These are false promises.  They ignore harsh disparities in the world.  They also assume that all people are “equal partners with equal access to information, technical expertise, and trade conditions.”¹ 

The benefits of globalization are not global.  The three wealthiest people in the world are richer than 48 of the poorest countries.  More than three billion people live on less than two dollars a day.  The largest economies are not nations but rather multinational corporations.²

1.  How do we acknowledge global challenges?

2.  How might we act for justice?

The fact of human suffering and our faith in Jesus challenge us not to be silent or passive.  Christ taught to pray: thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  In 1977, Ron Sider asked: “Can there be rich Christians in an age of hunger?  Can a wealthy church be on the side of the poor?”  That’s our challenge.  That’s church.

                                                                                                             

Yours in Christ,

  

Rev. Brian C. Smith

¹Bloomquist, Karen L. Communion, Responsibility, Accountability: Responding as a Lutheran Communion to Neoliberal Globalization. Geneva, Switzerland: Lutheran World Federation, 2004. Print.  115.

²Ibid.