Jesus, I welcome you into my life with the same radical hospitality in which you welcome me.
My reflection this morning continues reflections of “Dirty Glory” and the radical image of Jesus and His ministry on earth.
“Then the king will say to those on his right, ʻCome, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.ʼ Then the righteous will answer him, ʻLord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?ʼ And the king will answer them, ʻI tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.ʼ” (Matthew 25:34-40)
I was in the Waffle House (WH) yesterday sitting at the counter and I started up a conversation with a young man sitting at the bar next to me. He looked in his early to mid 20s and had piercings and tattoos. As we talked he told me he moved up here when he was 18 to attend college at UAH. His major was Chemical Engineering and he had one more semester to go and will graduate this spring. He said when he graduates it will have taken him 6 years to get his 4 year degree because it has been a struggle at times, but he hasn’t given up.
Our conversation got around to family and Thanksgiving and I asked him about his plans. He got a little quite as he talked. He said I really don’t know where my mother is, she left us when I was little. My dad is in Montana and we talk now and then. I have a sister in Las Vegas and a brother who I think is in North Carolina. We don’t talk much. I replied, so you do not have any family support at all do you? He said no, for the past 6 years I have been pretty much trying to make it on my own.
I though to myself Wow! My two daughter both graduated from College a few years ago. One of my daughters is attending Medical school for 3 years ar UAB and my other daughter has moved to Chicago for her art career. I thought about of all the help they had from family moving into their dorms, and then into a house in Birmingham and setting it up and getting what they needed. I was just in Chicago helping my daughter purchase a home. All the phone calls and visits of encouragement, and financial support they received that continues to today as they fallow their calling and dreams. However, this young man received nothing, no support at all. Then I also thought, he has no place to go to, no table to sit at for a Thanksgiving or Christmas meal.
As I spend time intentionally and missionaly hanging out in my community, I am discovering there are many, many people out there like this young man. Young adults from broken families, single moms struggling to make it on their own, elderly on welfare who are isolated and alone. During the holidays there are lots churches, agencies and ministries that provide food, food boxes, and meals for those with low income, isolated, and marginalized in their community. If you have followed my posts, our house church is smoking 70 turkeys this Sunday, pulling the meat and putting it in aluminum pans to be served at the Downtown Rescue Missions Community Dinner that will serve hundreds of Thanksgiving meals.. All of these are good! However, as much as people need food, they need something even more; Fellowship, belonging, acceptance, and someone to listen to them.
Some of these churches/agencies/ministries ask their congregations and people to drop off food items to be handed out to those in need. People giving come and bring food and drop it off for the food boxes to be handed out. People receiving come and get a box from a church , dropped off at their home, or from a food line. The people dropping off the food or serving food in the line walk away satisfied they have given. The people receiving walk away satisfied they have received. Again, this is good as it helps fill an immediate need. However, it is all a transaction and it does not foster transformation. These church ministry outreaches actually insulate people from contact with the poor, isolated and marginalized. As dropping off food to a church, food bank, or other agency removes all contact with the poor. And dropping off a box of food to a home, handing out groceries at a food donation site or serving a scoop of mash potatoes onto their plate in a food line as the poor pass by in a community dinner keeps contact with the poor and lonely to a polite, transitional minimum.
As I pray over this it leads me to think, what if Instead of churches/agencies collecting names of people who need a meal to collect a box of food to hand out or deliver to them, What if they simply hand out names of people who need a meal to their congregations and have them then invite that poor or marginalized neighbor over into their house to share a meal with them at their table. Then it is no longer a transaction but goes beyond that to an invitation that allows transformation. It becomes what Jesus speaks into in the passage above, When he says, “You gave me food” he does not mean you dropped off can goods and mac and cheese boxes at your church or a box at their door, He meant you personally invited Him to your table and shared a meal with him. When Jesus says, “I was a stranger and you invited me in” he did not mean you scooped mashed potatoes in a serving line somewhere, he meant you invited him in, into your home. When ha says “I was naked and you clothed me,” He did not mean you dropped your second hand clothing off to Good Will, he meant you personally gave me cloths. That young man at the WH bar would be glad to receive a food box in a transaction, but how much more grateful and transformational would it be to his life, and yours, if he received and invitation to your table?
In Matthew 7:21-23 People tell Jesus “Didn’t we do miracles, attend church and Bible studies, and hand out food to one of the least of these? But Jesus answered, “I never knew you.”
We Christians, church goers, we need to love Jesus enough and love our neighbors enough to go beyond ministering as a transaction and go deeper into ministering as transformation. We need to be brave and bold enough to allow ourselves to be personally involved with those we minister to love them, and even braver and bolder to accept and allow them to love us.
My family, I pray as you plan your charitable holiday giving and holiday meals the Holy Spirit will convict and remind you of the way Jesus personally and intimately saves, provides for and ministers to you. How he always seeks to know you and you to know Him. How he always seeks a transformational relationship with you in which he can love you and you can love him. I pray the Holy Spirit will encourage you to imitate Jesus and minister to others in the same way, In Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!!!
Pease share your reflections and prayers with us in the comment box below.
My prayer every morning is, “Please send me the ones no one else wants.”
As The Year Draws To An End, PLEASE Help Us Help Them!
My wife Nancy and I are in a season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this season in my life and that of my family. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation now for next year, or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You Thank You!