How odd; I would have thought that when setting out to write something at this time of year that it would be filled with the message of Christ coming to dwell with us or celebrating His birth in some way or the new year with new beginnings. I guess that’s not how the Spirit is working with me and that what’s been on my heart are events launching change and the horrible shootings in Newtown, CT along with all the Facebook postings, murmurings, and rumors. All this is driving me towards commentary I’d prefer not make.
Seeing the various political ramblings, the gun rights activists using the school shootings to suggest that we have armed guards on campus, the gun control activists using the shootings to crank up efforts to further the political drive at legislation to limit sales of various weapons, and the best yet, religious commentators suggesting the shootings are because we’ve legislated God out of the schools or that the states and courts are recognizing gay marriage as a right. In my personal search for the reasons of a senseless act I came up with a somewhat different viewpoint but resisted the impulse to post it as a FB status. I read a friend’s blog on the subject, a thoughtful consideration on where God was in all of this, and offered my un-posted status as a comment; I offer it here and hope that by the end of this post my point becomes clear:
“It’s my fault. I didn’t pray enough for God to protect the children so that he would directly intervene. I am to blame. I haven’t prayed fervently enough for God to raise up men and women of God who would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to see a need and be moved to love somebody enough to take action when that person needed someone to care. It’s my fault that I haven’t prayed enough. God help me pray.”
The other thing that has been of concern can best be described for me as church turmoil caused by poor communications about changes being considered in light of diminishing worship attendance and significant casualties to the church membership, something that’s be in motion over a few years now, at least from what I have observed.
How are we to react to such things; to tragedy, internal discord, or when it seems that events and people pile up against us? The Body of Christ is under assault, innocent victims to senseless acts are accumulating, day-to-day suffering grows, and it seems that the wicked and the opponents of God’s Kingdom are winning. How do we respond? With legislation? Clever ways to draw people in? Disguising the Gospel to make it more palatable or comflaging ourselves to attract new people before they see who we really are? Arm teachers and priests and train them in armed response?
Let’s look at Joel for a few minutes and see what he prescribes. Joel was witnessing an invasion of locusts on the land with horrific effects that promised years of starvation and suffering. Did he suggest that Israel arm all of the children and farmers, every one of God’s people to battle the pestilence? Not so much. Joel 2: 12 – 17 shows us the way, the heart of it - “15Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. 16Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. 17Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, ‘Spare your people, O Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
God’s Kingdom is the answer and we can’t legislate it into existence or put up buildings so constructed in design as to bring the Kingdom to fruition. A response of repentance and crying out to our Lord is what will catch His ear and provide the answer. Joel 2: 18-19 “18Then the Lord will be jealous for his land and take pity on his people. 19The Lord will reply to them: ‘I am sending you grain, new wine and oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations.’” Joel’s formula is fairly simple when boiled down to the bare ingredients; separation from God’s will, tragedy and opposition, repentance and seeking His face, forgiveness and restoration, and finally, judgment to evil (see Joel 3).
And so we pray, come quickly Lord. Joel 2: 27 & 28 “27Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed. 28And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”
I am in tune with your "It's my fault" position, but differently. I am not, and really never have been, a good pray-er. In exposing my grip on the errant "grace by works" beliefs, I generally think of what to "do" rather than what to pray.
ReplyDeleteAnd "It's my fault" for not doing what, staring me in the face, needs doing. Not being selfless to whatever degree required to perhaps come alongside one person who needs encouragement, or help with a task, or a ride home, or a few bucks for a meal. Not looking at others as God might see them (1 Samuel 16:7).
I mock those that toss about the phrase "what would Jesus do" as if "let's let Jesus do it." And the frustration ensues from my lack of selflessness, resisting the urge to scream, "What would he do? He would GIVE HIS LIFE for you" and instead walk on by, offering nothing.
It's my fault for not being Christlike to that degree. It's my incredible sin to dam up God's grace after it has been so freely provided to me.
Come quickly, Lord.
Thanks for your insightful and heartfelt response. I've been turning it over off and on through the day trying to come up with a just response. This is a vicious one/two punch. Praying and acting. What good is prayer if I'm not prepared to act when called upon to be the answer to the very prayer I just uttered? Sometimes I do pray and hope that Jesus takes over to do what he does. Then if we look at John 12: 7 where Jesus rebukes Judas for scolding Mary when she used the precious oil on Jesus, Judas wanted to use it for the poor, maybe; certainly a good cause but Jesus told him that we will always have the poor with us. That could get confusing. So now I start to pray more, what then? Well, I need to be careful for what I pray for and be willing to make the sacrifice. If I pray for God to raise disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit to move and take action then I’d better be ready to lay down some things and get with it myself. Nobody said this disciple thing would be easy…
DeleteRegarding your not being a good prayer; I think many Christians pray and don’t even realize that they are doing it. Going through a decision process to take action, running through things, and thinking them out they are probably having a conversation with the Lord right then but don’t label it as prayer. Prayer takes many forms but need only contain two items, our speaking to Him and then the hard part, our listening to Him. If I know your mind at all, I’d say that in the few seconds that you recognize a situation, consider the different responses, and taken some sort of action, then you’ve prayed, heard, and taken action on it. As Christians we’ve been given the Holy Spirit and sometimes we don’t give it credit for things to label what we’ve done as a service to the Lord when it was. Lord, when did we see you naked and clothed you, hungry and fed you? Personally I think it’s okay to do things, good things, and have them as a service to Him without us saying “I am doing this for You, in Your name.” We do it, it gets done, and we’ve talked to Him about. Let’s accept that we are becoming more like Him and that our natural reactions are becoming more of what He would do.
And, thanks for being the first person to comment on this blog.