Being the church….

Well, I certainly didn’t think a week would go by without blogging after my new/improved website got up and running, but that is what happened.  Can’t even tell you where the time went exactly except whatever I was doing, I certainly was busy doing it. 

Are you a to-do list maker? 

I am, but then the list gets out of hand with me adding things like “Promote world peace” at the bottom of the list along with buying milk and eggs and the whole thing gets tossed in the trash as way too much to do in a day.

Isn’t that kind of the same thing we do with our faith?

We see our own sin and know that we are far from Christ-likeness and come up with a spiritual to-do list to become more like our Savior. 

1) develop fruits of the Spirit
2) help little old ladies across the street
3) read the Bible every day at least 10 chapters
4) you get the picture

So is anything wrong with those things?

Not one thing…..except our motivation that somehow Jesus will love us more and find us more acceptable if we do them.

I hate it when my heart is ugly!  But Jesus loves me and saves me in my ugliness if I just bring the ugliness to Him.  Trying to fix it myself is sin. It is pride. It is self-righteousness.

So what are we called to do if not try harder to be a good Christ follower?  Jesus summed it up with the great commandment to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love others as you love yourself.

In fewer words?  Love God. Love people. 

Gotta admit it.  It is much easier to love God than it is to love people, but God says if we don’t love people we don’t truly love Him.

Whoa.

So how exactly do we do that?  Is it just feeling warm and fuzzy toward everyone we meet?  Praying for them? Telling them about Jesus?

It can be all those things but it is even more.  It is following the example of Christ when he washed the Disciples feet at the last supper.  He sacrificed his position as God’s son to wash dirty, travel worn feet– something that only the most lowly servant would do in the house of his master.  And Jesus said he did it as an example of what we are to do for each other.

In a world where we are told we should be all that we can be, to grab the gusto, to go big or go home, where we have Christian celebrity preachers and teachers, it is counter intuitive to kneel before someone “lower” than we are in position and wash their feet.

And yet, it is the call of Christ. To see others as higher than we see ourselves. To give sacrificially.  To take the chair at the back in a gathering where we want to see and be seen.

And yet…..it is the call of Christ and I am afraid in the modern American church it is a call mostly forgotten.

But there are tremors saying maybe, just maybe, something is changing.

Last Sunday was Faith in Action Sunday and our church took part.  We are a non-denominational church who participated with all kinds of Christian churches across the nation to not go to church, but to be the church last Sunday. (Developed by World Vision and Outreach more info is available here: http://www.outreach.com/print/articlem.asp?article_name=p-FIATools1 ) 

Here, 60 men, women and children did such diverse things as edge the lawn at our high school, hold a special service at the local nursing home, pull weeds, plant trees and shrubs, rake lawns, haul trash, etc.  We started at 9 am with coffee and doughnuts and ended at 12:30 with a burger and brat celebration meal at the church.  It was 25 degrees outside and it was fabulous.

We had a great time working together.  We had a great time laughing together. The church had left the building.

Today Pastor David read a letter from the school Principal telling us how much it meant to the school for us to give our time to them.  We didn’t know it, but things have been difficult in the school world as the Kansas legislature is 62 million dollars in the red and one of their money saving measures is cutting school funding. God’s timing was perfect as we labored for our neighbors to show our faith in action.  When the principal gave Pastor David the letter, he was very emotional. He was touched by our service.

Nothing that we did was very fabulous. All simple things.  All imperfectly done although we gave it our best. But all with a big impact when done in Jesus name.

I look forward to a day when our actions shout louder than our words that Jesus is alive and He loves us.

Blessings,

Kim

PS: Hey! Did you notice there is now a comment box on each post?  The comments will first come to me for approval and then be posted on the site.  My desire is that kimzweygardt.com be a two-way conversation so let me know what you are thinking as we discuss life, love, and living out faith!