Mid-Term Rant
Here I am in the midst of mid-terms with a significant paper due tomorrow, FAFSA to file, and homework/church work piling up incessantly. Still, I am not able focus on those things because my mind is so filled with matters God is speaking to me about and teaching me through ministry, classes, Lent,... and life. I promise, this is something I am being convicted with... the problem is with me. But I doubt I am alone.
Tonight, I was listening to the soundtrack of Michael Tait's rock opera HERO! One particular song caught my attention as it relates so well with an issue that has been stirring in my heart and mind for several months now. The words to the chorus are...
"I am, I am a voice to be heard
Who's gonna do it, if I won't step to it
I am.
I am, I am the one to make a change
Who's gonna do it, if I don't step to it
I am."
In the context of the opera, Jesus is singing these words (bringing great theological implications to the repetition of the phrase "I Am") just after his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest. However, the words applied in a different but very significant way. They made me think of the Church.
The Church has a voice--the voice of Christ--to be heard in this world. Our world is wrecked and messed up in so many ways--but who is going to change anything other than God's people? If we don't step up to the plate and impact change, no one will.
I feel as though all areas of my life have been converging to lead me to wrestle with issues of social injustice in this world. I've been reading about the life of John Wesley and the history of the Wesleyan Church and Evangelicalism in Wesleyan Church History class. I never realized or appreciated my heritage--the Wesleyan Church which led the way in addressing the needs of humanity in our world. We were the leaders in the abolitionist movement, the forerunners of feminism (that's right, a Wesleyan Methodist, Luther Lee, preached the first ever ordination sermon for a female, Antoinette Brown), and great ministers to the poor. I have been convicted as I've read of this rich heritage that I have been nearly ignorant of.
In economics, I've been reading about the needs of our nation and have realized that at the core of our problem is the absence of the church. Because the government is left with the duty of watching after the widows and the orphans (sound familiar... maybe from James chapter 1?), the financial state of our country is in shambles. Where are we? I'll pick on my denomination, not because I don't love it but because it's what I know. Where were Wesleyans during the Civil Rights movement? Nowhere to be seen! Where were we when, for ten years we'd had a Bible school in Marion, Indiana, the last organized lynching of innocent black men in the North took place in the same city in 1930??? Where are we now as an incredible number of people are being sold into the sex trade overseas? I am afraid that for fear of being labeled "liberal" or somehow compromising our standards by loving (which is the standard Christ set anyway), we stand back and do nothing.
Today in chapel I heard a compelling message from our Student Body Chaplain. Our generation is quick to sit around a table in a coffee house and criticize, analyze, and cast vision. We are slow, however, to get off our hind ends and do something. What ever happened to the "social gospel" in Evangelicalism? In its founding decades, the movement was marked by "liberalism" if this is defined as living out the Gospel through serving others and meeting needs. I am sounding a call to bring the social gospel back where it belongs. As a Wesleyan and an Evangelical, I want to claim my heritage. The only true social gospel is one that flows out of a sound theological understanding of salvation and holiness. The only true form of holiness is a holiness that overflows into love and service to our fellow man. Holiness people--it's time we started following through with our sanctification. If it's only about ourselves--if holiness is purely intrinsic and concerned with my own struggle with sin--then it is self-centered, selfish, and a sinful corruption of true holiness. True holiness results in love for God and neighbor! True holiness is willing to get its hands dirty just like our Savior did. He ministered to the poor, the wicked, and the down-trodden. He healed the sick and forgave the sins of the prostitute. He was willing to make waves among the religious and culturally elite to reach those who would accept His Good News.
So where are we???? The needs are great. We are the ones to make a change. God entrusted this world to our care. How are we treating it? How are you treating it? Are we so caught up with what happens within our own church walls that we can't see the pain, the bondage,... fallen humanity crying out for help that only we can give. I am a Wesleyan. I am an Evangelical. More than all these... I am a CHRISTIAN. I am a FOLLOWER OF JESUS CHRIST. I must follow Him wherever He leads, whether to the slums of an inner city, overseas, or in a youth room. Where are we??? How can we turn a blind eye to children dying of AIDS in Africa? How can we as the Church forget the Forgotten Children of Uganda who have been plagued by civil war, orphaned, and left homeless and starving? How can we ignore young women who are sold into sexual slavery every day? How can we pass by the homeless on our own streets without a second thought? How dare we offer a prayer for the downtrodden and close off our ears when God answers by reminding us, "You are My hands and feet. Do something!" Are we willing to not just preach the Gospel, but also to live it out to this world???
Tonight, I was listening to the soundtrack of Michael Tait's rock opera HERO! One particular song caught my attention as it relates so well with an issue that has been stirring in my heart and mind for several months now. The words to the chorus are...
"I am, I am a voice to be heard
Who's gonna do it, if I won't step to it
I am.
I am, I am the one to make a change
Who's gonna do it, if I don't step to it
I am."
In the context of the opera, Jesus is singing these words (bringing great theological implications to the repetition of the phrase "I Am") just after his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest. However, the words applied in a different but very significant way. They made me think of the Church.
The Church has a voice--the voice of Christ--to be heard in this world. Our world is wrecked and messed up in so many ways--but who is going to change anything other than God's people? If we don't step up to the plate and impact change, no one will.
I feel as though all areas of my life have been converging to lead me to wrestle with issues of social injustice in this world. I've been reading about the life of John Wesley and the history of the Wesleyan Church and Evangelicalism in Wesleyan Church History class. I never realized or appreciated my heritage--the Wesleyan Church which led the way in addressing the needs of humanity in our world. We were the leaders in the abolitionist movement, the forerunners of feminism (that's right, a Wesleyan Methodist, Luther Lee, preached the first ever ordination sermon for a female, Antoinette Brown), and great ministers to the poor. I have been convicted as I've read of this rich heritage that I have been nearly ignorant of.
In economics, I've been reading about the needs of our nation and have realized that at the core of our problem is the absence of the church. Because the government is left with the duty of watching after the widows and the orphans (sound familiar... maybe from James chapter 1?), the financial state of our country is in shambles. Where are we? I'll pick on my denomination, not because I don't love it but because it's what I know. Where were Wesleyans during the Civil Rights movement? Nowhere to be seen! Where were we when, for ten years we'd had a Bible school in Marion, Indiana, the last organized lynching of innocent black men in the North took place in the same city in 1930??? Where are we now as an incredible number of people are being sold into the sex trade overseas? I am afraid that for fear of being labeled "liberal" or somehow compromising our standards by loving (which is the standard Christ set anyway), we stand back and do nothing.
Today in chapel I heard a compelling message from our Student Body Chaplain. Our generation is quick to sit around a table in a coffee house and criticize, analyze, and cast vision. We are slow, however, to get off our hind ends and do something. What ever happened to the "social gospel" in Evangelicalism? In its founding decades, the movement was marked by "liberalism" if this is defined as living out the Gospel through serving others and meeting needs. I am sounding a call to bring the social gospel back where it belongs. As a Wesleyan and an Evangelical, I want to claim my heritage. The only true social gospel is one that flows out of a sound theological understanding of salvation and holiness. The only true form of holiness is a holiness that overflows into love and service to our fellow man. Holiness people--it's time we started following through with our sanctification. If it's only about ourselves--if holiness is purely intrinsic and concerned with my own struggle with sin--then it is self-centered, selfish, and a sinful corruption of true holiness. True holiness results in love for God and neighbor! True holiness is willing to get its hands dirty just like our Savior did. He ministered to the poor, the wicked, and the down-trodden. He healed the sick and forgave the sins of the prostitute. He was willing to make waves among the religious and culturally elite to reach those who would accept His Good News.
So where are we???? The needs are great. We are the ones to make a change. God entrusted this world to our care. How are we treating it? How are you treating it? Are we so caught up with what happens within our own church walls that we can't see the pain, the bondage,... fallen humanity crying out for help that only we can give. I am a Wesleyan. I am an Evangelical. More than all these... I am a CHRISTIAN. I am a FOLLOWER OF JESUS CHRIST. I must follow Him wherever He leads, whether to the slums of an inner city, overseas, or in a youth room. Where are we??? How can we turn a blind eye to children dying of AIDS in Africa? How can we as the Church forget the Forgotten Children of Uganda who have been plagued by civil war, orphaned, and left homeless and starving? How can we ignore young women who are sold into sexual slavery every day? How can we pass by the homeless on our own streets without a second thought? How dare we offer a prayer for the downtrodden and close off our ears when God answers by reminding us, "You are My hands and feet. Do something!" Are we willing to not just preach the Gospel, but also to live it out to this world???
posted by Amber Janelle Livermore at 7:36 PM
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