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Where's Jesus?

8/23/2014

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Where’s Jesus?

I hear that question, and the first thing I think of is Waldo. Do you remember Waldo, as in the title character of the Where’s Waldo books? You know, Waldo, the little, cartoon guy with the candy cane outfit. You had to pick him out of an overstuffed landscape. It was a fad for a while.

Those books annoyed the stuffing out of me. I could almost never find him, and on the rare occasion I did, I always found myself thinking, “There’s Waldo. So what?”

So, the question above about Jesus doesn’t set my heart on fire. Is it a trick question? Is it a pointless question? So what?

And, after all, God’s love in Christ is, in a real sense, out there everywhere. As the book of Acts put it, in God we live and move and have our being.

But, it is perhaps the most important type of question we can ask ourselves as Christians – both as individuals and as congregations. Where is the Lord? Where have we met him? Where have we seen him? Where has someone seen him in us?

Didn’t Mary Magdalene set the whole world on holy fire by saying on a certain Sunday morning, “I have seen the Lord!”

If we are stepping out on a limb and daring to believe Jesus is real, and if we believe he loves the real world we live in, then we gotta run into somewhere and sometime, right?

Jesus said through mysterious words in Matthew chapter 25 that when we meet the most vulnerable people among us – the prisoners, the naked, the underfed, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick – we meet him.

So maybe finding Jesus isn’t a tricky, impossible thing, a confusing picture where we strain to see Jesus’ little red and white hat hidden on purpose in a mess of other colorful things. It may be quite simple, actually. Perhaps if in support and care we go to the most vulnerable people among us (and even within us), we will find Jesus.

So what?

I don’t know but maybe touching God’s presence with your own loving hand is the very reason you’ve been made. Maybe it is the way you become who you were made to be. Maybe it’s the way you fulfill Jesus’ call to love God with everything you are and to love your neighbor as yourself. Maybe it’s the way Heaven comes to Earth. Maybe it’s the meaning of life.

When something happens, like hearing about events in Ferguson, MO for just one example, let us ask God and ourselves where the most vulnerable people are? Then let us go to them in all the ways we are able. There are plenty of people to choose from in just this single example – grieving parents, angry young people, police officers who must feel marooned out on some strange island.

Just go and love and see what happens. Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. Perhaps Jesus will be met in his strange disguise and we will be brought alive.


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Why Are You Planning to Go Visit Ferguson?

8/20/2014

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I’m planning on going to Ferguson, Missouri next Thursday.

I won’t be able to go for long. My guess is that I’ll be gone just 24 or 36 hours.

I don’t expect to do anything exciting. In fact, I suspect it will be quite boring. I anticipate just walking around, holding my hands in the air, and trying to be as nice as possible to everyone I meet. More than anything else, I want to pray quietly and seek the image of Christ in everyone there – in the protestors, the media, and the police.

My primary reasons for going are not grandiose, and they are certainly not profound.

For one thing, I am white. By giving attention and presence to what is happening in Ferguson, white people can declare that working through what the pain there represents is important not just for black people, but for the future of the nation as a whole.

Also, I identify myself as a Christian. Jesus calls me to seek his presence among those who are vulnerable and bruised in both body and spirit. Over the last week and a half, I have gained the sense that this is a small way I can obey the command of Christ.

Third, I live only four hours away. I have driven that far to visit girlfriends or go to sporting events. It seems to me strange not to be willing to do so for something like this.

Finally, if all goes (reasonably) well, I would like to return home, encourage other people (especially white people) to go, and then return myself at some point in the near future. I believe that examining and then improving the racial, political, and economic issues underneath the intensity seen in Ferguson are critical for our future. I also believe we Americans are great at surfing the news cycle, moving on to the next thing, and forgetting what just happened. In fact, I tend to think we are encouraged to do just that. For the examination to happen and for the forgetting to be avoided, people are going to need to be out there walking around day after day giving their time. This is simply me pitching a little something into that collection plate.

See. Not profound. Not exciting. But, that’s my plan. It’s on my calendar. I’ll see what happens. I appreciate your prayers, not so much for me but for the community of Ferguson and for all the communities like it across the United States. If you are heading that way at about the same time, give me a shout.
  


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    Author

    Robert here.



    This is simply an attempt to take a question and give a response. 



    The response is intended to be the beginning of dialogue and not the end. If you've got something to move the conversation forward, please share it.


    Also, if you have a question for consideration, let her rip.

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