Step out in love.
Carl Gladstone
T H E C O N V E R S A T I O N
August 9, 2006
I might get in trouble for saying this. Sometimes, church is boring.
Now, I know a sermon now and then that open up a part of the Bible for the hearts and minds of a congregation. I'm also in favor of committees and councils that help the church get its business done and that facilitate ministry. But if people come to church and get the impression that living as a Christian means sitting and listening to some theological hot-air every week...then we are not doing our job.
Christians are not a people called to sit nicely together once a week.
The story of Ruth reminds us what being a Christian is like. When the widowed mother-in-law Naomi suggests that recently widowed Ruth leave to start a new family Ruth replies, "Where you go I go. Your people will be my people, your God my God...Only death will separate us." She is expressing an integral truth about the Christian life:
Christians are a people who step out in courageous love for others around them.
This is the kind of thing that can get us into trouble. We're the ones who will step into war zones to bring food and medicine to sick and dying people regardless of what "side" they are on. We're the ones that build houses for the impoverished and dying street people of places like Calcutta. These are things the world is uncomfortable with, sometimes despises, and sometimes persecutes the church for. These are things that only death will stop a Christian from doing. They certainly leave little room for boredom. I hope you find some ways to get out of the church and start being the Church for the world.
Read Ruth 1
- At the last wedding you attended, did you hear the line about "till death do us part?" What does it mean for Christians who pledge to serve others and only death will stop them?
- For whom is God challenging you to step out in love?