When I lived in Washington State, the church I attended was shepherded by a man whom everyone affectionately referred to as “Pastor George.” Pastor George had this routine of stepping down off of the stage every so often to deliver what he called a “George-ism.” He always pointed out that when he stepped off of the stage during a teaching, it meant that what he was saying at that particular time was not from the Bible, but rather from his own thoughts. These “George-isms” tended to be rather provocative statements, truth be told, and this particular one that I am reminiscing on right now is no exception.

Pastor George was talking to the congregation about the fact that every time the church set their collective mind to raising money for missions work in some faraway part of the world, like India, there was an overwhelming abundance of giving on behalf of the congregation, but every time the church leadership made a push to have members reach people from their own community instead, very few responded. Pastor George ended his George-ism with the line, “I guess it’s because you can’t really smell the people in India from here.”

Now, as you might imagine, a lot of people reacted to this comment with indignation: “What a horrible thing to say!” But as I think on that statement now, it’s my guess that many of those people were using that indignation to smokescreen the fact that Pastor George had nailed them (and me) right between the eyes. Sharing the Good News with someone in person can get messy. For many reasons, people can find it awkward and uncomfortable to share their faith on their own initiative. It is often so much easier to just drop a check in a basket and let someone else do the footwork of evangelism. Not that the latter is a bad thing in and of itself. I strongly believe that everyone should give of their financial resources to mission and outreach work. It’s just that many times I think our fears and discomforts in dealing with the messiness of humanity lead us to turn “walk across the room” into “send a check across the world instead.” I know I have been guilty of this in the past.

One thing to bear in mind in all of this is that the Bible teaches that all have sinned (Romans 3:23) and are in need of salvation. God, being God, could have saved us in any manner of His choosing. He could have saved us from afar, in a manner of speaking, but He chose instead to have his Son “become flesh” (John 1:14) and personally enter the messiness of humanity (it doesn’t get any messier than a cross, folks). That is what those workers and missionaries in India, and Haiti and Kenya are doing with our money – becoming the Good News in flesh to the people around them. And that is what we are called to do in our own community. For today’s devotion, I am asking you to join me in asking God who it is that each of us might become the Good News in flesh to today and for Him to then give us the courage to take that “walk across the room.”

No matter what that room might smell like.

- Chuck Deitch

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 at 2:00 am and is filed under Week 5: Consumed by a Burning Desire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.