Andrew, my neighbour, contacted me today. He firstly told me abt a fellow sister from church who wanted to find out how I was. And then he asked me whether he can come over to visit me.

Whoa. I feel very touched. This bro really lives out Jesus' teachings. :D

Then I remembered Matthew 25.

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Wow. Amazing. This is real Christian love. Hee. =D

You know what? I think the ongoing H1N1 crisis is actually an opportunity for the Church to show the world just how real the love of Christ really is.

In the face of such dangers, real and perceived, many American Christians have led the way in adopting a defensive posture, both domestically and internationally. It may serve Christians well, however, to ponder how a culture of fear relates to the historic Christian faith, and to consider how a circling-the-wagons mentality affects one’s witness to the gospel of Christ—in this country and around the world.

[...]

Christians, however, soon gained a reputation for their boldness in the face of death. Stark cites the bishop Dionysius, for example, who described how Christians “showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains.” For these Christians, the epidemic became “a time of unimaginable joy,” a chance for believers to witness to their faith by offering themselves as martyrs.

It was Christian doctrine, Stark explains, that motivated believers’ courageous response to the terrors of the plague. While their non-Christian neighbors abandoned their beliefs and retreated in fear, Christians found their faith a source of comfort as well as a “prescription for action.” They knew they were their “brothers’ keepers,” that it was “more blessed to give than to receive,” and that they ought to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” To further understand the radical claims of the Christian faith, Stark suggests taking another look at Matthew 25:35-40: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…” By loving one another sacrificially, Christians sought to reflect God’s own sacrificial love. Because they believed that God loved all humanity, they also believed that their own love must extend beyond family and tribe. These were revolutionary concepts at the time, and by taking these teachings to heart, early Christians earned a reputation even among their opponents for their radical loving-kindness.

As Stark demonstrates, Christian compassion and fearlessness in the face of death had lasting consequences. Although many Christians succumbed to the plague, those who survived developed an immunity that enabled them to continue nursing their neighbors in ways that seemed miraculous. Many pagans owed their survival to the care of Christians after their own families had abandoned them. Not surprisingly many of these survivors became converts themselves. Stark concludes that the witness of faithful Christians at this time of crisis, together with demographic consequences of the plague, played a decisive role in the phenomenal growth of early Christianity.

[...]

After reading Stark’s account of the rise of Christianity, I was struck by the contrast between the sacrificial behavior evidenced by early Christians and the reputation of many American Christians today. Looking back over recent American history, it is discouraging to note how fear, rather than selfless sacrifice, often seems to have motivated Christians to act.

Even before the recent economic downturn, many Christians worked to safeguard their hard-earned possessions from various threats, particularly from the encroachment of “big government’s” attempts to dole out their wealth to those less deserving. But what if American Christians began to see their wealth as something to offer up rather than horde? Consider, for example, Gandhi’s gospel of non-possession. As a young man he came to understand that anything he owned he would need to protect against the whole world—particularly against those in greater need than himself. But with no possessions, Gandhi found that he had nothing to fear. He was free to love others without reservation.

Although few may be able to aspire to Gandhi’s level of non-possession, Christians may do well to reconsider their values in light of his example. By holding our possessions loosely we may be freed to love our neighbors more authentically. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, many Americans found in terrorism and Islamic extremism new sources of fear. Many American Christians, quick to draw clear distinctions between “good” and “evil” in the “war on terror,” led the way in calling for an aggressive, militaristic foreign policy aimed at protecting the nation’s security and the American “way of life.” But what if American Christians simply refused to be “terrorized”—if, like their sisters and brothers in the early church, they perceived the threat of failing to bear witness to Christ’s love a greater evil than the threat posed by terrorists to their lives and livelihoods?

At first glance such a radical reconception of values might seem dangerously naïve—yet it is arguably no more so than the actions of early Christians who exposed themselves and their families to the terrors of the plague for the sake of their neighbors, and for the Gospel of Christ. While one might argue that such a posture of willing sacrifice constitutes an untenable foreign policy for a modern nation state, perhaps it is time for American Christians to identify first as Christians, and only secondly as Americans.

[...]

By offering themselves—and their families—as living sacrifices, Christians may well discover that they have very little left to fear. And perhaps by embracing this radically countercultural position, American Christians could help to usher in a modern revival of Christianity on the scale of that experienced by the early church.

From The Gospel and Culture Project: Plagues, Terrorism, Recessions and Christian Witness. (Hey I think you REALLY gotta read this article.)

Another link: Ordinary people change the world

Thanks, Andrew, for being one of those extra-ordinary people. :D You are one of Christ's world-changers!

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On another note, I think God may be planting a holy discontent in my heart. One bro in my church said that he agrees that our church could do more to help the poor.

Yeah. I don't want to waste time on "cultural relevance" - you know what I mean? I want to be counter-cultural in a world that speaks the "wisdom" of "save yourselves". :) Not the other extreme of "holy huddling".


I think a lot of us see this as a continuum:
[Isolation] ------------------------------------------------------ [Integration]

Actually, it's a whole different ball game, if you get what I mean? I think it's a false dilemma.

Maybe it's more like...

Argh. I dunno how to do a diagram. But I think it's about going out and get our hands dirty in a dying world, yet staying pure on the inside. Yes! =)