"Stay within your comfort Confined to the shadows
For you will always fear what's out there Fear the world until you're gone"
Fear the World by Sylosis
For those of us who were raised to keep separate from people who are different from us, we might have found it difficult or even frightening to engage in outreach ministries like soup kitchens, serving the homeless, and short-term mission trips. We might find that we have been taught “don’t talk to strangers” and the real risk that entails, which makes it seemingly justifiable to dismiss the passage in Hebrews 13:2 where it says to “entertain strangers”. When Jesus talks about the hungry, thirsty, the stranger in Matthew 25, we understand the concept of caring for those in need, but the practical application eludes us because we’ve been taught to fear the world. And the solution? To be separate from the world.
We were taught to view the stranger as someone in need of love and salvation, but that's not the fruit that is being produced. We're so used to seeing culture as the enemy, we've confused "culture" with the people in it and have come to view the ones we intended to serve as the enemy and a threat. That’s why we hold them at arm’s length.
In Matthew 25, Jesus talks about a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats. It’s easy to think of ourselves as the desired and accepted sheep, because of all our good intentions and feelings of goodwill toward those in need. The unbelievers, those from which we are trying to be separated, are, of course, the goats in the illustration. But when we read a little further we see that the goats are not the worldly strangers we tried so hard to stay separate from after all. The Father points to the ones who did not meet the needs of those who were hungry and thirsty, strangers, in need of clothes, sick, and in prison. They thought they were sheep because they understood what it meant to be a sheep, even behaved as sheep, and they knew the shepherd. But they did not choose to entertain the strangers that they saw as goats, making them goats themselves.
What this looks like today is a sort of going through the motions. A person, like me, can be faithful to show up for their ministry duties, go on the mission trip, hand out water to the homeless, pray for their city. Like me, they can make an impact and be changed in the process. So what’s the difference? What is missing?
When we’ve been raised to value and work toward an idyllic model of church, ministry, and family, anything that doesn’t fit within that vision becomes a threat. AnyONE who doesn’t fit within that vision becomes a threat. We’ve made a case for why the different areas of our lives should be a certain way, supported by decades of church tradition and doctrine. Anything led by secular change is not to be adopted by Christians, regardless of how beneficial - or even biblical - it may be.
Fear of secular influence has stinted our growth instead of motivating us to adapt our application of the Word to the culture as it changes around us. We’ve pigeonholed ourselves into a definition of what is right and good, making all other choices, situations, and people seem less desirable, less valuable, and less holy. As if we know better than the people we attempt to serve.
The result is that we have come to serve the needy not with open arms, but at arms length.
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