WHAT HAVE WE DONE WITH THIS KING OF GLORY?

As my fingers push down upon the slick white keys on my Mac iBook, I listen to the soundtrack from RENT through my matching iPod headphones that fit snugly into my ears. The story of RENT is one that seemed to radically affect my thinking over a year ago. It’s a story, in its most basic form, of love. A story of broken lives that find themselves in a community of starving artists trying to make it through life. Struggles with suicide. Homelessness. AIDS. The mess of life.

What is our response to this thing called life? Several days ago, we sat through a training block revolving around the theme of Christ’s incarnation. Our theology and approach to life must be centered on the life of the Son of God. All of Scripture revolves around this single life. The Saviour of the world came and stepped into every day life. Reflect on the events of his ministry. Think of how he gazed into the eyes of the lame. The lepers. The blind. The last and the least.

The entire Bible is splashed with God’s heart for the poor.

"Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
And the LORD will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.” (Isaiah 58:6-12)

I’ve recently been flipping through the pages of a book entitled ‘Under the Overpass.’ It’s a story of two college-aged guys who set five months of their lives aside to go live on the streets of America. They went from city to city, taking nothing but what was on their back and a guitar. No money. Panhandling was a must. The pages of their story reveal a terrifying truth about the Church. The loss of love that is rampant in our everyday lives is being covered up by our comfortable programs that allow us to ignore the broken and battered.

So, what does it mean to live incarnationally? What should our everyday lives look like? I think it’s more than scheduling in a certain number or hours each week to go and take part in a certain so-called ‘ministry.’ We must make it our mission, as Christ did, to step into the darkness and be salt and light. We must be a transforming presence in the place we find ourselves. Life. Living. Love.

Let’s escape our comfortable suburban prisons. Let’s actually love the unlovable. Let’s reconsider what it means to be the Church.