I want to challenge your faith!
Section Two: "Kill the Preacher!"
"Cleanse the Church" Part One, Application Chapter
While the World Dies Around Us...
In Jeremiah 39:15-18, we find the little known story of Ebed-Melech. Ebed-Melech was one of only a few that escaped the wrath of God when the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem. We will discuss his heroic story in more detail later. For now it is enough to know that, when God's cleansing came upon His people, Ebed-Melech was spared because of his selfless acts of righteousness.
The story of God's nature is no different today. Christ once asked, "...when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8) I fear that many who claim to have faith will be sorely mistaken on that day. When Christ returns, He will not be looking for the legalist who trusted in his outer actions or the liberal who trusted in his inner feelings. When Christ returns for His church, He will be looking for those who have shown the sincere, humble, passionate heart of a faithful servant.
Some time ago, my wife and I watched the edited version of “Beyond Borders” starring Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen. The message left a lasting impression on our hearts.
The movie presented a powerfully convicting story about a doctor working among the starving refugees of Ethiopia, Cambodia and other places. The images of human tragedy were deeply disturbing!
In one of the opening scenes, a large banquet hall is filled with the rich and privileged of London. They had come together to celebrate a wealthy man and his donations to a relief agency. Although the stage held a large banner with the name of the relief agency and a few politically correct pictures of malnourished children, it was the only thing in the room that indicated anything other than celebration. The music was loud, the dancing festive and all of the comments very celebratory.
Just as the wealthy man was being congratulated for his large donations, a passionate doctor burst into the room followed by one of the malnourished children he had brought with him from Ethiopia. Both were dirty, unkempt and poorly dressed. He forced his way through the flowing gowns and black suits to seize the microphone at the front of the room. After sitting his 10-year-old friend on the edge of the stage, he grabbed a champagne bottle and began emptying it onto the floor. As he did, he told how the cost of that one bottle of champagne could feed numerous starving children in Africa. When the bottle was empty, he handed it to his small friend and told the crowd that because of their parties and the red tape associated with their donations, empty bottles were the only things being received by the dying masses of Ethiopia.
Disgusted by the interruption, someone from the crowd threw a banana onto the floor as if to say, “Here, feed your boy and leave our party!” The audience erupted with laughter. The doctor picked up the banana, slowly removed the peeling and held it before the boy. “Oh, I see,” said the doctor. “It’s the monkey joke. You want him to do tricks for his meal. You want him to act like a monkey. Yes, he will do that for you. He will entertain you in order to get this meal.” The doctor then turned to the boy, spoke to him in his native language. The frightened, very humiliated child stepped forward. In a pitiful display of obedience, he pulled his skinny little hands up to his armpits, danced in place and made monkey sounds.
As I watched this scene, I must admit that my heart was more than convicted. At first I was angry. But then I became ashamed and alarmed. You see, I am the one throwing the banana. I am the one gawking as the boy humiliated himself for a meal. I am the one more concerned with black-tie gatherings than the dirty work of helping the dying. As I watched, I wanted the scene to change much like you want this article to move on to another topic. It made me squirm in my recliner. It made me want to look in a different direction.
My friends, this scene deeply disturbed me because it so accurately represents the American church of today. Yes, we should be doing more to feed the hungry, but world hunger is not the real tragedy. The global epidemic of our world is sin and apathy. While we attend our weekly black-tie events, the masses grow weaker. While we build expensive buildings and activity centers, refugees huddle under bridges and in cardboard boxes. While we pave our parking lots, missionaries make due with third-hand equipment. While we throw convenient offerings into the collection plate, the dying do humiliating dances to attract our attention and get our left overs. We are the rich and the privileged of the American church.
But for me, the most vivid parallel between this scene and the church of today was not the convicting speech of the passionate doctor or the humiliating dance of the little boy. For me, it was the separate tables and the pious eyes of the wealthy as they darted about the room inspecting each other, making sure they had not been outdone in dress or performance.
While the Lord's church in America splits and splinters over Bible translations, the use of PowerPoint projection systems, house churches, clapping hands and a host of other "disputable matters" (Romans 14:1), the world is not getting fed. While we sit at separate tables debating instrumental music, end-time events and whether or not miracles still happen, the lost are dying and going to a devil's hell. While we are dividing over matters of opinion, the world is dying over matters of salvation. My friends, it ought not to be so!
At the end of this convicting scene, security officers rushed in and removed the doctor and his "dancing monkey". This too is a sad parallel of the church today. We too react violently when men of God force us to look into the mirror. We too are often guilty of pious behavior when men expose the way we have emphasized minor things over issues of eternal salvation. We slay the messenger, remove the "trouble maker", label him an enemy of the faith and force him out of the room. Christ's words continue to be fulfilled.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' ... I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city..." (Matthew 23:29-30, 34)
I end this application chapter with another convicting scene. This one comes in the form of a poem. It too is ready-made for the church of today.
Six humans trapped by happenstance
In black and bitter cold,
Each one possessed a stick of wood
Or so the story’s told.
Their dying fire in need of logs,
The first woman held hers back,
For on the faces around the fire
She noticed one was black.
The next man looking across the way
Saw one not of his church,
And could not bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.
The rich man just sat back and thought
of the wealth he had in store,
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.
The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight,
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.
The logs held tight in death’s still hands
Was proof of human sin,
They didn’t die from the cold without,
They died from the cold within.
-Author unknown
While the world dies without the message of salvation, the church divides over "doubtful things" (Romans 14:1). Something must be done! The “Jeremiah Generation” must act!
Copyright 2006 by Childs Family Publications