Together with Christ We Care – For Us, Not Them

Lent, Day 8

(Note:: Part of the sending portion of a Kansas City area church’s Sunday Worship service is saying together “Together with Christ — We Care.” )

Each week you say those words at the end of your worship service “Together with Christ – We Care”. But do you think about them? Do you ponder them? Do you DO them?

I would wager, and I don’t wager as a rule, that you do Do them, in caring for what is your “us”, but not for your “them”. I would also like to suggest that you tend to think in “us” and “them” and that it prevents you from caring with Christ for “them”. If you thought of “them” as part of “us” this wouldn’t be a problem.

You rejoiced when the hometown team won the Super Bowl, and you reacted with anger when someone shot and wounded or killed 20 people during the Chief’s celebration parade in Kansas City. At your weekly Woman’s meeting on Wednesday (yesterday), many of you expressed anger, and suggested that people shouldn’t be allowed to carry guns, that having guns was the problem.

Yet back in October and November of last year, you barely noticed when guns and other munitions, most military grade, killed thousands in Israel, and allowed Hamas to kidnap, torture and rape many more. The one mention of it at a Tuesday Night Zoom Bible Study indicated that you had to allow Hamas to react, because they were probably “frustrated”.

You sanction, or at least condone or excuse, murder, kidnapping, rape and torture in Israel, because of frustration. The shooter in KC was probably frustrated, and for that you want to take away guns from innocent, law-abiding citizens who have done no wrong. You want to put more people at risk, remove from them their means of protection, just so you FEEL safer,

You care selectively, and it makes for questionable decisions and opinions. Yes, you should care, and take care of, your own, your family, more and before others, others should do the same, so this is equality, that is equity. But that doesn’t mean the callousness expressed towards rape “over there”, whether you can do anything about it or not.

And it doesn’t mean the way you ignore and make invisible certain new people in your midst, people who DO care for those others, and are outraged that you excuse rape and kidnapping because someone is “frustrated”. You think you see them, you notice their presence, but do you KNOW them, do you really listen? You don’t have to agree with them, but if you care with Christ, you certainly would listen to them, and you wouldn’t make them feel invisible and like they are being pushed out of church. One of them ceased taking communion with you because she would not take communion with those who condone such atrocities. Ponder that, seriously, deeply, and with an open mind.

I know many of you do truly care with Christ, but your good works are hidden by the actions of others to these people within your midst, Don’t drive out the inconvenient truths, inconvenient facts, inconvenient opinions, but give them a chance to be heard, and you will be surprised that they also listen to you.

“We are One in the Spirit, We are One in the Lord, We are One in the Spirit, We are One in the Lord, and we pray that community may one day be restored.”