Numinous Synchronicity...

This weekend, as I pondered the silliness of some this nation's political debates, I took the opportunity to do some research on ways that our (and my) energies could be better used. I shared some statistics from One.org yesterday.

You should go to this site, give them money, link to them and generally do what they say. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who'll tell you that this is just one more instance of the liberal Hollywood cabal trying to tell us what to think. Maybe. But in this case at least, the Hollywoodistas are right. Read for yourself. If the stats on this site don't cause you to do something then you're just not thinking correctly.

I originally went to this site to gather some quick stats to use in my Sunday school class. The lesson was on Mark 10's 'rich young ruler' and how he refused to follow Jesus because he did not want to give up his riches to help others. The title of the lesson from James W. Moore is "Can you Feel the Call to Discipleship". As we discussed discipleship, predictably some comments were made along the lines of "We should help people here first."

I was prepared. I started throwing out figures about median income levels in the developed countries, GNP's and the saddening facts I got from One.org. I mean, no one is expected to live on $1.00 a day around here. I think that actually made an impact on my class.

The class ended and we prepared for the worship service proper. The choir was good and Tad didn't embarrass himself too badly during the children's sermon.

Then came Jack's message on Mark 6:1-16. The people in Jesus' hometown "took offense" at Him. Jack started off with how prophets are never accepted by people who know them and how we are never quite grown up in our small towns. I thought of that country song "You're always 17 in Your Hometown". Good so far...

Then as he seems to do more and more these days, Jack launched into something unexpected and quite brilliant. He asked, "You and I would never 'take offense' at Jesus would we?" He then spent the remainder of the sermon eloquently and powerfully telling us exactly how, yes indeed, we do take offense at, and offend, our Lord by refusing His call to... Discipleship.

My mind rushed back to the stats I had read on the millions of people dying of AIDS, the starving and thirsty children, the people being blown up by land mines as they walk five miles in the desert to get a drink of water and how 1% of our nation's budget could virtually eradicate this worldwide.

It might have been one of the best sermons I ever heard but it wasn't a particularly pleasant feeling to realize that he was speaking to me. Telling me that I have taken offense at Jesus' call to discipleship. Telling me that I have offended God by ignoring the least, the last and the lost.

It was unpleasant because it is true.

Later, on the way home from church, Stacie told me that her Sunday school class had also discussed discipleship...

Just one more, you know, coincidence...

But while we were still at church, near the end of the service, Stacie played a piece of music that is somehow connected to Emma Lazarus' "New Colossus". I'm not sure how. Anyway, Jack picked up on that and started preaching again. He recited some lines from the poem:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me...

And he related how these famous words engraved on the Statue of liberty have welcomed millions of immigrants into this country. Then he said, "The next time you get into a debate about immigration, remember that!"

Amen, Brother Jack, Amen!