Good News in Strange Places

December 13, 1998

(cf 12/17/1995)

"And the poor have the gospel preached to them . . ." Matthew 11:5

IN the summer of 1986 a group of nine rich kids from a big Atlanta church got into a late-model rented Ford van and along with their pastor/sponsor drove to Appalachia, to a place called Barnes Mountain, Kentucky. The sponsor was Barbara Brown Taylor (no relation to the Bill and Barbara Taylor we knew), who is now quite a well-known author, teacher and preacher.

The rich kids didn't even know they were rich because their world was all they knew. They thought everyone got a new car on their 16th birthday. They thought every high school senior class party just might be held in the Bahamas.

Well, in Barnes Mountain, Kentucky, they came face to face with a different world. Their "job" that August was to finish chinking a log house for a mission director/minister to live in that fall. What Barbara Brown was hoping was that they could get a perspective on their material wealth. And Barnes Mountain certainly was a contrast to Atlanta.

Some local teens came around out of curiosity to watch the group work, and several stayed to help. One young man in particular caught the fancy of the Atlanta group. He was a sweet young man named Dwayne. The city teens were fascinated with Dwayne, and evidently Dwayne was fascinated with them as well. They told him about a restaurant on top of a hotel that revolved every hour. He told them about scary abandoned coal mine shafts. They told him about the Atlanta Braves. He told them about finding a baby owl and raising it.

Halfway through the week Dwayne made a great sacrifice: he let one of the girls give him a "city haircut." His shaggy, curly bangs were now a layered, cool look and Dwayne looked just like the nine city kids.

All that week the kids worked together. They played together, they shared what was important to them. And then before they parted, they prayed together. In that prayer the Atlanta Kids told God what a privilege it had been for them to serve the poor people in Barnes Mountain, and they asked God's special blessing on them. And the result, in Barbara Brown Taylor's own word, was "tragic".

Their prayer crushed Dwayne ! He said, "You all called me poor! I swear I never thought of myself that way until you said it. I have all these woods to run around in. I have a grandmama and a granddaddy who love me. I got a whole shed full of rabbits I can play with any time I want. Does that sound poor to you? It don't sound poor to me. You all should save your prayers for someone who needs them."

No one meant to hurt Dwayne, but their assumptions gave them away. Again in Barbara Brown Taylor's words:

We thought of "the poor" as people other than ourselves. We separated ourselves from Dwayne in our prayers, and our prayers stung him to the quick!" Their innocent prayer revealed how much the culture determines how we perceive reality, and how we value people not by God's standards but by our own ideas of worth.

OFTEN OUR VALUES ARE QUANTITATIVE, MATERIALISTIC: Christian faith is very materialistic. Nothing wrong with that.

It matters very much how we handle money and things. Jesus is not an Idea. He is a Person. He came in a particular time at a particular place. He taught us to pray daily for bread. He told us we ought to pay our tithes. His people share what they have with those who have less.

It is not possible to be a true Christian only in the mind and spirit. We are challenged to present our BODIES as living sacrifices to God. That means God cares what we do with things like money and possessions. But the Christian faith introduces a different sort of reality from the one that worships money and power and things.

IN JESUS' KINGDOM THINGS ARE USED, NOT LOVED. AND PEOPLE ARE LOVED, AND NEVER USED.'

In Jesus' kingdom the poor in spirit are blessed, and the last are first, and the lost are found, and material things become tools of the spirit. If the spirit is right we get the material things right. The spirit is everything.

Christian worship is of the spirit.

When we think of "rich" and "poor" we think of belongings. If we see a man who holds a lot of money or land or power, we say he is rich by this world's standards. We think if a lot of things "belong" to a person then he or she is rich.

We have heard Bible verses like "What shall it profit to gain the whole world and lose one's own soul." But still down inside we think we would be happy and rich if we had a few million, or if we had a lot of power.

Would you really like to change places with Bill Gates or Bill Clinton? Jesus has words that "fit" here:

And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. (Luke 12: 15)

Things that "belong" to us can not really make us rich.

What we "belong to" is what really makes us rich. Or more precisely, whom we belong to - to be accepted into God's house, and be a part of His family. When we really know we are in His kingdom then we dare to believe that he will make all the pieces fit. Our Master said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all these things will take their proper place in line." (Matthew 6:33, free translation)

We think that if circumstances could just change then we would have faith. If only we could be free from this situation then we could begin to live. If only we had more money— If only. It is human to doubt and be tempted to look to things for security. But Jesus challenges us to follow Him and says he will care for us.

Maybe that was where John was that day when he sent his friends to ask Jesus, in effect: "Have I missed it? Are you really Messiah?"

Christian hope is for life as it really is lived.

The question from Matthew's Gospel came echoing out of a prison. It was asked by the greatest prophet in the Bible: Are you really Christ? Are you the Son of God? Why am I here in prison? Aren't you supposed to change things for the better?

Jesus answered John the Baptist's question in an oblique manner. He told John's disciples to go back and tell John what they were seeing.

The lame walk. The deaf hear. The blind see. And the poor have the Good News told to them. The kingdom was already here, and just as Isaiah had prophesied, was already changing lives.

I believe in that dungeon John the Baptist's spirit was renewed and revived. His Master had answered him. From a purely human point of view things were unchanged. John lost his life to a weak and vain King Herod. But John the Baptist was rich beyond understanding, and is wealthy today in ways we can only imagine. And in this country alone today millions of Christians follow John the Baptist in telling their world about the One who came, who comes, and who is to come.

Conclusion

A prison is a strange place to hear Good News. But God's Good News is made for strange places. Wherever YOU are in your spiritual journey today, there is GOOD NEWS! YOU are not a "mission project," but you are a candidate for acceptance into God's family. God's kingdom is here! I leave you with two thoughts:

1. Hear the Good News for yourself! Like the rich youngsters from Atlanta you may think of the poor and imprisoned as "others." But there are prisons and "strange places" here with us this morning:

   There are childhood memories, memories of abuse or worse. There are sins that just won't go away, and keep coming back. There are "if only" situations of all kinds. Some of us face the burden of getting older. Some are wrestling with bereavement or depression or fear.

   There are prisons of hurt feelings, or worse: of unforgiving hatred. We do NOT have to wait until the ideal time comes. We do not have to wait until we feel salvation to come to God and ask for grace. We come just as we are.

2. Pray that this Advent/Christmas we can be agents in the work of Christ. Think small! Think near at home. The blind and lame and deaf may be nearer than you think. A healing word. A prayer in the morning for filling, and then a watchful eye through the day for sharing.

Prayer:

O God our Father, who sent Christ's messenger before Him to prepare hearts to receive Him; Give us grace also to proclaim your Good News to the poor, whether they possess great worldly treasure or none at all. Turn the hearts of your people to true wisdom, so at Your Son's Coming Again we may be found faithful to the covenant of life You have made with us in the Cross of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, world without end. Amen

Hymn: Please join with me reflectively and sing the words of Just as I Am #343 to the Christmas Tune of #195 I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day