Friday, November 04, 2005
How Did You Decide Where To Live?
Eric O. Jacobsen, writing at Common Grounds Online, contends that where we choose to live is a "fundamental ethical decision."
One of the grave mistakes of faith is that we assume all are called to the same things we are. Certainly this lies at the heart of Paul's lengthy discussion of equipping and the role of certain particular ministires in I Corintians 12-14. Certain members of the Corinthian congregation thought that their ministry was the minsitry for all. Mr. Jacobsen said
The mission of the church is huge and what it must accomplish must be accomplished by its totality. I will wholeheartedly support and applaud Mr. Jacobsen if he chooses to engage in ministry along the lines he promotes in his post, but it is hubris on his part to suggest that each and all of us in the Body of Christ should follow.
I would like to propose that, in contemporary American society, the choice of where we choose to live might also function as a fundamental ethical decision (I might make a parallel case for where we choose to work and where we choose to worship as well). Most serious Christians would agree that caring for the poor and showing hospitality to strangers is an imperative of the Gospel. And many have given serious thought about how they might be faithful to this command in their daily life. However, given the realities of postwar development patterns, it is now possible to choose places to live, work, and worship that almost guarantee that we will have no incidental contact with strangers or the poor.While I agree that "caring for the poor and showing hospitality to strangers" is a scriptural imperative, so are a lot of other things. Not every Christin is called to each form of ministry.
Acts 6:2-6 - And the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, "It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. "But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. "But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." And the statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch. And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them.Here in the apostles state in no uncertain terms that their calling is to something other than the care of the poor. They do not deny the importance of that ministry, they simply provide for it by the use of others in the church.
One of the grave mistakes of faith is that we assume all are called to the same things we are. Certainly this lies at the heart of Paul's lengthy discussion of equipping and the role of certain particular ministires in I Corintians 12-14. Certain members of the Corinthian congregation thought that their ministry was the minsitry for all. Mr. Jacobsen said
Many Christians are aware of this disconnect between their ethical intention and their daily reality and seek to care for the strangers and the poor in more programmatic ways. Child sponsorship represents a less direct and volunteering at the local food bank a more direct strategy for dealing with this problem. While I don?t want to dismiss the important work of child sponsorship organizations or food banks, I also don?t think that either strategy alone fully captures the mutual benefit of encountering the poor and the stranger on our own turf and dealing with the ethical dilemma that they represent as part of our everyday life.I think this is somewhat backwards from the scriptural model. Such programmatic ministry is precisely parallel to what the apostles established with the appointment of Deacons in Acts 6.
The mission of the church is huge and what it must accomplish must be accomplished by its totality. I will wholeheartedly support and applaud Mr. Jacobsen if he chooses to engage in ministry along the lines he promotes in his post, but it is hubris on his part to suggest that each and all of us in the Body of Christ should follow.
