Thursday, August 9, 2012

Do Our Actions Reflect Our Faith?

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered. -- Matthew 21:28-31a

What have you done for God today? Reading the Bible or praying doesn’t count in this because, truly, you do those things for yourself. Were you kind to a stranger? Did you give food to the poor? Did you visit a shut-in? Did you grant mercy and forgiveness to someone who had wronged you?

Or did you go about your day as you always do, focused on yourself and those closest to you without even a thought to those you passed on by? Did you even see them? Do you consider their hurts? Did you pray for their souls?

What did you tell yourself today to justify your actions? You probably are a pretty good person. Maybe you’re even one of the few who tithe faithfully and attend church regularly. Maybe you volunteer at church. Or maybe you simply show up. You do what is comfortable but anything else is, well, uncomfortable.

We look like followers of Jesus. We obey the rules. We go through the motions. We wear crosses around our necks and we read our Bibles sometimes. We know Jesus. We do. We are proud to call ourselves Christians.

We seem to do everything right. The only problem with that is that we’re so caught up in our own little world that we are passive when it comes to the hurting, lost souls that inhabit our world. Our sins, as Pastor Rob pointed out earlier this year, are sins of omission. Outwardly we look just like followers of Jesus but deep in our hearts we are only posing.

See, we don’t want to get dirty. We want the homeless to house themselves. We blame them for their plight, with no sign of compassion or guilt over judging what we do not know. We condemn the hungry, the unemployed, those going through a tough time. It is easier to blame them, to focus on what they may or may not have done wrong, than to look in the mirror and consider what we have done wrong in our hearts and our actions.

We know that God has called us to action. We answer that call with a resounding, “Yes, Lord!” And then we go our own way, filled with excuses and blame for everyone. So are we followers of Jesus? Or are we posers with empty hearts?

There is no limit to what we can do if Christ is the center of our world, Pastor Rob said. But we can’t do anything by merely talking about we should do. Christ didn’t call us to be passive observers filled with condemnation and excuses. He called us to have a positive impact on our communities and those around us by taking action to help others.