Sermon on the Mount vs. Great Commission

The summer before my sophomore year of college was a full one.  Not only did I spend two months at my church's summer camp as an assistant wrangler counselor, but I also was a leader on my college's "Portage" program.  This program included leading a group of incoming freshmen on an August trip in the Boundary Waters of northern MN.  It also included a two day mission trip in downtown Minneapolis.  We served at Urban Ventures (or something like that, can't remember the name for sure) in Minneapolis.  They were a Christian organization focused on helping inner-city people gain job skills.  I remember being somewhat offended by their focus on social justice.  I remember thinking that they should focus more on VBS's and Bible studies.  I remember writing them off.

Things are no longer so simple.

Occupy Wall Street has got me thinking like current events rarely do.  Thinking about what the Church should be doing.  About our mission as believers in Jesus.  About what biblical "missions" is.  

Here's the thing:

I want to believe that my mission in life is heaven and getting as many of my friends there as possible.  But if that's the goal, why was Jesus so adamant that we should feed the hungry?  I've heard so many times (and thought so many times) that we should feed the hungry so they will be more receptive to the gospel.

Is that really it, though?

That sort of mentality does not really seem to be present in the New Testament.  Sure, there's the Great Commission.  There is also the Sermon on the Mount.  There is James, telling us that our faith must be accompanied by works.  You could combine that all to mean that caring for the poor and hungry is simply a means of getting their hearts in the right place to accept the good news that when they die they're going to heaven.  

Something doesn't feel right, though, and I don't know how to resolve the tension I feel between this world and the next.

And yet, the Kingdom is here.  Life is here.  We are not alone, we have a Helper sent from God, who is God.

I don't know what to do with posts like this.  There's something so crippling about trying to be a black and white my-way-or-the-highway Christian in a world that embraces "love" and "plurality" and "acceptance."  Moreover, my branch of Christianity seems sometimes to be so country-clubby.  Sure we love.  But we love within our group.  Sure, we serve.  But we serve on the worship team or in the nursery.  

And so I don't know where to take this all.  How do I balance my faith which to me means absolutes with a world that "loves" better than most of my Christian peers?  (If, that is, love does indeed mean acceptance of difference) 

What do I do with a movement like OWS, a movement that claims to stand for the poor?  They don't have a religious agenda, and yet I have read so many blogs that urge Christians to accept them because they are standing for things Christians should stand for - the insinuation being that this non-religious movement is more religious than evangelical Christianity.  

I have no answers - just questions upon questions upon questions.  

I do think that I have come to one conclusion - American Christianity as a whole does not love the poor as we should.  We are prejudiced toward them, we stereotype them and dismiss them.  We take away their voice, assuming that voice to be uneducated and unhelpful.  We assign them the worst place at the table.  

What if we were the poor?  What if we sold our possessions to follow Christ?  What if we took our place alongside the least of these, knowing that the first shall be last?  That, I think, would be an unstoppable movement.

Right now, my life brings me into almost no contact with the poor, the orphans, or the widows of my world.  I live a privileged life of a student with no cares in the world to speak of.  I have educational goals that will in theory take me further and further from the poor.  Maybe that needs to stop.  Maybe I need to seriously consider the ways in which I can love the poor.  And not just collect food or money for them.  But meet them, befriend them, live among them.  And so there's really no contradiction between the Sermon on the Mount and the Great Commission.  The only tension is in my heart - between what I know I ought to be doing (that is, loving and serving the hurting and downtrodden) and what I am actually doing.

I also think that there's something to be said for living these ideals wherever I am.  Right now I live and work amongst college students - the modern world's elite class.  They have everything...  but they don't.  They're broken too.  The hurting and oppressed are in my midst, as well.  I need to be much more intentional about going out of my way to live my life focused on the needs of my neighbor.

That's it, I think.  Love my neighbor.  Love actively, serve diligently, never stop seeking ways to sacrifice my needs for the needs of others.