Won't watch list

Back in high-school I studied Speilburg’s famous movie Schindler’s List. For many people it’s one of the few movies that populate their ‘won’t watch’ list – not because it’s a terrible movie, but because it cuts through the thin venier of goodness we mentally paint over humanity so we can sleep at night.

Whilst I’ve seen Schindler’s List, my ‘won’t watch’ list still contains Isao Takahata’s Grave of Fireflies, and perhaps to the surprise of some, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

For many people our ‘won’t watch’ list exists because we know particular movies will disturb us. Perhaps we could do with more this kind of disturbing.

Sometimes I think that we survive as humans in a world full of monstrous acts because of our ability to bury ourselves in the un-reality of our choosing.

When I was younger my form of escapism was fantasy novels; I would devour book after book, living in worlds where the poor orphan kid protagonist usually turned out to have great hidden powers that let them save the world from evil and kick the butt of all those who doubted them in the process.

I am still an incorrigible nerd, however I can’t hide from the reality of the world that we live in, the things that once kept me safe from the hurt of the real are no longer appropriate while society burns down around us – escapism holds no value for me anymore.

I see many people today doing the same hiding away from reality in a myriad of pursuits –

Consumerism is a big one, the desire to have everything the world tells us is important to fit in to the cultural niche we aspire to keeps so many of us busy on an insatiable, heartless wheel of working to buy happiness.

Being a ‘success’ in business or our field is another such, endless striving to be recognised as having ‘made something of ourselves’ by peers so focused on their own climb that they hardly pay us any mind if we get anywhere anyway.

Being a ‘Good Christian’ in our own eyes and the eyes of our fellow church-goers is frequently a form of escapism from the reality of our calling to the world. I’ve seen many who bury themselves in church attendance, tithing to an institution and endless bible studies and fund-raisers, all the while tut-tuting collectively at the world, ignoring the need to be involved in the world. If we just give enough to ‘missions’ then our conscience is clear and we can go back to watching the telly.

We seem to crave something to keep us occupied and not thinking about the plight of the person sleeping homeless at the end of the street, the family rotting in a detention centre, or the villagers being slaughtered by the military regime annexing our nearest neighbour (each in part due to our own inaction).

What if real humanity wasn’t measured by what you had, or what you achieved, or how many hours of dutiful church attendance you had under your belt, but what you gave up and who you helped?

And what if ‘helping’ wasn’t putting money in a bag for the mission work, or donating to the charity food drive, but inviting the poor into your home and treating them as part of your family?

As a disciple of The Way I have to turn to Jesus’ teaching on the subject, to see what bearing He put on it. We find that Jesus spoke an awful lot about the injustice of the self-righteous religious people and their ultimate end.

Jesus lists many of the works we hear ascribed to greatness in the church today: prophecy, casting out demons, performing wonders, and associates them with those He will ultimately reject.

It was only after Pentacost that these acts were associated with followers of The Way, so Jesus is speaking of the church age when he makes these statements. It’s not that doing any of these things is wrong, but that if this is all we have done then we’ve missed the main event.

We know we are saved by grace unto works and that works do not save us, but as James says:

Notice the focus here on works being specifically providing for the poor among us? James does not say ‘If you have not spoken in tongues, or given prophetic utterance, or healed the sick’, his example of the works Christ left for us to do has to do with the poor.

Let’s again hear from Jesus, on His expectations of His followers at the day of His judgement:

When we get to the end of our walk on the earth and we stand before the King, do you think dead faith will save us? or our claim to the Blood of Christ? Jesus Himself states right here in the verses above that He will say these very things to professing believers. How do you reconcile that with our modern doctrine of grace?

Will you hold to the teachings of dead, men or those of the living Son of God?

Should grace be so sufficient that we can ignore the expectations of the giver of that grace and hope to stand? The parable of the unjust steward is a perfect illustration of someone who has received grace and then quickly squandered it to his utter demise.

No-one is saved by their works alone we are saved by grace, however the fact that the fruit of grace is good works to the poor and the needy is evident from scripture. Those who fail to exhibit such kindness we can only assume have squandered the grace offered to them. Do not be deceived:

Grace is needed to be planted as a tree in the first place, but abundant grace is required to produce fruit worthy of the Kingdom. We can’t out-source the work to a pastor, or the missionary worker we barely support.

The ‘church’ today must wake up to the need around it in the broadest sense, the need of a dying world, the need of those starving to supply the wants of the west, the injustice around us. We’re called to BE Christ in the world, that’s what being the Body of Christ means, and to continue the work that He came to do.

And yet for so many of us, faith is to attend a church on Sunday, to attend a prayer meeting, to live on the milk of the word, avoiding the meat whilst we try to muster up miracles by imbibing endlesly touring celebrity pastors and participating in another year of church programs..

But we have it the wrong way around:

My prayer tonight is:

Father, wake us from our self induced slumber of satisfaction, stir us up to see the pain and suffering around us and to strech out our own hand, as Your hand to help.

Lord, give us the grace to bear good fruit for your Kingdom, to show the world that You are alive and well and active in this age through the operation of your body which is the true church.

Make us to truely understand the works you have prepared for us to do from before the creation of the world, and to commit to personally giving our all to you as our Lord and Saviour, that when we stand before You at the end of this age you will say ‘Well done good and faithful servant.’

I’ll leave you with the short clip from the end of Schindler’s List that lead me down this thought-path tonight, I hope it inspires you to give your all, not to the traditions of man but to the Kingdom of God so that on that day when your works are sifted in the fire they will come out gold – No regrets.