Movement

Where does movement come from? or where should it come from? Ideally it does and should come from the same place, but why is that not accurate of what most churches teach?

My friend just said something that sparked a thought for me. "Everything Jesus did was a movement out of his compassionate heart. He did nothing out of cold duty and obligation." I'll say that again "Everything Jesus did was a movement out of his compassionate heart. He did nothing out of cold duty and obligation." Does that seem to be the message the church sends us these days? No way.

I grew up Methodist and had friends that were Muslim, Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Church of Christ,  Presbyterian, and I am sure other denominations that I can't even remember off the top of my head. I now attend a Non-Denominational church. Why? Because of the exact comment my friend made. If we (Christ followers) are to be Christ-like, then why are all these faiths/denominations teaching us to move out of duty and obligation? Why are all these faiths showing us that we serve because we should? Why do they teach that we should do a Hail Mary Full of Grace to be right with God or that we go to church on Sunday, look nice, say certain prayers and sing specific songs? Some say it is because that is what Jesus set up the church to look like. However, that is not the Jesus that the Bible talks about. That is what Jesus talks about despising! That is what Jesus says he died for us NOT TO DO! No more ritualistic sacrifices, or wearing cotton verse polyester, or whether we cut our hair or don't. That is not what the rules were made for. What God made so that we could glorify Him, we turned into corruption and made them into a list of behaviors we could check off a list and just obey so that we know we were fine, but then never be truly changed or different. Jesus died so we would STOP checking off a list and start moving out of the compassion of our hearts again.

Something our pastor said Sunday also makes my point. He grew up baptist, I believe, but denomination doesn't really matter. He also experienced the 'movement out of obligation and duty.' The church was there to make sure they were following all the 'rules' but no one was checking along the way that hearts were being changed. No one was checking to make sure that people were different today than they were yesterday and no one was checking to see if people were in a different place this year than they were last year. They had the rules down but the movement from compassion that Jesus fought so hard to teach, was strangely missing. It had become duty, it had become obligation.

Why? Because those actions: feeding the poor in Africa, paying bills for people on hard times, tithing, attending church and sunday school, etc. had become "just what you do" instead of moving from a shared pain.  Then I get political about it. Why do we rely on the government to feed the poor and help pay bills for those who lost their jobs? Because people have forgotten the art of being so moved by compassion that the 'Haves' reach out to the 'Have-nots'. For every need in this world, there is someone else (or a group of someone-elses) that can help fill that need. That is the world that Jesus came to teach us about.  My friend boiled down Jesus' entire ministry into one thought! Move out of compassion, stop following the stupid rules and move out of compassion.

My remedy was to attend a church where that was their mission. My moms remedy was to build a church in her community where that is their mission. I hope and pray that our culture does not give up on churches, but that they find Jesus' true mission and they find a church home, or make one as my mom and step-dad did, and help foster the message of movement from compassion and not from duty. Jesus' message is still alive and being practiced and it creates real life and freedom, it is there for the taking, are you looking?