Sometimes things have to wait. Maybe more money is needed before we can think about buying a house. Maybe we wait until after the kids are grown to look for a new job. Maybe our dreams wait until retirement.
Sometimes that’s the attitude we take toward Jesus. Right now there’s a lot going on, between trying to get promoted, running the kids to soccer or getting to the grandkids’ programs, keeping ahead of the mowing and not getting behind on our social life. It’s hard to find time for regular devotions and prayer, those things that build and strengthen our relationship with God. Active church membership would take more time and money than we have available. And mission, whatever that might mean in the context of our particular gifts, talents and context, just isn’t happening right now.
That’s a big problem. This is what Jesus told the Jews of his day, in Luke 11:23: “‘Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.’”
It’s easy to say, “But I am with Jesus. I’m a believer, I go to church, I tithe. I’m one of his.” But then the second part of the sentence comes, and I feel less good. Jesus seems to be saying that if I’m not there working with him, then I’m actually working against him. If I’m not gathering in the harvest, then I’m actually contributing somehow to it being scattered beyond reach.
Does that mean if I choose to wait with being a living witness to my neighborhood, that I’m actually enabling my neighborhood to more easily ignore the fact that God is with us? Does that meant that if I choose to spend my money now on buying a new car and paying off a huge mortgage, that I’m actually letting the problems of poverty and injustice grow worse? Could it be that, as I wait to use and gain expertise in my gifts, I squander their productiveness?
I don’t want it to mean those things. Surely Jesus knows all of my good intentions for later.
But still . . . “Whoever does not gather with me scatters.” That doesn’t seem to leave any middle ground.
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