Urban
Ministry in the End Time
Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the September 17, 2016 Sabbath School Lesson
“Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have
longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her
wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate.”
Matthew 23:37-38, NIV
Cities are the spectacular tributes to all that modern
technology can offer. Skyscrapers reach toward the heavens like myriad Towers
of Babel.[i] Many cities seem just that
with people from several cultures coming together with a cacophony of languages
that may vary as one travels from one part of the city to another. One of the
things these many cultures bring to the city is an opportunity to sample
cuisines from all over the globe. Enchiladas, pizzas, chow mein, yogurt bread
with lentils, and so many more gastronomic experiences call out to the hungry
city dweller.
There is a lot of money in the cities. Many hustle to
jobs each day, spend many hours earning money that will allow them to continue
to live there, and hurry home each evening to prepare to do it again the next
day. Through their earning power, and even more, through their ability to
acquire debt, they accumulate homes, cars, appliances, and all the baubles of
modern life. These things, even more than the need for food and clothing, drive
them to continue their indentured servitude, year after year and decade after
decade. Those who live outside the cities see these gilded treasures and are
drawn to the cities in order to have the same. As a result, more people live in
cities today than ever before. The rural population percentage shrinks, while
the city population percentage increases. All of this represents an ever
expanding field for sowing the seeds of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
How does that simple gospel compete with the allure of
so many modern, technological wonders? Can an intangible future reward
challenge the attention grabbing glow of televisions, computer screens, tablets
and smartphones? Can the rich, young rulers[ii] of today turn to the
gospel from the promises of wealth and power laid out before them? They have
youth, strength and hope for a bright future. It may be many years before they
begin to see the gold plating on the objects they have been striving for begin
to flake off, revealing the base metal beneath. When they are older and their
health and strength begin to fade, they may realize the true cost of all those
years of slaving away to service their debts incurred for the shiny things they
once thought so necessary for a happy life. None of them is able to restore
those lost years, the lost health, or the lost opportunities. Instead they may
be left only with the memories of what might have happened had they chosen a
different path. For these children of the promise of the cities’ bright glow,
once they have reached this stage they may be willing at last to listen to the
gospel message. Sadly, for some, they may feel themselves too far gone for God
to love them. Nonetheless, if they see that love in someone, they may still
come home to Jesus.
These are not the only class in the cities. There is a
more desperate class. Some do not make it onto the treadmill of servitude.
Instead they find themselves on a downward spiral into drugs, crime and
homelessness. Take the case of Angelina,[iii] for example. Stating
that while growing up in Seattle she witnessed her parents smoking crack
cocaine, she was drawn into drug use as well. Perhaps this is an understandable
result of sleeping in cars and when they could find shelter, they stayed in
dingy apartments with mold growing on the walls. Seeing the dreariness of their
lives and how little her parents were able to provide for her and her brothers,
she asked what made the drugs so appealing that her parents made them such a
priority? First experimenting with Xanax from her father’s medicine cabinet, she
progressed to other meds, marijuana, LSD, and eventually to her parent’s
apparent drug of choice, cocaine. From age fourteen to sixteen, through
treatment programs and relapses, she progressed further through meth and
heroine. Her father decided to go into a recovery program and could not deal
with her addictions while trying to get clean himself. Faced with the choice of
drugs or living with her father, she went to the streets. Not understanding the
dangers and hanging out with friends who were also on the streets, she was sold
by one of them to a thirty-six year old homeless man for some drugs. That man
took her phone away, and then he imprisoned her in a locked tent. Through
beatings and chokings, she managed to survive until she was able to steal his phone
and escape the tent after two months of such abuse. Eventually the police
caught up with her abductor, and he is in jail facing felony charges. At
seventeen, Angelina is now trying to recover from the horror of the streets and
find some stability for her life.
As may be seen, there are several different kinds of soil awaiting cultivation
in the cities. These are only two of many. But we, as Christians, are doing so
little to sow gospel seed in any of them. According to Yelp, there are over six
hundred churches and worship centers in Seattle. With so many, how are we
failing so miserably with the gospel? Why do young people like Angelina find it
so hard to find the help they need? Could it be that too many are content with
simply attending church each week and doing little more? And what if they are
doing more? Are those ministries effective? Several churches have outreaches to
feed the homeless. However, what do they know about those homeless people they
feed? Is it simply, “Here’s some good food! Have a nice day!” Then they go
their way, and we go ours with no interaction beyond those feedings? Do we know
where they sleep? Who are they hanging out with? Where are their families? What
are their plans from day to day? Who cares about them? Even more profoundly, we
might ask ourselves “Do we care about them?” Do we find the thought of getting
personally involved in their lives too messy, too complicated?
I have often heard atheists claim there is no God
because He is doing nothing to prevent situations like Angelina’s from
happening. The truth is, God has done something about it, and He is deeply
engaged with the work in the cities and all the broken people there. His
involvement is to send you and me.[iv] Rightfully, since we are
called to this work, God might ask us, “What are we doing about the broken
people in the cities?” We may feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task.
This is normal if we try to do it in our own strength. But God will not abandon
us. Instead, He will bless every right impulse with divine power. We are no
more overwhelmed by these things than the Israelites were on the shore of the
sea with Moses.[v]
A mighty army bearing down on them from the rear and a raging sea facing them
in front, they saw no way out. But God breathed His divinity into the situation
and when the sea parted, the Israelites moved forward in the power of the same
God who will bless our efforts today. Some feel that the age of such miracles
is over, but perhaps the reason we do not see the power of God so clearly
displayed is because we cannot get off of our couches and out of our recliners
often enough to carry the gospel to where we can see those miraculous
declarations of God’s love.
Many are angry with Christians because instead of
seeking out the lost sheep and tending to their wounds, we are mostly indolent.
When we do rise to demonstrate involvement in something, it is too often
fighting over dogma and liturgical practice. We judge our sisters in the church
over their dress, while ignoring our sisters on the streets who may not have
any place dry to sleep at night. We judge our brothers for listening to what we
call questionable music, and ignoring the homeless brother who shivers in the
cold and cannot remember when he last had socks without holes in them.
Sometimes we hear those who wonder why the mighty
miracles of healing that Jesus and Peter did are not done today. Perhaps we are
too immature. After all, if we cannot even handle making sure that holes in
socks are eliminated for those who need it, how can we possibly understand how
to find healing for those who need it? Maybe it is time we approached the
cities, not as mountains to plant the conquering flag of our denomination on,
but as Jesus saw them, as sheep needing tender, compassionate, loving service.
That is not only where we may find the Spirit of God working. It is where our
own salvation is waiting as well.[vi]
