Dangerous Compassion (Monday with Mounce 55)

I had a great experience this Christmas and wanted to share it with you. It doesn’t have much to do with Greek, so I wouldn’t even try to make some sort of artificial connection.

With our move to Washougal, Washington, most of our Christmas traditions had to change since in the past they involved family. And with two of my three kids in college, the new traditions were even more important to them than to me. My wife and I have discovered that it is the stability of family traditions that help our kids go out and conquer the world; no matter what happens, they can always come home again to what is familiar and safe.

 

So we told each kid that they could establish one new tradition, so we went bowling and played games. But Tyler wanted to serve a Christmas meal at a homeless shelter. We have never done this as a family, so my wife Robin made some calls and we headed to The Lord’s Gym the night of the 23rd. This is a food bank that operates in conjunction with an inner-city church in Vancouver.

There we stood, five tall very white people holding serving spoons and staring at life situations decidedly different from our own. First lesson: you don’t have to go overseas to serve in short terms missions. The same type of diversity exists in our back yards. I remember thinking that as a church we shouldn’t allow anyone go on an overseas mission until they had worked at a local mission. Probably a good idea.

 

My job was to give out the salads, and was instructed very clearly to ask the people if they wanted crushed walnuts before putting them on their salads. I thought, “That’s nice; they are concerned about nut allergies.” Not really. I finally learned to look at the person first and make sure they had teeth that could chew the walnuts before I asked them. Second lesson: things we take for granted (I have all my teeth) shouldn’t be.

 

Robin was next to me handing out the desserts. For a long time I could hear her say, “What would you like?” But after 15 minutes she shifted to saying, “What dessert would you like?” During a break I asked her why she changed what she was saying, and she responded, “I am tired of people answering, ‘You.’” One guy came through the line four times; and as we were laughing with him about it, he said that he kept coming through in order to see Robin. Then he looked at me and asked if I were her husband. In a deep masculine voice (at least, as masculine as a tenor can be), I said yes, and then watched the verbal gymnastics as he tried to say he was admiring my wife “as a sister in the Lord.” Yeh. Right.

 

But here is where the compassion comes in. We are looking for a church in our new home. One has good preaching with a worship pastor who sings the same refrain 50 times (I exaggerate not), and another has great community but little to commend the proclamation of the gospel. I asked Robin how she would feel about choosing a church not based on meeting our needs but based on our ability to meet its needs, like The Lord’s Gym. She is open to it, as long as men don’t keep trying to pick her up.

 

Perhaps the greatest lesson is this. Perhaps the food bank will meet our needs better than a largely white church with good preaching and singing and an encouraging youth group. Perhaps we have heard all the good preaching (based, of course, on the Greek text) and singing we need for some time. Perhaps it is time for us to start learning the really important lessons of the Christian walk, that at the throne Jesus will ask us if we cared for his disenfranchised children. At least, that's what the text says in both Greek and English.

 

To do so will take dangerous compassion. Or perhaps it will just take a commitment to love the things that the Lord loves, and have our hearts broken by the things that break his heart.

 

Wherever we end up, the night of the 23rd will have taught us more than any preacher has.

 

William D. [Bill] Mounce posts every Monday about the Greek language, exegesis, and related topics at Koinonia. He is the author of numerous books, including the bestselling Basics of Biblical Greek (third edition coming in 2009!), and general editor for Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of the Old and New Testament Words. He served as the New Testament chair of the English Standard Version Bible translation. Learn more and visit Bill's blog (co-authored with scholar and his father Bob Mounce) at www.billmounce.com. 

Comments

[Bert de Haan]

Hi Bill; there doesn't have to be a conflict between worshiping at a Church that meets your needs (or more correctly, where the worship is in accordance with God's will) and caring for God's disenfranchised children does there? Certainly both can be met?
Wishing you and your family God's blessings.

[Bill Weber]

I like what you said, and there is much merit in what you are saying. But can we so easily dismiss our need to sit under the faithful preaching of God's Word? I recently read Christopher Ash's book called "The Priority of Preaching," so preaching's role in a healthy church is on my mind. Jesus commends our service to our neighbor, but he also says that "you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me." Can you have Christ in a church without his Word? Doesn't Jesus rule his church by his Word and the preached word, which becomes the Word if it is faithful to the written Word? Just curious as to how you might answer these questions. Maybe you are right in selecting a church without reference to the preaching of the church.

[Irving Salzman]

Good post. Thanks.

[Bill Weber]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I agree the best situation is faithful preaching, biblical worship, fellowship, and love of neighbor through vocation, evangelism, and mercy ministries. In reality, however, such churches that excel at all of the above are hard to find and so I wonder if there is a priority in our search for a church? I would opt for a priority for the preached word, because Christ rules his church through the written word preached (this is the argument of Christopher Ash's little book).

I know you are busy, so don't feel you have to respond. I enjoy your articles and books.

[Bill Mounce]

I understand where you are coming from, but I wonder how many "Bible Preaching Churches" really have the characteristic of the church in Acts, or how many hide behind the facade of loving the Bible but in fact do not truly love its author and allow that love to spread top others? I am sure there are many that do reflect the true church, but I suspect there is a much greater majority of those that don't.

[Bert de Haan]

Thanks for your reply but I think you misunderstood my point. I wasn't putting "our needs" over against "worship in accordance with God's will." Worship includes submitting ourselves to the preaching of God's word. That is after all how our need for spiritual food is met.
I understood from your post that you were trying to decide between on the one hand, a Church that meets your needs and on the other hand, caring for God's disenfranchised children. I don't think this has to be an either/or decision. I certainly appreciate the caring attitude that is evident from your post. Thanks again.

[Dirk M. Boersma]

Hi Bill, I understand the dilemma you are in. Surely your faith can continue for a while without good preaching, but ultimately, your faith and actions will be shaped by what you hear every Sunday. It will be hard to tell your children every week what is missing or wrong in the preaching, and if you have to correct something every week it will be difficult to teach them to submit to the elders at the same time. This is a very important choice you have to make. I pray that the Lord will help you.
If you make a preacher aware of his deficiencies or could correct his errors (more difficult) you would also do the church he is serving a huge favor. Please don't accept the way people / churches are but teach and correct them kindly from the Word of God (2Tim3:15-17) and trust that God will use your words to bring change. This happened before, by His grace!