Currently, I'm reading the book of Job. I read this passage last night, "I broke the jaws of godless oppressors and plucked their victims from their teeth." 29:17 My first thought was, Ugh, the Old Testament. Geez. Why does it have to be so violent? Every story has to involve severed heads on stakes and entire tribes decimated. But I stayed there, thinking about that verse. The whole chapter is Job listing all his worthy accomplishments, explaining why his current circumstances can't possibly be punishment for bad behavior. He helped people, he had status in his community. He was honest and fair. And he rescued people.
Okay, so there's a reason we kept the Jewish history and law books as part of our Christian faith, right? Because all of this stuff takes on new meaning if you look at it through the lens of Jesus on the cross. So once a guy dies for the whole world (like everyone, not just the Jews, not just the Evangelicals, but EVERYONE), then who is a godless oppressor? It's not really an individual, because each of us has the potential to turn, to change. Everyone that might have fit the description of godless infidel in the Old Testament is just a soul looking for Jesus in all the wrong places.
But people ARE oppressed these days. That hasn't changed. So I ask again, who is a godless oppressor? I think about myself, about growing up in the suburbs. All the folks with their trim houses and green yards, the shiny cars and the good educations. My high school classmates went on to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT. I went to Kent State. Were we oppressed? Our houses weren't in foreclosure, but what about our families? Glennon Melton says in Carry On, Warrior that "People who need help sometimes look a lot like people who don't need help." I believe that people are oppressed by comfort. I think we convince ourselves that since we are able to satisfy our wants, that we don't have any needs, and we get on this conveyor belt and try not to look too closely at anyone. When I think about what Jesus has changed for me, as an adult, I say he broke the jaws comfort and plucked me from its teeth.
What am I saying? That Jesus calls me to be uncomfortable. That just as Chris and I were starting our own little suburban comfortable family, we threw a wrench in the machine and signed up to be foster parents. Nothing quite like the discomfort of being part of the most tragic and painful months of another family's journey, bringing home a sick, addicted baby. Probably you would expect that I have some strong feelings about drug-exposed infants...that's true. But it might surprise you to learn that while, yes, prenatal exposure is 100% preventable, it's long-term effects are nothing compared to the long-term effects of poverty. This is really the oppressor that foster care has brought me face-to-face with. And so I read that verse from Job another way: because of Jesus, I broke the jaws of poverty and plucked its victims from its teeth. It started with Michael, my beautiful son, but it kept going, and I LOVE going to my church and looking around at all the amazing people who shout this as their anthem. Poverty has people in its jaws, it is chewing them up and preparing to eat them alive, but we say NO, not on our watch, not today.
We spend time with kids and help people do their laundry and pass out food and toilet paper and always we say "There is hope that is real, hope that extends beyond our present circumstances." And those words are just as important to say to the people who look like they don't need help. That hope is for everyone.
So...what am I missing? What other "godless oppressors" are out there, and who is breaking the jaws and rescuing the victims?
No comments:
Post a Comment