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RSSThe Repair of the World
by The Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
5/15/2005
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. -- John 14:20
What brings people to Christ? Hint: it's usually not a convincing argument.
People come to Christ because of a need they have begun to feel within themselves. Usually this need is a gradual understanding that something important is missing. And sometimes it is a cataclysmic event, a terrible thing that has happened and cannot be ignored, something that has swept away all the familiar ways of organizing the world and deriving meaning from it. An earthquake. A tsunami. A hurricane. A war.
Armed only with their overwhelming need, they face the tragedy. And what will bring them to Christ? The knowledge that they do not face it alone. In the words and actions and presence of people who come to their aid, they see Christ more clearly than most people ever see him.
Will they convert to Christianity? Become Episcopalians? Maybe. Maybe not. At times like these, when food and water and medical resources and housing are all in crisis at the same time, no one is thinking about that; it is a subject for a later time. Maybe they already follow another path to God, one besides the Christian one. Nonetheless, in the words and actions of those who come to their aid, Christ has come to them.
And what brings us to Christ -- we lucky ones who didn't wake up this morning with nowhere to live and nothing to eat? Studies have shown that people who see Christians working to make the world a better place cite that as a reason why they might want to become active in a church. They may start out working in the soup kitchen, and only later find their way into the sanctuary. For many people, the ethical precedes the spiritual; they want to be part of the world's healing, and only later on become aware of their own thirst for life with Christ.
And so, besides fulfilling our Lord's command to serve him by serving those in the most need, our work through the ministry of Episcopal Relief and Development evangelizes our own prosperous society. Without preaching a single sermon, it shows forth what God does for a world in great need.
This is also the godly way through the current disagreements about doctrine that divide the Church and set Anglicans at one another's throats: say your prayers and serve the suffering.. There is much work to be done in a hurting world, and too few people to do it. ERD is one way to be part of what the Jews call tikkun: the repair of the world, God's gracious work of healing, in which human beings are called to join.
