Separate

What does it mean to be a set apart people? How are we to come out from among them and be separate? This is a question with which I have been wrestling for about 4 years. I have studied other groups of believers and their version of being set apart for the Lord, but what I have found in all of my prayer, Bible study and observation is this: every generation of the Church must find a way to stand against the prevailing culture and we are no different. Jesus was nothing like the culture to which he came. He was totally other in every way. No one, not the Jewish leaders, the Roman oppressors, nor crowds who followed him had any doubt about his uniqueness.

Jesus made it clear that there was nothing in this world that He cared about except people. Money, power, political influence, popularity, interviews with influential powers, glitter, showmanship: none of these were part of His ministry. He kept it simple. He stayed with the basics. People needed something different than what they were offered by the rich and powerful and Jesus offered the difference they craved. After all it was the greed of the powerful that kept these folks poor, not just monetarily, but spiritually as well. Their despair and sense of separation from God fed the collective ego of the rulers. Their neediness made them an easy pawn in a game of "who has the power, really" between the Jewish leaders and the Roman hierarchy. Jesus knew all of this. He understood that no one, absolutely no one, really cared about the masses. But He loved them passionately. Not only those of His earthly generation, but all those who had come before and those who would come in the future.

Because He truly loved, He was giving instead of taking; He was sacrificing instead of using. Because he wasn't trying to fill pews or win a church growth award, He gave the people what they truly needed. He gave them the gift of Truth. Truth that was counter cultural in every possible way. Truth that gave them all they needed, but also challenged them to live beyond themselves. He offered peace and then made them terribly uncomfortable in their sins. He gave them hope, but he also told them that life would end badly-they would die. He promised never to leave them yet confused them with the prediction of his arrest and crucifixion. Then, just when they were totally bewildered, He predicted his resurrection.

He was so honest! It was painful and wonderful all at the same time and those words are meant for us! He was clear about that and we need to pass them along to the next generation as sparkling and pure as possible, because our generation needs something different too. You see the enemy hasn't come up with anything new. He still uses people to do his bidding and his bidding is never good. It always causes the few to seek power over the many. It always feeds into our worst selves and distracts us with promises of riches and glory and asks us if "we can't beat them then join them". The problem is, after this self-centered, self seeking, grasping way of life has given us all it has to give, we come up empty in our souls. And we turn to the Church to tell us there is something more. Please, we cry, give us hope, because we are getting old now. Please, we are losing our youth, is this all there is? Please, we are no longer physically powerful, what will happen when our bodies give out? My money is gone, what do I do now or I have more money than I can ever use why am I really here? The question for the Church is: how will we answer them?

Will we give them more of what they have experienced in their hollow past? Will we offer them a show to distract them from their searching? Will we soothe their wounded souls with glitz and glamour? Will the perfection of our program heal their brokenness? Will the self help sermon excise the demons that torment them? Will our message of permissive love affirm them before God and leave them in their bondage to sin even as they cry for a way to be free? Will we fail them?

Jesus set a tough example to follow. He loved the lost enough to feel their pain, to honestly assess their sin and speak to their bleeding hearts the truth of repentance, surrender and abandonment to His love. He did not offer them what they already had tried. Even the people acknowledged that no one had ever spoken as Jesus did. He was different in every way. Oh that we who name Him as our King would be as He is in this present generation, that others may see, believe and embrace the Hope of the World.