REFLECTIONS LEAVING BEIRUT

It’s my fourth time here. I’ll never forget my first time flying over the city. From the plane, Beirut looked like one vast open wound. Sadly, despite efforts to close the injury and see it heal, the wound keeps opening. Fighting broke out just up north while we were here, and it still continues in Nahr el-Bared. There is an unease, a sense of yet another Lebanese tragedy. It’s heart breaking because this is such a beautiful place, and the people radiate a Mediterranean charm.

I keep coming here because I am convinced that Lebanon is critical to the sharing of God’s great news of healing through Jesus. Few other places in the Middle East are as open to the gospel. The location and diversity make this a place of strategic and spiritual importance.

Being here, I am both really encouraged, and yet somewhat discouraged, by what is happening within the body of Christ.

First, the encouragement. I am staying at a seminary that is reaching students within the Arabic world—students from Sudan, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon (like those pictured). The guys are serious about what they are doing, and the organization they serve under has made real headway in living Christ. Last summer, they were on the front lines of being Jesus to a people rocked by bombings. I come here because I want to play a part.

But I must admit I am somewhat troubled by the church. I am meeting some pretty solid pastors, like Tony. He, his wife Wafa, with a Ph.D., have left the corporate world in Bahrain to live in downtown Beirut and lead a church. And they face as many obstacles inside the church as outside the church. Outside, there is a crowded neighborhood, and surrounding organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah and Sunni Fatah al-Islam, and a culture in despair and resignation.

Inside the church, there are its own challenges. I preached there last night. Nice people for sure, but I could not help but wonder if they understand that hanging on to their traditions and rituals may be making them irrelevant to a world that is desperate to see an incarnational Christianity, to see Jesus—see a church with the radical empowerment of the Spirit, a place of welcome and laughter, of healing and hope—people coming to faith—people coming with their small faith and leaving empowered to turn the world upside down. People who come to find that the only one to fear in this crazy place is God—for as McManus puts it—what we fear is what we’re subject to—and the only one we’re subject to is Jesus!

The stakes are just too high to settle for anything less. The work on the Cross accomplished too much to live otherwise. He disarmed the powers—we’ve been raised from the grave. Now if we would only live it in all places.

Comments

[Christine B.]

YEA!!!!YES, YES, YES!

[Jerrilyn]

I've been challenged by what you have written. To look at myself through a different lense to see if I too have become stuck in the tradition of irrelevancy. It's hard to notice how cultural our beliefs and Christian views have become until we have a chance to move beyond our own borders.

After spending a summer with Campus Crusade for Christ, "behind the iron curtain"(as it was called back in the early '80's)I noticed the stark contrast of how the two different cultures lived out the Gospel of Christ. Good grief, a pastor even served us some wine from vats he had stored in his cellar. This wasn't just any wine, but wine that was from his grandfather's grapes. I was taken back. What, you mean Christians drink wine over here? Yes, they can drink wine, but Christian women/girls better not be seen wearing makeup or nylons!

Anyway, this contrast became more apparent during the first Sunday back at my home church in Eugene. All the Pomp and Circumstance hit me like a ton of bricks! So much so that I had to leave the Service because I was getting sick to my stomach! Had I changed that much in 8 weeks? This never bothered me before. I sure didn't expect to feel the way I was feeling.

This experienced helped me realize that many of what I thought it meant to live like a Christian was based solely in my Cultural Christian Norms that I had been taught. They really had nothing to do with Biblical teachings.

How the Lord much grieve over what he sees us, his followers doing. What we have projected to others as being The Gospel.

Please forgive me...us...Lord for losing sight of what is important to you. Forgive us for working so diligently on maintaining the status quo.

Thanks Pastor John for reminding us that we cannot and must not be irrelevant in living out the Gospel of Christ.

~Jerrilyn