This article elaborates on the idea and articulates it better than I can: "Let's Revise The Popular Phrase In But Not Of." In case you don't actually go read it for yourself though, these are the highlights and the important points I'm trying to make here...
- "...it’s clear that Jesus does not want his followers to be 'of the world.' Amen. He says that he himself is 'not of the world,' and his disciples are 'not of the world.'”
- "But notice that for Jesus being 'not of the world' isn’t the destination in these verses but the starting place. It’s not where things are moving toward, but what they’re moving from."
- "Jesus is not huddling up the team for another round of kumbaya, but [rather] so that we can run the next play and advance the ball down the field."
- "The accent falls on being sent, with a mission, to the world — not being mainly on a mission to disassociate from this world."
- "We’ve been rescued from the darkness and given the Light not merely to flee the darkness, but to guide our steps as we go back in to rescue others."
- "So let’s revise the popular phrase 'in, but not of.' Christians are not of this world, but sent into it. Not of, but sent into."
It seems like there is always controversy when it comes to Christianity and holidays. Whether we're upset about stores not telling us Merry Christmas or we're turning our lights off so the heathen families that trick-or-treat will know we don't participate in their evil practices, believers in Jesus have done a lot to damage the reputation of the Church. When I think about the stories I read about Jesus and what he did during his time on Earth, I don't get the impression that he was angrily storming about telling sinners how they were so sinful and disgusting. It seems like the only times he was actually angry were the times he was talking to the religious people! The Pharisees.
Yes, Jesus hated sin. No, he never approved of evil, and he told people over and over to turn away from their sin and repent. Yes, Jesus showed that there is right and wrong, and told his followers to practice what is right and avoid what is wrong. But his approach to the culture and the unbelievers he encountered seemed to be a "dive in and save them" focus instead of a "let's stand out here by the side of the water and hope they see how much better it is, and maybe we'll throw them a life raft if they want to join our church and dress the part" mentality. Like the guy says in that video, this world is broken. There is darkness in it. That is a fact and a sad truth. But those of us who have seen and experienced Jesus as Savior have been called by God to go out into the middle of that brokenness, to go into that darkness and be lights that lead people out of it.
With these things in mind, we "celebrated" Halloween last night. Blaine built a fire and grilled hot dogs. We had chips and glow-sticks, bags of candy and hot apple cider. And we said let the children come! Let their parents come! Let all the neighbors come! Come to our driveway and warm yourself by the fire on this freezing cold, rainy night. Come, take a hot cup of cider with you. Come, fill your stomach with hot dogs and chips. Come, take a glow-stick bracelet to light up the darkness as you go back out into it. Come, have a generous helping of candy and see that we want to give you good things. We are Christians. We are those who have been saved by Jesus and have experienced his transforming, life-giving, soul-satisfying grace and mercy, and we want you to see that in us. We want you to know that we are here, in this house on this street, and we are willing to meet you where you are and show you compassion and love because we have been shown immeasurable compassion and love by our Savior. We want you to see our deeds and maybe someday glorify our Father in heaven because of them.
So that was our intention behind our actions last night. I don't know if it's the actual message that everyone received, but I do know that 50 kids went home with a card that had life-giving Scripture on it in their bag of candy. And I know that about 30 of those people that went home with those cards also enjoyed a hot dog, and 20 or so had some cider. And I hope that maybe some of those people, as they're going through their candy, will pull out that card with our church's name on it, read those words, and remember the good things that were associated with them at our house. That they will associate the word of God and the Church with hospitality and generosity and kindness and love and openness, and our hope is that there might have been small seeds planted which may eventually turn into transforming salvation for their souls.