Devotional 8-1-20

Good Trouble

I liked the sound of that from the moment I heard it…do the wrong thing for the right reason…or so I thought (I have a feeling that many things spoken by John Lewis will become ‘household phrases’.). We tell our children from their earliest understanding of language to “stay out of trouble.” And we try to do the same. In my mind I can make a case for that to mean stay AWAY from trouble – as in GO THE OTHER WAY! I would be remiss to mention John Lewis and not acknowledge Martin Luther King, Jr.’s influence on his life: ”…true peace is not the absence of conflict…but the presence of justice.”  Perhaps going the other way is the wrong thing for the wrong reason.

The stories of the life of Jesus are full of good trouble. He never went the other way. The right thing was the only way. He counseled, he healed, he fed > often in the face of ridicule and danger. Do we ever dare go against the norm for the sake of the hurting? “Why are you helping hiiiim?” (if you curl your lip like Elvis and say it with a sneer – you can actually make him into two syllables – works with her too). Do we feed the hungry – with food or with money or do we assess (eyes turned down, shaking my head at myself… JUDGE) that they don’t deserve it?

One of this week’s lectionary readings is Matthew 14: 13-21 – the feeding of the 5000. It begins at verse 13 > “Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat…” If you will hit rewind and go back as far as verse 8 or 9, you will discover that THIS is the death of John the Baptist. I think that we could classify that as traumatic news. If I had received such information and then had my ‘alone time’ crushed by 5000 people…well, I probably would not be concerned about their hunger pangs. But Jesus was! And not only did he speak to them for a long time, he stepped out of the frying pan and into the fire by offering to feed them. Do you suppose there was not a single person in the crowd allergic to seafood or maybe gluten intolerant? It’s hard to select the exact K-Cup for the coffee maker in an office of five – can you imagine trying to please 5000?

Mother Teresa once said, “Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.” The one may be one and the one may be the first in a line of 5000.

There is injustice and need all around us. While I am knee deep in quotes, lets go back 200 years before Lewis or King or Mother Teresa to Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (people) to do nothing”  

The one may need a sandwich. The one may need a ride. The one may need an advocate against a bully. The one may need a hug. The one may need a prayer. We must be willing to NOT go the other way, to do the right thing for the right reason…we may be the only Jesus they see this day.

Let’s go out and get into some (good) trouble.

Steve Matthews