August 19- Matt Banner: Love and Community

Love and Communit

Have you ever had one of those experiences that you can¡¯t quite believe actually happened. You just sit there in stunned silence, wondering if you just imagined the whole thing. Well, that happened to me one week just before the start of my last year of high school. I was 17 years old and loving life. I was in the school marching band, so every summer we went to band camp to practice our music and formations, etc. Well, I was really excited that summer because I had just been through a great revival at church and I was ready to tell someone about Jesus and help get them saved. So, the day we were signing up for roommates for camp, I was talking to one of my good friends about my church and this knew guy, John, overheard us, and he was like, ¡°What, you don¡¯t actually believe that stuff, do you?¡± I replied that I did believe it, and at that point I knew, this was my guy. So I asked him if he wanted to room together at camp and he said yes. We went to camp, and after the first practice, I sat down with John and shared with him what Jesus had done in my life. He was very receptive and afterwards, he thanked me, told me that he had been going to church for years, but no one had ever told him about Jesus actually loving him, and that we would have to talk more about it later. Well, I was excited to say the least.
So, we went to our next long practice and afterwards, I came back to the room. John was visibly upset. He was pounding his fist onto the dresser. ¡°what¡¯s the matter, John?¡± I asked. ¡°I just found out that my grandfather died.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, is there anything I can do?¡± I replied. ¡°Yeah, I need to tell you something. Let¡¯s sit down.¡± So we sat down on the bed and he began to speak. ¡°My grandfather was in WW 1, and while he was there he was attacked and possessed by a demon. By the end of his life, his skin was hanging from his bones. You see, no one told me that my grandfather has died, but I can just tell. Because now that my grandfather is dead, this demon is going to come here tonight to get me. And it will kill every person here, unless I meet it and kill it first.¡± Well, I didn¡¯t know what to say. I thought his story sounded a little far-fetched, but I didn¡¯t see any gain from calling him a liar. He was staring out the window, looking at the trees. ¡°See those trees. They are all going to die someday soon. And that grass, it already looks withered. Life is so short.¡± Now I was getting worried. ¡°Are you talking about suicide?¡± I asked. ¡°You don¡¯t understand, I¡¯m already dead!¡± And with that, he walked out of the room.
I didn¡¯t know what to make of the whole situation, so I decided I would just let it be; and for the rest of the day, he seemed pretty normal. Then, that night, we were going to bed. ¡°Night john. Night Matt.¡± I laid down and closed my eyes and started to drift off when suddenly I hear, ¡°Psst¡¦.hey Matt.¡± ¡°Go to sleep John.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t John, this is the Demon.¡± ¡°Go to sleep John.¡± ¡°I told you, this isn¡¯t John.¡± ¡°OK, Demon, what do you want.¡± And we started to talk. ¡°The demon¡± asked why it was that nobody seemed to like John. I replied that maybe John scared people and should try top be a little more laid back. Eventually, the demon went to sleep, and I did as well. The next day John asked if anything strange had happened last night. I told him that the demon had come, but it was no big deal.
The rest of the day passed normally enough, and I began to believe that the strangeness had passed. Oh, how wrong I was. That night, we were once again going to bed. ¡°Good night John.¡± ¡°Good night Matt.¡± ¡°Hey, Matt?¡± ¡°(sigh) What is it John?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to kill you in your sleep tonight.¡± Alright, that¡¯s it, I¡¯m going to find a new place to sleep. But just as I was to the door, John stopped me. ¡°Wait Matt, I was just scaring you. I do that sometimes, see how far I can push people, but I didn¡¯t mean it, I¡¯m not going to do anything.¡± So, I agreed to stay in the room. Then, a few minute later I hear some muttering, ¡°out the window, thrown right out the window.¡± We were on the fifth floor. ¡°What was that John?¡± ¡°Nothing, nothing.¡± A few more minutes and ¡°3 o¡¯clock, I¡¯m gonna do it at 3 o¡¯clock.¡± ¡°What John?¡± ¡°Nothing, nothing.¡± Well, somehow, I fell asleep; I guess because I was young and stupid. And¡¦¡¦nothing happened.
The next day, I talked to the leaders of the camp and switched to a different room. And after that, I avoided John. I avoided for the rest of the camp, and I avoided him throughout the whole school year. And I began to grow bitter. Not bitter at John, he was just some crazy guy, but bitter at God. Here I was, a great guy, a dedicated Christian, trying to help others, and it blows up in my face. It was obvious that God was playing some sort of practical joke on me, and I wasn¡¯t laughing. ¡°You think you can help people? You think you can share my love with people? Well, good luck, it will be the worst experience of your life.¡±
Somehow, that didn¡¯t seem quite right either. I mean, in my heart, I knew God is loving, and that God only wants what is best for his people. Maybe the problem was that I had reached to far. John was just too far away. I should concentrate on people who are more like me. People I can relate to. People who like me and I like them. Maybe I should share God¡¯s word with some pretty girls, that sounded good, not share it with some psycho crazy person who is going to threaten to kill me. In the end, I thought, John is just defective. And for a while, that¡¯s what I believed. I mean, it seemed pretty obvious to me.
Then, as usual, God had to whack me upside the head to get my attention. And as usual, it wasn¡¯t some huge event, it was just me sitting back one day and reading my Bible, still thinking about John and still a little bit angry. I turn to
Luke 12:54-56 ¡°You see a cloud rising and say rain and yes. South wind=hot. Hypocrite, you understand the earth and sky, but you can¡¯t interpret this present time.¡±
We think we can interpret what is going on around us. We see the storm clouds and we know it¡¯s going to rain. We see a person who is drinking way too much soju and we know he is going to be puking in the bushes. We walk into a restaurant and know they are going to serve kimchi. We look at the world around us and think we have it all figured out. We sometimes get to the point where we think we understand people.
We look at a person in a nice suit or dress and we think that they are rich. We look at a person wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket and we think they are cool. We see people with glasses on and books in their hand and we think intelligent. People look at me all the time and just think ¡°handsome¡±. And then we go deeper. We start judging people, thinking that this person is a geek, and this person is lazy and this person is stupid. And from our perspective, we start labeling and grouping people. We do this even when we don¡¯t want to, when we don¡¯t mean to. And we start to spend time only with people who are like us. We don¡¯t want to labeled as lazy or mean or stupid, so we don¡¯t spend time with people who carry those labels. And for our world, that seems to work. I mean, who cares if we divide people into groups? Who cares if we spend time only with people who make us comfortable? In the end, WHO CARES?
God does. God cares. God talks about the difference between what¡¯s on the inside of a person and what¡¯s on the outside. We look at things from a human perspective, but God wants us to look at the world from a heavenly perspective. God doesn¡¯t look at us based on who we are, but based on who we can become. And God calls us to try and look at things from the same perspective. We are supposed to try and see others as people who are loved by God.
And that isn¡¯t easy. People sometimes bug us, annoy us, drive us crazy. And those are the people we are supposed to love. The undesirables. The passage teaches us that wise people are concerned about the soul of a person more than the outward appearance. Peace with God does not come from trying to make everyone behave correctly, but it comes from accepting people for who they are and where they are at.
Even those who are defective. In the greek, the word hypocrite carries with it the connotation of wearing a mask. A hypocrite is a person who masks themselves in order to be something they are not. They say one thing but, in truth, they are something different. It is only a hypocrite that doesn¡¯t understand that we are nothing without God. That without God, we are all defective. I wear my Christianity sometimes like a mask. I walk around and look at people who don¡¯t act as responsible as I do, and I look down my nose at them. I don¡¯t do it on purpose, and I would never say it out loud, but sometimes, subconscientiously, when I am completely honest, I know that I am being a hypocrite. Because I have done bad things and thought bad things, and that I¡¯m no better than anyone else. So, we are all, in some way, defective.
So, where is the hope? I mean, so far, this story seems very depressing. What¡¯s the good news? Here it is: God always works with defective people. Look throughout the Bible. Abraham lied about his wife and said she was his sister. Jacob stole his brother¡¯s birthright. Joseph got thrown into a pit by his brothers and later went to prison for many years. David, probably, who is described as a man after God¡¯s own heart, raped Baethsheeba and had her husband purposely killed. And these are the heroes of the Bible. Not exactly the best people in the world. But God loved them and God used them. God takes little people and does huge things with them. That¡¯s what the Kingdom of God is all about. People like you and I are given the opportunity to see the world through God¡¯s eyes.
Luke 13:18-20 ¡°Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in a garden. It became a tree, and birds came to rest on it. It is like yeast that a woman takes and mixes into large amount of flour until it works its way through all the dough.¡±
What is the big deal about a mustard seed? Well, it¡¯s one of the smallest seeds that there is. When you see it in your hand, it looks so small and insignificant. It looks like it¡¯s worthless and should be chucked into the nearest trashcan. But, if you plant it; if you care for it, and if you have the patience to wait for it, it will become the largest plant in the field. It takes a lot of time, but, in the end, it is worth it.
That shows outward growth. The other story, about the yeast, talks about inward growth. Yeast seems like nothing as well. It is hardly noticeable. But if you work it through the dough, and then spend the time waiting and baking it, it causes the whole dough to rise up. It works it¡¯s way throughout all of the dough, throughout all of the person. It is inward. God began his kingdom with small things, including with people in small ways.
Suddenly, I start looking at people completely differently. Suddenly people no longer fit into categories. People were no longer nerds or geeks or losers. Every person represents hope. Every person represents a promise of God. From God¡¯s eyes, every person has the chance to be a vital part of God¡¯s plan. It¡¯s ok to be defective. But, do you know what, those people who used to annoy me and drive me crazy; well, they still annoy me and they still drive me crazy. That hasn¡¯t changed. But, now I seek to overlook my personal discomfort, and I try to reach out to them.
So, what happened with John? Like I said, I avoided him for the entire school year. I saw him from time to time and at those moments, I tried to not talk to him and pretend that he didn¡¯t exist. So, the end of the school year comes and I¡¯m getting ready to graduate. Maybe a week before graduation, I¡¯m sitting on my porch swing and enjoying the weather, when who comes walking down the street; John. I tried to hide, but it was too late, he had already seen me. So he asks me how I¡¯m doing and whether I¡¯m ready for graduation. I said I was excited but I would miss my friends. ¡°I¡¯ll bet a lot of people will miss you when you go.¡± ¡°Well, you know, some will and some won¡¯t.¡± I replied. He looked thoughtful for a moment and then replied, ¡°Well, I¡¯m going to miss you. I was going through a tough time in my life and you were a good person to me, even when I didn¡¯t deserve it. I think I¡¯m getting my life on track and part of it is because of you reaching out to me. You¡¯re a good Christian.¡± Well, I felt about this small. This guy is praising me and I had been trying to avoid him with all my being. He needed someone to reach out to him, and all I could think about was myself. Now, I¡¯m not excusing or forgetting the fact that this guy said he was going to kill me, but I do think that this guy wasn¡¯t really any more defective than I am, he was just lost. But, I think there is hope for guys like John.
I haven¡¯t seen John since then, but I hope he¡¯s doing ok. I know that he helped teach me that God does not call us to judge people based on our own standards, but to look at people through God¡¯s eyes. That¡¯s what we are all called to.