I once saw a bumper sticker that read, “Where are we going? And why are we in this hand-basket?” My guess is we’re all bumping along that road paved with good intentions… and we all know where that leads. It ain’t the yellow-brick road.
Why do we have trouble acting on what we know, even when the consequences of not doing so are obvious? We’re certainly reaping the harvest with climate change. If we could figure this out as a human race, we’d make a lot more headway on obesity, violence, you name it. Neither benefits nor warnings seem to affect us much.
Jesus knew that – it's where he takes his story next. Once the rich man in the flames of hell realizes there’s no way he can get to heaven or benefit from even a drop of heavenly water, he tries to negotiate for his next-of-kin: “He said, 'Then, I beg you to send him to my father's house – for I have five brothers – that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' He said, `No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'
Oh, is that what it’s going to take? Some people have nearly died themselves, and it hasn’t caused them to become any healthier or less self-oriented.
“Abraham said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" This is a poignant statement; did Jesus wonder if his mission was futile? But he knew human nature. God gave a litany of laws, a religious rulebook, prophets full of promises and warnings and yet God’s people rarely remained faithful for long. St. Paul was one who gave himself to living by the Law, and ultimately came to believe that it was not God’s fullest revelation of truth. It was more a tutor until the people of God came to maturity. He proclaimed that Christ was the most complete revelation of God – human, divine, living, crucified, risen. And so he is. And he is risen from the dead. And he is still saying, “Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep.”
Today, let’s do some assessment. Name some areas in which you have been able to adjust your thinking or behavior. What was it that enabled you to make that change, that shift? I've found tools to adjust my eating with Weight Watchers that sets me up for success in an area where I’ve mostly known frustration and failure, and now I want to exercise more too.
Name some areas in which you feel stuck, ungenerous. Can you say why change is hard in those areas? What are you still getting out of that behavior, or pattern, or response, or relationship? Ask Jesus to help you make some space.
Good intentions are great, but they don’t get us very far. Our wills lack the power to change our hearts. Heart change is usually a response to being loved. That’s what happened to Paul – he encountered the undeserved love of the Christ he’d been persecuting. That’s what happens to people in addiction recovery – the love they encounter in the rooms creates a space in which new life can be born. Change that seemed impossible becomes real. New life breaks out.
By ourselves, we can’t do much. With the power of God at work within us? There is nothing we can’t do – including feeding every hungry person on the planet. Really. Dream it, on the road of God-Intentions.
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