Breaking Out of Holy Huddles

Christian faith is a call to action.

My Facebook page was covered recently with news of Pope Francis’ visit to the United States. There were quotes from his many speeches and they were good ones too. I even found myself jotting them down.

The fact that he chose to eat with homeless people instead of dining with Congress touched a nerve with a lot of people. I’ll have to admit that his act of humility impressed me. I am not Roman Catholic, but I have the utmost respect for someone in a leadership position like his, actively doing what all Christians are called to do.

It’s always easier to make speeches and talk about what to do. Action is another proposition altogether.

Dr. Jo Anne Lyon, the superintendent of the Wesleyan Church commended Pope Francis for his interaction with the homeless. She went on to say, “Wesleyans are not called to hang out in Holy Huddles on the edge of society.”

I jotted her quote down too. The truth is all Christians are called to help build the kingdom of God. We can’t really do that sitting in our comfortable pews in our air-conditioned and heated churches. Although it’s easy to get comfortable there. I’m certainly guilty of that myself.

However, the Bible tells us, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” James 2:17

That seems kind of harsh. But, the thing is, if we truly walk with Jesus, we align our hearts with His. The things that trouble Him, trouble us. We know He had a heart for the poor. It’s all over the Gospels; so we are supposed to care about the poor as well.

Instead of going into full make a list mode and getting out our debit cards, perhaps we should begin with prayer. We aren’t all called to eat dinner with the homeless, but we are all called to love and interact with our fellow man.

When we pray and read the Bible and get quiet and listen, the Holy Spirit will direct us to where we need to go. He will call us out of our “Holy Huddles” and not only will we be willing to go, we will actually get excited about it because we have aligned ourselves with Jesus.

I think Pope Francis gave all Christians a powerful reminder of what love should look like. It should look like service, us serving others, not being served ourselves.

Jesus told us to love one another. Maybe we should stop and ask ourselves from time-to time how we are doing. Perhaps that’s why the Pope dining with the homeless was such a headline. It got my attention. Maybe it got yours too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂