[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=rings&iid=5275780″ src=”1/d/9/c/Ring_of_light_f389.jpg?adImageId=8716256&imageId=5275780″ width=”234″ height=”183″ /]In the film version of JRR Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings, the main character, Frodo, tries to rid himself of the “ring of power” on a couple occasions. While Frodo’s motives appear pure according to the narrative, it is the desire to remove the weight of possession that drives Frodo to freely offer the ring to those he esteems.
Tolkien was firmly against allegorizing his tale, but as far as I know Tolkien never forbade similes (forgive me professor).
It is nearing year’s end and I join the masses frantically trying to figure out how to manage the promise of 2010. My life is no less complicated than most and far more labyrinthine than many. I accept that and certainly bear no complaint about this reality. What is troublesome to me at present is the church.
How can I, as a “professional clergyman” facilitate Jesus’ followers being Jesus’ followers in 2010? I know full well how many hurt, are overwhelmed at work, have broken families, are addicted to varied and sundry substances and sins, or just don’t wish to bothered by anything greater than general encouragements not to be “bad.”
I know that the culturally accepted structure of a church building and set times for worship programming are not unrighteous in themselves, but I also know that what I spend keeping my house limits what I can give to support others who are in dire circumstances. Where is the line between my comfort and the call to actually, practically, and consistently do what Jesus clearly commands? How do I engage in the struggle against debt to this world and the desire to make investments in eternity?
It is like Frodo’s ring. I am unqualified and unmistakably unworthy to carry it. The longer I have it the heavier it gets. Yes the path before me is indeed straight, but the accomplishment of the quest seems so far to be serpentine.
I was at lunch with my friends yesterday and someone brought up the uproarious case of Rev. Tim Jones. Yes, friends, the parishioners were told that if they were genuinely poor that it was ok to steal the basics from large chain grocery stores. My very first thought was “Why wouldn’t he church sell what it had to feed the poor in the parish if the local economy was so desperate?” Didn’t Jesus tell the rich man to go sell all he had, give it to the poor and come follow him? Does the church really need buildings and programs and assets to exist? My next thought was “How am I really any different from that ignorant Englishman?”
Don’t get me wrong, the war for self-justification immediately ensued. O, how I tire of the battles. It would be so much easier to “get rid of the ring” and let the whole idea be someone else’s problem.
Not an option.
“Now I [Jesus] am coming to you [The Father]. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.
“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!” (John 17:13-24, NLT)
TheNarrowRoadPursued 
Sad that the church is not known for it’s unity or love. How will they know that He was sent for them and that He loves them.
Ah, the ponderables. Whatever would we do without the knowledge of the grace, mercy, and wisdom of God whose expectations never exceed His enablement. If, as He does, “…God supplies all our needs..” and we are to be “…content in whatever state” we are in then may we not rest in abundance, whilst we have it, as well as being full in our poverty? Doesn’t ‘trusting God’ also demand confidence in the distribution of His material possession (and it is all His) as He wills. Is the key perhaps in the acknowledgment “in all things” of His sovereignty, goodness, mercy, and trustworthiness? If God has “prepared the works” before the foundation of the earth, may we not with confidence and joy walk in them as He assigns us individually and moment by moment? The world and the things of the world, no matter how good they may appear to be, are transient, passing things. Augustine wrote in his journal that as a hedonistic non-believer he noticed that the more he was involved with the things of the world, the urgency of His heart to find the joy he sought diminished and he “settled” for that which he knew was the lesser. That which is of the world will never satisfy our deepest need, which is ever and always for the presence of God, by His Spirit, WITH US, Emmanuel. He is about the business of providing that glorious opportunity to each of us…one person at a time. I think that oft times I forget that my “doing good” sometimes hinders His hand in others lives: A way perhaps in which we are all a bit of a Martha.