Generosity’s Arch-Enemy: Indifference
“The most important (commandment),” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31
Loving your neighbor means being generous to one another. Just as God has showered us with blessings, Jesus commands us to return the favor with those who live in our community.
Maggie Ballard, a resident of Wichita, Kansas, took Jesus’s commandment seriously and her efforts at loving her neighbors bore fruit. Quite literally, I might add. In much the same way that neighborhoods all over the country have created cabinet-like boxes with books inside for people to borrow and read, Maggie took the spirit of this generous effort to a new level. She, like many others around the country, has created a ‘box of blessing’ that serves as a small food pantry for the people in her neighborhood.
Maggie’s box is filled by her family and the broader community with food items, personal care items and even diapers. What makes their pantry unique, however, is the sense of anonymity that accompanies the gesture. People who are in need do not have to fear the shame that often accompanies food insecurity. Most visitors, Maggie reports, come during the evening.
"On Christmas Eve,” for example, “she watched as a family of three opened (their) box to find a bag of bagels and started eating them right there."
Maggie and her neighbors saw a need. And then, they devised a way that they could be charitable, fulfilling God’s commandment from Micah 6:8 to “love kindness.”
Of course, if we do not see the needs of our neighbors then how can we address them? When Jesus is asked to define who a neighbor is, Jesus tells the story of the generous Samaritan and the man who was in need. As the Bible tells us, the Samaritan saw the need, decided to help, shared his resources and even dedicated his personal finances to making sure that the wounded traveler was returned to health and wholeness.
This, brother and sisters, is what it looks like to ‘love kindness.’ This is what it looks like to be generous. This is what is looks like to love one’s neighbor.
But, not if we don’t see them.
Oh, we see them all right…that is, if we take the time to actually consider their plight. With so much need, and so much pain and suffering, the task of helping our neighbors seems hopeless. So, we turn our eyes--sometimes with judgment and with the internal suggestion that they are reaping what they’ve sown—away from our hurting neighbors.
This spirit of indifference that occasionally assaults us is not of God. And it’s something that we need to reckon with.
In 1999, acclaimed Holocaust survivor Ellie Wiesel gave a speech on indifference to the powerbrokers in Washington, D.C. Indifference, he suggests, means literally ‘no difference.’ He further defined indifference as “[a] strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil.”
Wiesel suggested that indifference can be seductive. “It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person's pain and despair. Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless. Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest.”
Indifference, he argued, is more dangerous than anger because anger can birth a creative and necessary response. Indifference, however, is never creative.
“Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor—never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees—not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity, we betray our own.”
Loving our neighbor as Christ commands us to demands that we be creative; that we literally create a response to the needs around us.
And if you have trouble seeing the need, keep your eyes peeled for Christ. For where we see pain and suffering, we’ll find the Son of God. He’s already there with them. And he’s waiting there for you and for me.
Although She Was a Hen, They Called Her Edward Glenn
Angela Priester Mathis has donated a book to our church's children’s library. Having her book, Although She Was a Hen, They Called Her Edward Glenn, published has been Mrs. Mathis’ lifelong dream. A retired elementary school teacher living in Asheville, Angela Mathis is happy to share her story and Annette McAlister's richly illustrated pictures with us. It is the true story of a pet ‘house hen’ who made it into the lives of her grandparents on a farm in rural North Carolina. For those who might wish a paperback or hardback copy, you may purchase one from Amazon.com or from her son, Jeff Mathis.
Enneagram Group Meeting
Join us on Sunday, June 25th at 4:30 PM in the Gathering Place for our second Enneagram group meeting. The Enneagram (which means nine-sided figure) is an ancient Christian tool that can help us to better know ourselves and to be gracious with others.
All are welcome to join, even if you missed our first meeting! The book that we will be using, while helpful, is optional. We will be offering childcare for our 90 minute experience.
As the authors of our book (The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery) Ian Cron and Suzanne Stabile will articulate: "The purpose of the Enneagram is to develop self-knowledge and learn how to recognize and dis-identify with the parts of our personalities that limit us so we can be reunited with our truest and best selves, that “pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven,” as Thomas Merton said. The point of it is self-understanding and growing beyond the self-defeating dimensions of our personality, as well as improving relationships and growing in compassion for others."
First Baptist Church Ministry at Rest Homes
Our church has provided worship experiences for many years at Skyland, Blue Ridge on the Mountain, Morning Star, and The Hermitage. On the first Wednesday of each month, we visit Morning Star at 10 a.m., and go to Skyland following that. Usually, Jeff offers the message, and I lead the hymn singing, with Barbara Vance serving as pianist. Of course we have to call on others to help out from time to time, when one of us can not be present. We are very fortunate to have several wonderful church members who can fill in, and they do it with joy. A number of our choir members and other church members come to help lead in the music, and we usually sing the hymns in harmony, with a pleasant and full quality. The residents greatly appreciate our visit each month. Several other churches participate in this ministry.
In addition to this monthly ministry, we are part of a large group of churches which offer worship services on Sunday afternoons for all four of the care facilities. For these five or six annual services, the WMU and the Baptist Men share the responsibility, again tapping the resources of our talented and gifted membership for music and devotions. We try to use lay people for leadership of these services.
This Sunday afternoon, June 25, the men are in charge of a 3 p.m. worship at Morning Star. Charles Proctor will give the devotion, and I will be leading music and offering a solo. Linda Stewart will accompany the music. We would love to see others join us for this service. Extra voices always help to make the music more joyful, and the residents love to see people, and to receive a hand shake and a smile.
I would guess that none of us would "choose" to live in a care facility, if the choice was ours to make. I know that if I were a resident at a rest home, I would greatly appreciate and look forward to church services that were offered. I'm glad that FBC Sylva is providing this significant ministry, and that I can be a participant.
Bob Holquist
The Gathering Place
The Gathering Place is the new name of our renovated chapel space. Thank you all for all of your generosity and hard work in transitioning our old chapel into a room that can be used in a variety of ways. The finishing touches will be put in place during the next few weeks, then there will be a room dedication soon to follow.
Proposed Budget for 2018
You can access the proposed 2018 budget by clicking the button above.
“Teach Me About Jesus”
The first time I ever sensed that God was calling me to vocational ministry occurred while I was leading Vacation Bible School.
I was 15 years old and was in the youth group at my home church in Asheville. Every other summer, our church’s youth would travel to Hazard, Kentucky where we would serve in a poor, mountain community. We would rise early each morning, loading up in half a dozen vans to pick up children so that they could attend our Vacation Bible School in the parking lot of a local school. If you survived being in the backseat of a cramped van (which took the mountain curves a bit too quickly) at first light, you were expected to be a group leader for the camp later that morning.
Those were long, but glorious days. For in addition to the morning camp that was situated on a scalding hot black top, we would also work on construction projects each afternoon and early evening.
It was in this setting that I heard God speak to me.
My job that week was to teach the children the daily Bible story. I had never served in this capacity before and I was genuinely surprised to learn that I enjoyed telling the Bible story in a way that the children could hear and understand. As an awkward teenager, I was thrilled to learn that I felt confident and strong when I taught. I was drawn to the Bible story like I’d never experienced before and I dove into the scriptures, making sure I was familiar with the content of the text. To say it plainly, I felt like I found my voice that week.
I can’t remember her name, but I can still see the way she looked at me. She must not have been older than about 7 or 8. She had arrived early and was sitting in our group long before we were slated to begin. She smiled at me with an alarming sense of earnestness and said, “Teach me about Jesus.” And in that moment, I had an epiphany that made my heart sigh. True, the words were simple and may have been casually spoken. But for me, I heard God’s voice calling me to consider an invitation that would bring me both peace and joy. I felt God calling me to teach others about Jesus.
The work of the Spirit is transformation. And for me, when I found God’s mission I found myself changed.
Why do we encourage our church and community to be a part of Vacation Bible School each year? Why do we target college students and young people to lead our 1st Explorers ministry? Why do we provide opportunities for you to serve with other helping agencies and to learn more about yourself with tools like the Enneagram?
We want you to find the place where God wants you to be. That is, loving our neighbors through service and in the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ. You see, we find our true selves when we are obedient to God’s will to, “Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.”
God encounters us so that we can do His will. Christ draws near to us to show us the depth of God’s love. The Holy Spirit changes us so that we can do Kingdom Work.
As we serve our community’s children this week at Vacation Bible School, I am reminded of the power of service and ministry to others. The ones we are serving, it would seem, are not the only ones who are changed.
Vacation Bible School
We would like to extend a huge thank you to all those who have volunteered at VBS this past week! Our volunteers have come out to set-up/ tear down each day, to help with registration, to lead the groups and to help make our week the success that it’s been thus far.
If you are interested, come out and see what we’ve been up to this week during Friday’s closing event in our Mission and Fellowship Center at 11:30 AM! Campers will sing songs & share what they learned this week. There will be a FREE pizza lunch for campers, parents, & volunteers to follow!
East LaPorte Church Picnic
Our Church Picnic at East LaPorte was a smashing success!! Thank you to everyone who came out and enjoyed some fun in the sun with us! Join us for our next Church Picnic on Sunday afternoon, July 16 up on Waterrock Knob.