Wake Up Rastus

Congratulations to Phillip Phillips, the new American Idol.  I may have mentioned that I predicted he would win the night he auditioned back in January.  It is so nice to be right once every 5 years or so...

My Grandpa Jones (who died in 1983) was a working man, a truck and boat mechanic in eastern NC.  He told me a joke over and over again when I was a child, and I have never forgotten it.  The names used were the names of 2 of his best friends, both truck drivers.  My friends and I often used the punch line to describe dire situations.  It goes like this...  

A man named Sam was applying for a job as a truck driver. He had passed the driving test and been through several interviews, and had arrived in the office of the "big boss" for one last sit down.  The boss said he had one final scenario to present to see how Sam might handle pressure.  He described the following situation: "You are driving on a steep mountain road.  There are only 2 lanes.  On one side of the road is a sheer rock mountain.  On the other side is a 500 ft. drop. As you go around one of the big curves, you suddenly see another truck coming at you in your lane. What will you do. Sam?"  Sam scratched his head and thought for a minute, and then asked, "Where's Rastus?"  The boss asked him who Rastus was, and Sam replied that Rastus was his partner.  A little annoyed at the question, the boss blurted out that Rastus was asleep in the back of the truck.  Sam nodded, and then sat quiet for a moment.  Then he gave the boss his answer- "I'd wake up Rastus."  The boss was dumbfounded.  "What possible good could that do!  Why would you wake up Rastus?"  Sam smiled at the man, laughed and then replied, "Because he ain't NEVER seen a wreck like this!"

A friend of mine asked me the other day my opinion on the current state of the Church in USAmerica.  His query came from having just read articles proclaiming both Rob Bell and Rick Warren as heretics.  His concerns came from watching the squabbling and in-fighting over issues such as homosexuality and abortion, not as sin issues but a political issues.  It arose from seeing his own church rewrite the answer to the question once asked of Jesus- "So who is my neighbor?"  My friend has a point.  Things are not good at many levels of the Christian church in our nation.  In fact, it often seems as if it may be time to wake up Rastus. The church seems to be on a collision course not with culture or with sin, but with itself.  And if we do crash and burn, it will be ugly.

Jesus made following him so simple (not easy, but simple), and yet we insist on complicating it.  When asked the greatest commandment, he responded, "Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself."  When asked who our neighbors are, his answer was a resounding EVERYONE!  Christianity was never meant to be based on personal theology, politics or denominational values. It was meant to be based on loving one another, caring for one another, enabling one another and making peace with one another.  I believe God is in control.  It is not too late for us to figure this out, to get the message across that the Church is here and ready to love everyone.  It is not too late to let go of our own pettiness and power struggles and turn the Church of Jesus Christ back over to the big boss- Jesus himself!  If we will stop leading and start following, then we can let Rastus sleep.  If we insist on doing this our way, then we better go ahead and wake him up.  "Because he ain't NEVER seen a wreck like this..."

Because of Jesus,