Charity...Loud and Clear

I Corinthians 13 begins: "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angles but have not charity, I become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal."

It's such an interesting image...one I've not thought of much. The author of Corinthians says that whether our words are the best our world has to offer, or the best the heavens could offer, that if we do not have charity...our words are like a blast of meaningless sound or an annoying clamor.

Yesterday, I returned from a "roadtrip" back from Salt Lake City with my girlfriend who was dropping off her youngest daughter at college. We talked the entire trip, laughing, sharing, crying, cracking jokes. We call ourselves the Ya Ya's....sisters of the heart. My friend is Mormon...and I am Protestant.

Protestant Christians don't often look to Mormons for lessons of faith...but this roadtrip broke that prejudice.

Interwoven throughout our conversation, completely unintentionally, my friend shared much about her faith...and her faith community...and their practice of charity. As she moved about with her military husband, she often found herself in need. Whether it was carrying a heavy dresser up the front porch steps, or setting up her computer once she'd moved again, or needing a comforting word about her single-parenting skills.

And so I heard one story...and then another....and then another, all expressing some kind of need....often unspoken, but perceived by a "brother" or "sister"...and then met with uncanny charity. The computer she couldn't afford when her daughter went away to school. An air-conditioning unit installed in her living room window in the stifling summer heat, a visit with a plate of cookies at a difficult time. All and more taken on by members of her congregation, overwhelming charity poured out through her brethren's sense of personal faith committment in answering her and her family's needs.

This fascinates me! Not only the charity given with such care and precision, but the "ownership" each congregation member felt for a member of their faith "family."

In Christian-Protestant circles I wonder if we have such a true sense of "family" in our churches. We are called "children of God" and are all members of the same "body" -- Christ's body. However, I have often noticed that when such needs arise, these needs go unmet and opportunities to BE God's amazing grace pass with no regard.

Maybe we keep a distance in order to be polite. Perhaps we don't want to meddle or appear nosy or intrusive. Or it could be that we have different expectations...expecting people's biological families to care for them; or our community services or government agencies. For whatever reason, though, there seems to be a gap in Christian-Protestant charity...and it just doesn't seem to fit neatly into what Jesus' expectation of the Kingdom of God.

Charity is another word for love...but I think we miss the meaning of love because we commonly define it as a feeling. In looking at I Corinthians 13, we don't read about "feelings" we see that LOVE is an ACTION. Thus, the idea of charity invites a new perspective on love and on Christian behavior. With charity in mind, looking anew at scripture, concepts of love take on fresh meaning.

I John 4:7 says "beloved, let us show charity to one another, for charity is of God and those who show charity are born of God and know God."

Romans 12:10 says "show charity to one another with brotherly affection and out do one another in showing kindness."

John 14:12 says "show charity to one another as I have shown charity to you!"

God does not love us just by giving us a warm and fuzzy feeling...rather, God's charity was shown to us by God's actions of sending Christ, who lived, suffered, died and resurrected....all to convey God's great charity toward us!

How is God moving you to show charity to those who cross your path? Let's look together for those opportunities to BE amazing grace!