And no, I'm not talking about gay marriage or marriage equality. I have thoughts on that, of course, but the thing that worries me more right now is love, compassion, and the human condition in the context of our fellow humanity - specifically, those who aren't like us.
I guess the 'immigrant discussion' of the last few years has taken its toll. Mixed in with Islamophobia (or fear of Muslims and Muslim teachings), Australia's national numbness towards the plight of refugees - whatever their legal or financial status - has been, well, terrifying.
I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was homeless and you gave me somewhere to stay...
There's a nasty pragmatism in western society - particularly among western Christians. The preacher at church on Sunday pointed it out while preaching about Obadiah: that, yes, the judgement of God was on the tribe of Judah, but Edom wasn't to just sit in their hills and caves and cower before the Babylonians, but to show compassion towards the Israelites left remaining in the land of Judah - the poorest people, left eking out an existence. (What they did? They went into the land of Judah and basically ransacked what the Babylonians left behind, abusing the poor sods left behind in the process.)
We're very concerned with our comfort and our safety in the west - the rise and triumph of the prosperity gospel; that God wants you and your children to live long and sit pretty on top of a safe place, be fat, and die happy. It's a very attractive gospel because of its worldliness - you are being blessed by God in good health and money and security and The Good Life, and it is therefore godly to protect that by any and all means that you have - including rejecting the poor, the sick, the might-be-terrorists, and the stealing-our-jobs.
Worse than the bitter materialism of such pragmatism, though, is the hardening of our hearts against others. 'Bleeding heart' is a curse and a sneer these days, and yet...
The heart of the Father yearned for us so much that...
The heart of the Son bled for us so that...
The heart of the Spirit stays with us until we can be reunited with God...
The heart of God was torn for us. Three in one, ripped asunder why have you forsaken me? because so great was his heart for us.
Do we mimic God? Is our heart for the lost (not just the spiritually lost, but the emotionally lost, psychologically lost, nationally lost) even the faintest echo of God's?
