Favours make the world go round?

Extract from a local newspaper source:
'Do a favour: These smiling faces show the kindness and friendship Pay it Forward creator Catherine Ryan Hyde hopes to spread around the world.
Hyde created the Pay it Forward concept, which eventually became a hit movie, where one person does a favour for three people and each of those do a favour for three more.
She is in Australia to help promote National Friendship Day on Sunday.
"National Friendship Day highlights that friendship and kindness make the world go round." she said.
"The reactions I see to the idea of Pay it Forward are remarkable."
Ms Hyde came up with the idea after two strangers helped her put out her car fire.
She said if the concept begun in Australia, by the 14th level of favours everyone in the country would have received a favour from a stranger.'
- Katie Lapthorne



Wow! What an exciting concept! If only it was so simple and easy to implement. I actually do celebrate in the idea, in fact, I advocate the idea of helping our fellow human beings. However, what’s going on here? Where does the motivation come from? Is it all just about random acts of kindness? Do we limit ourselves to just helping 3 people then our job is done?

This newspaper article tells us Catherine Hyde was inspired by the random act of kindness of a couple of strangers. So what motivated them? I read somewhere recently a suggestion that there is, built into each one of us a desire to want to empathise with or be moved to an act of compassion towards people in need. If this is true and this is how our creator created us, then why isn’t this true all of the time? What is it that triggers this desire to respond to others?

I often hear Christians criticize those who don’t align themselves with the Jesus group yet go around advocating random acts of kindness. Who do these people think they are? They don’t believe the right stuff and they’re not converting people? Or are they?

John, one of Jesus’ disciples, submits a complaint to Jesus about a guy they saw driving out demons in Jesus name. They stopped him because he wasn’t ‘one of us’. Jesus’ response is ‘don’t stop him’. Jesus isn’t about copyrighting his movement or selling rights to a franchise. Actually I think we, like the disciples often miss the point about what this Jesus movement is really all about. It is infectious and cannot be contained.

But there is another issue that concerns Christians about all of those who ‘are not one of us’, doing these good things in the world – they’re not one of us! They’re not mentioning Jesus’ name! I am one for advocating the name and movement of Jesus because it is my understanding of Jesus and my transformation in Christ that motivates me to respond to the world around me. However what does the name of Jesus sound and look like? Does it come in the form of a person from the Jesus group coming to me when I’m thirsty and instead of quenching my thirst tells me to get on my knees, pray the sinner’s prayer and receive Jesus, then celebrate because I am saved and the living water runs through me? Or does it come in the form of anyone who comes to me when I’m thirsty and out an act of compassion offers me a cup of water? In fact the author of Mark’s Gospel records, ‘anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name, because you belong to me, will certainly not lose his reward.’ (Mk 9:41). Luke simply states Jesus saying, ‘whoever is not against you is for you.’ (Lk 9:50).

This could suggest to me that the language of Jesus name is in the act of compassion, love and understanding. So why do we and Jesus’ disciples feel the desire to box Jesus with exclusivity? A commentary I read on this recently suggests that the spirit of exclusivity entered the church quite early on and still exists today. The commentator asks, ‘Who holds the franchise for relieving human suffering?’ What I find amusing about the conversation between John and Jesus as recorded in Mark and Luke, is that the disciples had just failed to cast a demon out in Jesus name, yet some stranger to the Jesus group succeeds. What are the Gospel writers trying to tell us? Is this cause for us to rethink our Christology and those things we claim exclusive rights to?

So back to the original story. I believe in and applaud the efforts of people of all persuasions to ‘pay it forward’, to ‘make poverty history’. There’s all these causes the secular world are embracing out of a genuine movement of compassion. Maybe it’s the Spirit we (the church) cannot box, that is igniting this movement. However I think many of the people in our secular world struggle with the fact that Christians criticize rather than join the movement we should already be a part of. Many Christians are already leading the way, but there are many more who are still reluctant to respond. The difference for us (Christians) is, we’ve had the secrets of the Kingdom revealed to us, therefore we have the ultimate motivation to get involved. The movement of Jesus is so much more than a random act of kindness, it is a continual way of life.

Shalom
Mark