In case you ever want a humbling experience, try running a bush hospital in a remote location. No matter how excellent your qualifications are, there will be people who are certain that if you were REALLY good, you wouldn’t be working in their area! These same people are also the ones who discourage their children who are doctors and nurses from returning to serve their own people. On the other hand, they demand good care and expect strangers from somewhere else will somehow materialize to serve them. Their name is legion!
Bush hospitals by their very nature are not lucrative; subsistence farmers don’t have large amounts of money. Weather conditions can be extremely harsh. Right now we are in the hot season. How hot is it? Well, it is 1:30 AM and my metal desk feels warm to the touch, as does the cement floor beneath my feet. In the heat of the day today it must have been more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. In such circumstances it is wise to work when it is cool.
Last Sunday we visited a congregation belonging to a major denomination here in Ghana, and it was a revelation, although not a pleasant one. There was closed circuit television. There was a light show display playing all during the sermon. It was a slick production, with the singing group in business suits with shirts and blouses of one color and the ministerial group with business suits and shirts and blouses of another color. There was polite enthusiasm for the worship music, but the biggest shouts of praise came when the head pastor began prophesying over the congregation that they would receive cars and money – not just any money but foreign currency – Euros and dollars. The audience went crazy, screaming and jumping up and down. We too were ready to jump…..out the nearest open window! (We actually were standing next to an open window and we seriously considered stepping outside and escaping.) Why?
Despite a lovely little meditation about the Great Commission, it was obvious that the god that was being served wasn’t the one true living God before whom we should bow in awe, nor yet was it Jesus the Savior who died a shameful death on a cross so that we could die to sin and live to righteousness. The object of worship here was a vending machine god – put in a few praise songs and some prayer requests and claim enough things enough times and success and prosperity would be yours. Yet supposedly this is the same God for whom believers in southern Sudan are being martyred.
This is the Lenten season. We are supposed to be focusing on Jesus and His sufferings on the cross for our sakes. The lie that under – girded that Sunday service was that Jesus exists to give us things. In fact, Jesus has already purchased the greatest gift of all for us – eternal life. No amount of earthly success can earn us a single nanosecond in heaven. The Son of God humbled himself and became a limited man in a failing human body to endure unspeakable suffering for crimes He had never committed. And in so doing, Jesus defeated death and the grave and rose triumphantly on Easter. Jesus is worthy of worship but there is nothing else should matter as an object of our desire and our praise.
Sunday we weren’t in three piece suits. A series of unexpected commitments had left us stranded in Tamale without any fancy clothes. We were dressed nicely, but we wouldn’t have won any contests, unlike most of the rest of the congregation. And we wondered what would happen if an unbeliever stumbled in from the farm to join that service. Would he or she have been welcomed or shunned? Let’s remember that Jesus only had one set of clothes and He walked everywhere, except for one donkey ride on Palm Sunday.
We are haunted by the words of an old hymn:
- Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
And all the world go free?
No, there’s a cross for everyone,
And there’s a cross for me. - The consecrated cross I’ll bear
Till death shall set me free;
And then go home my crown to wear,
For there’s a crown for me.
Sunday it was very difficult to visualize anyone in that congregation who was actually prepared to bear a cross. A message on suffering for Jesus’ sake wouldn’t have gotten shouts of joy and screams of enthusiasm. And as we continue on our journey toward Easter, let each one of us examine our heart – are we serving Jesus, or are we expecting Jesus to serve us?
Thanks for loving, caring, praying,and giving. Remember, there’s always “Victory in Jesus!”
Dr. Jean for the Youngs
-- "For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His Life a Ransom for many." Matthew 20:28
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