Mexico

Joel and I recently started making plans to move to Mexico this coming summer. For a long time now we've wanted to leave Canada and serve the poor part of Christ's church. We're really excited about this prospect. God willing we will be joining an American couple that has been working down there for several years and some of the local believers to start a communal farming village. We will share everything in common live in equality with the other believers. The whole plan is really exciting to me. It seems like so much more than I had even dreamed of. If you're interested you can visit the community's website.

Through the process of learning about these plans and reading some about community I'm starting to think that "the West" is really not a suitable environment for functional, righteous Christian living. Part of the cost of discipleship is the necessity for unity with the poor and oppressed. The first need to become last and the last need to become first. If our Christian communities are made up of all people who would be considered "first" then there are no "lasts" to raise up.

This is a huge problem. We miss out on this important part of discipleship. We at the top need to be made low. We need people to serve and sacrifice for. When everyone in our community can do just a fine job taking care of themselves then there is no one to wash the feet of. Jesus says that whatever we do for the least of our brothers we have done for him. How can we serve Jesus when there are no weak brothers amongst us?

You might object that every community has needy people, albeit not materially needy. I can grant you this but, relatively speaking, these people are still rich. In Matt 25 Jesus characterizes himself as hungry, thirsty, a needy stranger, naked, sick and in prison. When was the last time you helped a person facing one of these problems? For the most part these people are not in our countries. We need to be serving Jesus every day and not just when someone we love happens to get sick.

For awhile now Joel and I have been trying to conserve as much money as possible in order to have more to give. Unfortunately I think that this only goes part way. We are still way more comfortable then most of our brothers and sisters in the world. We are not one with them. We have heat in our house, free health care, a car, more than enough clothing and food, a telephone, a computer, etc. This is not equality. This isn't sharing everything in common. We send off our money to feed, give water to, take in, clothe, heal and comfort (in prison) Jesus but we can't see him face to face. We can't have a meal with him. We can't carry his burden.

"Come out of her, my people,
    lest you take part in her sins,
lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven,
    and God has remembered her iniquities.
Pay her back as she herself has paid back others,
    and repay her double for her deeds;
    mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
As she glorified herself and lived in luxury,
    so give her a like measure of torment and mourning,
since in her heart she says,
    'I sit as a queen,
I am no widow,
    and mourning I shall never see.'
For this reason her plagues will come in a single day,
    death and mourning and famine,
and she will be burned up with fire;
    for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her."