John 14:12-14 -Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ya shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do [it].
Mat 17:20 - And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Mat 18:18 - Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
From a Tony Campolo piece on "Doing Greater Works":
I was in Haiti. I checked on our missionary work there. We run 75 small schools back in the hills of Haiti. I came to the little Holiday Inn where I always stay and shower and clean up before I board the plane to go home. I left the taxi and was walking to the entrance of the Holiday Inn when I was intercepted by three girls. I call them girls because the oldest could not have been more than 15. And the one in the middle said, "Mister, for $10 I’ll do anything you want me to do. I’ll do it all night long. Do you know what I mean?"
I did know what she meant. I turned to the next one and I said, "What about you, could I have you for $10?"
She said yes. I asked the same of the third girl. She tried to mask her contempt for me with a smile but it’s hard to look sexy when your 15 and hungry. I said, "I’m in room 210, you be up there in just 10 minutes. I have $30 and I’m going to pay for all 3 of you to be with me all night long."
I rushed up to the room, called down to the concierge desk and I said I want every Walt Disney video that you’ve got in stock. I called down to the restaurant and said, do you still make banana splits in this town, because if you do I want banana splits with extra ice cream, extra everything. I want them delicious, I want them huge, I want four of them!
The little girls came and the ice cream came and the videos came and we sat at the edge of the bed and we watched the videos and laughed until about one in the morning. That’s when the last of them fell asleep across the bed. And as I saw those little girls stretched out asleep on the bed, I thought to myself, nothing’s changed, nothing’s changed. Tomorrow they will be back on the streets selling their little bodies to dirty, filthy johns because there will always be dirty, filthy johns who for a few dollars will destroy little girls. Nothing’s changed. I didn’t know enough Creole to tell them about the salvation story, but the word of the spirit said this: but for one night, for one night you let them be little girls again.
I know what you’re going to say: "You’re not going to compare that with Jesus walking on water." No, I’m not, for very obvious reasons. If Jesus was to make a decision which is the greater work, walking on water or giving one night of childhood back to 3 little girls who had it robbed from them -- giving one night of joy to 3 little girls that armies had marched over -- which do you think Jesus would consider the greater work, walking on water or ministering to those 3 little girls.
The Rev. Dr. Tony Campolo is a Professor of Sociology and Director of the Urban Studies Program at Eastern College in St. Davids, Pennsylvania.
Mat 17:20 - And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Mat 18:18 - Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
From a Tony Campolo piece on "Doing Greater Works":
I was in Haiti. I checked on our missionary work there. We run 75 small schools back in the hills of Haiti. I came to the little Holiday Inn where I always stay and shower and clean up before I board the plane to go home. I left the taxi and was walking to the entrance of the Holiday Inn when I was intercepted by three girls. I call them girls because the oldest could not have been more than 15. And the one in the middle said, "Mister, for $10 I’ll do anything you want me to do. I’ll do it all night long. Do you know what I mean?"
I did know what she meant. I turned to the next one and I said, "What about you, could I have you for $10?"
She said yes. I asked the same of the third girl. She tried to mask her contempt for me with a smile but it’s hard to look sexy when your 15 and hungry. I said, "I’m in room 210, you be up there in just 10 minutes. I have $30 and I’m going to pay for all 3 of you to be with me all night long."
I rushed up to the room, called down to the concierge desk and I said I want every Walt Disney video that you’ve got in stock. I called down to the restaurant and said, do you still make banana splits in this town, because if you do I want banana splits with extra ice cream, extra everything. I want them delicious, I want them huge, I want four of them!
The little girls came and the ice cream came and the videos came and we sat at the edge of the bed and we watched the videos and laughed until about one in the morning. That’s when the last of them fell asleep across the bed. And as I saw those little girls stretched out asleep on the bed, I thought to myself, nothing’s changed, nothing’s changed. Tomorrow they will be back on the streets selling their little bodies to dirty, filthy johns because there will always be dirty, filthy johns who for a few dollars will destroy little girls. Nothing’s changed. I didn’t know enough Creole to tell them about the salvation story, but the word of the spirit said this: but for one night, for one night you let them be little girls again.
I know what you’re going to say: "You’re not going to compare that with Jesus walking on water." No, I’m not, for very obvious reasons. If Jesus was to make a decision which is the greater work, walking on water or giving one night of childhood back to 3 little girls who had it robbed from them -- giving one night of joy to 3 little girls that armies had marched over -- which do you think Jesus would consider the greater work, walking on water or ministering to those 3 little girls.
The Rev. Dr. Tony Campolo is a Professor of Sociology and Director of the Urban Studies Program at Eastern College in St. Davids, Pennsylvania.
My comment:
Dr. Campolo represents just one way of looking at the issue of doing greater works. There is a tension in this idea. For instance, there is a teaching that in the final days of the Gentile Age the church will again produce the miracles of Jesus, exactly as he performed them, and even greater (based largely on the scriptures above quoted).
The word "greater" is a translation of the Greek word meizon, which basically means "higher quality." That is, Jesus is saying, "You will do better works than these."
In John 8: 39, Jesus says, "Do the works of Abraham." Abraham did no miracles. "Works" means "deeds." Do the deeds of Abraham. Abraham's deeds were deeds of faith, like leaving the safety of Ur to obey God.
Greater also means the "extended" work of the Spirit through the corporate Body of believers. We too participate in the work of the Father's business through the Spirit given to us. God works with us in our lives as we walk after the Spirit: sometimes miracles happen. They are interventions of all sorts.
We can safely say that God has extended the work of Jesus through the church, and it has been a miraculous journey. We have not yet seen very many believers replicating the actual miracles of Jesus, and certainly no one doing verifiably greater or more astonishing things.
What would happen if people did start doing those things again? Would it shake up the world? Perhaps.
But Dr. Campolo brings up a worthy thought. Would doing those things be greater than simple acts of love, which are themselves miraculous in a world so lacking in compassion and kindness? Those girls in Haiti needed an orphanage.
In James we read: "Pure religion...is caring for the widows and orphans...."
Jesus was just one man, but through his Spirit he became many, a greater company called the church, extending his influence into all the world. It is the destiny of the church to love the world, just as he does.
4 comments:
I glad this Dr. wasn't there when Mary Magdalyn came to Jesus. He didn't buy her a Milk Shake. He set her free. You have not becuase you ask not! He did a good thing. So did Eve! Wrong tree, Dr.
The point is, perhaps, how many women do you see today being released from "seven devils" by the laying on of hands or the spoken word? Perhaps you were relieved of seven devils when you accepted Christ. Or that guy from the rock group Korn. When we accept Christ now our lives get revolutionized in this way.
What should Campolo have done? Just ignore the girls? Instead, I think the experience caused him to seek to help such children. What should you and I do? Speak a word of faith to them and if it doesn't happen say, "Well, girls, be warmed and filled. Oh, and have a happy, short, miserable life."
Actually, I think his point was how miserable his little attempt at compassion was. But when we are motivated by love, that is what makes a difference in the world.
Of course, you are saying that signs and wonders are motivated by love. Jesus was moved with compassion. Certainly I am going to pray with faith for people. But I am also going to seek to help them if I can. Often, it is a very unrewarding experience in terms of making much of a change in the world. Anybody who has worked in a rescue mission knows this.
I have probably prayed for thousands of homeless in prayer lines. There were probably some miraculous things that happened, particularly with regard to changing a person's life trajectory through an encounter with God. People have told me that. In a sense, I cast seven devils out of them, effortlessly.
It is all the work of the Holy Spirit of which we are channels. I applaud Tony for this miserable effort. God has used miserable efforts to build his church. I'm not against signs and wonders. But I am really hungry for authenticity. Talk is cheap. I've seen too much cheap talk. I've offered plenty of it myself.
If giving to the poor a table of food and a warm coat was all there is to salvation and the Kingdom of heaven them the Catholics have it right. Hail Mary full of Grace the Lord is with thee. better is Mary's real response. " Be it unto me according to thy word"
There is a thinking in fundamentalist circles that helping the poor is beside the point. I used to think that way. If I was going to give to God, what was the best way to get the most bang for my treasure-in-heaven buck? So I reasoned I'd rather spend it on evangelism that might save a soul than on, say, feeding African children who might not be converted if all you do is feed them. Or I thought of helping the poor as a kind of carrot-and-stick to lead people to Christ.
Now I'm not sure what I think. It seems like everything we do has to do with our situation and the opportunities God presents us with as individuals. And that can always be in flux. There aren't any nice neat methods that work all the time.
Don't you just kind of respond by the Holy Spirit, or else just by what you feel is right at the moment? I kind of think that's what Campolo was doing. I don't think he was bragging about it. He was just there, feeling a little helpless, and trying to do anything to help those girls.
If it had been you, you might have tried both to feed them and pray for them. I know I would have. Remember how it was in the Bronx, ministering out of our car? It's kind of like that. It's Indiana Jones: making it up as you go along.
I don't think we can just ignore the spiritual or the natural aspects of what Jesus taught. I find both options being presented to me all the time. I just try to move in the most appropriate and effective direction.
I think that's why I'm struggling with this idea of producing signs and wonders. It somehow seems a little presumptuous to me to assume that I am supposed to be doing wonders all the time. That seems like a superhuman burden. It seems out of sync with the way life tends to really operate. That's where I pick up that cognitive dissonance on the idea. It hasn't paid off. Why should I pursue it like a frothing hound?
Maybe the faith life is a bit simpler than that, more natural and less strained. But it is good to be reminded that faith can move mountains. I just think the idea has been exploited ad nauseum. I think it has turned into theatrics, like a Holy Ghost Magic Show or something. Disturbs me a little. I have this feeling that not much of it is real.
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