Unfriended!
Last night in our EfM (Education for Ministry) class, we talked about the ways people use social media to share their beliefs, political views, personal photos, just about everything and anything.
Perhaps as a sign of our age, most of us preferred engaging people face-to-face when it comes to talking about our faith. The advantage to social media, though, is one never knows when one is being rejected or ignored.
"Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me." The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" - Luke 10:16-17
In today's reading, Jesus sends out seventy disciples to go in pairs to the cities and villages he wants to go to.
They have a mission, to heal the sick and tell the people that the kingdom of God has come near to them. I believe he meant that they represented the arrival of the kingdom in the lives of those whom they met and this kingdom brings with it amazing potential to change their lives.
But not all accepted them. What if they had social media?
Is it possible to spread the word of the kingdom's arrival to people we don't know on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn?
If we do, we run the risk of being outed as Christians. We can be unfriended!
Who wants to be rejected?
Those sent by Jesus probably wanted to avoid being ignored, spat at, treated badly, and yet they went out anyway, and when they came back, they were in awe of the power they had over demons.
any of us play it safe when it comes to sharing our faith. We post a saying or like a post from someone we know. We may comment, but when it comes to being outright proponents of the Light of Christ, we hold back.
Do we really want to put ourselves out there like that?
Millennials have no problem posting their thoughts, likes, dislikes, not considering anything they post as offensive or shameful. Theirs is a different world.
Maybe the disciples were like them and not us. Maybe they jumped at the chance to go out and lay their hearts and souls before the world, believing it their gift, their purpose, their mission.
If they were rejected, so what?
If we fail to be real, we lose.
What do you think? Is it right to share our faith on line? Are we ready to be rejected or unfriended if we do?
Perhaps, like the disciples, we will be amazed at the demons that submit to us.
More to come...
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