Part of our vision as a church is to be a refuge for the broken. We want to be a place where broken people find healing. That means when somebody is in trouble, when somebody is hurting, when somebody is in need I want the first place they think of to be our church.
This vision often puts us in a precarious position. Because what we mean by “refuge for the broken” is usually different than what the broken mean by finding a refuge. Let me explain.
In Acts 3:1-10 we read the story of a lame beggar. Every day he sits at the gate asking alms of everyone entering into the temple. “Alms for the poor!” “Alms for the poor!” All he wants is a gold coin.
In other words, “Help me get through the day!” “Meet my immediate need”.
Of course, if you throw the guy a coin he is still going to be back at the gate tomorrow. He is living day by day. That is the only life he knows. He doesn’t dare ask for total rescue. He just asks for a coin to get him through until he has to go out and beg again tomorrow.
He’s broken. And he sees Peter and John as a refuge for his brokenness. But what he means by this is that Peter and John are the means he’ll use for that day to get a coin. He’ll find another refuge tomorrow to put a bandage on his brokenness for a day.
The same is true today. When folks think about the church being a refuge for the broken what they often mean is that the church is a place to receive a handout. It’s a place to get your light bill paid, to get a free meal, to get a little help to get you through the day. That’s all well and good, we do want to help with those things but that isn’t what we mean by being a refuge for the broken.
“I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”
In other words, we aren’t going to just give you a measly coin, we’re going to give you your life back. The guy does need a coin. But he needs a coin because his legs don’t work and begging is the only ‘job’ he can get. Fix the legs and you fix the coin problem. For Peter and John being a refuge for the broken means getting to the core of the problem and providing lasting healing. Transformation and not just a band-aid fix.
What this might mean for today is we can’t pay your light bill this time but what we do have is a class to help you get control of your finances. We might even have some folks who can even financially help you get out of this bind but we want to see you get real help. We want to deal with the root problem. We want transformation.
“And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God”
This is Christian transformation. We don’t just want to treat symptoms we want to treat the root issues. And we want to do this because at the end of the day we want to see you walking, leaping, and praising God. And we want to be walking, leaping, and praising God alongside of you. Giving you a coin for a day might be necessary at times. It might even be the means God uses to bring you to leaping and praise. But it’s not the end game.
A church being a refuge for the broken means that church wants to see total transformation happen.
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