June 12: THE EMERGENCY ROOM

I described in this blog yesterday how the Rescue Squad reminded me of the New Testament Church with its immediate availability to help me, no strings attached. Well, we arrived at the Emergency Room and I discovered that the Emergency Room doesn’t operate like the Rescue squad.
On the way to the Emergency Room, the message was radioed that I was being transported to the hospital. The first message that came back replied that I might not receive help for a while, it was an extremely busy time at the Hospital..
We arrived and I was wheeled into a cubicle. One of the first questions that I was asked was “how serious” was my condition. Then another person came and asked me if I had medical insurance and then began to ask me all of the proper questions to my being a recipient of their care.
But as I was continuing to reflect on the New Testament Church, I could not help but question: did I receive special attention because I had insurance or did I receive special love because I was a known local minister who often visited patients in the Hospital? There is, of necessity, a screening procedure at any hospital.
The question now pops up: does the church have a screening procedure for the persons it ministers to, whether of necessity or by choice? Subtle or obvious? Does your church lovingly respond to everyone who comes and makes the extra effort to meet their needs or does it send them on to another church? Is it easier for a church to be a Rescue Squad than a Emergency Room?
Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28 NIV) The church must be saying the same thing, she cannot afford to do otherwise.
When the church begins to sort out the ‘right kind” of people it wants to help and reach with ministry, it has lost the right to be called “church”. The church will win back its place of impact when it recovers a servant heart. Even people who never enter a church building have a strong feeling of what the church is supposed to be.

“God, we know that the Church was the special dream that You had in your
heart from the beginning; what a special dream for a broken world! Amen”