But does it work?

People flock to where the action is, not to where the talking is.

Considering Jesus' message was about forgiveness for sins and eternal salvation, have you ever wondered why he did so many miracles? What did healing people, stilling a storm, or even turning water into wine have to do with forgiveness or salvation?

Jesus was interested in and met the real needs of the ordinary people who surrounded him - for healing, for acceptance, for love. Sometimes a miracle, sometimes a loving look, sometimes taking a person by the hand.

People flocked to him because they knew that what he did worked! Not just fancy words, but actions that worked, that made a practical difference.

Nowadays still, people flock to where the action is - where their needs will be met. If the local pub offers friendship and belonging, is it any wonder that people go there? If the lottery offers hope, people who are short on hope will queue up there. If the local medium or spiritual healer offers answers or cures, people will go there.

If the local church is all talk and theological arguments, who needs that? Plenty of words but nothing that works - who wants to queue up for that? (And don't respond by saying that people's deepest need is for salvation.  If that's not where people are currently at, that's not the place to begin. Jesus didn't make that mistake.)

I'm not preaching a social gospel or salvation by works, but Christianity isn't first about getting the theology right, it's about getting the loving right. Get the loving right - and then people will be interested in the message. It's not the other way around! Jesus knew this.

We may not be doing regular feeding-the-five-thousand and raising-the-dead miracles, but practical loving in the name of Jesus, meeting people's needs: those are conspicuous miracles in our greedy and selfish world.