Living in Outrage

This past weekend I was not really on the news much at all.  So this morning, when I logged in to my usual news "sources", I discovered that there was some kind of incident in Washington D.C. between a Catholic school student and a Native American veteran.  While I am very late (in modern day standards) in coming into this story, I think it worth highlighting a few things.

First, many of the initial reactions seem to be over an image or two that were captured of the young man and the Native American veteran, with the young man having what could be a smirk on his face while the Native American looked to be trying to get past him. Of course, a picture if worth a thousand words, and several million seem to have been written about this picture.  As the day went by, it seems that video emerged.  Short snippets seemed to reinforce the initial impressions, that the young man (wearing a red Make America Great Again cap) was being racist.  Of course, in the day and age we live in, social media and media outlets in general erupted in outrage (all unbeknownst to me, since I wasn't on the news or social media pretty much all weekend).

Then, the more full story seemed to come to light.  Several hours of video coverage show yet another group of verified racists taunting the high school students, and then, from the video, it seems that it was the Native American who first approached the young Catholic student.  Further watching the video shows no violence coming to light, and in the end, both sides end up walking away from the situation.  In other words, nothing came of a situation that, truthfully, could have been a place of escalation.

In the aftermath, the student and his family have received death threats and the like, and many are even to the point where they seem to justify violence toward the young man and his family.

Okay, this post is not actually about the story, but about how easy it can be to find ourselves outraged over things.  One of the professors as the seminary I attended has written an article that there really is no such thing as righteous anger, though we may wish it to be.  Anger is a sign that there is something amiss.  If you are angered when you see a child mistreated or abused, it is a sign that there is something wrong.  You could say that anger is a side effect of sin in the world, perhaps a rightful one, but because it exists due to sin, it isn't something that we were created to deal with.

The thing is, so many seem to be outraged, and looking for reasons to vent their rage at perceived injustices.  And this flies in the face of our meaning to the eighth commandment from Luther's Small Catechism.  In the wording that I remember from growing up, we are to "put the best construction on everything." The current wording for it is to "explain everything in the kindest way." This means that we don't look to be outraged over things, but instead look to see if perhaps there are things going on that we are not aware of.  We don't look to tear down, but to build up.  If there is a sin or an issue, we address it, but from the standpoint of doing so in love, not in anger.

It actually takes a lot of energy to remain angry at someone or something.  I will admit that I have tried it.  It's actually easier and less energy consuming to look for the good in the situation than to cling to anger.  Again, it doesn't mean that we fail to address issues that need to be addressed.  However, we do so with a light toward reconciliation and restoration rather than anger and to get our way.

Rarely is anger constructive.  It's so easy, and truthfully it often feels good to express our anger.  Yet, as Christians, God rightly calls us to consider our anger, especially in the light that we are redeemed children of His through Jesus.  When anger hits us, we are faced with the opportunity to live out God's baptismal grace to us, or to react and vent.  Needless to say, considering this will drive us all the more to the cross of Jesus, where our sin of anger (and all others) has been covered and the price paid.

Technology, News, And Discernment

I'm in the midst of reading another book, one that touches on spiritual lives and the impact that technology has on our faith lives.  Let's just say that, a few chapters in, it already has me thinking deeply on a number of things.  (For those who may be interested, the book is called "Digitized", by Bernard Bull, Concordia Publishing House) I'll touch on a few of these here.

How do you learn about the world around you?  Most of us look to news information of some form, whether TV, newspaper, radio, or internet.  Yet, how often do we critically ask why these forums are reporting the news in the way that they are?  Why are they choosing the stories that they do?  What stories are they choosing to leave unreported?  What is the perspective that they bring to the story?  And then, especially with our day and age, are they reporting accurately, or are they trying to steer you in one direction or another? 

I would dare say that most of us would honestly have to say that we don't give it that much thought.  We listen to the ones that resonate with us, and disregard the ones that don't resonate with us.  We start to put our faith in the ones who are doing the reporting without critically asking what they may be trying to achieve with their words or stories.  And they have learned how to play on our emotions and thoughts, especially with our indwelling sinful desire to be right and to have others know that we are right.

What does this do to our faith lives?  Well, for one, I would argue that we get drawn to spending our time on the "news" rather than the "good news" (aka, the Gospel). We spend many more hours listening to perspectives, opinions, and the "stories of the day" rather than THE STORY that shows us our God and His fervent desire for us.  We pridefully proclaim that we know what is right, rather than humbly looking for the good of our neighbor, whoever they may be.  We spend our time defending our stance rather than proclaiming the good news of Jesus.

You know, that's awfully close to putting something else in God's place in our lives, a sin which God calls idolatry.  We get filled with the desire to know and to defend our position, and are willing to share that with others, even strangers, and sadly leave our Gospel proclamation and life tucked away.  We rejoice to wear a label, and even declare it on our social media sites, but fail to lovingly address our brothers and sisters with the tender care they need in Christ Jesus. We start to put people on the "right" side and the "wrong" side instead of realizing that God would have us not show partiality or favoritism.

It takes great discernment to take such a critical look at the information we take in daily. In our day and age, I would suggest that we have to do this at levels we never have had to before.  With great access comes a great need for discernment, and I pray that you will start to take a more critical look at the sources of your news information, and perhaps even ask what your time could be better spent doing.

The Value of Life

Unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard of many of the recent events that have made the news.  There are stories on which kind of lives matter, hashtags on Facebook and Twitter about the various colors of lives that matter, and then, the memes that pop up about how all lives matter and the like.  People have the freedom to click on and choose which ones they like, which ones happen to fit with their sensibilities, and lines get drawn.  People look to see how they can find something wrong with the messages from the "other" side, and gossip, slander, and the like begin to take place.

Really, this is a complex situation.  For today, I simply want to look at one part of this complex problem that our country faces, that of the value of all life.  Our value of life comes directly from our faith in what our God says about life.  That makes this part of the situation something well worth taking a few moments to reflect upon.

For Christians, we hold to God's Word that He is the author and creator of all life.  Now, that has some meaning for us when it comes to how we view life.  If God is the author and creator of life, that means that He is the one who gets to call the shots.  He determines when life begins and when life ends.  He determines what is right and what is wrong in how we view life and others in life.  Even if He determines that one person should die at what seems an inopportune time in our eyes, that's His call.  He is the author and creator of life, and so that authority is in His hands.

When we take it upon ourselves to determine the value of another's life, we step over our authority and into God's area of authority.  Now, most of us might consider that we don't do that, and yet, the deep reality we face is that we all make value judgments on others regarding the value of life.  If we think that someone is living in a way that we don't agree with, we have made a value judgment on their life.  If we believe that certain people should receive certain rights, and others should be withheld from those rights, we have made a value judgment on their life.  Shoot, to put it in a way that touches so many people that live where I live, if you think that you have the right to that place in traffic, and indicate that another doesn't deserve it, you have just valued yourself as more important than they are, which is a judgment on the value of their life.  In essence, that kind of thing says, "I am more important than you, and you had no right to cut me off."  Even though it seems a smaller matter than those that make the news, it is still a trepass into God's authority.

Perhaps that is why stories such as all these that are making the news disturb us so much.  Deep down, we cringe at what they are doing, but our consciences may be reminding us that we do the same thing, though perhaps in more subtle ways.  And yet, whether it is a toe over the line, or a gigantic leap over the line, we still have trespassed on God's authority.  That, my friends, is not a pleasant place to be when we consider the eternal repercussions.

Yet, God shows just how much He values all life.  He sent His Son to rescue all people of this world from being valued less by others.  God valued each and every life as a precious one worth redeeming, even at the cost of His own life.  God doesn't make that gift conditional on anything that we can do.  He simply says, "Believe that I value you enough to do this for you." 

My friends, that means that, as you watch the news and you find yourself lining up on one side or the other of these various stories, remember that only God places the true value on life.  Give thanks that He has valued your life as much as He does, and perhaps take a moment to pray for a new spirit within you, one which would likewise see His value for those lives with whom you align as well as those who may stand on the opposite side.

Will Things Get Better?

"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man."  Jesus, recorded in Luke 17:26.

On Facebook, I follow a little "comic" strip entitled Coffee With Jesus.  Today's strip had Jesus sipping His usual cup with Lisa, who comments on the flags seeming to be at half staff most of the time.  Jesus then quotes from Genesis, describing life in the time before the flood, to which Lisa remarks that Jesus just doesn't seem all that cheerful about things.  To which Jesus responds with the verse that I quoted above from Luke's Gospel.

In quite a few conversations that I have with people, there seems to be this thought that, somehow, things are going to get better.  If we get God back into the schools (as though He ever left in the first place), then things will get better.  If we elect the right God-fearing leaders, then things will get better.  If we just get people back to attending worship services again, then things will get better.  While these are hardly exhaustive, there truly seems to be this thought out there, touching on many areas of life.

The problem is, that's not exactly the picture that God paints of life in this world.  Now, we could take the quote from Jesus above too far if we tried to directly compare this time and the time before the flood.  After all, a total of 8 people were rescued in the flood.  The rest of the world faced judgment in the flood, and then before the one true God.  I think everyone would agree that we fervently hope and pray that there will always be more than 8 faithful souls in the world.

Yet, Jesus doesn't pull any punches.  Life in this world isn't going to get better.  If anything, people are going to indulge their sinful natures more and more.  Such a thing even continually seeks to creep into God's people, who realize this and more firmly cling to the hope that is theirs, not in their own faithfulness, but in God's faithfulness to them in Jesus.  Jesus Himself would say that life in this world for His followers will be a life of trouble and trial.  Not if, but when.  It will happen.  Be ready for it.

So what's the good news, then?  On the day of Jesus, a new creation will emerge in which things will be according to God's perfect will and design.  We don't await a day in this creation in which everything will be better.  We await the new creation, in which nothing will ever depart from God's holy will and design.  No, things will not get better in this world.  But when Jesus reappears and the new creation comes into its full being, things will be perfect, and that will endure forever. 

It's neither left nor right

As you likely have heard, there was another mass shooting here in our nation again yesterday.  I actually looked up some statistics earlier today, which pointed out that, in our nation this year, this marked day 209 in which there was a shooting killing and/or injuring at least two people.  That means that, no matter what, this year is going to have more days in which death or injury happened by gun than days that didn't contain such an event.

The aftermath of such events, especially if you happen to watch the news, is fairly predictable.  One side of the political spectrum will call for tighter gun control laws, and the other will argue that such laws don't truly hit at the problem and therefore, the rights of Americans shouldn't be infringed upon.  That's the standard response now in our nation, in this day and age, at this time. 

However, I have a different question.  How should we as Christians respond?  The truth is, when we witness such things, as Christians, we should realize that neither the left nor the right offer up any alternatives that will actually work.  That's because both attempt to work within the realm of this world, in a nation that is filled with sinful people.  And no matter what solution you may try, when sinful people are involved, sinful outcomes are always going to be what comes, no matter how well-thought out the solution may seem.

Sure, it sounds good to tighten up laws on how people come to own guns.  However, this rarely serves the purpose of keeping guns out of the hands of those who are dangerous.  Likewise, while it may sound all good and right that, the more people who have guns in their possession, the more that can stand up to those who would bring harm, the reality is that I haven't heard of a single instance where any of these shooters were brought down by a law-abiding, gun carrying citizen. 

The problem from both the left and the right is that they are seeking solutions within the world's realm that simply cannot deal effectively with the problem.  The problem is that we humans are sinful.  When we are isolated, cut off, or hurt, we often respond by lashing out.  No amount of laws will ever prevent this.  And no gun carrying citizen is probably equipped or prepared for that moment when one of those who feel cut off lash out at their fellow humans.

While we can never remedy the sin problem involved in all of these, that doesn't mean we are helpless.  What can we do to work to prevent such events from happening again?  What about reaching out in love to those who feel that they are isolated and cut off from their fellow human beings?  Yes, that is a very difficult thing to do, perhaps mostly because it opens us up to the sin that lies within us as well as them.  It's difficult because it means investing our lives in a person that may not really want that closeness, but that desperately needs that closeness.

More laws, or the absence of such laws, will never be the answer.  Genuine, caring love for one's neighbor, especially that neighbor that feels cut off and isolated, may not fully remove the danger, but will likely bear far greater results than any number of laws that could ever be passed.  Also, sharing the news of a God who cares for them enough to rescue them from their situations and struggles, and who provides a loving body that we call the Church to care for them, well, let's just say that this kind of reaching out may truly prove to be the saving of many lives, in more ways than one.

What's the Worst Case Scenario?

Okay, I know I've been touching on a lot of different facets of the recent Supreme Court decision, as well as how we, as Christians, need to take a good look at what we believe biblically about ourselves and not just those whose lifestyle is deemed sinful according to God's Word.  I know that there are many out there who are truly frightened about what this may mean, especially for clergy and churches who hold to the Biblical definition of marriage.

So today, I simply want to think through what the worst case scenario would be.  Perhaps you would see it different, but that's okay, because the reality is, no one knows right now what is going to happen with all of this.  But this is some form of representation on what the worst case scenario could look like.

Since clergy hold the authority to officiate marriages for both their faith and the state, the state declares that no exceptions can be made toward whom clergy choose to wed.  That means that, regardless of belief, if the clergy are going to hold the authority to marry civily, they will have no grounds upon which to deny marriage to anyone who fits the legal definition of those who can be married.  They must perform the ceremony if asked.

Should a clergy refuse, they would face legal ramifications of discrimination.  That could involve fines, jail time, or any other of a variety of punishments for not upholding the law.  Very likely, this would cause clergy of many faiths to give up the authority of conducting a civil marriage. 

In addition, since particular beliefs no longer are recognized according to the state, the state also decides that the customary tax exemption that churches enjoy is no longer applicable.  Churches are then taxed for their property.  That also means that offerings are no longer considered as "charitable contributions", and thus, no longer carry a tax break on the part of the state. 

One final strike could be that churches would also no longer be considered nonprofit (for the record, I doubt that this particular one would come to pass, but who ultimately knows?).  That means that churches also have to pay taxes such as any business would upon income.  That means that the offerings that people make would be considered taxable income.  Suddenly, for churches, the cost of doing ministry is much greater, as they have to pay their taxes, from which they have been exempt for centuries in our nation.  As you can perhaps imagine, that would cause a rather significant change in how God's people go about gathering, ministering, and operating within the state. 

Civil, Religious, Both, or Neither?

All right, I'm going to start off today with a question to which we will not know the answer until we have been ushered into the eternal kingdom.  When were Adam and Eve married?  As soon as God woke Adam up from his sleep?  Was it when Adam named Eve, calling her the mother of all the living?  Did the LORD God oversee a ceremony that declared them to be one flesh?

I know, this is a bit of an unfair question.  We don't know the exact moment, just like we would be hard pressed to say for sure when that exact moment is that a man and a woman go from being two different people to one flesh.  Is it when they commit to marry one another?  Is it when they are declared husband and wife?  Is it when they make their vows?  (I have known people that stand by each of these as the time when the two become one.)

I think, in general, we see two different issues at work here.  One is the commitment of a husband to a wife, and a wife to a husband.  God makes it clear that this commitment is the utmost, vital element to the marriage that He creates.  Just as God is commited to His people, His people, when joined in marriage, are to be commited to one another. 

So that's the first issue.  The second issue is having a "moment" in which we recognize that something has changed for the husband and the wife.  We typically call this the ceremony.  We have an occasion which celebrates what God is doing in the lives of the man and the woman as they are joined together in a one flesh union.  The ceremony gives us a clear picture that there was a "before", when they were two, and at the conclusion of the ceremony, the "after", they are now one.  So we recognize that the ceremony exists for the sake of good order, even as we recognize that God does something in the midst of that ceremony.

In case you think I am just rambling on this, I do actually have somewhere I am going with this.  One of the realities we have faced in the nation and time we live in is that a marriage has been recognized as the joining of a man and a woman at the conclusion of the ceremony, both by the Church and by the state.  In fact, most clergy are vested with authority by the state to marry people, which means that, in some respects, there are two ceremonies taking place; one faith oriented, and the other state oriented.  At the conclusion of the ceremony, both the Church and the state would recognize the man and woman as being married.

I'll get to a point here to keep this from being too long a post.  If the state were to declare that marriage can consist of something other than what a faith deems marriage, could the two (state and religious) ceremonies then be separate?  If a clergyman were to be required, by the state, to civily marry any two people who desired marriage, could the clergy "give up" the right to conduct ceremonies recognized by the state, and focus exclusively on the religious ceremony?  If the couple then decided that they wanted their marriage to be recognized by the state, they could then arrange for a civil authority to do what their clergy would already have done religiously. 

As we look at the day and age that we live in, is this an option for clergy who hold to particular beliefs about marriage?  It's a question that I believe we will have to be addressing fairly soon in our nation.

God, Rights, and the Church

"Am I not free?...But I have made no use of any of these rights..."  1 Corinthians 9:1a, 15a

If you search through the Bible for the word "rights", you may be surprised to learn that you won't actually find the word occurring very frequently.  That may be somewhat surprising to us, especially in the context of North America and the United States.  Here, we hear quite often about our rights as citizens, about equal rights, and the like.

The surprising thing is that God doesn't seem so much interested in our rights as people.  It's not that God doesn't value us as people any less.  God is a God who created us and who desires that we would recognize the dignity that belongs to every person as a part of His creation.  In a way, we could almost say that God is an idealist.  After all, if every person recognized the dignity that God gave to every other person, would we ever have to worry about rights?

Yet, we do face the fact that we live in a fallen, sinful world.  That sinfulness has us turn inward on ourselves, so that we find ourselves demanding our rights.  That might not be such a bad thing if we did that in a way which honored the dignity of the other as much as we sought that dignity for ourselves.  Yet, the history of humankind reveals that we fail at such an endeavor far more than we succeed at it.

That's why I find it interesting, especially if you read through the chapters around the verses quoted above, that Paul "gives up" his rights in service of the Gospel.  Sure, he could bear the claim that he had founded the congregation in Corinth.  Sure, he had taught them what they knew about Jesus, and could assert that authority over them.  Yet, in a stunning move (especially in their eyes), Paul chose to give up those rights.

In fact, in another letter to another group of Christians, Paul actually points out what God's preferred way of dealing with one another truly should be.  In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes that God's people should "[submit] to one another out of reverence for Christ."  (Ephesians 5:21).  Mutual submission to the other actually fits far better with God's will and design for life than a clamoring for our rights.  Instead of looking to our rights, we are to be looking to what best serves our neighbor, the "other" among us.

As you can perhaps see, this often serves to place us in a direct contrast with what we have been raised to believe in the context of our nation and time.  Especially as others are celebrating that they have their rights recognized, we face the question of what are appropriate rights and inappropriate ones. 

But perhaps, for us as Christians, our question should be a little bit different.  Rather than worrying about rights, what if we were to instead ask ourselves, how can I submit to my neighbor to demonstrate God's compassion and grace to them?  Rather than making issues about rights, what if we looked at ways to serve them?  Sure, it is possible (and likely) that they would misunderstand and even abuse such service.  But then again, who fully grasps the service and compassion that our Lord Jesus has toward us, even as He faced the cross?

The Church and The State

Okay, today I'm going to change gears a little bit.  I dearly love digging into the Bible and unearthing the things that God says in there, which we did a little bit yesterday.  I honestly believe that we Christians actually don't get the severity of God's commands, will, and design often enough, and therefore, we have a lessened understanding of just how amazing God's grace is.  But I will dwell on that a little more in a couple of future posts.

But for a moment, let's change gears and think about something that I honestly believe gets highly confused in our nation and in our day and time.  As Americans, one of the sayings that is consistently brought before us is that there is a separation of church and state.  The state (i.e., the ruling authorities) cannot dictate what people are to believe.  The church (i.e., the gatherings of all religious groups) does not rule according to their particular tenets of faith and belief. 

Now, I put this before us for this reason.  If we truly believe that there is to be a separation between the church and the state, then that means that the law of the land may not necessarily be in line with what a faith gathering believes.  As an example, I lived for a good amount of time in Utah, where there are many who belong to the Mormon faith.  This particular emphasis on the difference between the church and the state affect many who adhere to that particular faith.  Mormons, at least traditionally, held to the idea of polygamous marriage (that is, a man having more than one wife).  However, the state in the past has only recognized the union of one man with one woman.  While this stance may have had an impact on the legal definition of marriage for those of the Mormon faith, there are those who held that their particular beliefs meant that a man could marry additional women, but only one would be recognized by the state.  The others would be practiced in the context of their religious union.  What the Mormon would believe would be contrary to the law of the land, and would have an impact on how they legally live in the land, even if they would find alternatives to live out their faith in the context of the state.

What I want to put out here for us to think about today is simply this.  If we truly do believe that there is and should be a separation of church and state, then that means that we shouldn't be overly concerned when the state defines things differently than the church does.  Yes, it may have a great deal of impact on how we have to do certain things, but because there is a separation, we honestly should not get too up in arms when the state changes how it views certain matters.  Yes, we pray that the state will see the wisdom of God as He outlines things.  Yes, we pray that the state would work to preserve the value of life and protect its citizens.  Yes, we pray that God will work to influence the state in positive ways.  We do all these and more because we are citizens of the state, even as we realize that we are only temporary citizens here.

As we think about the state re-defining what constitutes marriage, we realize that it will affect us personally in some form or fashion.  We also realize that the state is not mandated to hold to the particular beliefs of the church (even while we would hope and pray that they would see the wisdom of doing so).  They are, after all, two different entities.  So if the state changes the way something, such as marriage, is defined, we realize that there will be an impact on us, but we don't lose heart.  After all, our hope is not in how the state defines things, but in the fact that our God has forgiven us and given us a permanent home through Jesus.

Thinking about God's Will, Law, and Design for Life

"You shall not lie with  a male as with a woman; it is an abomination."  Leviticus 18:22

"You shall not round ff the hair of your temples or mar the edges of your beard.  You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves; I am the LORD."  Leviticus 19:27-28

"When a stranger sojourns with you in your land,you shall do him no wrong."  Leviticus 19:33

Okay, what do these various Bible readings have in common?  Well, they all come from the book of Leviticus, which outlined much of the will and commands of God pertaining to His people and how they should live with one another.  They outline God's will and design for life in this world, which speaks to how He created us and what He look for from His creation.

Yet, one of our human tendencies is to look at certain parts of God's law and to see some of what He says as "more serious" than other matters.  In the context of our life in the United States, the first prohibition has received a lot of attention in recent weeks, with the state defining marriage as it will be recognized in the nation.  Rightly, Christians are worried about how far-reaching the state will seek to go in pushing that upon us.

Yet, I often find it interesting that we "play up" some specific commands while downplaying others.  Think about the one above concerning the stranger in the land.  You shall do him no wrong.  Yet, I hardly see the fervor on the part of those who stress the vital importance of the command against homosexuality when it comes to seeing that immigrants among us are treated as fairly as the native of the land. 

Could it be that we pick and choose particular sins to be outraged against, while we turn a blind eye to others?  Could it be that we don't really want to look to our own sin in our own hearts, but rather find it more comforting to point out the obvious sins of others?  Of course we do this.  It's in our sinful nature to do so.

I do believe that we should all struggle greatly with the variety of commands that our God gives.  Every single one of us fails to follow through on any number of these each and every day.  And that, I believe, is really what Jesus points out for us in the Sermon on the Mount when He talks about trying to get the speck out of the other's eye, while ignoring the log in our own. 

Tomorrow, I plan to post about how we can approach the whole command of God with humility, recognizing that we are called to correct one another when we stray from God's law, but always with the recognition that we ourselves are, as St. Paul wrote, the chief of sinners.

Reaction to Recent Events

Over the past week or so, there have been a few events that have challenged the thinking of Christians in North America, in the United States in particular.  With the re-defining of what is a legal marriage in the eyes of the state, many Christians simply do not know what to think.  Some celebrate equality, while others deplore how the state takes a different view of what marriage is than what the Christian Church understands it to be from God and His Word.  And truthfully, some actually fit both of these descriptions, and that leaves many others wondering what to make of it all.

Then, on top of that kind of news, we also mourn as another racist shooting happens in a church building, in a place where racial tensions have run high for decades.  We look around and see the hatred that some have toward people of different skin color, which likewise is contrary to the universal grace and compassion that our Lord would have us have toward others.  In many respects, this leaves many Christians wondering about matters of their safety, even in their places of worship (and which challenges the old word used to describe the gathering place as a sanctuary).

In some ways, we are always having to react to the sinfulness of the world in which we live.  There will never cease to be challenges to the Christian faith so long as sin, death, and the devil still exist.  Our own nature will resist the things of God, and the devil continues to prowl around.  And so we keep a wary eye, knowing that these kind of challenges really are nothing new.  The Christian Church has faced them from the earliest of times.

At the same time, we do not stand idly by.  This could mean many things.  It could mean actively working to change the laws of this country, though I would suggest that such an attempt would be futile for the foreseeable future.  But perhaps it also means that we extend a hand of grace out to those who may consider the Christian faith to be about a bunch of laws and rules.  If we show that God's design for our lives is a good thing, but that God also reaches out with grace and forgiveness, we could possibly cause those who are opposed to God's way to reveal that they actually have a degree of intolerance about them.

Is it going to be easy?  Will there be agreement throughout the Christian church as to how to go about this?  No.  And yet, one thing stands sure.  Our unchanging God, who has forgiven the world in the death and resurrection of Jesus, has withstood even greater challenges than these.  He has promised that His Church will endure, no matter what the devil and the world may throw at it.  Nothing can remove us from the nail-pierced hands of our Savior, even if the worst should come to pass in our nation.

Thoughts from the News

We don't live our Christian faith and life in a vacuum.  We live in the world of the things that happen around us each and every day.  That means that we are inevitably influenced, in some way, by the things that happen in our world.  Especially in this day and age of instant access and reporting, things happen on the other side of the world, and we are hearing about them even before leaders of the nation in which they happen are able to respond.

So, on Thursdays, I'm regularly going to check in on a few things happening that are making the news, and giving a few thoughts on how our Christian faith informs us as to how we approach the stories, and how we can even be salt and light for Christ when others discuss the same topics.

Today, I've actually got a couple of items for our consideration, so please bear with me.  The first one is something that has been in the news regularly in the Atlanta metro area, where a two year old was left in a car and died, and now the parents are facing charges in the child's death.  On top of that, there have been additional incidences in other states, and even a couple of indicents locally here that continue to shine the spotlight on this.

As Christians, we believe that God is the giver and taker of life.  It is inappropriate for us humans, outside of God's given authority, to take life by our own choosing.  It doesn't matter whether that life barely has begun when the sperm and egg meet, or if it's the life of a 95 year old who suffers greatly.  God is the giver, and God is the taker. 

It really should not only sadden our hearts, but anger us, when we come across stories like this.  We are saddened that a life has been taken, especially one so young, in which the experience of life has not yet taken place.  We also are angered at the injustice of it, and yes, we should rightfully be angry at injustice.  God's people are to strive to see that justice happens, even as we seek to inject mercy into the situation as is applicable.  While God alone can do that perfectly, having both of those thoughts in our heads is actually a good and appropriate thing.

The second thing from the news that I want to touch on is the rash of planes crashing or being shot down in the past week.  As one who has traveled far and wide, and is likely to do so in the future, this is something that weighs on my mind.  And yet, even as we take to the various pathways of travel, can we be in any better hands than that of our God?  If God has redeemed us by the blood of Christ, then our life in Him is secure, even if we happen to be in a plane shot down or crash-landing.  While it may not be our chosen way of arriving before our God, in the end, our hope endures and is secure.  Thanks be to God for that, in Jesus. 

Justice, in the right hands

A number of you probably keep up with the news to some degree.  I do, but mostly just by looking at headlines.  Only if the headline catches my eye will I click on the link and read the story.  In that way, I tend to "know" what the news is, but don't always know the intricate details.

In recent days, though, I have followed on particular story.  Many of you are probably familiar with the George Zimmermann case in Florida.  Briefly, he shot and killed an unarmed 17 year old black teenager, and pleaded self defense as the reason for the shooting.  The case has been in the news lately, and over the weekend, the jury found Zimmermann not guilty.

There was an instant backlash by many who believed that justice wasn't served properly in this case.  Again, I don't pretend to know the details of the case, and even less do I know what evidence the jurors saw that led to their verdict.  I do know that there is still much to the case that isn't really all that clear-cut, and that's the reason for the outcry.

However, I have heard about some who are disappointed in the turnout as saying that Zimmermann will likely have some form of vigilante justice shown to him before long.  Whether or not Zimmermann is guilty or not guilty, the way our justice system is supposed to be set up is so that people don't take the law into their own hands.  While we love the idea of the wild west and that kind of thing, that's simply not how it's supposed to work.

In my mind, I think there is a great deal of guilt on both sides.  Maybe not the kind that our justice system demands, but I know there is definitely a lack of love for neighbor being demonstrated throughout this case.  And as John would remind us in one of his letters, if we can't love our brother, whom we have seen, we have a really tough time loving God, whom we haven't seen.

In the end, in terms of this world, this case probably has relatively little long-term repercussions.  But when it comes to the perfect justice of our God, we all simply stand before Him and say, "Thank you for Jesus and what He has done for us."  May that be our justice cry as Christians.

Celebrating the Wrong Things

There has been a lot of news out there lately for the same-sex community.  From the Supreme Court essentially saying they weren't going to make a ruling on the status, to the recent news of the NBA player who has declared his homosexuality, there has been a lot of news out there.  And as you watch the various programs, to a large degree, there is much support in our nation on this issue.  Even many church bodies and people have shown their support to such issues.

One of the reasons that I have heard for Christian support of same sex issues is because God is a God of love.  If two people love each other, then God is all for it, because God loves love.  And while it's a biblical truth that God is love, there are some distortions that take place when only God's love gets the focus.

God is also a God who believes in right and wrong.  Shoot, God Himself is the one who made right and wrong.  And God has spoken in His Word quite often about many of the things that are wrong.  In fact, if you read through the whole Bible, you won't find a single instance where God says it's a good thing when people are going contrary to what He says.  Yes, He calls same sex unions a sin, just like He calls adulterous unions a sin, or lying a sin, or using God's name as a curse word a sin.  And God takes that seriously.

The problem we have is that we don't always want to agree with what God says.  In our day and age, we can't even assume that most people in our nation actually know what God says.  They may say that God is a God of love, but they probably don't know many other characteristics of God.  And because they do not know God, or know what God says, they simply are unable to celebrate the right things, or to celebrate what God says is good.  To do that, you need to know what God says is right and wrong, and what is worth celebrating.  And today, far too few people (yes, even people who regularly attend Christian churches) know the things that God says are right and wrong.

Ignorance often leads to celebrating the wrong thing.  I believe that there are many in our nation who support certain popular stances, not out of malicious intent toward God and Christians, but simply because they are ignorant of what God really says.  And we Christians don't really do ourselves any favors when we knee-jerk react toward them.  A well-thought out response is almost always going to be better received than an off-the-cuff reaction.  But far too many Christians have had a microphone or camera put in front of them, and then they reacted without giving a lot of thought to how they were saying what they were saying.

Yes, our society celebrates the wrong things quite often.  As Christians, it serves us far better not to simply react, but to give some thought to the responses we have toward these celebrations.  True, most of the time, even a well-thought-out response will not be received well.  But that should never be our excuse for sloppy thinking or for not even thinking before we speak.

A Faith Of Influence

In the years following the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, the Christian faith began to reveal itself as the full will and design of God.  God had spoken to His people of old through the prophets, and finally had spoken by His own Son.  As God's Spirit began to work through His people, the message of Christ and God's hope began to spread.  It didn't take long to push out from its Jewish roots, reaching even the Gentiles.  By the end of the first century, the Christian faith had penetrated to the ends of Europe, into Africa, and on into the east, as well.

By the time the third century rolled around, Christianity had grown greatly.  It was no longer a faith that resided only in the various Jewish synagogues, but was also believed in the households of rulers, and of many of the common people.  In just a couple of hundred of years, it had gone from a group of 11 men sent by God to encompass a whole continent and more.  It no longer was a subversive faith, but had suddenly become the preferred faith.  No longer on the outskirts, now the Christian faith was at the front and center of the Empire.

How did it get to be that way?  During the first couple of centuries AD, this faith had been ignored, and then, at various times, heavily persecuted.  Several rulers had tried their best to stomp it out.  And yet, despite their best efforts, the Christian faith continued to grow.  How was this?  Well, the easiest answer is to say that it is from God, and no one can ever stop anything that is guided and directed by God.  God has promised that His Word will indeed go out, and it will return bearing fruit.

But God's Word also works, not through ruling or dictating, but through influence.  God's Word doesn't attempt to force people to adhere to its guidelines and rules and instructions.  It seeks to change the heart and the soul of those who read it.  God's Spirit works, not to force the believer to simply change the way (s)he lives, but to influence the heart and soul and mind of the believer.

God's Spirit and God's Word work to influence us.  It works to show us the folly and foolishness of trying to do things our way, according to our design and plan.  It shows us how God's design and will works, and what it looks like.  It works to show us the price that God was willing to pay to restore us to Him.  It works to show us Jesus, and to prove God's love in sending a Savior.  It works to change our heart, which then leads to the change in how we live and act.  It doesn't work to change only how we live and act.

Christianity is a faith of influence.  That makes it a very challenging faith and, at the same time, a faith of deep conviction.  When your heart is changed, it simply cannot help but impact the rest of your life.  A mere change of behavior rarely will change the heart, but a change of heart cannot help but impact the rest of life.  And that's how the Christian faith also works.  It doesn't seek to bend people to God's will, but seeks to influence them by God's Word, through God's Spirit, so that they see what God has done for them.

Christianity: A Religion of Influence, Not Authority

"Jesus called them to Him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and that their great ones exercise authority over them.  It shall not be so among you.  But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."  Matthew 20:25-28

To some degree, we humans strive to have power and authority over others.  It's inherent in each of us.  We want others to do things the way we think or believe that they should be done.  The simplest way to get others to do this is to simply make them do it.  For a parent, it's much easier to tell your child, "Do it because I told you so" than to try to explain why you want them to do something.  And sure, in the short term, the "Do it because I told you" might work.  But after a while, we tend to rebel against those who "force" us to do things.

For many years, the authority of the leaders of the United States have sought to draw their authority based upon what God says.  Maybe it's because a significant portion of the people who settled this country came here to be able to freely express their faith.  Maybe it's because they saw the benefit to aligning society along the lines of God's will and desire and design.  I doubt we could ever find one single reason why they chose to go the route they did, but regardless, they seem to have drawn heavily from God's Word in creating the laws of our land.

In recent years, however, our nation has seen great change.  There are now many in our borders who do not align themselves with the Christian faith.  It's significant that they don't share the same set of core beliefs that shape how we live as people.  And so, when we, as Christians, attempt to "force" our beliefs on them through legislation of the laws of the land, should we be surprised, then, when they rebel against them?  Or, should we be surprised when those whose background is not formed by the word of God begin to pass legislation that differs greatly from what we believe to be God's design and desire?

For a while, it seems as though many Christians thought that they could simply pass more laws that followed God's will and design.  Doing that, they must have reasoned, would lead to change in the hearts and lives of the people of the nation.  And yet, it seems as though the opposite has happened.  Rather than being drawn to God, they have rebelled against the laws that Christians have sought to pass.  They may call it "freedom," but really, what they are striving to get away from is Christians holding authority over their lives and what they can and cannot do.

I believe that there is a reason that Jesus said that His followers are not to "lord" it over others, or even one another.  Jesus recognized that we are all tainted with the stain of original sin.  None of us likes having someone else tell us what to do or not do.  And so, Jesus then suggests another way for His followers.  He calls it serving others.  As we continue these posts, I'm going to expand upon that thought of serving one another, and my goal is to demonstrate that the most powerful way for Christians to seek for others to follow the design and will of God is through influence, not power or authority.  As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Power, Laws, or Influence?

Matthew 20:25-28: "Jesus called them to Him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and that their great ones exercise authority over them.  It shall not be so among you.  But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."

 When the governing authorities are in disagreement with our beliefs as Christians, how do we work to bring about change?  Well, the popular approach that Christians seem to have followed (at least to my eye) is to try to get more laws passed by our national authorities.  In a way, we want to curb what others do by passing laws.  If I wanted to be a bit more harsh-sounding, I could say that we try to enforce what we believe on others who may not necessarily agree with our beliefs.

But is that the right approach to take?  This really isn't an easy question to answer.  Sure, there is a great deal of benefit to passing laws that echo God's design and desire for life.  In some respects, it's far easier to live in such a society.  It's familiar to us.  Having a society set up in such a way also tends to mean that most of us are thinking the same way.  It's a lot easier to convince someone of the right thing to do if they are already thinking along similar lines as us.

However, when you read the verses above, that almost seems to go against the way that Jesus emphasizes to His followers.  Forcing others to live according to the design that we see is from God is merely that; forcing them.  And not very many of us respond well when we are forced to do something.  We tend to rebel against it.  If we enforce the kind of life that our beliefs call for onto others, we can expect to meet some resistance, especially if they don't think the same way we do, or believe the same things we do. 

Passing more laws to emphasize the Christian way of life will likely not have the outcome that we might desire.  Sure, there are always those who are happy to follow the rules, but there are also many who don't want to follow the rules.  And passing laws, or creating rules, is not the same as creating faith in God's design and desire for life.  (I think this is a very important and very understated point.).  The goal of Christians is not to create a society that lives in accordance with God's laws, but to share the message of God's hope for sinful humanity.

To that end, I suggest a far different approach than working to merely pass laws or force others to live according to our beliefs.  Those still may have some value, and we shouldn't necessarily just give up our efforts to influence the laws of the land.  But I suggest that the Christian faith fits far better when it isn't in "control", but is under the radar, so to speak.  When it's a movement, and not connected to politics.  When it looks more to persuade rather than to rule or govern.  In other words, it seems like Christians would be much better served to work by influence rather than by force or the power of laws.  More on that in future posts.

Are they lenient, or forceful?

Matthew 20:25-28: "Jesus called them to Him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and that their great ones exercise authority over them.  It shall not be so among you.  But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."

You've probably read those words at least once already in a previous post, if you have been following along.  They are part of the point that I am making overall as we talk about God, country, rules, laws, and how they pertain to things such as the recent Supreme Court non-action on the issue of homosexual marriage.

As I've already stated once, in a perfect world, what God desires and designs, and what rulers desire and design, would be exactly the same.  But we don't live in a perfect world.  Therefore, rulers will see the value in some things that God designed for life, but will not see the value in others.  In the presence of an imperfect, flawed, sinful world, rulers will often simply settle for those things that mostly serve to keep people at peace with one another.

It's great to live in a place where the governing authorities see mostly eye to eye with what God designs and desires.  But what about when those two really fail to see eye to eye?  Well, some of that depends on the particulars at work.  Rulers may be more 'lenient' than God in some things, and Christians would find that they aren't really that imposed upon.  Take, for example, the issue of adultery.  God is pretty precise about the practice of our sexuality.  But rulers tend to be more lenient about it.  Sure, we may wish that it were otherwise, since sometimes leniency is taken as permissiveness, but for the most part, we aren't protesting that our rulers don't set up laws against adultery.  We may wish that they would, but we'd have to admit that enforcing that particular law would be pretty tough to do.

Part of our problem as Christians comes when the governing authorities go to the other side of the coin.  What about when they enforce that people should do things that run contrary to their beliefs?  Much issue has been made in recent years about the Health Care Reform Bill that mandated that everyone make abortion-causing drugs available through their health plans.  Many Christians protested loudly, and rightly.  When the rulers lord it over us to force us to do things that run contrary to our faith, we should speak up.  Granted, we hope to do so in both a faithful and a loving fashion, but at such times, it is appropriate to let the authorities know that they have crossed their lines.

However, we often simply throw up our arms in the air when it comes to the authorities being more lenient than what we want.  In some respects, this kind of situation presents a challenge to us.  How do we work so that people see that God's design is better and more appropriate than that which the authorities may allow?  Do we work toward more laws?  Do we try to find ways to enforce the things our belief system calls for upon others?  Or are there other ways that we go about the task?  More on that one in the next post.

God and Country in Disharmony

Yesterday I shared a few thoughts about how things would be in a perfect world, especially with an eye toward God and those who rule/govern.  I even delved into the idea that there are some things that are from God which rulers/governors actually endorse in their rule, such things as not murdering and not stealing from others.  These worldly leaders recognize that there is a benefit to society overall if everyone holds firm to these "ideals".

However, some of the things that God lists out as part of His design and desire aren't always seen as necessary by the worldly leaders.  Take, for example, the command of God not to commit adultery.  From a spiritual standpoint, we see that there are reasons for this command from God.  But in some sense, from a strictly worldly standpoint, stepping over this line may not seem to be something worth "enforcing".  A national ruler may look at those whom he rules and see the overall benefit of them not killing each other randomly, or the benefit if they don't steal each other's stuff.  But he may also see that people can have sex outside of God's bounds of marriage, but it doesn't detract greatly from his nation.  In fact, he may even see that, if he grants freedom in an area like this, people are more likely to listen to him and think that he's a good ruler.

The thing is, we've seen that this is true, to an extent, in our world.  Someone may have multiple sex partners, but still be a "good" citizen.  They pay their taxes.  They keep the laws.  They don't disrupt society.  (Yes, there are some downsides to this, which will be pointed out in future posts.)  But overall, rulers may look at them and see that they are overall pretty good citizens.  So they don't place the same amount of importance on that particular command of God as they do, say, on what God says about murder or theft.

Permissiveness on the part of those who rule doesn't necessarily mean that we to go as far as our government permits.  We are free to travel from state to state here, but you don't have to do that.  We may be free to be promiscuous in our nation, but you don't have to be.  But even as we recognize that, it doesn't mean we stand idly by and allow our leaders and rulers to be as permissive as they want.  What I will argue in future posts is that working to pass more laws is largely going to be met not only with resistance, but can actually serve to detract from the hope that Jesus gives.  I'm going to suggest that we, as Christians, adopt a different approach than merely trying to ensure that the laws of the land align with God's desire and design.  So keep tuned in!

In a perfect world....

I cannot think of a single person that I know who would ever come remotely close to claiming that we live in a perfect world.  We don't even really need to look at the world around us to see this.  We have more than enough evidence in our families and our own lives.  Turning on the TV, the radio, or connection to the internet simply confirms what life shows us.  We do not live in a perfect world.

However, if we did live in a perfect world, we would notice a lot of differences.  One of the differences would be in how those who govern us, or rule over us, go about their business.  If the world were perfect, they would do exactly as God says and wills and desires.  There would be no difference between what the rulers of the world wanted and what God wanted.  They would find themselves in perfect agreement, and would be working to the same ends.

But we don't live in a perfect world.  We live in a very flawed world (the Bible would use the word sinful there, which is far more appropriate, but that's another topic for another day).  And one of the ways we see that flawedness (sinfulness) is in those who govern or rule.  The morning or evening news goes to great lengths to document how flawed some governments in the world are.  Every day lately, we seem to be hearing more and more news about places like North Korea.  And while we can look at places such as that to see the flawed governments, we also need to remember that we don't even have to look at places other than our own nation.

Because we live in a flawed, sinful world, the rulers of the nations do NOT necessarily seek to govern as God would, or according to His will and design.  Sure, there are some things that God says that make sense to all rulers.  It's hard to govern well when you allow rampant murder, or when theft is encouraged.  But the reality is that, beyond a few general ways, those who govern find their source of right and wrong from places other than what God has to say.

I don't think any of us would ever go so far as to say that those who govern are perfect, no matter what their faith may be.  But it is necessary to begin our look at how we, as Christians, view those who govern, and how what they say impacts our lives, before we engage in some of the more challenging decisions that our rulers have to make.