Category: politics

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Summertime, and the Living is…

I wrote this as part of our church’s monthly newsletter, and thought I’d share it here.

Officially, summer is not here yet, but the temperatures are getting summery, and the tropics are already heating up for a busy storm season. It seems that the weather is not the only thing heating up. All we have to do is read or watch the news, and it becomes obvious that the culture around us is growing hotter as well. The violence in the country is rising at what seems to be a faster pace than ever before. I fear that it may not be long before that spirit of violence spills over into people and groups we would never think would be affected. The rhetoric coming from those who desire to be called our leaders is becoming incendiary, and even some who claim to belong to Christ are joining in.

We however, are called to be different. We are called, as followers of the Prince of Peace, to be peacemakers. We are commanded to be humble, seeking only to glorify our King. We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves, even if those neighbors are our enemies. We are even commanded to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. Talk about counter cultural! 

I believe that Christ is beginning to winnow his Church. The time may come quickly when those of us who claim Jesus as our King will have to put up or shut up. The dividing line will become sharper and clearer. If and when that time comes, we will need each other. We will have to show that love for others that we say we have, and trust our Father to take care of us.

Let’s not wait until we are forced to depend on one another. Let’s begin now.

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Blast From the Past: Just Thinkin’

This was first published in 2009. It may be even more timely today.

In Jesus for President, Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw write, “Rather than placing our hope in a transnational church that embodies God’s kingdom, we assume America is God’s hope for the world, even when it doesn’t look like Christ.”

The church in general has gotten itself caught up in the American Dream, where bigger is better and more is just not enough. I’m sure most of us have heard sermons or statements equating being American with being Christian. As we enter the “patriotic season (Memorial Day, Flag Day, July 4), there will be more of that thing in churches across the land. We seem to be as worried, if not more worried, about threats to our American way of life than about those who are less well of than we are. The current economic crisis has many Christians as scared as those who do not follow Jesus.

Evangelical leaders bemoan the decline in the number of people who identify themselves as Christian, and the decline in church attendance. The fear is that America will lose its identity as a “Christian nation.” We act as if the world will go completely all to hell if America doesn’t remain as powerful as it has been in the past.

Could it be that God is bringing us through these tough times to teach us that our hope is not to be in capitalism (or any other economic system), but is to be in God alone? Maybe we need to be less concerned with the American Dream and more concerned with God’s dream.

Could it be that God is allowing the church in America to decline while the church in other countries thrives to show us that He is not an American god, but is the God who calls all people everywhere to repent and look to Jesus for salvation. The center of Christianity is no longer in the West. It is now in Africa and the East. Millions of people are coming into the Kingdom, and in many places they are doing so without the influence of Americans.

Don’t get me wrong. I love America. It’s the land of my birth, and home to my ancestors for 250 years. I believe that this country has been especially blessed by God, but I don’t believe that it ‘s because we’ve been better than anyone else. I also believe that God governs in the affairs of men and nations, and that He raises up countries for certain purposes. I don’t think this country is going to disintegrate into a bunch of smaller countries, although it’s not out of the realm of possiblity, but I am wondering if America’s time has come and gone.

Maybe it’s time we pledge our allegiance to the King and His Kingdom.

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Look Into Jesus

Back in 1972, one of the pioneers of “Christian Rock,” Larry Norman, sang a song titled, “Why Don’t You Look Into Jesus.” The lyrics speak of people who are trapped in an unending cycle of drunkenness, drug abuse, sexual hookups, and such. Then the lyrics say, “Why don’t you look into Jesus. He’s got the answer.” A simple message, and at the time this song was written, a message that seemed to resonate with many who were looking for answers and realized that they were not to be found in drugs, drunkenness, or promiscuity.

I wonder if we here, fifty years later, might do well to heed the message of this song from the heyday of the Jesus Movement, and look into Jesus in a fresh way. Have we moved from what is really the simple message of the gospel, and if so how do we get back?

In Revelation Chapter 2, Jesus tells John to write to the church in Ephesus. The message is that, for the most part, they are doing well. Their deeds, hard work, and perseverance are known. They do not tolerate wicked people, and have tested and rejected false teachers. They have endured hardship and have not grown weary. I think most of us would appreciate those words said about us. But, there is more. There’s something else that Jesus has to say to this church.

“I have something that I hold against you.” Things are not all well and good. In spite of their good works, their perseverance, and their doctrinal purity, Jesus has a problem with them. The problem is that they have forsaken their first love. They are told to look and see how far they have fallen. They have “moved on,” and have “matured” in their doctrine and everything else, but their love for their King has grown cold.

In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment in the Law is. His reply is in two parts. He states that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. Then he says that the second commandment is like the first: Love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Jesus then goes on to say that the entire Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments. In other words, all of God’s commands boil down to two things. We are to love God and love others. To the extent we obey those two things, we obey every command God has for us.

I believe that the Church here in the West, especially in the United States, has left her first love. We used to proclaim the Gospel, and the result was awakenings which shaped the culture. Even though America has never been a “Christian nation,” it was a kingdom of this world that was, in part, influenced by the Church. Much has changed over the years.

Historians may disagree on the beginning of the decline of the Church in the United States. I believe that the present issues that we see are the result of the Church forgetting that we are part of the Kingdom of God. In the history of the American Church, there have been times when the spiritual climate has not been healthy. Hence the need for revival. In the last half of the 20th Century, many in the Church began to see themselves as agents of change in the political system and in the culture, rather than citizens of a greater kingdom. On both the right and the left, people began to equate electing certain people to public office and enacting certain legislation with following Jesus. This has continued into the current century.

When there are proclaimers of the gospel spending their time pushing a partisan agenda or stating that a certain candidate is going to “save America,” we have lost our first love. When we separate with fellow Christians because of the political or social views, we have lost our first love. When we proclaim that the Constitution is equal to Scripture by our words and action, we have left our first love. When we care more about our “freedom” than about loving and serving others, we have lost our first love. When we see Jesus’ commands in the Sermon on the Mount as something for a future time and not really for us today, we have lost our first love. When we tell people that all they have to do is say a prayer to be sure of a “home in heaven when they die” and neglect to teach them what it means to follow the King of Kings, we have lost our first love.

We need to regain our first love, the love for the King that causes us to take seriously his words about loving others as we love ourselves, about putting the interests of the Kingdom ahead of our own, and about dying to our own self interest. The stakes are high for those of us in the Church. In Revelation 2, Jesus tells the church that if they don’t repent and do the works which they did at first (the works done out of love for their Lord) he will remove them from their place. I believe the Church in America is in danger of being removed. Whether that will take the form of persecution and oppression or just a growing irrelevance, I don’t know. I do believe that the next chapter in the history of the Church in the West will be similar to the first century, as the culture becomes more and more like that of the Roman Empire. Our question may well be whether we will give our allegiance to the True King or to the empire.

May God bring us back to our first love.

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After 20 Years

September 11, 2001. Some three thousand people awoke that morning, went about their routine, and headed off for their day. None of them had any idea that this day would be their last in this life. I was a teacher and athletic director in a small Christian school , and was in my office listening to the radio. A report broke in to the programming. Evidently, a plane had flown into one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. At the time, no one knew if this was an accident, or deliberate. A short time later news came in of a second plane flying into the second tower. The word “attack” was being uttered. Then the third plane flew into the Pentagon and the unthinkable began to become very real. The United States was under attack. Shortly thereafter, we learned that a fourth plane had been hijacked and that the South Tower had collapsed. At the same time, plans were in motion to take down the fourth plane if it approached Washington, D.C. This proved to be unnecessary because some of the passengers on that flight attacked the hijackers, and the plane ended up crashing into a field in Pennsylvania. Shortly after the fourth plane crashed, the North Tower collapsed. While all this was happening, flights all over the country were grounded in an attempt to prevent future attacks.

I was in a state of shock, as was the nation. All of our might, our prosperity, our sense of safety, seemed to be an illusion. For many days there was concern that something else might happen. There was grief for those who had perished, and for those who had been left behind. There was also a determination to help those who had been injured, and those whose loved ones had been torn from them. In the days to come, the nation was unified as it had been in the last world war. It seemed that there was no longer division between groups or parties. We were all Americans. The nation had been shaken to its core, and as a result turned to God. It seemed as if America might come out of this stronger and better.

Twenty years have passed. I believe that, while we were stronger, better, and more unified at the beginning, America has let all of that slip away. We may be more divided now than at any time in our history. There are groups and individuals who believe, and proclaim that anyone who doesn’t believe the way they do is not a real American. The spirit of helping others and sacrificing for their good has been replaced with a spirit of me first, my rights, my desires. There are those that call for open rebellion, and some even call for a civil war. Some of these folks even call themselves followers of the Prince of Peace!

Many in the church have confused being a Christian with adhering to a particular political viewpoint. The idea of being a citizen of the kingdom of God is forgotten by many, or is pushed to something in the far-off future. Twenty years ago, America had a common enemy from the outside. Today, it seems that the common enemy is each other. If we continue to fight and seek to destroy that enemy, we will destroy ourselves. I hope we can wake up and look for the common ground that helped us through those days after 9/11/2001.

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What Kind of Kingdom?

It’s a few days before what we call Palm Sunday, the day Jesus came in to Jerusalem to the loud aclaim of the crowds of people. Jesus has told his disciples that the time for him to go to Jerusalem and die was drawing near. Judging by some of the things they said and did, they seem to have forgotten the part about dying. As the week goes on, Jesus continues to teach about the kingdom of God. He has raised Lazarus from the dead, further solidifying in the minds of many that he was the promised Messiah. Because of all this, the Jewish leaders are plotting to kill him.

I can imagine the excitement building in the disciples as they draw nearer to the city. It’s almost time for Passover, the annual celebration of Israel’s deliverance from bondage in Egypt. Some had been saying that when the Messiah came, he would lead a new Exodus and deliver Israel from theit bondage from the pagan Roman oppressors. This may have been at the forefront of the minds of some of the disciples. We know that some of them were zealots who would have gladly taken part in an armed revolt if Jesus gave the word.

Perhaps the feeling was similar to that of some of those who gathered at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Many of those folks seemd to equate the United States, and the rule of a particular person, with the kingdom of God. Some of the loudest voices in the rally that day were preachers, and many of the symbols carried by those in the crowd were Christian symbols. “Prophets” abounded, each one assuring their listeners that God had ordained what they said was going to happen and that these things were necessary for God to bless America.

I wonder if there were those in the crowd following Jesus who proclaimed to those around them that this Jesus was going to lead them in a great battle in which the hated Romans would be destroyed and that they would “make Israel great again.” There were those who were quite willing to kill Romans, Jewish ‘traitors,” or anyone else who stood in their way. Perhaps this Jesus was going to begin the revolution.

As we study the New Testament, and at least the first 300 years of church history, we quickly notice that those who thought the kingdom of God would come in by force were way off. The kingdom was established, but it was established by the King submitting himself to the powers that be, letting them kill him in the most shameful, horrific way known at the time, and then overcoming them by rising from the dead.

Over the centuries, many who call themselves followers of Jesus seem to have forgotten that he taught that his kingdom is not a kingdom of this world, that it does not come by human strength or force. This is true in the United States today. Many of those with the loudest voices on January 6 were part of a group that believes that Christians should be in charge, and that the government should enact laws and policies that favor Christians above all others. Some would even go so far as to enforce Old Covenant law. The problem with this kind of thinking is simple. It has nothing to do with the Gospel or any of the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus taught that we are to first love God with every fiber of our being. We can easily say that we love God, but do we really? The second greatest commandment, according to Jesus, is to love others as we love ourselves. The Apostle John tells us that if we don’t love another, who is made in God’s image, how can we say we love God? If you were to read through or listen to the speeches that have been made regarding the political state of this country, I seriously doubt you would find much, if anything, that shows love to God or love to others. Instead you would find much vitriol and anger toward others.

If we going to call ourselves Christians (“Christ ones”), wouldn’t it make sense to look at what he taught, and what his disciples continued to teach, and follow that? The thrust of much of what the apostles wrote was to tell their readers to live like who they were. They weren’t citizens of this world anymore, they were citizens of a heavenly kingdom. The old had gone. The new had come. We too, need to live like who we are. We are no longer citizens of this world and its kingdoms. We are citizens and heirs of the unshakeable kingdom of God.

May our lives reflect who we are and whose we are.

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Native Tongue

I was listening to this song the other day, and I got to thinking about the lyrics and how they ring true to much of what is going on today. As someone who came of age in the 1970s, I remember well the hippie movement and the somewhat naive belief that the young could change the world. Woodstock, the Summer of Love, the protests against the war in Vietnam, and the Jesus Movement were all attempts to make the world a better place. Even with all the baggage that came with these things, there was a certain innocence and hope that was clearly present. Like any movement, there were those elements that sought to tear down and destroy, but I believe that we had the right idea, even if some twisted it for their own selfish ends. Many of us believed that we could change the world through love, even if some didn’t understand what love really was.

Fast forward fifty years or so, and I ask the same question that is posed in the lyrics to the song: “My friend, where did we go wrong?” Many of the very folks who spoke about love and peace, who helped end a war and bring down a corrupt President, turned into the ones who have accepted and particpated in the combative dialogue and actions of the last few years. The idea of love has been left in the dust of power and influence. The loudest voices today are the ones that speak of shutting down, and even destroying the “other side.” The ideas of working together for the common good seem to have disappeared, and love has become something that is reserved only for those who agree with us in every area.

What saddens me the most is that those of us who call ourselves followers of the Prince of Peace don’t seem to be any more loving than those who don’t claim Christ. I have seen posts on social media and heard things from the lips of Christians that are hateful rather than loving, and spiteful rather than gracious. Many have traded a kingdom of love for a kingdom of this world that demands that we put others down. This should not be. If we truly belong to Jesus Christ, love is our native tongue. If we truly are born of the Spirit, love is our default. Will we always love perfectly? No. But we will strive to do what our King commands.

Fellow Christians, I want us to sing in our native tongue, to sing it like when we were young, back before the pendulum had swung to the shadows. Fellow Christians, I want us to learn to use our lungs for love and not the shadows.

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Thoughts on Epiphany, 2021

The word epiphany, at its core, means a revealing. This past Wednesday was Epiphany Day, and the events that unfolded in Washington, DC and other cities revealed a few things.

First, they revealed the true nature of some, not all of the supporters of Donald Trump. I recognize that many of the folks who have supported him the past four years are good people with motives they consider right. Having said that, I also believe that many of the folks that have ridden the Trump train have done so because they do not want to see “their side:, whatever that is, lose power. Many of the Republicans who are now loudly speaking out against him had nothing to say the last four years because they wanted to keep their party in power. There are folks who are afraid that white Americans will lose power and “those people” will take all our liberties away. I believe that this fear has led many to embrace some of the conspiracy theories swirling around the recent election. If a theory about the election, or anything else for that matter, is put forth by someone who believes that lizard people are among us and out to take all our children away to be eaten or turned into zombies, it’s probably not true.

The other thing the events of last Wednesday revealed is the utter bankruptcy of trying to do the work of the Kingdom of God using the tools of the world. There is actually a huge conspiracy out there. It is the conspiracy of the ruler of the powers of the air, i.e. satan. He has been conspiring and attempting to destroy God’s creation ever since the beginning. He is the father of lies, and is constantly trying to hinder what God is doing by attacking and dividing. He has succeeded in dividing the Church in America, because we have bought the lies that our political allegiance is paramount, that the ballot box will determine if the Church will succed or fail. I was appalled to see banners with Jesus on them carried next to Trump banners, as if they were equal. I was disheartened to see the Christian flag carried into the chambers of Congress by members of the mob. I am saddened by the preachers who stand in front of rallies and proclaim that they must fight to preserve their rights. Peter tried that in the garden and Jesus told him to put his sword away. And don’t quote the verse to me where the disciples tell Jesus they had two swords and he said that was enough. Do you really believe he was saying two swords would be enough to fight against the Roman Empire?

I don’t care on which side of the aisle we place ourselves. If we claim to follow the One who said his Kingdom was not from this world, who told his followers to love their enemies, who willingly gave himself over to the authorities to be killed, we have no business condemning folks who disagree with us. We have no business hitching our wagon to the star of any political party. Neither Trump nor Biden is equal to Jesus. The United States is not equal to the Kingdom of God. We have no business downgrading our faith by taking it down to the level of our political ideas.

Followers of Jesus, we have work to do. There are too many who have taken the mission of the Kingdom and turned it into gaining earthly power and influence. There are too many who are making Republicans, or Democrats, or Libertarians instead of making disciples of King Jesus. I can understand why many have rejected the message. It’s because we have either proclaimed the wrong message or we have hidden the real message under layers of garbage. We must return to telling others that there really is a King, that he died to free us from sin and death, that he rose again because he had broken the power of death, and that he calls everyone to follow him. We must tell them that this King will return and that he will set everything right. Along with this proclamation, we must show the world that it is true by the way we live our lives, loving each other, loving our enemies, and living out our sole allegiance to the King of Kings over and above any other party or man.

God help us to recapture the gospel.