Ramblings from one following Jesus on the back roads of life
I’m sorry I didn’t get this in yesterday. The day slipped away from me completely.
On September 2, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 struck Indonesia. The damage was severe, and new reports indicate that it is even worse than originally thought. Read the full report here.
I’m beginning to see the attraction that Christian anarchy has for some people. The past few weeks has just about turned me off politics (and I have a Master’s in Public Affairs, taught government, and considered going into politics at one time). I have read statements made by Christians on their blogs and on Facebook. I have read discussions on the political forum on TheOoze. The thing that has struck me is the lack of love that is shown. I am not pointing fingers at just those on the right, although many of the comments have been from more conservative folks. The left has been just as guilty, especially during the previous administration. There is enough junk thrown around by both sides to spread the guilt equally.
Jesus said that the one thing that would show the world that we are his followers is love. Not holding to a particular set of theological doctrines, not following a certain political platform, but love. I don’t see a great deal of love shown in the current political climate. Jesus also said that his kingdom was not of this world. The disciples understood this. They were drawn from a variety of political views, yet all put those aside to be a part of God’s kingdom. The early church understood this. They loved everyone around them, even those who were persecuting them. They turned the world upside down with no economic, social, or political power. They realized that the kingdom of God was different from the kingdom (and kingdoms) of this world. The kingdom of this world advances through exercising power over others. The kingdom of God advances through serving others and showing them love.
Human government has legitimate purpose, and can be used by God to accomplish his will. O the other hand, all human kingdoms are subject to doing wrong and advancing the will of Satan. Many times we forget that there is no government on earth that is going to completely do what God wants done, whether that government is conservative Republican, liberal Democrat, or socialist. At times, any government can approach the kingdom of God, but any government can also work against God’s kingdom.
Those of us who are part of God’s kingdom do great harm to the cause of Christ when we let ourselves get caught up in politics to the point where we think that our team can do know wrong, and the other team can do no right. When we attack and devalue others who claim Jesus as Lord because we disagree with their political views, we deny the kingdom of God.
What is more important, a kingdom of this world that will fade away, or a kingdom that is advancing and will finally come in its full splendor? There is nothing wrong with participating in politics and debating issues. Just do it in a way that advances the interests of the True King.
In remembrance of the innocent victims of the 9-11 attacks and the subsequent wars, there is no TGIF today.
In July, at the G8 summit in Italy, $20 billion was pledged over three years to combat global hunger. In 2005, the G8 leaders promised to increase aid to Africa by $25 billion by 2010. This has not happened. This month the G20 summit will be held in Pennsylvania. World Vision is urging those leaders to take action to meet the first Millennium Development goal of halving the number of hungry people in the world.
Go here to read the rest of the story.
Today, President Obama spoke to the nation’s students. He spoke of things like personal responsibility, persistence, working hard, listening to teachers, and other values that students need to have to be successful in school and in life. The things that he talked about are the same values held by those who didn’t want their children to hear the President.
Those parents who kept their children home certainly have that right. I believe that there is one lesson that those children learned today. They learned that you shouldn’t listen to people you disagree with, that you shouldn’t be open to learning things from people who see things differently, because you might find out that they are human beings too, and that you might have more in common with them than you think.
Yesterday, I wrote about wish-dreams and how we need to let them die and be open to the dream that God has for us. Many times in churches those wish-dreams revolve around building community and unity within the church.
Community is seen as something that can be created. Things such as home groups, Sunday School classes, separate men’s and women’s groups, and youth groups are put in place in an attempt to bring about community. Usually these groups are based on something that the members already have in common, such as age, gender, or location. Sometimes they are formed around certain subjects. Some churches simply rely on their members attendance at every service or event.
Unity is usually centered around agreement on certain doctrines or practices. In the circles in which I grew up, those who were trying to foster unity among the various Christian denominations were seen as soft on doctrine, or even as heretics. According to this view, heaven would be a sparsely populated place, or if others did make it, they would be far from the throne.
As a church leader trying to bring about change in a congregation, I fell into the trap of thinking that community could be created by having a more laid back, contemporary style of worship with comfortable furniture, and small groups through the week. Unity would come about when everyone came to see that a more up to date, “relevant” way of worshiping and presenting the Gospel was the way to go. As I began to question some of the things I had been taught, I even thought unity would happen when we all felt free to question. I’ve come to believe that all of those ways of seeing community and unity are wrong.
I think community is something that can not be created by us. We can spend time with people, serve with them, worship together, but community happens as the Spirit pulls us closer to each other and, as a group, closer to God. Community can come about in groups that are combinations of age, gender, etc. Our differences contribute to community, rather than detract from it. Unity is also something that can not be created. If it comes about through human effort, there will eventually be some doctrine or practice that will drive a wedge into a church.
I think Bonhoeffer was right when he said that that our unity is in and through Jesus Christ. The same thing could be said for community. It is not in agreement on doctrine, practice, politics, or any thing else. Unity based on those things can quickly disappear. If our community and unity is in and because of Christ, we can disagree with others about politics, ways of doing things, and areas where Scripture is interpreted differently. If we have the most important thing in common – Jesus, then we are unified. We are not told in Scripture to unify. We are told to make every effort to keep the unity that we have. We can destroy that unity by getting our focus on our own desires and ideas, or our wish-dreams. We must keep our focus on Jesus, and on his command to us to love others as he has loved us. The one sign that Jesus said would show that we belong to him is loving each other.
Let us strive to keep the unity we have been given by loving each other and focusing on Jesus.
Last Sunday, the discussion centered around the death of “wish-dreams.” Wish-dreams are those things that we want to happen, and we all have them. We can have them in any area of our lives. A man can marry a woman and believe that she is going to meet his every need and be the perfect wife. A woman can believe that the man she marries will be her knight in shining armor and make everything right. Parents have wish-dreams for their children. You can see this by looking at the adults at any sporting event their child is a part of. Leaders and members of churches also have certain things that they expect to see in those churches. These are their wish-dreams.
The problem with wish-dreams is that they usually do not come true. Often they crash and burn with disastrous results. Marriages break up when a spouse doesn’t match the ideal and one partner cannot change the other. Young athletes burn out because of the pressure put on them by parents trying to live vicariously through their children. People bounce from church to church trying to find that ideal congregation that will be heaven on earth.
Wish-dreams die. Sometimes God kills them. We can either continue to pursue them and become disillusioned and bitter, or we can give them up and allow the Father to take us where he wants us. I have been through the process of watching dreams crumble and die. While painful, it is a necessary part of our growth as followers of Jesus. As we give up our dreams, God can replace them with his dreams for us.
I was originally going to write about the relationship between wish-dreams and unity, but I’ll give your eyes a rest by continuing this tomorrow. (Plus, I’ve always wanted to post a “series”) 🙂
What a week! This has been a very busy one. I have a couple of things rattling around in my head, but they’ll have to wait for another day.
Here’s the stuff for this week:
This is very, very funny. I think so, at least. A humble prayer from Megan Twietmeyer. Todd Hiestand coins a new word. Alan Knox has a three part series on the unhypocritical church. He’s posted all three parts here. Barb is responding, not initiating. The smell of (d)emocracy. Francis Schaeffer, Toby Keith, and the Watchman. You get one life. A new kind of fundamentalist (HT: Jonathan Brink).
Dan Edelen has a very good post in his equipping the saints series. Find it here. Read the other posts too. What would you say? Scot Mcknight has some fun. This is funny (HT: Scot Mcknight). John Armstron asks what the church will do.
If you have Monday off, enjoy your long weekend. If not, enjoy the weekend you have.
Anyone can be an advocate for for justice and poverty reduction. You don’t have to have a lot of money, or be an adult to make a difference. Read this story about a teen who found a way to raise money to provide clean water for an impoverished community in northern Ghana.
History broke into life again this week with the passing of Edward Kennedy. Whether you agree with his politics or not, he had a huge effect on this country during his time as senator.
Other stuff happened this week, some of it in the blogosphere. Here are the links for this week:
Stop taking the Bible so seriously! Amy writes about waiting. Jared Wilson has 5 ways to feel Scripture. Sometimes things happen that change all your plans. Kids these days. Jonathan Brink on questioning authority. Jeff McQ interviews himself on his 500th post. Do you think he needs help? I’m just sayin‘. God the cosmic janitor. Dan Edelen on simple genius.
McKnight on Bonhoeffer. The Beloit College mindset list for the class of 2013 (HT: Scot Mcknight). A little while ago, some imonk readers received free copies of Andrew Marin’s book, Love Is An Orientation. Here are some of their reviews. Unbelievable. A great explanation of simple church. Lessons from the bush.
Have a great weekend.