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Christianity’s Fatal Slide Into Politicism
English: Detail of Preamble to Constitution of the United States Polski: Fragment preambuły Konstytucji Stanów Zjednoczonych (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today’s tip o’ the hat goes to Matt Dabbs, whose Kingdom Living blog is one of the blogs that I regularly follow. Matt has been carrying on a conversation regarding the recent discussion on gun control. In his most recent post he received a comment that was illuminating to me, and Matt’s response was even more illuminating. I would like to add my two cents worth here.
In his response, Matt pointed out how as government (specifically the US government, but it can be true of any other government) expands two things happen. One, the government takes more responsibilities away from the individual citizen. Just think of the ways in which the US government has taken over responsibilities that were once the sole obligation of an individual or family – retirement, health care, education, occupational safety, food safety, even such things as mandating the way in which we drive our vehicles and how wide the gaps can be between slats in a baby crib. The federal government has a say in virtually everything we do today – you cannot even mow your lawn today with a gas powered mower without dealing with a dozen safety modifications that were mandated by the federal government because some ninny thought it would be a good idea to stick his hand under a mower with the engine running.
As these encroachments have occurred there have been some grumbling but few outright rebellions. We (or at least most of we) think that Social Security is a good thing, and that having someone make sure the beef we buy at the supermarket is safe is a pretty good idea. So, little by little, bit by bit, inch by inch we surrender our “God given” responsibilities and for the most part we do not even whimper. So the federal government tells our schools what to teach? Oh, well, who’s playing in the Super Bowl this year? The federal government mandates that I have to pay a chunk of my salary to a national ponzi scheme known as Social Security? Rats, I think I misplaced a cuff link. What’s fer supper, Grandpa?
The second thing that happens is the corresponding reduction in the number of “freedoms.” But, you let just one bill get introduced either in the House of Representatives or Senate that restricts a so-called “right” and you would think the sky was falling. Where is Chicken Little when you need her? It is obvious that we have a problem in the United States regarding the proper ownership and use of guns. But, unlike the federal creep into the realm of responsibilities, you let one representative or senator mention “well regulating” the “right to bear arms” and shazaam, that senator or representative is viewed as popularly as Adolf Hitler in all his brown shirt glory. There is an obvious disconnect here, and it could be argued that one of the main reasons the United States is in it’s current state of moral collapse is that we as a culture have surrendered all of our fundamental responsibilities to “Big Brother” without a corresponding relinquishment of our so-called “inalienable rights.”
Simply stated, you cannot have the one without the obligation of the other. If we want the freedoms we must shoulder the responsibilities. If we want the government to care for us cradle to grave, then we have to relinquish the power of self-determination.
I have read the Bible through and through a number of times. Pardon me if I am missing it, but I simply cannot find in the pages of Scripture where a human is afforded the “God given” rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Prior to the coming of Jesus, God’s chosen people spent almost as much time in captivity as they did in their national freedom. Jesus was born at a time when the Jewish people were dominated by a foreign power. After it’s inception the church spent the first 300 years of its existence speaking from the minority position – sometimes abused, sometimes persecuted, more often simply ignored.
The amazing thing is that it was during these periods of slavery, abuse and persecution that God’s people actually thrived: the Israelites in Egypt, the Jews in Babylon, the Jews under the Roman Caesars, the church in its many persecutions. It is a fact of history that when faith in God becomes a “national” process that the purity of the faith declines precipitously. Note the kingdom of Israel under Solomon and his successors, the “imperial” church under Constantine and his followers. There appears to be a natural law that the more faith in God becomes entwined with secular politics, the more corrupt and dysfunctional that faith becomes.
So what does all of this have to do with doing theology in the fog of contemporary life? Simply this: we as disciples of Christ in the 21st century who live in the United States need to decide once and for all whether we are going to be slaves of Christ or whether we are going to be slaves of the Constitution. There are many things about the United States that makes me proud and thankful to be born an American. But I have to remind myself that my birth in America was simply an accident of nature, and that there are many, many other things about the United States that are profoundly disturbing to me.
The fact is, the closer a person gets to the crucified Son of God, the further one must separate himself or herself from the US Constitution. The Constitution was written from the bottom up. It’s source of power is “We the People.” It is a purely humanistic document. The disciple of Christ gets his or her power from the top down. The source for the power of a disciple of Christ is God Himself. When you make the confession that “Jesus is Lord” you are making a political statement as well as a religious one. You are stating your allegiance to the cross and everything for which it stands, not the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands.
The Church of Christ is not a national church. It is trans-national. It is uber-national. It is meta-national. It is all of God’s people joined in the simple yet profound allegiance to Jesus as the Messiah and to God as the Father.
To all my readers outside of the US, sorry that I have spent so much time addressing American issues. Be grateful to be where you are. God has made it possible to be a part of his kingdom regardless of your place of birth or residence. Thankfully, that includes the United States.
Sermon – “Crossing the Rubicon”
Here is the text (more or less verbatim) of the sermon I preached on 12/30/12 at the Third and Kilgore congregation in Portales, NM. I do not have access to a a website that can upload sermon audio, so I had to go with a written text.
The year was 49 BC. The place – Gaul, just north of the country of Italy. The person was Julius “not quite yet” Caesar. The situation – by law if Julius, a general in the Roman army, wanted to enter into Italy he had to relinquish his military position and surrender the power of he “Imperium” he held in Gaul. As he camped at the river Rubicon he debated his options. If he crossed the Rubicon river with his army he would be declaring his rebellion from Pompey – an act of treason. He would be under a death sentence. Every man who followed him armed for battle would be under a death sentence.
The Rubicon. Crossing the river by Denis Davydov Squadron. 1812. Oil on canvas. 150 x 210 cm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
After some deliberation Julius “not quite yet Caesar” did cross the Rubicon, and as he did so he is reported to have said, “The die is cast.” There would be no turning back.
Flash forward about 80 years. A wandering rabbi sits on a mountainside and calls his disciples to him. As his disciples and others listen to his teaching, they realize that there is something unique, powerful, about this particular rabbi. They also realize that if they follow this new teaching they will be “crossing the Rubicon” in relation to their world. There will be no turning back.
I want to use the imagery of “crossing the Rubicon” to illustrate two points this morning. If I am right in these two points then the third point will be a call to respond, a call to action as it were.
#1 – The United States has crossed a cultural Rubicon in a very profound way. It is my opinion that there is no way to alter its direction short of a major collapse or a major spiritual uprising. It has been headed in this direction for more than a generation, but has picked up speed tremendously in the past decade. The last election virtually “sealed the deal” in the mindset of the American people. Just notice, for example, the tremendous difference between John F. Kennedy and Barack Hussein Obama. Kennedy spoke those immortal words, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Obama has cemented in the American mind the idea that the only reason government exists is to bestow entitlements to its citizens. A majority of Americans are now dependent upon the government in some form or fashion. How will anyone convince them to relinquish any of these “entitlements?”
Two, There has also been a staggering shift in the moral understanding of Americans. This is clearly, but not exclusively, demonstrated in the acceptance and even advancement of homosexual behavior and same sex marriage.
#2 – This first point places those who would follow the rabbi from Nazareth in a very small and shrinking minority.
If it was ever true that the United States was a Christian nation it no longer is true.
If God was truly honored and worshipped, the Constitution could be a living and vibrant document that heralds justice and freedom for all.
But, if you remove God then the Constitution becomes a wicked and humanistic piece of paper, subject to the whims and fancies of those who interpret it.
Worse, it has become an idol. It is something that is visible and on a surface level points to a supreme being, but is simply a human construct full of human depravity.
And so – we return to that mountainside and we strain our ears to hear the words of that Nazarene rabbi, knowing that those words are a call to “cross the Rubicon” and declare our allegiance to God and to reject Satan and the rule of this world.
- Blessed are the poor in spirit.
- Blessed are those who mourn.
- Blessed are the gentle.
- Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
- Blessed are the merciful.
- Blessed are the pure in heart.
- Blessed are the peacemakers.
- Blessed are those who are persecuted for God’s sake.
- Disciples are salt and light in a bent and broken world.
- Avoid murder by avoiding hate.
- Avoid adultery by avoiding lust.
- Honor marriage.
- Tell the truth, first and always.
- Go the second mile.
- Love your enemies.
- Give without expecting return.
- Pray as a child to a parent.
- Fast fervently.
- Hold to God, not your possessions.
- Do not be anxious.
- Do not judge.
- Seek God’s kingdom, not your own nor that of the rule of Satan.
# 3 – So, we must decide where our loyalty lies – with God or this world.
I was truly shocked, dismayed and heartbroken when, almost within hours of the events of 12/14/12 my Facebook page was full of postings by Christians, some of them even gospel preachers, responding to the murders of 26 innocent people by declaring that the most important thing to them was the ownership of their guns. No reference to being ruled by the Prince of Peace. No thought to the fact that we are to be a people that rejects violence and turns the other cheek. No consideration to the Sermon on the Mount at all – just an endless repetition of quotations defending the Constitution and the 2nd amendment in particular.
Brothers and sisters, we must – it is imperative – we cannot overlook Christ’s demand for us to declare our loyalty. Are we going to be loyal to Christ and His kingdom or this world?
Second, we must commit. We must learn to view baptism as a “crossing of the Rubicon” in a spiritual sense. This is especially true of those who have already made this confession. When we confess that Jesus is the Lord we are saying something profoundly political. That was the most treasonous statement a person could make in the first century AD. The law was you had to confess “Caesar is Lord.” Christians could not do that. They had already confessed “Jesus is Lord.” There could not be two Lords in their life. And so, when they said “Jesus is Lord” and went under the waters of baptism they were crossing a spiritual and a political Rubicon. They were placing themselves under a death sentence. Many did pay with their lives, others paid by losing property or jobs or family connections. We must learn the significance of those three words again. We cannot have two Lords in our life!
For those who have not made that confession, please stop and consider what you will be doing when you make the good confession. You are not just doing something so you can take communion every Sunday. You are not doing something just to make your parents happy. You are not doing something just so you will not be the last one in the youth group to be baptized. You are making a profound statement. You are confessing that Jesus is the Lord of your life. Do not make that decision lightly.
Third, we must live like this world is no longer our home. Two passages in particular come to mind as I think of this truth. Philippians 3:20 states that “our citizenship is in heaven.” There it is – no having to parse out that thought. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God and that is where our allegiance lies. Second, Hebrews 13:14 says that “here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come.” That’s right, we do not have a lasting city on this earth, but there is a city that is to come that we are citizens of, and we await its arrival. We have to choose which city we want to be a part of. It will be an eternal decision.
I want to close by giving a quote from one of my favorite authors. This short passage sums up completely what this lesson has been about. If I am correct, and I certainly do believe that I am, the words I have spoken this morning are critical words for us to hear at this time in our history. And so, these words from an earlier generation come down to us with an urgency that I hope we can all learn to feel:
The cross is not the terrible end of a pious and happy life. Instead, it stands at the beginning of community with Jesus Christ. Whenever Christ calls us, his call leads us to death. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship.
(Note: the Scripture notation was corrected to read Philippians 3:20. Sorry about the earlier slip of the finger.)
It’s Not Political – It is Spiritual
Cross & Clouds (Photo credit: John H Wright Photo)
I want to begin by thanking many of you for the comments and observations on my post yesterday. In one response the comment was made that it was “provocative” and I must admit to a certain degree of emotion as I wrote the piece. Sometimes I do my best thinking when I am really worked up about something. On another day I would have written differently, although I stand by what I have written absolutely.
What I want to stress is that I am not writing as a political pundit. This is not political for me. It is spiritual. Governments rise and fall, powers shift in an endless ocean of greed, hate, selfishness and rebellion. That will never change, no matter what we might think or write.
But if you believe in the God of the Bible you must also believe that this world is not everything that there is. There is something beyond us – a great unknown in which all will be made right and the lion will indeed lay down with the lamb. That Kingdom, that reign of peace and righteousness is promised to those who trust utterly in the God who made this world and the world to come. The Kingdom came near in the person of Jesus of Nazareth who showed us, in incarnate human form, what the Kingdom could be here on earth if we would but “trust and obey” the reign of the King.
Although God had revealed himself in many ways previous to the coming of Jesus, mankind always wanted something better. In the garden of Eden instead of glorying in the fact that he was made “in the image of God,” man decided that it was better to be “like God” and so he threw his deepest sense of humanity away – and he ended up neither “like God” nor in the image of God any longer. Throughout mankind’s long history he has been searching to regain that lost “image” and the best he can come up with are “images” of his god in the shape of animals or totems. In the history of Israel, God’s chosen people, this happened repeatedly, until God finally punished his people by sending them into exile. The punishment worked – you never read of Israel as a nation falling into idol worship following the return from Babylon.
In the decades immediately following the death of Jesus we can see in the pages of recorded history how deeply Jesus’ message of being “reborn” in the image of God affected his disciples. When the Roman authorities would attempt to force them to utter the words, “Caesar is Lord” the disciples would refuse, because when they made the “good confession” that “Jesus is Lord” they meant it. They could not mouth the words, even knowing they did not believe the words, because even the mere vocalization of the consonants and vowels would have been bowing the knee to an idol. Because of their abject refusal to do so, many lost their lives. Others had property confiscated, were beaten, or otherwise punished.
Today, now almost 2,000 years removed from the death of Jesus, his people who live in the United States are faced with another defining moment. I have been writing, in fits and starts, about how I have come to view the Constitution as a form of an idol, an “American Idol.” The events of 12/14/12 crystalized that observation in my mind. I have been deeply touched by the fact that several, perhaps many, others are waking up to the same realization. Perhaps they have held it for many years and I was simply unaware of it. I am personally horrified to realize how long I have been blind to this reality.
If the blind shall lead the blind, they both will fall into the pit. (Matthew 15:14)
I want people to wake up and realize that this is a spiritual problem, not a political one. Oh, and I do not mean putting prayer back into the schools or posting the 10 Commandments back on the walls of the court houses. What I am talking about is removing the idol from the hearts of Christians and putting Jesus back in His proper place.
In my limited discussions with radical gun advocates following the massacre in Newtown the only response I get is “my right to own any gun and any ammunition is guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment.” There is no logic applied, no connection to the Kingdom of God, certainly no submission to the Prince of Peace. Just a pathetic, ignorant, reflexive appeal to a brief and profoundly misunderstood phrase in a man made and deeply flawed piece of human governance. So there you have it. An idol, shaped out of cold steel, wood or perhaps composite materials, and shrouded in an ink stained piece of parchment. Just as the ancient idols needed to be nailed to the floor lest they fall over, this idol needs to be nailed to the floor with poor arguments (guns don’t kill people…if you take away all the guns, only criminals will have guns) lest they fall over and everyone can see how pitiful their gods really are.
I cannot believe I have been so blind. I was one of those people. I mouthed the words. What is worse, at one time I actually believed those words. God forgive me for my ignorance and my idolatry. Now, we are living in a culture in which the ownership of a gun and the defense of the same is made a defining feature of what it means to be a Christian. If you are against unlimited gun ownership you are against the Constitution, and since the Constitution is founded on Christian principles (so the argument goes, I profoundly disagree) ipso facto you cannot be a Christian.
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” (Isaiah 5:20-21)
America has become so inwardly focused, so in love with its individualism that even the concept itself has become demonical. It has taken on a life of its own. America today is all about the one, the individual, my rights, my freedoms, my way of doing things. But the Scriptures teach us that the Kingdom of God is focused on the other! The primary other is God himself, but even here in our daily walk we are to consider others more highly than ourselves, we are to lift the loads of the other, we are to bind up the wounds of the other, we are to willingly surrender our rights so that the life of the other is made better. Our America is 180 degrees out of phase with the New Testament. We cannot support this American way of life and at the same time claim to be followers of the Crucified One. The cross itself is the pinnacle of selflessness, and it was in the shadow of the cross that the message of the Kingdom of God spread like a wildfire.
Therefore, it is my firm conviction that you cannot replace God’s word with a fallible, broken human document and at the same time claim to be His disciple. You cannot worship an idol and the true and living God.
“Choose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15)
Some have responded that I am being too harsh – that I cannot equate equate unqualified defense of the 2nd Amendment (or the Constitution as a whole) with idolatry. To which I simply respond: What is your definition of an idol? An idol is anything that replaces our trust, our affection, our devotion to God.
“Jesus replied, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37, 38)
It is not political, people. It is spiritual. And, if it is spiritual, our eternal destiny hangs in the balance. Do not be mislead by fine sounding but inwardly rotten arguments. Idols have never worked. They will not work in the 21st century any better than they worked in the 8th century BC or the 1st century AD.
Please, for our children and our grandchildren – we must wake up!
The Decade That Changed America
The forward magazines of the U.S. Navy battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) explode shortly after 08:00 hrs during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (USA), 7 December 1941. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today is December 7, 2012, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. As I ponder this event I cannot help but consider the changes that have reshaped America in the past decade. Just for a moment, consider how America responded to the unprecedented attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and how America has responded to the equally unprecedented attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. The two narratives could not be any more distinct.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor the President of the United States addressed the joint houses of Congress and requested a declaration of war. Following the attacks on New York and Washington the President of the United States promised retribution, but did not seek, nor did he receive, a declaration of war. In 1941 and following the people of the United States knew they would have to make personal sacrifices on many different levels before the war would end. In the years following 9/11 Americans have not only refused to sacrifice, we have complained bitterly about the expense of fighting our “enemy.” In 1941 we knew exactly who that enemy was. In 2001 and following we only have a vague idea of who the “enemy” is, and too frequently we have befriended our enemy and killed our friends. In the years following World War II America was still largely an agrarian culture, and the work ethic was what drove the exploding economic opportunities. After ridding the world of the threat of National Socialism (the Nazis and the Japanese Imperialists), it was generally assumed that nothing could stop someone who had a dream, a plan, and a bucket full of elbow grease and determination. In the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, those who survived the tragedy and the survivors of those who died lined up at the doors of the government demanding to be paid for their losses. Instead of “asking what they could do for their country” (in President Kennedy’s great phrase), they demanded that their country sacrifice for them. That, in one single vignette, illustrates the profound difference between 1945 and 2001. Our moral fiber has only disintegrated from that point.
In my last post I made the following observation:
This past election was truly an eye opening experience for me. In this election cycle I tried to listen and read what the candidates and the pundits in the media were saying (and writing) from a theological vantage point. In other words, I was trying to hear what was being said within the broad structures of God’s Word and also within the structures of God’s actions in similar situations in times past. What I discovered was truly disconcerting. I am not one who buys into the “Chicken Little” theory of American politics (“the sky is falling, the sky is falling”) but I do sense that over the past 8 years America has past beyond a “tipping point” and I do not believe there is any return (short of a cataclysm). When the eventual results of this move will become obvious I have no way of knowing, but I do believe that day is inevitable.
I would like to expound on that just a moment.
In this past election the citizens of the United States had a stark choice to make. On one level there really was not that much of a difference between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. But, on another level there was a profound difference. President Obama, for all of his oratorical skills and political acumen, knows absolutely nothing about fundamental economic principles. Despite my hesitations about Mitt Romney’s ethics, I at least knew that Romney understood how a company works, and how companies work together in an economic spider-web. Romney understood that in order for businesses to succeed the government was going to have to pull back – at least to some degree. In Obama’s world, the only reason businesses exist is to provide income for the government to increase it’s stranglehold on every facet of American life.
Americans voted overwhelmingly in favor of Obama’s socialist view of government, where the state is to be the overlord and dictator of all decisions involving a person’s life from the cradle to the grave. It wasn’t even really close. Instead of Kennedy’s vision of all Americans pulling on the same rope at the same time to keep the American dream moving forward, we now have each American pulling on a single strand of the rope in the hopes that the government will give him or her just one more perk, one more entitlement, one more “guaranteed freedom.” In a staggering reversal of fortune, we have turned our government “of the people, by the people, for the people” over to the National Socialists.
Think about how America has changed, and how quickly it has changed. My grandparents were among the first generation to enjoy the “fruit” of Social Security. By all accounts, Social Security will not exist by the time my daughter reaches the age of 65, and that is assuming America still stands as a republic in 2071. That is four generations, folks. Our current rate of expanding “entitlements” means that we as a culture will be financially and morally bankrupt in far less time. And, lest you think that I am crying “wolf” when there is no wolf, simply answer this question for me: when, in the long history of human existence, has a populace voluntarily chosen to relinquish privileges and status that a previous generation has enjoyed? Our baby-boomer generation is now entering their retirement years which is placing an increasing burden on those who are working. The number of those who are working is getting smaller. Every “social safety net” that has been voted into existence has only expanded – none have contracted. Every session of congress that net gets bigger and those “saved” by the net demand more and more from those who are providing the services.
At some point the balances tip past equality, and the burdens of the welfare state exceed the ability of the working class to support it. It is my contention that the first clear indication that America is moving headlong into collapse was the overwhelming support President Obama received for his vision of national socialism.
So, since this is a blog concerning all things theological and not necessarily political (although the two can never be separated), what is the disciple of Christ supposed to do?
First, a few things he or she should not do. One, running out and buying an arsenal of guns and a warehouse full of ammunition is not only foolhardy, it is positively unchristian. We will not overcome this evil at the point of a gun. If you trust in Smith and Wesson then it is blatantly obvious to me that you do not trust in Jesus the Messiah.
Next, circulating or signing a petition to secede from the Union is equally foolish. Political stunts such as that not only feed our opponents prejudices against us, they are further proof that we do not trust in the power of God, but that we are relying solely upon our own human wisdom and ideas. God repeatedly communicated to Isaiah that the Israelites were NOT to send to Egypt for military support. It was a good political strategy, and maybe at one point could have been considered a sound military strategy, but it was a pathetic spiritual response to their crisis. Which then leads me to my theological response to our current situation.
Disciples of Christ must return to their faith. I know that sounds like a stupid comment, but it is absolutely true and necessary. For far too long we have been concentrating on impossibly small and meaningless arguments while the soul of America has been radically transformed. God, Jesus, sacrifice, redemption, transformation and Holy living must once again become the focus of our message. If we are to leave a heritage to our children of a free and prosperous country, we are going to have to build a foundation one human soul at a time. We are going to have to preach a message of sin and grace, corruption and salvation and we are going to have to pray for the Holy Spirit to move in a profound and decisive manner once again. We are going to have to return to the fortitude that is illustrated by the disciples in the book of Acts if we hope to make a difference in this world. And that means we are going to have to say unpopular, unpatriotic, and politically incorrect things and risk the consequences.
I said that a day of judgment is coming – and I believe that. But I also believe in God’s grace and God’s forbearance. I believe that he can relent, or he can lessen the fall that justice demands. That is the story of God’s dealing with his faithful in the past. The question for disciples today is whether we believe in that grace, and if we are willing to humble ourselves to approach God to ask for that grace. That is the question the next decade will answer.
People Cannot Follow If They Are Not Led
“Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem” by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
My daily Bible reading had me in the book of Lamentations this morning. One of the real blessings of my daily Bible reading is that my schedule calls for me to read a section long enough to be challenging, yet not so long as to be oppressive (or, at least in my mind. YMMV). Just to let you know, I read anywhere from 7-8 chapters a day, not counting Sundays when I have a different schedule. Even though this is a lengthy reading, every so often one or two verses jump out at me as if I have never read them before. That is what I find so interesting about this particular plan. The text speaks to me in its own way, rather than me telling the text that it has to say something to me. Of course, sometimes I am so distracted that I can’t hear any of the verses, but that is okay because I know that tomorrow is a new day, and I will read that passage again in due course and at that time it may speak volumes to me.
So, as I was saying, today I was in Lamentations. Now, I don’t know about you, but I cannot recall ever hearing a sermon taken from Lamentations, and to the best of my recollection, I have only preached one. So, as I was reading along and following the prophet’s anguished cries over the destruction of Jerusalem I came across 4:13, which in my Common English Bible reads this way:
It was because of her prophets’ sins, her priests’ iniquities, those who shed righteous blood in the middle of the city.
Wow. Reading the books of Kings and Chronicles and the prophets you would get the idea that Israel and Judah were punished because of the sins of the kings. The author of Lamentations thinks otherwise. Oh, to be sure, the kings were a sinful bunch (at least all of Israel’s kings were, and a great many of Judah’s). But the author of Lamentations (Jeremiah?) saw through to the real lack of leadership – the spiritual leaders.
Today, especially among conservative pundits, bloggers, and preachers, the entire problem with the United States resides solely in the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Why, if we could just sweep out the mean, nasty, ugly heatherns that are making all those mean, nasty heathern laws, well we could fix up the country just like she should be.
I don’t think God is going to give our political leaders a pass when it comes to morality and the way in which they have led our country. But I think there is another group that is going to get a lot more scrutiny than I think they are going to be comfortable with, and that is all those conservative pundits, bloggers and preachers that are calling for the roof to fall in on all the liberal politicians.
Simply put, the people cannot go where they are not led. And if the so called leaders who are complaining the loudest are not forging a way for the people to follow, then they need to shut up. And if they are forging that path, then they need to shepherd those who are following instead of shooting arrows at the other guys.
Real leadership involves more than just identifying where the other guys are wrong. It means that you have to both teach and live the ideas that you believe are right. Leadership does not mean holding up a wind sock and then going in the direction of the prevailing current. It means setting your course and courageously maintaining that course whether the wind is at your back and the sun is shining brightly or if the wind blowing mercilessly against you and the sun is hidden by the clouds. The one who says, “I will take a poll and whatever my people feel is best, that I will do” is not a leader. That person is a charlatan. That person is a fake. That person is a coward.
Real leadership means standing at the point, and quite often standing alone, to take the arrows from the enemy in front and, quite frequently, arrows from the discontented hiding behind. Leadership is not acquiescing to the whims of the majority, but it is confidently proclaiming the way of truth and safety. Real leadership means that the leader makes demands that might at times cause his or her followers to make sacrifices. Fake leadership promises only blessings and success.
As I view the religious scene in the United States I see a lot of men (and women) who are comfortable in their positions who have done their homework well and know exactly where the winds of popularity are blowing. They know how to play the game of politics with brutal, almost demonic efficiency. They know how to play the fearless general when necessary and they also know when to pull out the robe of the martyred hero when the situation calls for it.
Jeremiah provides the perfect illustration of the concept of Godly leadership in a time of personal unpopularity. He tried desperately, with only minimal and fleeting success, to get the people to hear and accept God’s truth when virtually every power – political and religious – was against him. He may have lost the battle, but we have his story as a lasting tribute to the necessity of having spiritual leaders who are willing to go against the current of modern culture in order to speak the word of God.
English: South façade of the White House, the executive mansion of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Español: Fachada sur de la Casa Blanca, la residencia oficial del Presidente de los Estados Unidos, situado en 1600 Avenida Pennsylvania en Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I am really growing weary of preachers who stand in the pulpit and declare that the real problem with American resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. No. That person is just the result of the real problem with America.
The real problem with America stands behind the pulpit every Sunday morning and preaches a false word – a lying deception. The real problem with America is the spiritual leader who refuses first to hear the Word of God, and so refuses to proclaim it. The real problem with America are the so called “conservative” preachers who preach week in and week out “peace, peace” when there is no peace.
If the preachers in the pulpit would lead the people in the pew, then the president on Pennsylvania Ave. would be of no consequence. If our politicians have so much authority in the realm of morality and ethics, exactly whose fault is that?
Meditations for American Christians
AVHRR satellite image of the 48 contiguous states of the United States. Español: Mapa de los 48 estados continentales contiguos de los Estados Unidos. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As I write this the political rhetoric is heating up on both sides of a bitterly contested election. The words I offer here are appropriate for this time, but I also believe they are appropriate for every time – I hope they transcend the limits of a particular time and circumstance. So, I offer a few meditations that I hope you will find are worthy for us as disciples to consider, now and at many times in the future.
1. America, the United States, is a wonderful country, but it is not the “promised land” of the Old Testament nor is it the “new Jerusalem” of the New Testament. We are a creation of time and circumstance, both blessed and cursed by our constitutional republic, and susceptible to every vice and sin known to other countries.
2. Disciples of Christ in America have taken advantage of our great freedoms and opportunities and have done great things both in America and throughout the world. We need to be thankful for our forefathers and foremothers.
3. Disciples of Christ in America have done untold damage both in America and throughout the world. We are not perfect, and to say that we have not been guilty of racism, militarism, greed, and covetousness would be to utter a profound lie.
4. While it would not be wrong to pray for God to “Bless America,” neither would it be wrong to pray for God to “Bless Canada, Mexico, England, France, Germany, – in fact, the whole world!” We are not God’s chosen country. We are not God’s chosen people. We certainly have enjoyed many blessings – but God makes the sun rise on all this place we call earth, not just the United States.
5. While it would not be wrong to ask for God to “Bless America,” it would be far more appropriate to pray that America would once again honor God. Let’s face it – why should God want to bless us when we so utterly disrespect him? We have removed God from the city square, from our schools, from the center of public discourse and increasingly we have removed him from the pulpit of our churches. And we want him to bless us? Um, I ask again, why should he?
And so, as recipients of some of the greatest gifts and freedoms that have ever been enjoyed by human beings, we as Christians in the United States need to pray a prayer of thanks to God – thanks for things that we receive that we have not earned and that we have no right to expect. We need to pray for forgiveness – for the sins of our fathers and our own failings. And we need to ask God for strength to do better – to right the wrongs that we see and we need to pray for vision to see the wrongs to which we are currently blind.
As disciples of Christ, we should be far less concerned about the political situation in our country and we should be far more concerned about the spiritual condition of our own places of worship and our own hearts. It is always easier to stick our noses in someone else’s business than it is to take care of our own. The world has a right to reject our call to follow Jesus if we who claim the name refuse to play the game. While we do not need, and it would actually be wrong, to forget the world and only focus on ourselves, let us be careful to “remove the plank from our own eye” before we attempt to “remove the speck from the world’s eye.”
Our Heavenly Father, so many times we get things all wrong. We ask you to bless us when we are cursing you. We place ourselves in a position of expecting blessings for which we have no right to ask. We congratulate ourselves for victories we did not win and we blame others for our own miserable defeats. In other words, we are following in the footsteps of so many of our spiritual fathers and mothers.
We pray for forgiveness of these and our other many sins. We are proud, stiff-necked and rebellious. We glory in our military and our self-sufficiency. We claim to be gloriously attired, not realizing how poor and naked we really are. Forgive us, Father, not because we deserve it, but because it is in your nature to do so.
We ask for strength to do better. We need to clean up our own nest. We need to tear down our idol poles and our high places and we need to burn them in Gehenna. We need to purify our places of worship, and then we need to purify our public square. But first, Heavenly Father, we pray with David that you will purify our hearts. Make us new people, and then possibly we can make our world a new world.
Teach us to be more grateful, dear God. We are such a blessed people, even when we are blind to those blessings. We are free. We are prosperous. We have more natural resources than we can possibly use. We have more beauty than we can see in a lifetime. We are well fed. We have more leisure time than any society before us. And yet we complain and whine and bicker. Before we lose what we have, teach us to see it, and to be thankful for it.
Bless our neighbors with your love as you have blessed us. Show others the depth of your grace as you have shown it to us. Let others see the love of your Son as you have shown him to us. May we be instruments of your mercy as others have demonstrated your mercy to us. Let us shine your light in every dark corner of our country, and then in the world.
We are sorry for our arrogance, but we are thankful for your love. Like disobedient children who see the pain we cause our parents, we do see the pain we cause you, and we are sorry. As a loving parent who must discipline, yet who forgives a wayward child, we ask you to discipline us in your love, but to forgive and to hold us close to your loving breast.
We ask, for we cannot do any other, in Jesus name,
Amen.
