Thursday, January 28, 2016

ANOTHER YEAR OF PROMISES ARE UPON US

Election year 2016 is underway in the USA.  Character assassination is front and center.  Name-calling, bloviating, and one up-man-ship will inundate the culture until Election Day, November 8.  That's the way it works in the good old USA.  In the end the people will speak and we'll get whom we get – good, bad, or indifferent.  I'm told that Abraham Lincoln once said, " “Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”
           
            As a follower of Jesus, living in a culture, I feel compelled to take my faith into the arena of life.  I don't, however, feel a need to hijack the political process and try to Christianize it.  My desire is to bring the life of Jesus into the human situation.  God, of course, has already done this.  Yet as an ambassador of an incarnational God, I am compelled to live and move and have my being in the kingdom of God, seeking to influence a broken world for the healing life of Christ.

Processing these thoughts is an interesting undertaking for me.  How involved do I become?  How vocal?  How demonstrative?  In one of his psalms King David gives me guidance.  He wrote,
Some boast in chariots and some in horses,
But we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God.              -- Psalm 20:7
There are those among us who trust in the powers that be, the strength of the military, the wisdom of the politician, the counsel of the intelligentsia. As it was in the beginning so it is now.  The problem, however, seems to be that throughout generation after generation of this strength, wisdom and counsel, we have come to the moment in history in which we now find ourselves.  And, where we now find ourselves is not a poster child for national or international health.

I contend that we have been boasting and trusting in systems that don't have the ability to do what they promise the people.  I think I believe the want to is there but in a world of people rooted and grounded in their own ideologies, many of which constantly collide, the want to, many times, gets sidelined and promises get jettisoned, and sides are taken, and things get very messy. 

Because of the messiness it is a strange world in which we live.  Will Rogers said a couple of things back in the 1930s that, sadly, still ring true.  He said, "I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."  Then he lamented and said,  "Everything is changing. People are taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke."

            All this makes me think that maybe the ancient king was on to something we need to hear in the opening years of the twenty-first century, "We will boast in the name of the Lord, our God."  Not much chance of that happening at the politically driven national or state or even local level.  There are just too many conflicting worldviews, too much money, too many strong personalities, and too many power mongers at work.  There is only one level the declaration might actually work and that is in the churches of the planet. 

            When the Church does it right, and God is truly honored, there is great opportunity for the needs facing the planet to actually be addressed. The question, however, is whether or not the Church, at this late date in history, will get it right.  Sadly, just as in culture, running rampant in the Church these days are conflicting worldviews, too much miss-directed money, to many strong personalities, and too many powerbrokers.  The Church can't seem to agree on much of anything, and Her message has become blurred, stained, culture driven, and tribal.

            So, what do we followers of Jesus do?  What do we actually bring to the court of public opinion?  My heart says Jesus has given us our mission statement, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…" and "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37, 29).

What does this mean?  It means if Hilary Clinton or Bernie Sanders is our next president we are called to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…" and "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37, 29).  It means if Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorium, or Donald Trump is our next president, we are called to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…" and "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37, 29).  It means if some as of yet unknown dark horse candidate emerges to the front and becomes our next president we are called to, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…" and "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37, 29).

I am pretty sure that who we voted for in the 2016 election will not come up when the church stands before God someday.  I am quite confident, however, that the call of Jesus might come up on that day, "For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me" (Matthew 25:35-36)

            Let the Church be the Church in 2016 and in all the years to come as God continues God's work of restoring this broken world to Himself.