Friday, October 30, 2020

Keeping Our Message and Allegiance Clear

            I checked my calendar today as I sat down to write, and I was relieved to notice that election day is less than a week away.  I bet that many of you are as exasperated as I am with political robo-calls and junk mail.  I’m sick of ads on my radio and on my screens.  I’m really sick of all the political posts on social media.  I just don’t want my time wasted on all these opinions slung back and forth.  Most of them are just that, opinions, without diligence paid to their factual truth.  Someone else posted them, therefore they must be true.  Personally, I follow the news, compare it with scripture, and make up my own mind.  I don’t like being told what to think, or just to accept uncritically.  Just tell me what’s going on, and with God’s help I’ll decide on my own what I think.  Each time I see a shared political opinion on my news feed, from either perspective, I block it. (Not the person who shared it, mind you, just the source they shared it from).  I’ve been doing it for years now, and I once thought that after a period of persistent blocking, I could look forward to a news feed free of political propaganda.  I’ve come to realize that this is like trying to plug a failing dam with your fingers.  Political sources reproduce like cockroaches.  No matter how many I squash, hundreds more hatch every time I turn around.  That’s because people have become more passionate, even obsessed, about politics than I have ever seen.  It gets worse with every passing year.  You can’t get away from it, no matter where you turn.  Every form of media, culture and expression of community life is infested with it.  Few safe refuges remain (though I highly recommend reading old books—what a refreshment to the soul!)

            I wouldn’t want to imply that being passionate about certain issues touching politics is a bad thing, though.  Behind all the partisan corruption, pettiness, and empty theatre (which I have NO time for), there are real issues of great moral concern to a follower of Jesus.  When innocent human life in the womb is deemed disposable at our convenience, when immoral practices are encoded into law, and oppression mounts against those who would freely voice their convictions, when religious freedom is in peril, how can a Christian not care?  The church’s role is to speak the truth even when the truth is not tolerated, to lend our voice to speak for the vulnerable, to display the love and grace of Jesus, and to proclaim repentance and forgiveness, both in season and out of season.  The world tells us that God’s truth is out of season (or, “on the wrong side of history,” as the nauseating slogan goes).  We’re called to proclaim it nonetheless, and do whatever we can to stand for those who can’t stand for themselves.  Truly, to pray, act, and raise prophetic voices on such issues is to be a faithful messenger of Christ.

            At the same time, we need to be careful that we keep our vision focused and our message undiluted.  Our allegiance to the Kingdom of God, to the Gospel, must not be confused with our allegiance to people and political parties.  The job of a Christian is to keep a bird’s-eye viewpoint of the entire situation, remembering that we are not agents of a donkey or an elephant, but of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  It’s essential that we support to those leaders whose policies are aligned with Kingdom values, and call out those same leaders when they promote a different measure that contradicts the Bible. We can never allow any human leader or party to co-opt us fully, because no human party will ever be able to faithfully or completely advance the interests of the Kingdom that Christ has shed His Blood to establish.  He will one day return to take direct rule of that Kingdom in heaven and earth, and He won’t ask us our voting record, or how many inflammatory Facebook posts we passed around.  He will evaluate whether we served His interests to the exclusion of all others.  It’s either His Kingdom, or the petty kingdoms of this world.  We must choose whether we will be friends of one or the other.  In chapter 4 of his letter, James warned us “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (verse 4)   Therefore, we must be very careful with how we lend our allegiances and our voices.  They must always advance the interests of Christ, and no one else.

            With that in mind, I urge you to study closely those who would be our leaders.  Christians must not follow passively in the current of any given group, allowing them to think for us.  We must think critically through each issue, evaluating the positions of leaders through the grid of God’s commands.  We must be like those Bereans, who received Paul’s message, but examined the scriptures every day to see whether he spoke the truth (Acts 17).

            And one, last thing: as I’ve encountered many people’s posts on Facebook, shared or otherwise, I have been struck with how bold—even evangelistic—many Christians have been in their support of their candidates and parties.  They collect posts and shares by the dozens, putting them up on the internet with great zeal.  Let me just ask this question: how bold, how evangelistic, you have been in proclaiming the way of Christ’s Kingdom by comparison?  How zealous have you been to share the good news of repentance, forgiveness, faith, and eternal life in Jesus Christ? Have you been as zealous for your King as you have your political party?  And if not, isn’t that something you should pray about? 

Food for thought.

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