The State of Our Unity, Part 2

Last week we discussed the importance of unity for our country. The idea we were getting at is that it is absolutely essential for America to have some semblance of unity if our government is going to function efficiently and effectively. This week we are going to continue our discussion of unity by narrowing our focus to a wholly more important subject: unity in the Church.

There are many things in the Church that we can fight over, theology, ecclesiology, eschatology, pneumatology, and even whether or not we sing the doxology. But as we are told in John 17:20-23, a unified Church is what shows the world the power of Christ. We can naturally infer that the opposite is also true. If we are not unified the world will not be as receptive to Christ’s redemptive work. Even a cursory survey of the Christian landscape shows just how fractured we are. Every day there are church-splits, people of different denominational backgrounds hold each other in animosity, and many of our leaders refuse to work together over, what seems to be, petty theological differences. Some will point to their own church or clique and say, “look how unified we are, we get along on almost everything!” But even the world gets along with people they like. For the Believer being united in Christ must mean, if it means anything at all, getting along with people we don’t like or agree with.

Let us examine for a moment what unity looks like for the Church. Unity is not about agreeing on everything. It has been said that if two people agree on everything one of them is worthless, the same is true with the Body. It is only by working with our theological differences that we can get a more robust understanding of who God is. No one denomination or theological framework has a corner on Truth, and by interacting with people that have differing views we will be able to recognize our own shortcomings. True unity comes despite our differences, not by forcing uniformity. Now, this is not to say that Truth is relative, we must always work within the bounds of Scripture. There are still right answers to our questions, answers we should be working towards, but being united means we work together for those answers, not against each other. To make true unity work we will all have to pray for humility and accept a degree of ambiguity, recognizing, as the Apostle Paul says, “we see through a glass dimly.”

As an example, consider one area in particular that brings divisiveness to the Body of Christ: politics. The Religious Right and Christian Left seem to be diametrically apposed to each other. Many of their publications spend a great deal of time demonizing the other side, coyly implying that their opponents are not true Christians, don’t read their Bible enough, and are actually hurting the Church. What does unity look like here? First of all it means recognizing that we are working towards a common goal. All Christians should agree that we need to alleviate poverty, reduce abortions, be good stewards of the planet, and promote strong families. The conflict is over how we deal with these issues, not whether or not we should deal with them. Conflicting views on the role of government are at the core of these disagreements, and most likely, we will never all agree on what the degree of governmental involvement on a particular issue will be. But we all should be able to work towards a common ground, finding areas that we can agree on, and then taking incremental steps from there. Despite our political differences, there is a lot of common ground we have simply by virtue of reading and submitting to the same Bible. If we focus on the things we do agree on we will do a much better job of presenting Christ to the world.

My grandmother and I were talking the other day about the divisiveness of our current political state. She asked if I thought that we will ever be rid or the partisanship and back bighting that is dominating our politics. My first reaction was to say no, human nature – coupled with our two-party system – will never allow our politicians to all get along. It is tempting to say the same for the Church: human nature will never let us be united. But that is the point of redemption. Christ died that He may take away our human nature, that which we inherited from Adam, and give us His nature as new creations. That is what can bring us unity, and that is why we must strive for it, because it is itself an act of redemption.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
-John 17:20-23

The State of Our Unity

In his first State of the Union Address, President Obama issued a call for bi-partisanship. He argued that our elected officials need to put aside their differences for the good of the country. But, as the disparity between Democrat and Republican claps-per-minute grew, the viewer was left wondering how effective that call for unity would be. Hopes for bi-partisanship began to fall when Republicans wouldn’t even clap for tax cuts, they began to fall even faster as the President threw jab after jab at his predecessor and opposition, and they down right plummeted when the Republican response highlighted how different the agendas of our two political parties actually are. We are left wondering if bi-partisanship will ever work, or if these calls for unity are merely more political propaganda.

Bi-partisanship is important in the political realm. As the recent health-care debacle has demonstrated, one party simply isn’t enough to get anything accomplished in our politically charged climate. In this way politics can be like a marriage, the two parties involved can get by without cooperating, but if they want to truly thrive, they will need to be unified. The importance of unity certainly isn’t lost on Washington, or the public for that matter, which is why so many speeches have been made on the importance of the subject. So the question remains, why are we gridlocked in this partisan mire?

The most obvious answer is that we don’t really want unity, none of us do. We want to win. We will work with the other side, but only if it accomplishes our ends, and preferably only after a thorough trouncing of the other side. Thus the incessant belittling of conservatives in the President’s speech, thus the refusal to applaud his good ideas, and thus our current knock-down, drag-out, take no prisoners assault on public opinion. It is not just the politicians desire to win that creates this atmosphere; this virus infects all of us. Special interests, lobbyists, political action committees, all of these only have as much power as society gives them. Our donations and support is what keeps these political machines running, and all to one end: to make sure we win.

So what do we do about this problem? I’m not suggesting that we all give up our agendas. The beliefs that we hold to create this tension are deep-seated, and no amount of eloquent speech will change that. What we can do is act in humility, avoid actions and words that are deliberately designed to anger our opponents and fire up our base, and act with civility in all we do. This won’t bring in a lot of money, and it won’t make any headlines, but it will contribute to an atmosphere that genuinely works for the common good.

So far we have been dealing strictly with political unity, but for Christians there is a far more important type of unity: spiritual. Our need for unity goes beyond merely needing to make a country operate, it is a plea straight from our Savior Himself. In John 18:21 Christ prays that all of the Body would be united, just as the Trinity is united. Not for ourselves, but so that the world would know that Jesus is the Messiah. The validity of our testimony rises and falls with how well we all get along. Sadly, the Church is more divided than ever. Infant baptism, tongues, church hierarchy, predestination and a host of other issues all contribute to our infighting. As with political unity, we cannot expect these controversial issues to go away, for they all are extremely important in their ramifications, but what we can do is recognize that our common bond as heirs with Christ is far more important. For it is through our unity and love for one another that the world will come to know Christ as King.

We Need a Shift in Hope

As the dust settles a few days after the startling results of the Massachusetts Senate election an interesting shift has taken place, and it goes much deeper than the alignment of our much-maligned Congress. A shift in hope has occurred. Conservatives across the entire country are walking with a bounce in their step, exuberant for their sudden change in fortunes. A common thread in all this adulation is that they feel like they have hope again; hope that things will turn out the way they want them to. The truly astounding part about this, however, is that it was only a few short months ago that the political left had this same bounce in their step, the same swagger, and the same feeling of hope. Much ink has been spilt dissecting the political ramifications of this shift in hope, but of far greater concern is the spiritual implications of placing our hope in a single politician.

The fascination with Scott Brown, and the excitement he is bringing to the Right, is nothing new. The same crowd greeted Sarah Palin with equal enthusiasm, and their counterparts on the Left carved uncharted territory with their cult of personality surrounding Barrack Obama. An undeniable part of our political reality is that we love to love our politicians (note: it is our politicians we love, the ones that have all the solutions, not the ones on the other side who are causing all the problems). We hang all of our hopes for the future on these individuals. Every time a charismatic leader, with a bright smile and catchy slogan comes around we will rally to their side, certain, beyond any doubt, that this is the person that will get our country on the right track. But as anyone who stops to think can tell you, this cult of personality fades, with all but the true believers decrying the false prophet that didn’t fix the economy, public schools, or the DMV. Our knight's armor gets rusty, his ratings fall, and our hopes with it.

So why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we long so very much for someone to come save the day? Could it be that we were created with that yearning? Let us propose, for a moment, that there is something within us all that needs a hero, that needs someone tangible that we can hitch our wagon to. Ideas can be persuasive, movements can inspire, but only a person can truly captivate our hearts. And thus the Incarnation. Thus the glory of the incredible statement, “God became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Incarnation is what takes this ethereal concept of God and brings it down to our level. The Incarnation is when God got His hands dirty and showed us who we should follow, who we should place our hope in. And the beauty of it all is that this Messiah isn’t up for re-election, and He can’t be term limited out. He is the only one whose armor never gets rusty and whose campaign slogan never gets old, for his call of, “my yoke is easy and my burden is light,” will forever be good news.

No matter our political inclinations, we must learn to hope in Christ, not a fledgling campaign slogan or fleeting election returns. As humans who need to have an example to follow, there will always be the temptation to see in a politician the answer to all our problems. There will always be new problems and new politicians promising to fix them. But thankfully there will always be someone whom we can confidently put our hope in.

Sharing in Christ's Sufferings

Like many young evangelicals, I grew up with a chip on my shoulder. I had a bit of a martyr’s complex if you will. This view was incubated by the fact that from my right-wing Evangelical political worldview the country was against “us.” Due to the various agendas of the left (i.e. homosexuals, evolutionists, atheists, big-government liberals), our nation was forsaking its heritage, namely, its Christian heritage. America had turned its back on the faith of our fathers, becoming a modern Sodom and Gomorrah intent on pushing Christians out of the public sphere completely. Because of this persecution, we needed to be all the more vigilant to make sure that the army of darkness did not overrun the citadel that is a Christian America. I was becoming a culture warrior, and could not wait to head into battle against the pagans.

I began to see the error of this type of thinking when I came across the portion of John that Jesus talks about being persecuted (John 15:18-16:4). He says that we should not think it strange that the world is persecuting us, because it persecuted him first. I was deeply troubled by the fact that this seems to be something that a Christian should expect in this life. At first it seemed to only be another justification for my calling as a culture warrior. “This explains why the country is turning against us! This is why we are fighting!” But the more I pondered this, the more my battle cry echoed hollow. If we were supposed to fight against this persecution, and our persecutors, then why was there no biblical model for such an action? Suddenly the foundation for my attack against the ungodly seemed to be crumbling.

Recently I have been reading Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship with some of my closest friends, and again, the point that we keep stumbling over is this concept of persecution. However, this time, years after my first question concerning persecution, the query that keeps rising is, “why am I not being persecuted?” Every Believer should find Bonhoeffer’s example truly inspiring, but I find that it also highlights how shallow the “persecutions” are that we face here in America. Suddenly the fact that we don’t pray in school, or that some Atheist wants to remove “In God We Trust” from the dollar bill doesn’t seem as important. I am reminded of Clarence Jordan’s poignant words: “One wonders why Christians today get off so easily. Is it because unchristian Americans are that much better than unchristian Romans, or is our light so dim that the tormentor can’t see it? What are the things we do that are worthy of persecuting?”

I believe that our light is indeed dim. And it is not because the Gospel is weak, the Gospel is the same that it has been for millennia. Our light is dim because we are shinning it in the wrong places. Instead of taking our light to free the captives and loose the chains of injustice, we are trying to make a heathen world live like Christians. We are more concerned that two men are going to marry each other than we are that they both have never heard that Jesus loves them. We are more worried about that fact that they are taking God out of the classroom than the fact that He is not in many of our churches. We need to listen when Paul says, “what business is it of mine to judge those outside the church” (1 Cor. 6:12). Instead of taking our light to the Supreme Court, we need to start by taking it to my neighbor, the one who desperately needs to experience the saving grace of Christ.

It seems that somewhere along the way we Christians have allowed our mission to go off course. The ideal of social morality was used as license to make the ungodly at least appear to live out the Christian standard. When a society that doesn’t believe the Bible to apply to them feels pressured to follow its rules, they naturally push back, causing the “persecution.” In turn, many culture warriors are taught that these persecutions are coming as a result of doing God’s will. This erroneous concept can be summarized in that we think we are being persecuted and therefore should fight, when the truth is that we are fighting and are therefore persecuted. The sad reality is that we are bringing these trials down upon ourselves by not listening to the words of Christ. And the worst part is that the only observable outcome of our culture war is a whole generation that only knows that the Church is against homosexuals, against abortion, against science, against sex, alcohol, gambling and drugs. The average American has no idea that the Bible is a revelation of God’s grace, not a list of don’ts.

As followers of Christ we dare not shrink from persecution, but if the only scars we are getting come from trying to impose Christian morality on a godless society, then we would be better off just staying at home.

Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. John 15:20

Luther and Erasmus

Every generation has a leader who changes the course of history, what is rare is for a generation to have two significant leaders from the same continent. In the mid-sixteenth century Europe was being shaped by two opposite, yet strikingly similar, religious leaders: Luther and Erasmus. The similarities are obviously their desire to see the church, specifically the Church of Rome, reformed. Their differences, however, take a much larger scope. Luther was a pastor, Erasmus an academic. Luther ardently propagated his ideas, Erasmus was less forceful with his views. Luther believed that doctrine was worth splitting over, Erasmus thought that unity was important. Similarly, Luther saw correct theology as the most important thing about the Church, Erasmus, on the other hand, thought that theology should not be at the forefront, rather, Christians should focus on morality and love as a way to continue on in the faith.

The question then remains as to why Luther was able to be so successful, eventually altering the face of Christianity, while Erasmus has been resigned to the annals of history. On a basic level Luther’s willingness to circulate his writings with the expressed intent of winning converts is reason enough for his success. More importantly, though, is Luther’s connection with the state. Erasmus was ardently opposed to having the state enforce doctrine. As a pacifist he did not think it wise to have wars fought over issues of theology. Luther’s willingness to have his views promoted by government, especially at a time when the nation state was beginning to become a force, allowed his theological beliefs to continue after his own personal influence had waned.

There are some who would identify the failure of Erasmus as one of the greatest tragedies in the history of Christianity. This is due to the fact that if Erasmus had won, if the Catholic Church had been reformed without the rise of Protestantism, there would still exist a unity in the Church that is unthinkable today. And there is a piece of this critique that is certainly valid. The divisions and doctrinal disputes that exist today can be troubling indeed. Certainly we have a long way to go before Christ’s prayer for unity can be realized. But even considering this, it is not clear that Luther’s victory is the Church’s failure. The essence of Erasmus’ ideas failing to gain hold has led the Church to be more focused on doctrine, precisely as Luther envisioned. In order for Erasmus’ failure to be a tragedy, in the truest sense of the word, one has to concede that doctrine is of secondary importance. While it is not necessary to debate how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, it is important to know why we celebrate communion, who should be baptized, and how one obtains salvation. We should never cease working for unity, and we should certainly never create controversy over secondary issues, but if we are going to truly love God we must begin by understanding who God is, and thus the importance of theology.

The Supremacy of Scripture in Political Theology

Scripture is our ultimate authority. For the Believer, this simple statement seems basic enough. Christians of all walks throughout history have affirmed this austere truth, with only a few minor exceptions. But what does it mean for the Bible to be our ultimate authority? More specifically, what does it mean for the Bible to be our ultimate authority in our political engagement?

Too often in life we unknowingly let our backgrounds and biases influence our decision making, especially in the realm of politics. What we grew up with, what we were taught in school, what we find trendy, all of these factors collide with each decision we make. But as Christians we claim to hold to a higher standard, an unmovable standard: the Bible. We proudly claim that the Bible is the centerpiece of our lives, and if we are asked, we would also affirm that the Bible is our guide when it comes to our political involvement. Tragically, however, it seems that this is not entirely true. For many of us the stream flows the wrong way. Our political outlook influences our interpretation of Scripture instead of the other way around.

In their popular work, Jesus for President, Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw attempt to carve a framework for a political theology. Using an immense amount of Scripture citations, they try to convince the reader that their political philosophy is a truly biblical one. But in numerous places we find them bending and abusing Scripture in order to make it fit their desired outcome. God refusing to let David build the Temple is said to be because Yahweh likes sleeping in a tent and being close to poor people, instead of what the passage really says, that David had too much blood on his hands to erect God’s Holy Temple. The tragedy of this example isn’t found in the fact that the authors are saying God loves the poor, for that can certainly be proved from countless other places. Rather, it is the disrespect, the bending of the text to make it say what they want to hear that is truly startling. But we cannot merely point the finger at these two men as if the blame stopped there. All too frequently our pastors, politicians and friends, yes, even ourselves, succumb to the same temptation, the temptation to hear our own voice louder than Scripture’s.

At the core this problem is a result of pride, the temptation to believe that our way of thinking is best. And by the looks of things, we are all infected. This infection is spread through the social enclaves that we are all a part of. We surround ourselves with likeminded people, people who also read the Bible the way we do, encouraging us to keep making the same hermeneutical errors. But there is a solution, and it is called the Body of Christ. The Body is incredibly diverse. Full of people from all backgrounds and biases; backgrounds and biases different from our own. And bumping into these people not only helps us work through our biases, but it also has the same affect on them. This principle only serves to highlight how important it is that we all adhere to the unmoving standard of Holy Scripture. We can work towards unity in the body, even in our politics, but only if we agree to approach the Bible humbly, allowing God’s word to shape our lives instead of a blind following of our chosen political philosophy.

Devotional Thought: A Theology of Recreation

I once heard a story about an umpire at a major league baseball game. As the story goes, in between innings the umpire took a baseball, one that was scuffed up and unable to be used for the game, and gave it to a young kid in the crowd. But instead of just tossing it in the kid’s direction and moving on, as is usually the case, the umpire had a special set of instructions for the child. He said, “I want you to take this home, but don’t put it in a case or on a shelf. I want you to play with it. Baseballs are meant to be played with.” I believe that there is something we all should connect with in this story, not because it is about America’s Pastime, but because it reflects a theology of recreation.

We American Christians are not known for having a very good theology of recreation, not just because this one doctrine has gone largely unnoticed, but because for the most part we don’t have a robust theology of anything. We compartmentalize our lives, drawing lines between sacred and secular pursuits. We assume that theology only pertains to what happens at church, not our everyday activities. We find no significance in our vocations because we do not have a theology of work. We find ourselves wanting to be “called into ministry” because we do not have a theology of homemaking. And we cannot fully enjoy our times of rest because we do not have a theology of recreation.

So, what then is a theology of recreation? It is recognizing that God is Lord over all of our actions, including our play. It is understanding that God created the world and deemed it “good.” That means that if we properly comprehend His creation in our lives we can enjoy the fruit of His labors. We tend to think of creation as referring only to nature, but God also created the human body, as well as human ingenuity. In our society these two forces combine to create such enjoyments as baseball, yard work, hiking trails, and even the hammock. Once we obtain an understanding of a theology of recreation we can enjoy all of these for what they are: a way to honor God with our time.

The obvious critique of this is that there are much more important things than recreation, such as evangelism, promoting justice, and protecting the innocent. And we should never become so concerned with our own pleasure that we neglect these godly callings. Too often we can tend toward apathy and fulfilling our own selfish desires instead of taking up these causes. But, as Believers who have surrendered our lives to Christ, we must find balance in our lives. Sometimes playing baseball on Saturday allows us to more effectively love our neighbor on Monday.

Family Matters

One of the great hallmarks of Christianity is the importance of the family. Even a cursory reading of the Bible, especially the New Testament, shows that God clearly values the family unit. Plenty of sociological, psychological and economic data proves that a stable home is the best place for the individual to thrive. Here in our own country many churches do a fantastic job of promoting families and encouraging their members to create loving homes, efforts that certainly are to be commended. Unfortunately, many times we are known in the media for what we are against, instead of what we are for. Christians are generally seen as a people who are against homosexuals, against divorce and against promiscuous sex, when we could just as easily be known for promoting two-parent homes, committed relationships and the trust and love that comes with monogamy.

Often our bad image comes as a result of the issues we choose to focus on. During the 1990s one didn’t have to look far to find a Christian leader condemning President Clinton for his extramarital affairs. This critique came because they claimed that the President was a role model, which meant he is harming families all across the nation by what his lifestyle was promoting. While that may verywell be true, I believe that in order to accurately reflect biblical doctrine, we must not simply condemn, but also must promote the good.

This past weekend President Obama made news for his weekend activities. He was seen attending his daughter’s soccer game, and then boarding a jet to take his wife out on a date. But instead of being praised for promoting the role of a good husband and father, he was attacked for “wasting tax-payer dollars.”

The current state of the family is certainly in disarray. Divorce, child-abuse (or neglect) and dysfunctional homes are all too common. That is why it should be so refreshing to see a man being there for his daughter, and showing love to his wife. Even if one disagrees with his policies, all Christians should applaud his commitment to his family. It is true that the President is an important role model, which is why we should all thank God that this president seems to believe that family does truly matter.

The Loud Silence

Obama's first Pro-life decision came in the first few days of his presidency and was greeted with silence from the "Religious Right" the group that claims as their mantle the sanctity of life. Obama signed orders to halt what Bush called enhanced interrogation techniques, but what was classified by Amnesty International and the Red Cross as torture. When these practices were reveled to occur during Bush's presidency there was silence in response from the Christian's that supported the republicans platform of life, and similarly when Obama banned the practice the same silence occured. I realize that the torture that occurs to prisoners in American camps are small compared to the deaths that occur from Abortion but as Bush said, '"I think it's important to promote a culture of life. I think a hospitable society is a society where every being counts and every person matters."

President Obama's Third Strike

President Obama has again raised the ire of Evangelicals, this week for another decision on abortion. Sadly, this proves to be the third major policy move he has initiated that will further devalue life and the protection of the unborn. A few weeks ago the President announced he was repealing what is known as the Mexico City Policy, a holdover from the Reagan administration that limited federal funding to organizations that did abortions outside our borders. Recently President Obama has also rescinded a Bush administration policy that allowed those in the medical field to refuse to provide abortions or abortifacient medication if it was against their personal beliefs. Finally, this past week, Mr. Obama withdrew the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. These decisions have collectively made him the most pro-abortion President we have had in over thirty years, perhaps ever.

As Christians engaging the political sphere, we are called to have a broad issue agenda. Part of that agenda, for the Believer, must be protecting those who cannot protect themselves. Whether they are in the far reaches of another continent, or in the wombs of mothers in our own country. In this era of economic crisis and war half a world away, let us not forget our call to protect life in every venue possible.