So lately I've been memorizing the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7... This is a fantastic chunk of Jesus' teachings all crammed into one place, which gives such insight into the heart of his message.
His message was the gospel. Ever think about how big the gospel is? I mean, if I ask you what the gospel is what would you say? Because it's not just about Jesus and forgiveness. It's not just "the bridge" illustration. Jesus went from town to town preaching the "good news." What good news was he teaching? I mean, a cross and his death are mentioned, but they're clearly not the only thing there.
The good news concerned the coming kingdom of heaven. How do you get into it? Do you have to follow all the rules and be good enough? No, it's impossible to be righteous enough. Do the laws have to be thrown out? No- you have to know the one who fulfilled the laws. You have to ask, seek, knock. If the gatekeeper knows your name: you will receive, you will find, the door will be opened. God gives good things to his children- are you his child?
What is the kingdom of heaven? What does it look like? It's a place where those who mourn are comforted, where those who are gentle rule, where the citizens see God himself. It's a place seasoned with salt. It's full of light, rather than darkness. Everyone loves everyone. Nobody judges his neighbor. People give to anyone who asks them, and everyone's needs are met. No anxiety or worries. Treasure abounds, but it's not held as money. God is a good Father to everyone in it. And the most important thing: it is a kingdom, and God is it's king.
In the beginning God created the world to be good. The world has fallen, but the good news concerns its redemption. Redemption is a magnificent word. The gospel is about restoration. Return. Repair. Healing. Romans 8 talks about the whole world (even God's children) groaning as we wait for his kingdom to come. We are all broken and disordered inside, each and every one. Jesus taught about some of these disorders and gave us a picture of what restoration looks like. For example, he exposed the Jews' faulty version of love and explained what real love looks like.
Another example concerns sexuality and marriage. I'm not going to get into the details of what Jesus taught here because I did that last time I believe. But to sum up, marriage exists only as a union between one man and one woman. Also, that uniting is done by God- and we have no right to undo it. (no power to try)
I left off my last post with a big question hanging... Essentially, I was questioning what our role is in politics. It's all well and good for me to believe all these things about the kingdom of God. But what is my responsibility to my neighbor? To silently let him miss out completely or to do something he doesn't like? It's a tough position to be in.
A major argument that prevented me from feeling like I had a right or responsibility to assert my beliefs on others was an issue of "where to draw the line." And I think I've decided to put the line all the way at the end of the spectrum. Surely the line must be somewhere- even if there is not a universal rule for where it ought to be, certainly I have to draw it somewhere for my own decision making. I don't believe that the Bible contains a list of moral dos and don'ts for believers. (It does for Jews, under the old covenant. The new covenant established by Jesus is about returning to something greater, not making do with our brokenness.) And therefore, to put it somewhere in the middle of the "spectrum" would be entirely arbitrary. That doesn't seem right...
The greatest commandment after loving God is to love our neighbors. (In fact, Jesus said the entire Law given to the Jews hangs on these two commands being fulfilled) And to be honest, I cannot think of one single example of Biblical love which involved one man letting another go on his way to disaster. There is no form of love which allows someone to walk right past the kingdom of God without saying a word. Jonah may have been content to allow the Ninevites to suffer God's wrath, but God stopped at nothing to bring word to them. Peter may have hesitated to share the gospel with non-Jews, but God made it happen. If I believe that God's way is the best way, surely I have to reinforce that in the society I live in.
This implies many different things, but one of the biggest that struck me concerns divorce. See, Jesus spoke multiple times about divorce- more often and more absolutely than he did on homosexuality. I feel this deep conviction that, if I'm drawing the line on the far end of the spectrum and setting high a high bar for my political decisions, then divorce is more important than homosexuality. If Jesus struck down homosexuality and I'm going to support that politically, how much more should I support his standards for divorce?
But the idea of divorce being illegal, or at least being strongly disapproved of by Christians seems... comical. Sadly. But are you following my train of thought? If we're going to sit here and say, "No, homosexuality is not right," how can we possibly even stand the thought of quietly mumbling, "... yeah divorce is not a good thing, but you know its just sort of unavoidable sometimes..." Talk about double-standards- this is hypocrisy at its finest. I started digging around and realized/remembered that this is one of the biggest arguments that same sex marriage supporters make. When the 'Christians' say, "homosexuality is harmful to society, so it shouldn't be allowed," they say, "divorce is clearly more harmful to than homosexuality, but you seem to be okay with that..." How right they are. I completely agree. In fact, if we had healthy marriages in the first place we probably wouldn't even be dealing with the issue of same sex marriage.
Let me be clear, I'm not saying the church needs to start running around condemning divorced people, or anyone struggling with the idea of a divorce. Again, God and his Word are the judge- it's not our place. It is most definitely, always our place to love God, love our neighbor, and share God's Word. This is true of homosexuals. This is true of divorcees. This is true of prideful businessmen. This is true of murderers.
Does this mean I think we need to transition into some sort of theocracy? No. Politics is not the responsibility of the church. And the Bible exists for the church, not for the government. But, individuals who are part of the church do have responsibilities in politics and in their government. I am saying that believers (individually) should support politics which are in line with the kingdom of heaven. We certainly can't just slap a new law on everything. How can one broken human judge another broken human concerning... something like pride? You can't make pride illegal. It's not that simple. But when it is simple and clear (homosexuality, divorce, abortion, murder, rape, stealing...) our role is simple and clear.
I started to wonder... is it possible to have a culture with such a high regard of marriage? Or even just a christian sub-culture that does? Could he Christian view of divorce ever humble itself to this position?
I found an answer, and I was shocked... I'll be honest, I don't know much about divorce. I have been blessed with two magnificent parents who would never consider divorce as an option. To anyone in the same boat, "no-fault divorce" refers to divorce which has no real basis. There are other forms which take into account more legitimate reasons (Jesus seems to allow for divorce in the case of marital unfaithfulness). That's the realm where things get sticky and vague. But as for no-fault divorce... could we eliminate that from our society?
The answer: it was. In 1969s California became the first state to allow no-fault divorce (the law was signed by Ronald Reagan, who just forever lost any respect he may have had from me). Every other state followed right along until 1985. (The one exception being New York, which somehow held out until 2010. Though apparently they had some separation loophole that made it possible.) Maybe most of you reading this maybe knew these things... I did not. And I'm deeply saddened by it. How can people be okay with this? How can it be so swept under the rug that nobody even talks about it? How self-righteous do you have to be to support/pass a "Defense of Marriage Act" about homosexuality in the wake of that? It's embarrassing.
Anyways...
One last concern is about creating an over-controlling government (which, in general, I believe is a bad thing. broken people telling broken people what to do isn't good- Jesus affirms this in Matthew 7) But... when you see the brokenness of the world, and specifically our culture, as clearly as this... That hardly seems relevant. If the government one day begins to abuse power, it then becomes to responsibility of believers to correct that.
The kingdom of heaven is like a Master who left stewards in charge of His home. He will return, and expect His affairs to have been managed well. So the question is: are you going to go do what you can or go bury it in fear that things might not go as planned?
His message was the gospel. Ever think about how big the gospel is? I mean, if I ask you what the gospel is what would you say? Because it's not just about Jesus and forgiveness. It's not just "the bridge" illustration. Jesus went from town to town preaching the "good news." What good news was he teaching? I mean, a cross and his death are mentioned, but they're clearly not the only thing there.
The good news concerned the coming kingdom of heaven. How do you get into it? Do you have to follow all the rules and be good enough? No, it's impossible to be righteous enough. Do the laws have to be thrown out? No- you have to know the one who fulfilled the laws. You have to ask, seek, knock. If the gatekeeper knows your name: you will receive, you will find, the door will be opened. God gives good things to his children- are you his child?
What is the kingdom of heaven? What does it look like? It's a place where those who mourn are comforted, where those who are gentle rule, where the citizens see God himself. It's a place seasoned with salt. It's full of light, rather than darkness. Everyone loves everyone. Nobody judges his neighbor. People give to anyone who asks them, and everyone's needs are met. No anxiety or worries. Treasure abounds, but it's not held as money. God is a good Father to everyone in it. And the most important thing: it is a kingdom, and God is it's king.
In the beginning God created the world to be good. The world has fallen, but the good news concerns its redemption. Redemption is a magnificent word. The gospel is about restoration. Return. Repair. Healing. Romans 8 talks about the whole world (even God's children) groaning as we wait for his kingdom to come. We are all broken and disordered inside, each and every one. Jesus taught about some of these disorders and gave us a picture of what restoration looks like. For example, he exposed the Jews' faulty version of love and explained what real love looks like.
Another example concerns sexuality and marriage. I'm not going to get into the details of what Jesus taught here because I did that last time I believe. But to sum up, marriage exists only as a union between one man and one woman. Also, that uniting is done by God- and we have no right to undo it. (no power to try)
I left off my last post with a big question hanging... Essentially, I was questioning what our role is in politics. It's all well and good for me to believe all these things about the kingdom of God. But what is my responsibility to my neighbor? To silently let him miss out completely or to do something he doesn't like? It's a tough position to be in.
A major argument that prevented me from feeling like I had a right or responsibility to assert my beliefs on others was an issue of "where to draw the line." And I think I've decided to put the line all the way at the end of the spectrum. Surely the line must be somewhere- even if there is not a universal rule for where it ought to be, certainly I have to draw it somewhere for my own decision making. I don't believe that the Bible contains a list of moral dos and don'ts for believers. (It does for Jews, under the old covenant. The new covenant established by Jesus is about returning to something greater, not making do with our brokenness.) And therefore, to put it somewhere in the middle of the "spectrum" would be entirely arbitrary. That doesn't seem right...
The greatest commandment after loving God is to love our neighbors. (In fact, Jesus said the entire Law given to the Jews hangs on these two commands being fulfilled) And to be honest, I cannot think of one single example of Biblical love which involved one man letting another go on his way to disaster. There is no form of love which allows someone to walk right past the kingdom of God without saying a word. Jonah may have been content to allow the Ninevites to suffer God's wrath, but God stopped at nothing to bring word to them. Peter may have hesitated to share the gospel with non-Jews, but God made it happen. If I believe that God's way is the best way, surely I have to reinforce that in the society I live in.
This implies many different things, but one of the biggest that struck me concerns divorce. See, Jesus spoke multiple times about divorce- more often and more absolutely than he did on homosexuality. I feel this deep conviction that, if I'm drawing the line on the far end of the spectrum and setting high a high bar for my political decisions, then divorce is more important than homosexuality. If Jesus struck down homosexuality and I'm going to support that politically, how much more should I support his standards for divorce?
But the idea of divorce being illegal, or at least being strongly disapproved of by Christians seems... comical. Sadly. But are you following my train of thought? If we're going to sit here and say, "No, homosexuality is not right," how can we possibly even stand the thought of quietly mumbling, "... yeah divorce is not a good thing, but you know its just sort of unavoidable sometimes..." Talk about double-standards- this is hypocrisy at its finest. I started digging around and realized/remembered that this is one of the biggest arguments that same sex marriage supporters make. When the 'Christians' say, "homosexuality is harmful to society, so it shouldn't be allowed," they say, "divorce is clearly more harmful to than homosexuality, but you seem to be okay with that..." How right they are. I completely agree. In fact, if we had healthy marriages in the first place we probably wouldn't even be dealing with the issue of same sex marriage.
Let me be clear, I'm not saying the church needs to start running around condemning divorced people, or anyone struggling with the idea of a divorce. Again, God and his Word are the judge- it's not our place. It is most definitely, always our place to love God, love our neighbor, and share God's Word. This is true of homosexuals. This is true of divorcees. This is true of prideful businessmen. This is true of murderers.
Does this mean I think we need to transition into some sort of theocracy? No. Politics is not the responsibility of the church. And the Bible exists for the church, not for the government. But, individuals who are part of the church do have responsibilities in politics and in their government. I am saying that believers (individually) should support politics which are in line with the kingdom of heaven. We certainly can't just slap a new law on everything. How can one broken human judge another broken human concerning... something like pride? You can't make pride illegal. It's not that simple. But when it is simple and clear (homosexuality, divorce, abortion, murder, rape, stealing...) our role is simple and clear.
I started to wonder... is it possible to have a culture with such a high regard of marriage? Or even just a christian sub-culture that does? Could he Christian view of divorce ever humble itself to this position?
I found an answer, and I was shocked... I'll be honest, I don't know much about divorce. I have been blessed with two magnificent parents who would never consider divorce as an option. To anyone in the same boat, "no-fault divorce" refers to divorce which has no real basis. There are other forms which take into account more legitimate reasons (Jesus seems to allow for divorce in the case of marital unfaithfulness). That's the realm where things get sticky and vague. But as for no-fault divorce... could we eliminate that from our society?
The answer: it was. In 1969s California became the first state to allow no-fault divorce (the law was signed by Ronald Reagan, who just forever lost any respect he may have had from me). Every other state followed right along until 1985. (The one exception being New York, which somehow held out until 2010. Though apparently they had some separation loophole that made it possible.) Maybe most of you reading this maybe knew these things... I did not. And I'm deeply saddened by it. How can people be okay with this? How can it be so swept under the rug that nobody even talks about it? How self-righteous do you have to be to support/pass a "Defense of Marriage Act" about homosexuality in the wake of that? It's embarrassing.
Anyways...
One last concern is about creating an over-controlling government (which, in general, I believe is a bad thing. broken people telling broken people what to do isn't good- Jesus affirms this in Matthew 7) But... when you see the brokenness of the world, and specifically our culture, as clearly as this... That hardly seems relevant. If the government one day begins to abuse power, it then becomes to responsibility of believers to correct that.
The kingdom of heaven is like a Master who left stewards in charge of His home. He will return, and expect His affairs to have been managed well. So the question is: are you going to go do what you can or go bury it in fear that things might not go as planned?
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