Changing the world...

"I can't change the world but I can change the world in me... if I rejoice" Bono sings on the U2 album October. If the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step then changing the world starts with one man. Don Miller in his book Blue Like Jazz talks about being at a political protest of the president with a friend. He was there for poverty in Africa but he was surrounded by a variety of protesters with a variety of causes. By the time the day was done he came to the realization that he hadn't done anything to help poverty in Africa so why should he demand it of others. He realized that he was a hypocrite and wished that he could carry a sign that said "I AM THE PROBLEM!"

I have still been contemplating the question of should politics and religion mix and if so how. Unfortunately, rather than coming to a conclusion it is more like I have come to the first step to ascend a stair case. I believe that yes politics and religion should mix and in fact have to, but certainly not in the common way that they are mingling now. The answer as to how is the first step at the bottom of the stair case. It is by speaking the truth in love. The Church loves to speak the truth but often not in love. The next question is, "how is that carried out?" I have a decent idea of how love should play out in our personal lives, but how it should work in politics seems more problematic or complex. I know the principles are the same but the details elude me at this point. Until I come to a less ephemeral answer I will leave you with the below passage from an essay entitled "How To Save Western Civilization: C.S. Lewis As Prophet"

"It is good to work for peace in whatever social and political ways really do work, whether this means working for disarmament or for stronger armaments. We do not know with certainty which way will work best on the political level (though we nearly always claim we do). But we do know with certainty (because God himself has told us) what will work on the spiritual level, and we also know that that level cuts deeper and works at the roots. So to anyone who is concerned with peace and with the life and survival of our civilization, here is a summary in a single paragraph of what I have learned from my master C.S. Lewis:

"Sodom and Gomorrah almost made it. If God had found but ten righteous men, he would have spared two whole cities. Abraham's intercession nearly saved Sodom, and it did save Lot. We must be Abrahams. Charles Williams said that 'the altar must often be built in one place so that the fire from Heaven may come down at another.' It is also true that the altar must be built and prayer and sacrifice made at one place so that the fire from Hell may not come down at another. It can be done. The most important thing each of us can do to save the world from holocaust and from Hell, from nuclear destruction and from spiritual destruction, is the most well-known, most unoriginal thing in the world: to love God with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

"You the individual can make a difference. You can be the straw that breaks the camel's back, the vote that wins the election. You can save the world."

Deserving Death?

Do we really understand the consequenses of our own sins? Do we truly believe in our hearts that we deserve death because of our sin? For some that may be easier to believe than others. I have never killed or seriously hurt someone. I have never broken up a marriage or stolen money from anyone. I have never done any of the really bad things that we think about being serious sins. It is hard to believe that I still deserve death. In my mind I know it is true, but in my heart...

How can we as a Church convince the world that they are in desperate need of a Saviour, that their life depends upon it, if I can't convince myself that I truly am a wretched and miserable man that deserves death? Sometimes I know it is true more than others; there are times when I come face to face with my own black heart and come close to understanding the depth of my own wickedness, but most of the time I just make excuses for myself.

Mixing Faith & Politics?

Something I have been thinking about for several months (since I read Blue Like Jazz), is "how much should we mix Faith & Politics?". The basis for this question was my realization from BLJ that Conservative Christians are are driving away people through their politics. They are seen as anti-gay rights, anti-choice, anti-environment and then worst of all they get affiliated with blue blood Republicans as being pro-war and pro-big business!

In my missions classes in college something that is driven into your head is that when you go as a missionary to a foreign culture you are there to represent Christ not your culture. In other words you are to share the gospel and the gospel only. Like Paul, missionaries are to preach nothing except Christ crucified. Now really this is impossible to do completely because we are all products of our culture, it is woven into us and we can not separate ourselves from it 100%. Missionaries must do their best in this endeavor though so that if someone rejects Jesus it is truly Him they are rejecting, not the missionary, not the sending culture. Vice-versa, you do not want someone accepting more than just Jesus. The goal is to evangelize the Gospel of Jesus to people on a heart level that means something to them where they are at now, nothing more and nothing less. So no preaching capitalism or democracy or free trade or Communion should go before the sermon and you need to have a piano or organ for worship... certainly NO drums!

God forbid that I or my culture embedded in me should ever be the reason that anyone rejects Him!!! The Cross itself is naturally offensive (a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, 1 Cor. 2) and doesn't need any help from me to be rejected. Who wants a God that lived a short life as a dirty little poor human only to die a disgraceful death on a cross as a common criminal. That is highly offensive and pure idiocy in itself!

I have more to say on this, but to keep this from turning into a book and nobody bothering to read it, I will end on these last few questions and post more on it later... if the above philosophy is good for missionaries, why not for those of us at home trying to evangelize our own fallen nation? Are we preaching more than "Christ Crucified"? Have we become the stumbling block rather than the cross?