August 29, 2015

“The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true. He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.”    John 3:31-36

“When Jesus talks about the presence of the kingdom of G*d, he uses ordinary secular stories or parables. We think of them now, unfortunately, as religious stories. But originally they were not. He takes an ordinary, nonreligious situation: a woman loses a dime; a man gets mugged on a highway; a business man hires workers at union wages; a young man wants to leave home and strike out for himself…He uses stories that have nothing to do with religion and says the kingdom of G*d is like that. But we have so spiritualized it, it has completely lost the secular taste and flavor it had at first…

It’s the story of living, sweating, rejoicing, struggling, dying men and women just like you, just like me. And the story tells of a G*d not apart from their daily, ordinary lives, but smack in the middle of them.” Edmund A. Steimle (1907 – 1988) From Death to Birth   “For All The Saints” volume II (p. 446 – 447)

Here is part of an article I read recently from “Relevant Magazine”  by Cara Joyner titled:  Christians Shouldn’t Be Culture’s Morality Police:  We aren’t called to demand that secular culture reflect biblical principles.

“The values of our culture are often in conflict with the values of our faith, but this isn’t new. Many practices of the ancient world would be considered wholly unacceptable by society today. We are neither the first to live in an environment that challenges our beliefs, nor are we the first to disagree on theology. However, we are the first with a hot and ready platform for serving quick, permanently recorded indictments, with minimal responsibility over what happens next. These instant splices are not used to reach the lost. They are only used to reinforce religious persons’ sense that they have chosen the “right” team and that their people agree with them.

When Paul addresses important issues related to sexuality in his letters to the Corinthians, he is speaking to the Church and seems unconcerned with society as a whole:

“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral … In that case you would have to leave this world … what business is it of mine to judge those outside the Church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked person from among you’” (1 Corinthians 5:9. 12-13).

     We were never commissioned to demand that secular culture reflect biblical principles. We were commissioned to reflect biblical principles in the middle of secular culture, pointing to God’s redemptive story. So how do we walk the line of conviction and intention, engaging with culture in a way that is meaningful, without crossing over into a role to which we were never called? Let’s begin with what we know about Jesus. Jesus Kept Moving. Rather than huddling up and making camp in a town surrounded by His own people, Jesus knew what was at stake and He kept moving. His goal was healing and restoring the broken, not circling around those who were already following.

I like her thoughts on being commissioned to reflect biblical principles in the middle of secular culture, not being commissioned to demand that secular culture reflect biblical principles. Christian teachings have usually been at odds with secular culture. Our job as Christians is to be counter-cultural — and as such we are called to live differently. As Paul says: “what business is it of mine to judge those outside the Church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.” (1 Corin. 5:9ff) These certainly are words worth contemplating today.

Pastor Dave