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What
The News Tells The great Swiss-German theologian Karl Barth once said a good preacher keeps a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. If that’s true then, as a person who has been both a newspaper reporter and a pastor, I should be a really good preacher. Preachers and reporters are supposed to help folks bring things together. But I must admit my experience in both vocations tends to confuse me and pull things apart. And the more I become involved in helping inform others about what’s happening in our world through CStation, the more I am convinced that what the news tells Christians about our faith is that the world and the realm of God are two different places. Which probably isn’t all that surprising considering that my Anabaptist faith ancestors were separatist who took to the woods to get away from a world they believed was basically evil. For the past 100 years or so most of the Brethren and Mennonite farmers have made their way back into the cities, but our suspicion against “worldly” things, even while we now use and enjoy most of them, has remained. We have tried to be “in the world but not of the world” as Peter suggests in the New Testament. And I suspect that, like most Christians in the United States, we haven’t done a very good job. The weekly news continues to bare evidence that while we have tried to change American culture, the culture has had more influence in changing us. This week’s issue of US News And World Reports carries an excellent series of articles on Defining America: A special report. One of the articles, Where size matters, says that we Americans believe we are what we own. People in the United States are building and buying larger homes than ever before in history. Our cars are larger and the things we buy more numerous in number than ever before. We have based our life style on buying and owning at the cost of the longest work week in the developed world and debt that now averages 110% of our income. So much for the “lilies of the field,” and Jesus' warning that we must choose to worship God or money. Our leaders, who now talk more openly about their faith, have become nastier in the way they treat each other. They stretch the truth beyond recovery and use profanity in public without apology. And the need to raise money for reelection campaigns has become the driving force behind their efforts in office. The stock market has become the most important institution in our country. We follow its ups and downs with more concern than we do the local weather. Our commerce has become dominated by large corporations who will do whatever it takes to make short term profits that keep their investors happy. Our world is torn open by war and military violence. And increasing competition for resources guarantees that “war and rumors of war” will continue. See Get Ready For Oil Wars from the Washington Post. Does this all sound like doomsday to you? Not really. In reality one of the things Christians should learn from the news is that the more things change the more they stay the same. Most of the conditions that exist in today’s world existed in Jesus’ time and before. The names of the nations and their institutions may change but the dynamics of how the world operates does not. Here are a few lessons I have drawn for myself, from my own experience as a pastor and a reporter, about living my Christian faith from today’s news. We can influence the culture around us but we cannot rule it. Christian conservatives today are making the same mistake that their liberal brothers and sisters made in the past. Trying to use worldly government power to force faith decisions on a secular culture. Jesus' way of meeting the challenge of changing culture was to demonstrate grace and support for those who lived the faith and patience towards those who didn’t. Yes, the Lord confronted, sometimes pretty forcefully, but he didn’t condemn. He could have called down “10,000 angels,” to change society, instead, while dieing, he prayed God would forgive those who did not accept his Lordship. He wanted those people to get another chance at experiencing God’s kingdom. Peace and security cannot be found in this world. God’s power, as demonstrated by Jesus Christ, comes not from the gun but from the heart. When Christians take up weapons to defend themselves or force our way of life on others, we are always defeated. And the hate that the use of such force requires actually separates us from God and the peace Jesus offers. The world’s thinking is not Jesus’ thinking. Other religions have some of the same teachings as Jesus offers in the New Testament. And some folks who practice other religions can actually stumble into being saved through Jesus Christ, but by in large these faiths are not equal in insight and saving power to Christianity. There are enough folks who understand themselves to be Christians who have trouble focusing on the real Jesus, that it shouldn’t surprise that folks who worship someone else would have real trouble living a real faith. Nevertheless, the way of Jesus is to invite by the way we live, and not force, others into our faith lifestyles. A bunch of people in this world are sailing through life without a direction. These people have a habit of running over others and at times causing great damage. In the New Testament Jesus handled the news making troublemakers by confronting misguided leaders, and then containing and attempting to heal the sick, crazy, and possessed. Sometimes he succeeded, sometimes he did not. Paul, writing in Romans, builds on Jesus’ example to say that institutions and governments, even churches, have been given the right by God to enforce order and safety in this world. And that Christians should actively support these efforts. Unsaid, but demonstrated by Paul’s own life, was the condition that these institutions follow the example of Jesus to confront and contain for healing and restoration. Not just to get the folks off the street or to provide a controlled since of vengeance for those who have been wronged. When governments and institutions differ or distort God's purpose, Christians have an obligation to witness for God's righteousness. (The right way of doing things.) Church is a good place to keep you sane in crazy bad news times. Fellowshipping and working with other believers in organized institutions reminds us constantly that God is still in control of this world. Allows us to experience the life changing presence of Jesus Christ. And gives us the courage to live a faith that seems so different and out of touch with what the news says is going on around us. Even Jesus leaned on the group for support. Do we think we can do better on our own? As Jesus wept over Jerusalem so Christians must weep over America’s culture. If we cannot become so emotionally invested in the lostness of the culture around us that we weep as hard during the week as we praise and celebrate God’s power on Sunday’s, the world is going to be a lot worse off than it is now. OK, this is what the news has taught me about
the faith. If you have more or other thoughts I invite you to share them
through CStation’s
Town
Hall.
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