‘Tis the season to be angry. This election cycle has
turned into a period of hashtag hatred - #NeverTrump, #LyinTed, #UmmmmWhoWasThatThirdGuyAgain?
It’s just as bad on the other side of the aisle – you’ve got one candidate who
is an angry old Socialist who feels the government should pay for everything, while
the other candidate is a balding man from Vermont.
We pick sides – some with relish, others holding their
noses. We prepare our arguments, and argue our defenses. Adamancy rules, and
the argumentatively weak are quickly squelched (or, instead, they fall back to
the intellectually vapid but culturally powerful weapon of using words like
“racist”, “bigot”, “homophobe”, Islamophobe”, “Demophobe”, “Repubophobe”, “Obamophobe”,
“Popeophobe”, “BradPittophobe”, “ScreamingGoatophobe”, or any other “-ophobe”
you can think of [by the way, when did “-ophobe” turn into “-ohate”? As the great
philosopher Inigo Montoya once said, “You keep using that word, I do not think
it means what you think it means.”]).
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| Pong - the only video game I was ever good at |
During this silly season, we’ve watched civility go out
the window. The low level of rhetoric within the political rallies is only
eclipsed by the ignorant rantings of the protestors outside. Respect in our
culture is as obsolete as Pong and Bill Cosby. Yesterday, I watched a young
lady (this term used only in respect to her being of the female gender) at a
symposium on free speech express her right to free speech by shouting down the free speech of
those who were trying to give a speech about how to properly use free speech.
We are a divided culture, and we’ve forgotten how to righteously
handle division.
Maybe the only thing other than politics that gets people
so at odds with one another is religion. In fact, for many the line between the
two is greatly blurred (“How can someone vote for _______ and still call
themselves a Christian?”). Christians feel abused and looked down upon by the
rest of our culture, and the rest of our culture feels abused and looked down
upon by Christians. And, if there is anyone to blame for this, it is us
Christians, because we should know better.
We’ve bought into the them vs. us. We wear our
victimization as a badge, forgetting that we don’t have a clue as to what true
religious victimization is. We see our country slipping into spiritual
depravity, and we’re angry and disgusted. Our righteous indignation builds and
builds and boils and burns to the point we’re ready to storm the DNC substation
at Harper’s Ferry and start a revolt.
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| "Rally 'round me, folks, and let's blanket the neighborhood with these flyers inviting people to our informational coffee!" |
Jesus went beast-mode when He cleared out the Temple. But
why did He do it? Look at His words – “How dare you turn my Father’s house into
a market!” (John 2:16) It was all about the Father. In fact, in the next verse,
the incident took the minds of the disciples back to a passage from Psalm 69 – “Zeal
for your house consumes me.” (John 2:17; cf. Psalm 69:9) Jesus didn’t act
because He was personally offended or out of hatred for the
Temple-market-makers. Instead, He was doing it to defend the honor of the
Creator God. I don’t care if you are anti-Hillary, if you don’t Feel the Bern,
if you believe Trump is a slimy, orange populist, if you’re convinced Cruz is a
shill for the establishment, or if you think that other guy…actually, never
mind, no one thinks of that other guy…whatever you think of any of the
candidates, your rejection or your support does not raise to the level of
defending the honor of the Father (and, yes, I understand the ramifications of
the future Supreme Court appointments, and, yes, I understand that the Bible is
under attack in schools and in workplaces and in the military, and, yes, I understand
that an ungodly agenda is getting more and more deeply entrenched in our
society, and, no, none of those things changes my opinion).
We are not going to defend the name of our Father God in
the ballot box. Don’t get me wrong, we should all vote, and, if the Lord leads
you to get involved in a campaign, then jump in full force. However, the impact
of your vote pales in comparison to the impact of your life. Your vote against
your enemy is a drop in the ocean when set against the flood of your love for
your enemy.
I was reading this morning in Luke. Jesus had just landed
his boat on shore when He was confronted by a naked wild man. He was chock-full
of demons and had been out of control for a long time. When these demons
realized that Jesus was about to evict them from the premises, they begged Him
to please not send them into the Abyss. They saw a bunch of
pigs and again
begged Jesus – this time to send them into the poor, unsuspecting herd. And –
get this – Jesus did it. The demons begged and Jesus responded. These
eternally-doomed, hate-filled enemies of God felt the touch of divine
compassion. Stop and think of that for a moment…
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| "Okay, if he's sending me into the lake, I'm going in prepared!" |
Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you.” And, as always, Jesus does this to the nth
degree. I figure, if Jesus could demonstrate an act of love to these demons who
wanted nothing more than to destroy Him and all who followed Him, I can love
whomever God puts in my path, no matter their party affiliation, no matter
their candidate choice, no matter if they are
big-government-supporting-4/20-celebrating-gender-neutral-bathroom-building-America-apology-giving-only-our-lives-matter-chanting-Guy-Fawkes-mask-wearing
professional protestors who want me to pay for their college.
Yes, Lord, I hear you…even them.
1 comment:
As always.... Well said!
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