The time was coming. John, Jesus’ cousin, was now sent to begin proclaiming its coming. To begin with: those who have are called to share what they have with those who don’t have. A simple sharing. It begins with repentance and sharing. With not wanting more than we need
John preached what God gave him to preach. True preaching often upsets those who take more than their fair share.
Some of my thoughts on the idea of a “Christian” nation:
Jesus was given over to the Roman overlords by a subset of his own people who, among other things, disagreed with his gripes against some of the religious leaders. Jesus’ teachings against the hypocrisy of some of those leaders taking money from the poorer people for their own needs no doubt made them feel less than graceful toward Jesus.
I was raised in a loving evangelical Southern Baptist church. They were there for my family when my father died as I was entering adolescence. They provided Bible teaching as well as games in youth fellowships when I was struggling to find meaning while plagued by youthful questions and doubts.
Their foundational love helped me survive a divorce and other ups and downs of young adult life. As much as anyone, I cherish those Christian teachings and the love that sustained me.
I have no doubt that Christians and their churches in America will survive and potentially grow because of our message of love and caring and hope—not because of allegiance to some kind of national church.
One of our sources of pride is the haven that this country has given, not always gracefully, but nevertheless has given, to any person obeying our civil laws, no matter their religion or lack of it.
What worries me is any thinking that we must make America a “Christian” nation by some decree or by academic courses in our public schools or by proclaiming the Christian religion as our national religion. No nation is Christan. The only Christian “nation” is the fellowship of those who attempt to follow Jesus. To suppose we need some kind of national affirmation is leaning toward those terrible years when people calling themselves Christian burned at the stake others calling themselves Christians.
Some observers thought that when the nation began with freedom of religion, we would soon become a nation of no religion, some sort of godless hell.
Instead, Americans became even more religious than the countries from which they had come.
My view is that if you want Christianity to thrive in America, make it compete. Make it prove itself. No political help; just strive with words, and even more, with love that rescues drunkards and feeds the hungry and gives shelter to the homeless.
Ezekiel 46:18: “The prince must not take any of the inheritance of the people, driving them off their property. He is to give his sons their inheritance out of his own property, so that not one of my people will be separated from their property.”
May the wealthy pay their fair share. May schools and other equalizers be adequately funded.
May we seek a level playing field where ordinary citizens are not proportionally taxed more than wealthy ones, especially considering taxes on the necessities of life, including food and minimal shelter.
Ezekiel 20:34
“I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered. . .”
God has often disciplined the Jewish people, His people. Always, though, they remain His people, to be brought back. Even from the time the Nazis tried their best to eliminate them, God rescued them.
God’s promise of life, however, is to all who believe—grafted in through faith in what Jesus accomplished with His life, death, and resurrection.
Ezekiel 13:2:
“Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying out of their own imagination.”
In an age of endless blogs and political speeches, better to listen to those who speak guided by what Jesus called the two greatest commandments: Mark 12:29-31:
“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” an inquirer asked Jesus.
Jesus replied, “The most important one is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’ The second is this “Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Proverbs 17:14
“Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.”
Better a small serving of vegetables with love than a fattened calf with hatred.
Proverbs 15:17
Better a small serving of vegetables with love
than a fatted calf with hatred.
Proverbs 15:17
1 Samuel 16:
Samuel did what the Lord told him to do, despite Samuel’s understandable fear of Saul.
God chose David, though at first, perhaps, people might wonder why He didn’t pick one of the older sons, but God picked David. What a momentous event. From David would eventually come the line that begat Jesus. But no one knew it. Even Samuel, God’s chosen and faithful prophet was fearful at the time.
David was already busy before he was chosen to be king. We don’t sit around waiting for God to act. We do what our hands find to do and have faith that God will work His will, even though imperfect humans.
This country seems constantly to mirror the best and the worst of humanity. A powerful space launch, with expert precision. Yet, we can’t manage simple political dialog without rancor and bare-knuckle street fighting.
Brilliant space scenes interrupted with the latest news of Middle East maneuvering and killing.
We need the message of Easter more than ever: The disciples fleeing and hiding. A Roman cross seeming to have the last word.
Then a grieving woman, braving fear of Roman soldiers, seeks some kind of answer, despite a sealed grave,
Only, she can’t find a body. We’ve been dealing with that empty tomb ever since.
My family is descended from long ago immigrants who came to America before the American Revolution. None of us, as far as I know, became wealthy, but we seem always to have had enough to eat and clothes to wear.
With bad timing, perhaps, my parents bought a house just before the Great Depression of the 1930’s as they began a family, and my mother had quit her job. My father kept his job, but the salaries of all employees were reduced.
They were saved from losing their home because of a program instituted by the Roosevelt administration. The program allowed a refinancing of our house in which payments were stretched out over more years, making the payments affordable. We finally paid off our home just after World War II. We weren’t given anything free but rather benefitted by a more merciful adjustment.
May we always be a country which has both laws and mercy.
Deuteronomy 14:
All our blessings come from God, and we honor Him by giving back a small portion to his work. We are to remember to share with the less fortunate and with the foreigners among us.
Here in this country, certainly, no one should lack food or the necessities of life. May we share liberally and be blessed in the sharing
Deuteronomy 10:12-22:
We are called to treat kindly the foreigner. In the past, the U.S. has done a lot of caring for strangers and have often given them chances to belong and contribute to our country. Please help us continue to welcome strangers, those we are privileged to help. Give us the right hearts, please.
Deuteronomy 3:21-29:
Like a lot of good workers, Moses didn’t want to quit. But he had finished what God had for him to do, and it was now time to give over the job to another, younger man. Our talents and usefulness are according to what God gives us. We leave to others what God has given them. We rejoice and are not jealous when another does what we are not called to do. We do our part and step aside.
Lately, I’ve been rethinking my feelings about the American Revolution. What if we had lost that war? Presumably, we would have remained a part of the British empire. We would have remained a part of the empire that began abolishing slavery in the early 1800’s. We didn’t abolish it until a horrible Civil War in the 1860’s. And nobody can say that slaves were freed in the sense of enjoying citizenship like white Americans did. Certainly not in my native Tennessee.
Heroes of the American Revolution like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves and didn’t seem bothered by owning humans as possessions.
A few decades later in Britain, William Wilberforce and others fought to end the British slave trade, but we were no longer a part of the empire that would begin to end that trade.
Certainly, inflicting German troops on the colonies as the British did in the years leading up to the Revolution wasn’t the wisest move on the part of Britain. Mistakes, as they say, were made.
Nevertheless, I think my celebration of the next 4th of July will call for a different kind of reflection: Perhaps a bit of repentance might be a part of it.
I honestly don’t remember if I voted for Ronald Reagan for president or not. I do remember watching some clips of Reagan telling jokes and laughing, including laughing at himself.
As serious as is the office of U.S. president, having a president who can laugh, even at jokes about himself (or, eventually, perhaps, at herself,) should be an unofficial requirement for office.
Recently, two pictures caught my attention: one from a London subway shelter in World War II, another from a Kyiv subway in 2023, Both sets of citizens obviously awaited an all clear to resume their lives. Both called forth a similar respect for ordinary people surviving efforts to subjugate them. Other than picturing more people awake and examining cell phones in the second, both highlight the ability of ordinary citizens to win fierce fights simply by patient endurance: simply waiting out the all-clear to resume their lives and their struggle for independence.
Indeed, Russian citizens, when threatened with a Nazi takeover in World War II, showed a similar resistance to subjugation. Perhaps more Russian people than we know may sympathize with the Ukrainian desire for freedom.
What a hope—that one day, Ukrainians and Russians, both politically free, will discover true friendship between two free and independent states.
“The good that emerges from a conflict of values cannot arise from the total condemnation or destruction of one set of values, but only from the building of a new value, sustained, like an arch, by the tension of the original two.,’
Dorothy L. Sayers; The Mind of the Maker
What a collection of Christians in Rome to whom Paul wrote his letter. All kinds of people, men and women, different nationalities, etc. What a great, myriad group of Christians. As Christian groups today still are.
Eventually, God did crush the Roman persecutors under His feet. Eventually, Rome itself became a major center of Christianity.
Paul would soon become a prisoner of Rome, but eventually Rome would fall to Paul’s God.
We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach. If it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
Working for the U.S. government overseas, I’ve spent a lot of holidays away from home. I’m thankful not only for being home this year with family but also grateful that I’ve satisfied that wanderlust that I knew as an adolescent and young adult. I’m thankful for the good times I had with numerous friends in many countries, but I no longer feel a need for physically wandering and exploring.
Instead, I enjoy making sense of what i experienced and writing the thoughts for others—whether in essay form or in some kind of story. The desire to have purpose is still there, but in recounting and writing rather than in physical experience.
I’m blessed beyond measure and offer thanks what I’ve had and for the meaning I’m still making from what has happened and for the time to pass it on.