The following is
the next to last chapter of my book entitled "Peace on Earth?" I hope
that you have noticed the question mark at the end of the title. It is to raise
the question, "Where is this peace the Bible promises?" The answer has
already been given in earlier chapters: It is inside of you. It comes from your
view of the world and your love for and trust in God.
This chapter spells
out and suggests answers for some of the controversial issues of the day that
seem to be stealing the peace of many Christian men and women. It has the
potential to create some controversy, though that is not it's intent. It's
intent is to suggest ways Christians can move toward being at peace about these
and about all things. I hope you will read it in that light.
CHAPTER 11
Closer to Home
God loves us and wants us to be at peace.
-And-
Though he wants us to be busy in his kingdom, he does not
require that we "fix" the world.
That's his job.
-And-
God has not called us to use the country's police forces to
require non-believers to live righteously. Instead, he has charged us with calling people to righteousness
This next set of issues
may be closer to your heart than those in Chapter 8. Perhaps you have had to deal with one or more
of these first hand. You may view my
answers as just that - my answers, but I
believe they are based on the three principles listed above. Some of the scriptural references for the
principles are in the first part of Chapter 9.
1. Abortion
When is a baby not a
baby? That is the question isn't
it? Almost everyone agrees that we
shouldn't be killing babies, so the argument has turned into one about the "personhood"
of the unborn.
But the argument is not
real. If a baby is a baby when it is
born, why is it not a baby 7 minutes before it is born, or 7 hours, or 7 days,
or 7 months? At whatever stage of
development, what is in a mother's womb is at some point in becoming a
person. Once you decide that you want to
justify putting it to death you put yourself in the position of having to determine
when is the baby really a baby and when is it not. There is no scientific way to make that
determination. Whatever day you pick in
the process of development, someone can legitimately ask, "Why not a day
earlier - or later?"
Having said that, the proper approach for a Christian, and therefore
for the church, is to teach, not to legislate.
Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life has an excellent billboard
campaign in this regard. They do not accuse people of murder, or in
any other way put people down. Instead,
they hold up the importance of respecting life - even when it is still in the
womb.
Our assigned role is to
teach, not to legislate.
2. Gay marriage
Who is and is not
welcome in your church service? A lot of
us have signs and letterheads that proclaim, "Everyone Welcome." Does
that include a gay couple? If sinners
are not welcome, would we turn away a lying politician or a cheating business
person?
How many gay or lesbian
people do you know? How many are you
likely to meet in the circles you move in?
Is being in a gay relationship really worse than living with your girlfriend
or boyfriend? How would you go about
sharing the gospel gently with someone who is in a gay relationship or who
suspects he might be gay?
These are complex
questions. Here are some of my
thoughts. We are all sinners.
Some of us recognize that fact and some
do not. Some of us are belligerent about
our sin. We want to defend our right to
stay in it. We need to be taught, but
are unwilling to listen. That makes it very difficult to reach some people, and
as Jesus' "seed planters"
we often decide what kind of soil is in front of us and we decide not to plant
any seed.
We do not seem to be
nearly as upset with people in our community who are living with a partner of
the opposite sex as we are with those who are living with someone of the same
sex. If we are to be a church that is
actively "seeking and saving the lost" we do need to be welcoming to
sinners. That is not an easy transition
for many of us.
What should be our stand
on gay marriage legislation? Again, it
is not our assignment to legislate people into righteousness. Marriage is a religious institution that has
traditionally been reinforced by the state.
If every state and every nation endorses gay marriage it will not change
God's mind about it. Marriage in God's eyes
is one man and one woman. We spread that idea by gentle teaching, not by
passing laws.
Our responsibility is to
love people and to teach them gently.
1. Immigration
God said:
a. "You shall not oppress a stranger, since you
yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in
the land of Egypt;"
and
b. "The LORD protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless
and the widow;"
and
c. "A widow is to be put on the list only if she is not less
than sixty years old, having been the wife of one man, having a reputation for good works; and if she has brought up
children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has assisted those in
distress, and if she has devoted
herself to every good work;"
and
d. "Now when you reap the harvest of your
land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you
gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor
shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for
the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God."
So, how can we as His
people join our voices with those who are saying, "Stay away."
I do know that
immigration is scary. We are
afraid. We are scared that uncontrolled
immigration will adversely affect our standard of living. "They" will come here and get the
jobs we and our children wanted.
"They" will bring disease, crime, and immorality into
"our" culture.
The truth of it all is
that God is bigger than all that. We are
to trust him and welcome the strangers.
Some will say that they
oppose immigrants because they are coming here in opposition to our laws. But we have passed laws that have set up constraints on who can come
and who must stay away. And those
constraints are along economic and racial lines. That invokes for me all the scripture that
says we are to become advocates for the poor, especially for those who are
being taken advantage of by people in power.
4. War
Christians preach that
when someone hits us, we should offer them the other cheek to hit that one as
well. We teach forgiveness of our enemies. When they came to capture Jesus in the garden
Jesus had Peter put away his sword.
Yet from our
correspondence, one would think that we are war mongers. This is a difficult issue. We do not want to be identified with those
citizens who treated our returning Viet Nam Vets with disrespect and dishonor.
A few days ago I was in
a grocery store wearing my USMC hat. As
frequently happens, a man stopped me to inquire about my service. Whether it was for three years or for thirty,
Marines always are inquisitive about another Marine's service. Noticing my gray hair, he asked whether I had
been in Viet Nam. It turned out we had
both served there and we went through the routine, when, where, and with what
unit. As we finished our brief
conversation, without thinking about it, I said to him, "Welcome
home." Without hesitation he
repeated the familiar greeting. On the
way out of the store Charlene identified what had happened. "No one else would welcome you home, so
you welcome each other."
We do want to respect
our young people who go off to war to protect our freedoms, and Paul did say
that government bears the sword legitimately.
I do not have all the answers to this
one. But this I do know. We are called on to be a peace loving
people. As Christians our first and perhaps
our only weapon is the metaphorical sword of God: his word, the Bible.
We should not be leading
the charge to go off killing people in another part of the world. We should instead be trying to teach the
truth in "all the world."
5. The education of
our children
One of our principle
concerns today is whether our children are receiving a proper education. Many are concerned that we are falling behind
other nations, particularly in math and science. But Christians' major complaint is the
secularization of the schools - excluding any reference to God.
Here is the basic problem. We turned schooling over to the government
years ago, and in doing so we relinquished control over the education of our
children. The schools are no longer seen
as extensions of the family to accomplish family goals. They are now viewed as extensions of the
government to accomplish national goals.
And as the society grew more secular, so did the national goals as
played out through the school system.
Why are they not properly educating our children? The question more properly should be,
"Why aren't we educating our children?" Yes, we live in a complex world and education
is more involved than it was when language arts and a little basic math were
all that was required, but we also have many more resources under our control
than we did back then.
The early home schoolers
have done a lot of the work gaining legitimacy for the approach in every state. Many states now have approved a free or
inexpensive on-line curriculum for homeschoolers. Can't afford to give up an income to free up
time to home school? I would encourage
you to assess whether it is a matter of "can't" or is it instead a
situation where you are wanting to maintain a lifestyle you have established
for yourself?
If you are a single
parent working to put food on the table there are still options. Churches, intead of railing against the
government should be helping with this issue: creating affordable, perhaps even
free resources for education.
Cooperative arrangements can go a long way in this regard. Worried about the quality of the home school
education? Do some research. Home schoolers are taking top honors in
contests like spelling bees and are gaining admission to the top schools in the
nation.
On the other hand, all
of my kids and grandkids have been in the public school system. If we choose that option we need to
acknowledge that it was our own choice.
We need to adequately prepare our kids for what they will encounter
there. And we need to encourage efforts
like those of high schoolers who meet at the flag pole for a brief prayer
before the day starts.
Let's quit complaining
and do something productive about the issue.
6. Salvation
Oddly, Christians
continue to express concern about whether they will go to heaven. They have read the book. Intellectually they know the answers. Paul told the Ephesians that they cannot earn
salvation; it is a gift. Yet still Christians
worry. We worry about whether we are
doing enough. Even if we aren't
concerned about missing heaven, we still are worried that we are not making a
sufficient effort for the kingdom.
It may be that we just
don't trust God's promises, but I will suggest that the primary reason for all
this concern is that we really are living our lives with one foot in the kingdom
of God and the other foot in Satan's world.
We have not dedicated our lives to Jesus. We are spending most of our time here earning
a living, increasing our standard of living and trying to keep up with the debt
we have created. Then we worry that we
are not doing enough to further the kingdom of God. Brothers and Sisters, if this is the case, it
is time we got serious about being God's army on this earth. He said we should deny ourselves and daily
take up our figurative cross. It is no wonder we feel guilty if we have not
made an effort to live up to his standards.
7. The Salvation of
our Families and Others We Care About.
And we are worried about
the salvation of our families. People we
care deeply about do not share our love for God or for his principles. They may be loving, giving people but they do
not give God the credit, nor do they depend on him for their sense of well
being. Maybe we made some mistakes when
they were younger or when we first met them. Or perhaps we are uncertain how
much to say to them now. Is there more
we could be doing?
God does require something
of us in our relations with other people.
He wants us to love them and to teach them. He wants us to tell them the good news. But there our responsibility stops. God has not asked us to make people obey him
or to browbeat them into subission. Even
if we could do so (and likely we cannot), it would not be real. It would not be in keeping with God's
requirement for people to come to him and to follow him of their own free
will.
We are free to grieve
over those who have chosen not to follow Jesus.
Jesus wept over the City of Jerusalem.
But, if we are gently teaching and are setting a good example, if we
have made the truth clear, we are not to be worried that there is something
else we shoud be doing. The Holy Spirit
of God has been charged with leading people to him
and we are not to take over his job.
We hear often that the
church is losing its kids. That seems to
be true, but I would point out another way to look at it. The church that is losing its kids is the
institutional church - the one you can see, the one that is measured by
attendance. I would question whether
Jesus is losing so many of his followers.
I would guess that he never had them in the first place. Yes they may have been faithful attenders,
but I doubt that many of them ever truly gave their lives to Jesus. My observation is that those young people who
have been called by their local church to go outside the church building, to
get into the streets, either here or in foreign countries, to tell good news
and to help people who need help, keep doing that in the name of the Lord after
they grow up.
