Take up your... ballot?

Every political season you hear it. Most of the time it comes from the religious (Christian) right, but the left is hardly immune. Shrill. Frantic. Almost panicky they tell us that "this is the most critical election ever..." All sorts of doom is predicted for the United States (and beyond) if their candidate is not elected and if the opposition's candidate is elected. We heard it when Reagan ran against and defeated Carter.
"Carter will destroy the country!"
"Reagan will destroy the world!"

I am hearing the same thing now. I read this on a "Christian" website: "This is the most critical election of our lifetime! What’s at stake? The definition of marriage as one man, one woman. Protection of unborn children, Religious freedom, and so much more!"

Then they tell us (Christians) that we should get out and vote (for their candidate) as though the most important contribution the church can make is to vote the right people into office thus helping make the nation a little more moral. Do they really think that's all this nation needs?

Let me be clear: the church does not exist to make a contribution to society, but to witness to the world's true Lord. The church's political responsibility is to call principalities and powers to repentance, and to model an alternative "politics" (as seen in everyday, ordinary Christian community) in which turning the other cheek, giving up the best seat to others, serving the poor, loving the enemy, and practicing nonviolence are everyday occurrences.

A few thoughts about politics;

1. Nations do not rule the world; God rules the world. Thus the seat of power is not the White House, the Kremlin or any such place. He who sits in the heavens laughs.
   
2. The church does not exist to make the nation a little more ethical. Our concern is death, burial, and resurrection -- a message and a way of living that nations find unhelpful to their cause.
   
3. We Christians look to the secular political order to affect lasting change and to "make a difference" in the world precisely to the extent that we despair of the power of the Gospel to make all things new. Christ is "the world's last best hope" with all due respect to Bill Bennett.
   
4. Our first allegiance is to Christ. Number two is not even close. There may not be room for a number two. This may be among the toughest lessons to learn for Christians who live in relatively "prosperous," "peaceful" and "free" nations.
   
5. If you vote, do so as one who follows Jesus -- and not as one who merely follows his or her own interests. Any narcissistic fool can vote his wallet, and most do. At the very least, baptized citizens of the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed have just a little bit more than that to consider.
   

Take up your ballot and follow me?

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor..."

Bishop NT Wright: "Life After Life After Death" or "Why We Care About the Poor & the Suffering"

A Rabbi's Penetrating Question

Ever wonder what it might take for the world to consider the church interesting again? Sure, we can offer "contemporary" worship, buy billboards, have great kids' programs, and a cutting edge website. I am willing to go on the record as being in favor of all these things, by the way. I'm also willing to say that none of these things are capable of capturing the interest, let alone the hearts and minds of an unbelieving world.

I came across this question today by a Jewish Rabbi, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. Surveying the American political-religious scene, Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi wants to know...

Why is it that people like President Bush, who pledge allegiance to the teachings of the master from Nazareth, ignore the teachings of lovingkindness, of feeding the hungry, of taking care of the sick?

I know some will resent the question even being asked, but President Bush invited such question every time he used his Christian faith to ingratiate himself to the electorate, not to mention the day he acknowledged the Lordship of Christ. We will reasonably ask the same questions of Obama or McCain

If he were to follow those teachings in relationship to health, education, and welfare and follow the tenet that “blessed are the peacemakers” rather than produce the greatest number of weapons of mass destruction on earth, I would believe his religious commitment.

... Someone who simply takes doctrinal clues, rather than those that arise from compassion, will not know what to do in the voting booth.

A Savior on Capitol Hill

Turn up the speakers and check this out. The lyrics are supplied below.
I'd love to hear what you think about the song.

I’m so tired of these mortal men
with their hands on their wallets and their hearts full of sin
scared of their enemies, scared of their friends
and always running for re-election
so come to DC if it be thy will
because we’ve never had a savior on Capitol Hill

you can always trust the devil or a politician
to be the devil or a politician
but beyond that friends you’d best beware
’cause at the Pentagon bar they’re an inseparable pair
and as long as the lobbyists are paying their bills
we’ll never have a savior on Capitol Hill

[Bridge]
all of our problems gonna disappear
when we can whisper right in that President’s ear
he could walk right across the reflection pool
in his combat boots and ten thousand dollar suit

you can render unto Caesar everything that’s his
you can trust in his power to come to your defense
it’s the way of the world, the way of the gun
it’s the trading of an evil for a lesser one
so don’t hold your breath or your vote until
you think you’ve finally found a savior up on Capitol Hill

(music and lyrics by Derek Webb)

Unleash Your Inner Rock Star

Our nephew came over to the house one day last week, and brought his Guitar Hero with him. If you're not familiar with Guitar Hero, it is essentially an interactive game in which the "player" (and I use that word very loosely) is equipped with a "guitar" (another word I use very loosely) that is a linked to a game console (like a PS2) which is also linked to your TV. And as I understand it, the "player" takes the "guitar" thingy, turns it on, and the game console begins to play some classic Rock & Roll song over the TV. As colored notes cascade down the TV screen, the"guitar player" must press the corresponding color-coded fret buttons on the neck of the guitar -- precisely as the notes hit the bottom of the TV screen. Whew! It's all very complicated to anyone over 15 years old -- and apparently not real easy even for kids.

Carl Sandburg once wrote, "Let's be honest now For a couple of minutes Even though we're in Chicago." Maybe we could apply that suggestion to life in the church. Much of what we (note: 1st person plural) do in the church, ostensibly in the name of Jesus, much of what we spend money and time and talent on (meetings and programs and activities and stuff) has very little to do with actually following Jesus. I'm not sure how we got into this, but I am sure that's so. Maybe it's because we forget sometimes that becoming a disciple of Christ is a life-long journey, and not a moment in time when we "give our hearts to Jesus" (and I'm all for giving one's heart to Jesus), and so we mistakenly think we've "arrived." I don't know, maybe. Or maybe we forget that we need to develop certain practices in our lives, practices that take a long time and great effort to learn. And maybe we've found things, good things, religious things, things that are a lot easier than turning the other cheek, feeding the poor, telling others about Jesus, taking up our cross and we've hidden inside these good things instead of abiding in Jesus. Maybe. Let's be honest now for a couple of minutes even though we're in the church. Isn't it possible that we've created a safer, simpler, more socially acceptable version of what Jesus calls us to be and to do. It's close. It's very much like the real thing -- and sometimes, by God's grace it even is the real thing. But not that often, not really.

Benjamin, our 14 year old son, was excitedly telling me about his Guitar Hero experience late the other night.
"Is it hard to do?" I asked.
"Oh yeah. You have to practice for hours and hours to be any good at all."
"And does it teach you how to play a real guitar?" It was an honest question. Promise.
"No, dad. Geez," rolling his eyes. I am so stupid sometimes.
"It doesn't teach you how to play a real guitar?"
"Nope," uttered in pretend exasperation. A playful smile crossed his face.
"So let me get this straight: it's a game which is designed to have a "player" hold a "guitar" or at least something that looks like and functions similarly to a guitar which also requires hours and hours of practice just so the "player" can master the like-a-guitar-thing without ever learning how to actually play a single song on a real instrument? Right?"
"See, dad? Even you can learn new things."
"Ben, here's an idea: instead of practicing for hours on Guitar Hero, why not practice on a real guitar and learn to play, you know, like real songs?"

He just stared at me a few seconds with a blank "does not compute" look on his face and just turned back to whatever he'd been doing.

Now, I'm not against games. I love games. I'm not even really opposed to Guitar Hero (taken in moderation). Lord knows I've spent a few evenings playing Monopoly and am yet to buy my first railroad or hotel.

But isn't there something sad, something empty about spending one's life practicing something that is very much like the real thing? Close. Close, yet not... not quite it.

Imagine This

Poor, starving, war torn, and desperate, they borrow from the wealthiest nations and then cannot repay the loans. Their debt undermines any hope of economic recovery, which means more poverty, more starvation, more war, greater desperation. Sometimes the loans are taken out by tyrants, dictators (often "puppet regimes" placed in power by wealthy Western countries). Long after the dictator de jour is gone, the debt remains and precious monies that could alleviate suffering flow into the hands of the über rich.

Just imagine that, when your uncle died, you discovered your family had inherited his debts...

Just imagine that the banks seized your home and much of your parents’ wages, forcing you all to live on a rubbish tip...

Just imagine that you were turned away from school, because the money had been used for debt repayments...

Just imagine that when your sister went to hospital to have her baby, they turned her away too...

Just imagine that, having only polluted stream water to drink, several of your brothers and sisters sickened and died...

Just imagine that you see your parents worn out by work and worry, and you know that you will inherit the debt...

This isn’t imagination! This is the tragic reality of the lives of hundreds of millions of young people in the poorer countries. (from On Dropping the Debt)

You'll have to look high and low to find someone who knows less about third world debt, national economies, and the actual impact of debt-relief than I do. But these things I do know:

• Jesus said rich people are in a heap of trouble (Luke 6:24f; Mark 10:17-29).
  
• How we treat poor people anticipates how Jesus will treat us (Matthew 25:34ff).
  
• The spirit of Jubilee is not completely gone, amazingly (Leviticus 25).

The relief of global debt has actually been figured out. There are serious economists and bankers who have worked on this. I'm not an economist or a banker, but I have seen and talked to people in that field. They've got strategies where if you do this now, then you can do that next year, and so on. There would be ways through. Somebody said the sort of broad-brush sums we're talking about would cost, say, America roughly the amount that it spends on going to the movies each year. It would cost roughly that amount to put the whole thing back the right way around. Then we could all proceed together. What really sticks in my throat is that while all this is going on, the American government, along with my own government [UK] and several others, talk about bringing freedom and justice to the world, when we are doing the precise opposite. Use of imperial rhetoric to cover up our own consistent greed … if we have any Christian moral courage, this is what we ought to be talking about. Face it, we are in a world where two-thirds of the people are poor and crying for justice. One-third of the people are rich and wanting more sex. I want to say, what is wrong with this picture? This cannot be the way the Creator-God intended the cosmos to work. (NT Wright in an interview in the National Catholic Reporter, emphasis mine)

Don't miss this wonderful evening!!

Book Discussion this Saturday Night -- August 9
Good Friends and Lively Discussion

Make plans to attend our exploration of
The Shack by William P. Young

Hosted by the Michael and Jennifer Higgins

Potluck dinner at 6PM

For more information, please email me: RBarnhart@peachtree.org

"Hey Dad, I need a [fill in the blank]..."

"And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:19

Big whoop. What American doesn't already know that? If we hadn't been created by such a God, we'd almost surely have created Him. In fact, God (this particular God) is all we ever wanted, and I have serious doubts as to whether we would put up with any other sort. We are served by a God who sees our needs and acts with some serious divine need-meeting. This God is like a Genie in a bottle, and our only wish is, "I wish that my every wish would come true."

This really is a great deal. We have needs (do we ever?!), and God meets every single one of them. I'm not making this up; it's in the Bible and Paul said it. If you have a need, God will meet that need. How do I know I have a need? It's easy. If I want it, I need it.

I need a haircut (and not some $12 hack job).
I need a late model BMW (God's servants must show forth His generosity).
I need new clothes (I'll donate the old stuff to make room in the closet).
I need a hamburger ("give us this day...").
I need to be happy (surely God wants no less for me).

The list goes on and on and on and on. Not to worry, though. God will supply my every need.

The church has to be very careful when it begins to talk about "meeting people's needs." What are needs, and who decides what they are? Given that we live in a fundamentally narcissistic culture driven by ever unquenched desires, um, excuse me, "needs," can we really be trusted to determine what our real needs are?

Jesus doesn't meet our needs; he rearranges them. He cares very little about most things that I assume are my needs, and he gives me needs I would've never had if I hadn't met Jesus. He reorders them.

I used to ask seminarians, "Why are you in seminary?" They'd say, "I like meeting people's needs." And I'd say, "Whoa. Really? If you try that with the people I know, they'll eat you alive."

Now, if you're a pastor in Honduras, it might be okay to define your ministry as meeting needs, because more people in Honduras have interesting biblical needs – food, clothing, housing. But most people in the churches I know get those needs met without prayer. So they've moved on to "needs" like orgasm, a satisfying career, an enjoyable love life, a positive outlook on life, and stuff the Bible has absolutely no interest in. (from an interview with Will Willimon).

It is more than merely possible that most of what we consider needs are not really needs at all. Maybe we have developed some itches that are not worth scratching. And beyond that, maybe one way the church can serve Jesus faithfully is by pointing out those things that are worth wanting and those that are not. In doing that we might even learn not to want them ourselves.

Anyway, I'd write more, but my kids need a PlayStation3 and I need to get to Walmart.