Some thoughts as I prepare for Sunday’s sermon on I Peter 1…

We see all around us things that fade.  History describes to us the rise and fall (fading away) of nations and temporary dominance, either regional or global of the same.  We live in a world where all things are transient, but within each soul there lies a fallow ground that breeds dreams of permanence, stability, and the warmth of the home hearth.  Life can, in moments, be defined by this valiant struggle to hold on to what stability can be gleaned out of this passing experience.  Into this milieu steps the Author and Finisher of our Faith and proclaims that we are to step up because he went up.  We are to live with total abandonment because everything concerning us is determined, established, signed sealed and delivered! “Set your hope on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed!” The worn out cliché, “Too heavenly minded to be any earthly good,” is used to shame us into thinking on a base profane level.  I would rather stand with C.S. Lewis when he wrote in Mere Christianity the following: If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. So, show me a “Christian” who has no impact on his community and I will name him a faithless man who dabbles only in religion.  Show me a “Christian” who is more interested in establishing man’s kingdom (or his own) rather than the Kingdom of Heaven and I will quote some verses about thunder clouds that never give rain and only provide splendiferous entertainment through wind storms.  Jesus called them whitewashed walls!

Today as we sat over a lunch of “to die for” enchiladas suizas, David, Andrea and I wondered if the Rabbi wandered in and sat down with us if he would begin to discuss paint colors with us or commend us for following after Him.  I must ask myself these tough questions.  When I do (ask the questions), I am confronted.  Is Jesus calling me to go down the road of rewriting American history so I can argue without shame my fear of loosing my place in the top 3% of the world?  Or am I instructed to pray, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”?  Maybe God’s plan includes a strong America in the future, and maybe it doesn’t.  Does that change anything for me?  I am taking my time on my answer because I have a sense that it is vital that I live out my answer.  Am I willing to move purposefully into my community living out the Salvation story, no matter what place my earthly nation occupies in the world order?