06/14/2009

Class: Prov 30:15-17 “…there are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, `Enough!'…”

Scripture reading: #473

Sunday Vespers: Intercessory Prayer

Wednesday Study: Luke’s version of the Last Supper…what’s the role of communion?

Our Over-arching Mission (Acts1.8; Mt 28.19-20)

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20. and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

We have complicated Christianity to the point where the message is geo-politically defined. The message of evangelical Christianity is considerably different here in the U.S. than it is among evangelical Christianity in Palestine, or Lebanon, or Iran, or Indonesia.

The poor Christians trying to keep the doors open in the Baptist Church of Gaza City aren't espousing the same message of Zionism as a typical Baptist church in northwest Arkansas.

The typical perspective of Islam that has permeated most of evangelicalism in the U.S. isn't the perspective that a group of Christians meeting house to house somewhere in Indonesia has as they lift their voices in prayer for their fellow countrymen.

Perhaps it has pretty much always been this way since the days of the Constantine era church. Kings and Prime Ministers and Presidents have historically endeavored to get the church on 'their side' in order to literally 'rally the troops.'

If troops are being rallied, someone is going to die. There is a political imperative for any cause to be declared 'just' - and the highest moral authority has typically been vested in whatever religious vestiges are most prominent in any given country.

Quite a few popes and many preachers have given moral authority to whatever the cause nationalism was defending in whatever era of history we might choose to examine. Even Hitler was successful in getting most of the churches in Germany to espouse the politics of the Third Reich. And they weren’t the first German church leaders to fall in line with anti-Jewish rhetoric…Martin Luther did all the way back in

Jesus didn't intend for His message to be construed and used to defend political forms or geo-political boundaries.

Here is simply what he said, "you will be my witnesses...teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

If we really want to consider what that 'witness' was to be we need to pick up a 'red letter' New Testament and just read the passages in red.

The teachings of Jesus could never be construed as a platform to come against the Roman Empire, nor any other government. Indeed, when Jesus was 'against' someone or some entity it was invariably the ensconced religious system and people of His day...His 'religion' and His people!

He didn't rail against the Romans, or the gathering 'hordes' across the Caucasus Mountains, or the Egyptians, or the desert marauders, or the barbarians from the eastern reaches of the old Persian empire.

Each of them were those to whom He was sending His witnesses with teachings not of Jerusalem, but of the greatest force of Grace and Mercy and Love that the world had ever seen.

These were not to be forces with the sword, but instruments of faith, the substance of Hope!

These were to be witnesses that brought reconciliation of mankind with God...who healed the sick, fed the hungry, clothed the naked and brought Peace with the message of the Prince of Peace.

That, my friend, is the over-arching mission Jesus gave to His followers. That is our mission.