Throughout much of the history
of the Church, the Church has just followed society hook, line and sinker. From
the time of Jesus until 313 AD the Church had an on and off again relationship
with the State. On again meaning that the State was persecuting and killing
them; off again, meaning that the State would leave them alone despite
Christianity still being illegal.
In 313,
that all changed. Constantine issued the edict of Milan making it legal to be a
Christian. Throughout the 4th century, laws were passed until Christianity
became the State religion and all other religions were made illegal, and, with
that, a dark era for the Church was initiated. Instead of loving the lost, some
Christians started persecuting the lost and, in the worse cases, killing them.
As if you should die if you don't agree with what we believe. When given the power of the State, Christians throughout history have shown
that they often behave no better and sometimes worse than those who don't know
God.
No longer was the Church viewed by Christians as a kingdom without
borders, colonies of God’s kingdom here on earth, ambassadors not of this world who live in the truth of God's otherworldly kingdom bringing its beauty into our world; Christians began to
confuse the State with God’s kingdom, melding the two, and the State and the
Church had an affair while Christ waited for His Bride to come back home. It
wasn’t until recently, that this hold of the State on the Church and the lust
of the Church to control the State has waned.
Stanley
Hauerwas shares this watershed moment by telling a story of his childhood in
Greenville, South Carolina. On one Sunday night in the summer of 1963, as
Hauerwas writes:
In defiance of the state’s time-honored blue laws, the Fox Theater opened on Sunday. Seven of us—regular attenders of the Methodist Youth Fellowship at Buncombe Street Church—made a pact to enter the front door of the church, be seen, then quietly slip out the back door and join John Wayne at the Fox…On that night, Greenville, South Carolina—the last pocket of resistance to secularity in the Western world—served notice that it would no longer be a prop for the church. There would be no more free passes for the church, no more free rides. The Fox Theater went head to head with the church over who would provide the world view for the young. That night in 1963, the Fox Theater won the opening skirmish (Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, 15-16).
And the
church has been reeling ever since. We seem to be finding our legs these days.
We are not in cahoots with the State any more. We understand that our culture
is not Christian or God honoring. There is now a great divide between the
Church and the world. The seductive siren call of popularity, power, law, and
control never fit well with the call of Christ to be a self-sacrificing servant
to others, to love our enemies, and to go the extra mile even when we don't
want to go the first. The State no longer wants us. The world no longer wants
us, and we should be comfortable not wanting what they have instead of
conforming to what they want us to be. Jesus never meant for His Church to
wield the power of the State nor worry about being accepted and popular.
We are to be an irresistible alternative from the world for those who seek God.
Instead of being the bride of
Christ throughout the centuries, the Church has been dating Themis, the Greek goddess
of Law. And the breakup has been tough. During this fifteen century affair, the
Church forgot its purpose and how to function. Thankfully, there have been
faithful remnants and glimmers of God's Kingdom that we can look to in
relearning our role as the Bride of Christ in a post-Christian society. But
since breaking up with Themis, the Church has gone through a deep depression,
tried dating around, but now we’re finally getting back to Jesus. And dating
Jesus doesn’t look like the way the Church has been since the time of
Constantine, but it’s the way that Jesus has designed us to be. We're learning
how to love again. We're learning how to passionately follow God again. We’re
learning to fully live in grace and truth. These are good times to be following
Jesus.
And the same thing that
happened to the church over the centuries may be true in our own personal
lives. We might be listening to the siren call of false god of America, Hollywood, Sports, or to any of the other idols of our culture that should never be
listened to above the voice of God. We might have hardened to God like Playdoh
hardens, but, like Playdoh, it’s never too late. God is the master heart shaper,
and, as long as we have life left in us, he can pour the water on us and shape
our heart again if we are willing.
Now,
more than ever, many are awakening to the idea that America isn't exactly a
Christian nation. It's baffling to me that this wasn't already self-evident
with our nation's stance on abortion, attitude toward the poor, aggressive
military action around the world, and many other issues. But now, it is
ingrained in our laws that homosexuality is just as valid as heterosexuality.
Maybe we, the church, the body of Jesus, have been going about it all wrong for
the last few decades. We have been obsessing with how to make our nation more
Christian, which leads to us putting law forward instead of love, and in focusing
on the State and what it should do, we have neglected how we can be better
Christians - better followers of Jesus in our everyday lives and together as the church. We have a
dangerous and terrible tendency to focus on others who we can't change rather
than ourselves who we can.
Our government is not, despite the rhetoric of Ronald Reagan, the "shining city on a hill." We are not "the hope of the earth" (as Mitt Romney said in the presidential debate, October 22, 2012., but a sentiment also said by Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln). Nor are we "the one indispensable nation" (as Barack Obama said in that same presidential debate). Our nation is not the salt of the earth or the light of the world. Those are prideful misappropriations of phrases that are reserved for the kingdom of God. The local church is the city on a hill, the salt of the earth, and the light of the world. The local church is the answer for the problems of the world, and yet we neglect the bride of Christ time and time again for all the whimsical allures of the world. And I think things are crumbling around us because I don’t even know if the church believes in our special place anymore.
I hope that we can give up
fighting the cultural battles of our day on a political level because they have
already been lost and have hurt the cause of the gospel. But that doesn’t
change what is right or wrong; it just changes our approach. The Bible gives us
no hint that Jesus was concerned about changing the laws in the Roman Empire.
Instead, we see him establishing an alternative kingdom where he is the King. Let’s follow suit. Instead of attempting to change American laws, let's focus
on changing our lives to be more like what God wants them to be and shower our
community and the world with the love of God. We can't make a nation Christian
through legislation. But that shouldn’t bother us. We live as citizens in God’s
kingdom under the authority of a perfect King. This is the one indispensable nation.
The foot we put forward
shouldn’t be homosexuality is a sin, although if people ask, they do deserve
and honest, biblical answer. But we should be focused on working through our
local churches to win the hearts of people to Jesus. We must set an example of
kingdom living that is irresistible to those seeking God. Through that, our
nation will have more Christians.
James described true spirituality
as loving orphans and widows while keeping ourselves unstained from the world
(James 1:27), Jesus described true spirituality as loving God and loving our
neighbors (Matthew 22:36-40). Paul taught us that the pinnacle of the spiritual
life is love (1 Corinthians 13:13). John taught us that if we don't love our
brothers and sisters, then we don't love God (1 John 4:20).We don't have to
agree with people to love them. And that is true religion. That is the positive
message and life that we must focus on and live for.
But here is the truth that we
must realize, we never let our State or the world dictate to us what is right
and wrong. Society dictates morality in a secular state. But we operate differently. We allow God to
dictate to us what is right or wrong. That is why, historically, dictators have
always attacked the church, whether that was in early Communist China, Soviet
Russia, or Nazi Germany. We, followers of Jesus, are like herding cats. The
faithful cannot be manipulated. Our nation may be hardened to the will of God,
but we don't have to follow suit. We must always remain faithful to our
understanding of God’s word in Scripture.
No matter what the State
says, our beliefs hold true. We don't conform to the world; we allow God to
transform us. The Church and the State were never meant to be bedmates. Our
state is secular; it's not Christian. It can allow gay marriage. That is not
our domain. We don’t even need to invest our energy opposing it in the
legislative arena. Our domain is here: The church, the kingdom of God. And I
think Christians have spent a lot of energy and effort trying to fix the State
while we have let the church crumble. Our priorities and energy have been misdirected.
The church was always meant
to be countercultural. That should be evident now. We shouldn't spend our time
being overly concerned with the State because we can't control it. But you know
who we can control? Ourselves. We can strive to be more loving. We can strive
to help the poor. We can strive to bring peace into our circle of
relationships. We can strive to stand on truth and exude grace. We can be
humble and full of forgiveness. All too often we get hung up on the wrong
things and miss out on working on our own spiritual lives. We get distracted,
preventing ourselves from drawing closer to God and learning to listen to the
Holy Spirit.
Let us take this moment in
history and allow it to spur us all closer to Jesus. Let it not cause us to be
disillusioned but to regain focus. Let us strive to be the church filled with
people in community with one another. People who seek to live in the kingdom of
God here on earth as it is in heaven. Let us focus on ourselves and
our sin rather than the sin of others. Let us revel in the grace of God and
live in such a way that others want to join us in giving glory to our Father in
heaven. This is the time for the church to be the church and live up to its
calling to be the hope of the word. The time is now.
