Open Letter To The American Christian...
Over the last several months I’ve recognized my ideologies and worldview as an American Christian are not necessarily right, they’re just mine. I’ve recognized how important dialogue is. True dialogue…where you’re not trying to prove your point or fix someone else’s beliefs. Where you listen, contemplate, and wrestle with other peoples perspective and experiences. I mean, how arrogant to think your views are always right?
We have a lot of opinions but not enough examples. We have an opinion on the national debt crisis while we ourselves are in debt. We have an opinion on leadership choices while we aren’t leading our own homes. We critique people in power because it’s easier than fixing our own problems. We think the other political party is corrupt while we ignore our “sides” corruption.
To the American Christian - we have to do better - the world is watching…
There’s a difference between our rights as Americans and our responsibilities as Christians. How you treat others is a reflection of who you are. Jesus didn’t die for us so we could continue treating people the way people treated him. I love our country and am thankful for the men and women who have sacrificed their lives so I could even share this challenge freely, but what I’ve seen is more Christians are committed to America than they are to the Kingdom of God. We should be proud to be Americans but never at the expense of other people…even immigrants. Politics do not have solutions to the world’s problems, only the Kingdom of God does. So, if we’re going to scream for our Liberty, we better stand up and take care of our responsibilities. If you publicly claim Christianity, your allegiance is to Christ and your views on freedoms and rights must be viewed through the lens of Jesus. This should create tension in your life. This should make you think about what is worth living for.
In fact, we can learn a lot about Jesus and politics by looking at the lives of two of his disciples. You prolly skip over the details when you read about how Jesus called two political opposites together into his group of 12. In Matthew 10:1-4, we learn all of the disciples names but only two of them come with titles - Matthew the Tax Collector and Simon the Zealot. Tax collectors and zealots were polar opposites. Tax collectors were Jews who betrayed their family and culture to work for a corrupt, highly influential Roman government. They would cheat their own people by taxing them more than they owed and pocketing the difference. These guys were hated among the Jews and Matthew was one of them. Zealots were Jewish nationalists who despised Rome. They were an anti-government, violent movement that began during the reign of Herod the Great. They were loyal to their traditions and Torah and they were waiting for a Messiah who would violently overthrow Rome and restore the Kingdom of Israel; similar to the theocracy under Kings David and Solomon. They were patriotic and viewed tax collectors as traitors. They loved their land and were prepared to die for it. Simon was one of them.
Now that you have context, think about how crazy it is that these two came together for a common good, rather a spiritual Kingdom good. Notice how Jesus draws passionate people to him, welcomes them at his table, loves on them, teaches them, leads by example, and then invites them to redirect their energy for something bigger than themselves. I think it’s beautiful how both are willing to lay aside their politics to work together to bring change. There was something about Jesus that not only attracted these guys to him but then was able to bring unity among them. The Jesus they had in common was more important than the politics that sought to divide them. As my pastor, Channock Banet said, “Our political views should never supersede our unconditional love.”