I live in a lovely house on 3.33 acres of land in the U.S. of A., and the house is packed with more possessions than I could count. By the world’s standards, I am very rich.
Of course, it’s all built on borrowed money. I’m on schedule to pay off the mortgage shortly after my 89th birthday.
If I were to sell the house, the land and all my belongings, I probably would have enough to live on, but I kind of like living here amidst the stuff.
Some Christians only go to church two days out of the year, at Christmas and Easter Sunday. In their defense, those are the two biggest days of the Christian year, celebrating the two biggest events in history.
Christmas, of course, is the day it was reported, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
And on Easter we remember that although that child, now a grown man, had been murdered by authorities two days earlier, on the third day those coming to mourn him were greeted by an empty tomb and asked, ““Why do you seek the living among the dead?”
That sacrifice and resurrection were key to a rather joyful development, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
The one thing those twice-yearly visitors may not fully appreciate is that those two bookends of Jesus’ journey are worth celebrating every day, not just on those two specific days of celebration.
A friend posted a video the other day with Glenn Beck saying he agreed with Joe Rogan that the U.S. is approaching Step 7 on a nine-step continuum that leads inevitably to a civil war — “unless we decide we’re not going to do this anymore.”
Somewhere along the line “this” involves thinking of our political opponents as evil, living in separate versions of reality where the same public events are described by our chosen reporters in completely different ways, accepting political violence as a solution, and so forth.
Beck concluded in part that church leaders are cowards because they have not entered the fray to try to stop the decline. I don’t know that I agree with Beck on that score, but I do agree that faith plays a role in diffusing the conflict, because I believe in a faith where the two greatest commandments — yes, here I go again — are to Love God and Love Your Neighbors, with the word Neighbors defined in a way that includes your perceived enemies.
It would be impossible to end up at war if one of our top priorities is to love our fellow humans, all of them. I am not going to commit or condone violence against anyone I love, and if I love God I defy him by doing anything less than loving.
And so I can see Beck’s point in the sense that if our church leaders are not reminding us that those people on the other side of the aisle are neighbors whom we are commanded to love, they are falling short of the mark.
“Yeah, but those people over there …” you might begin to reply.
To which my Lord and Savior said I should forgive them, even if they continue to assail me seventy times seven times.
That’s how it’s possible to give a war where nobody comes.
