Show and Tell

“Saying no is good, but having an alternative is better. Protest is not enough; it is necessary to show a better way.”

That is the lesson Jim Wallis learned as he fought so hard to prevent America from going to war with Iraq. So he did provide an alternative. Read it here if you’re interested.

But an alternative to war isn’t the point of this post. As I read those words of his I couldn’t help but think of them as immensely appropriate to the Christian church in America today. The Church says “no” to all sorts of lifestyles, beliefs, and behaviors but doesn’t present the world with a compelling alternative. Yes, yes, I know the Church points to Christ and living the “Christian life” as the alternative, but I would argue that the Church does not “show a better way,” as Wallis puts it. Why else do you think so many in our world call Christians hypocrites? If we want to make a difference and have an impact on our world we can’t just say no because the Bible says so; we have to show a better way of living. And to do so means we have to start living out what we say we believe.

“I hear the haunting words of Jesus, ‘Don’t be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things’ (Matthew 6:31-32). In other words, if we look like our lives are devoted to getting and maintaining things, we will look like the world, and that will not make Christ look great. He will look like a religious side-interest that may be useful for escaping hell in the end, but doesn’t make much difference in what we live and love here” [John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2003), 107-108.]. This statement is so challenging, and yet it is so true. So how do I live in light of this? So much of the Christian life is counter-cultural. And I find that ironic in a culture many consider to be “Christian.” Most Christians don’t look much different from the rest of the world. At best, we look like a more moral version of our next door neighbor, and even that statement is debatable. Christians seek after wealth, comfort, a bigger house, a nicer car, vacations and status just as much as anybody. So how is the world supposed to see Christ in people who live no differently? If my neighbors don’t notice anything different in the way I live how can this be glorifying to God? The Christian life is intended to be lived in such a way that people all around us are confronted by the reality of the existence of Christ. The first Christians were called Christians because they lived differently than everyone else; they lived like Christ, and that is how they got their name. Christians in that day had a reputation. The only reputation we have today is as hypocrites and judges. The world needs to see real Christianity lived out in front of them.
“It is good to work and have. It is better to work and have in order to give. God’s glory shines more brightly when he satisfies us in times of loss than when he provides for us in times of plenty. The health, wealth, and prosperity ‘gospel’ swallows up the beauty of Christ in the beauty of his gifts and turns the gifts into idols. The world is not impressed when Christians get rich and say thanks to God. They are impressed when God is so satisfying that we give our riches away for Christ’s sake and count it gain” (2003, p. 72).

Why do leaves change color in the fall?

When it's not raining, this is one of my favorite times of year. I love the colors of the leaves changing to their bright yellows and reds, which reminds me of something I read a few weeks ago. Bill Bryson had this to say about the science behind the color changes: “In autumn, as you will recall from your school biology class, trees prepare for their long winter’s slumber by ceasing to manufacture chlorophyll, the chemical that makes their leaves green. The absence of chlorophyll allows other pigments, called carotenoids, which have been present in the leaves all along, to show off a bit. The carotenoids are what account for the yellow and gold of birches, hickories, beeches, and some oaks, among others. Now here is where it gets interesting. To allow these golden colors to thrive, the trees must continue to feed the leaves even though the leaves are not actually doing anything useful except to hanging there looking pretty. Just at a time when a tree ought to be storing up all its energy for use the following spring, it is instead expending a great deal of effort feeding a pigment that brings joy to the hearts of simple folk like me but doesn’t do anything for the tree."

It makes me wonder if the colors of fall are simply for my enjoyment. Did God create trees this way just because he wanted us to appreciate their beauty?

Government Says It's OK for Politicians to Lie

This is quite possibly the saddest thing I have ever heard on the current state of politics in America. This is taken from the Seattle P. I…

OLYMPIA -- You just can't keep a politician from lying.

In a 5-4 ruling Thursday, the state Supreme Court struck down a 1999 law that banned political candidates from intentionally lying about their opponents. The high court majority said the law was an affront to free speech.

"The notion that the government, rather than the people, may be the final arbiter of truth in political debate is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment," Justice Jim Johnson wrote in the majority opinion.

The dissent called the decision "an invitation to lie with impunity." That temptation was already in place, said Travis Ridout, a political science professor at Washington State University. Candidates have long felt free to say their opponent had voted to raise taxes 50 times the previous year, hated children or was soft on crime -- regardless of the facts.

Read the rest of the article in the P. I. here.

How would Jesus respond in a world of war and violence?

Our world is full of violence -- and not just the kind you find in American cities. Think Sudan; think West Bank; think Iraq. As Christians, what should be our response to this? What should our response be to our current war? I supported our presence in Iraq and removal of Saddam Hussein because he was a cruel dictator responsible for the murder of thousands. I supported this because I believe we should all do our part to protect those who are being oppressed (especially those being violently oppressed) and to do our part to bring an end to violence. But where do you draw the line? Can you justify violence (i.e. war) to end violence?

A few of Wallis' words got me thinking about all of this. He says it best so I'll let him: “In a world of violence and war, the words of Jesus, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God,’ are not only challenging, they are daunting. The hardest saying of Jesus and perhaps the most controversial in our post-September 11 world must be: ‘Love your enemies, pray for those that persecute you.’ Let’s be honest: How many churches in the United States have heard sermons preached from either of these Jesus texts in the years since America was viciously attacked on the world-changing September morning in 2001? Shouldn’t we at least have a debate about what the words of Jesus mean in the new world of terrorist threats and pre-emptive wars” (Wallis, 2005, p. 16)?

Humility or Arrogance?

Here are a couple of brief excerpts from God’s Politics that I have been thinking about…

“God’s politics challenges narrow national, ethnic, economic, or cultural self-interest, reminding us of a much wider world and the creative human diversity of all those made in the image of the creator” (Wallis, 2005, p. xix). I feel like so many Americans are only concerned with America and protecting our own self-interests, but God doesn’t love Americans any more than he loves any other people group. He loves the Sudanese, Iraqis, Russians, Palestinians, Canadians, Vietnamese, and every other nationality just as much.

“Abraham Lincoln had it right. Our task should not be to invoke religion and the name of God by claiming God’s blessing and endorsement for all our national policies and practices – saying, in effect, that God is on our side. Rather, Lincoln said, we should pray and worry earnestly whether we are on God’s side. Those are the two ways that religion has been brought into public life in American history. The first way – God on our side – leads inevitably to triumphalism, self-righteousness, bad theology, and, often, dangerous foreign policy. The second way – asking if we are on God’s side – leads to much healthier things, namely penitence and even repentance, humility, reflection, and even accountability. We need much more of all these, because these are often the missing values of politics” (p. xviii). In my reading of Scripture humility, rather than arrogance is the way of Christ. Does my worldview and do my political views reflect this? Hmmm….

What are God's politics anyway?

I started reading God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It by Jim Wallis while I was on my honeymoon. It’s very thought provoking and I’ve been moving through it very slowly because it requires me to wrestle with a lot of issues. I’ve always been fairly ignorant of national political issues but at times of the presidential race I do at least pay attention to what’s going on. Moral issues have always been important to me but I am realizing that I have been focusing my attention on only a few hot moral topics, namely abortion and gay rights. But Wallis points to the fact that poverty, the environment, war and peace, among many others are also moral issues. The Bible actually speaks to most of these issues far more than it does to the issue of homosexuality. So why have I focused my political views on a short select list of moral issues when there are many others important to God? I’m hoping Wallis’ book can help me come to a place of greater passion and sensitivity to all of the issues that are dear to God’s heart. With that said, expect to read a lot of commentary on God’s Politics in this blog in the weeks ahead.

Wastefullness

The last couple of weeks I’ve had some time to do some reading that didn’t have anything to do with school. One author I particularly enjoy is Bill Bryson who is a travel writer. Occasionally mixed in with his wonderful wit are nuggets of great insight. Here is a summation of one of them…

The rate at which we Americans consume natural resources is alarming. With just 5% of the world’s population, we consume roughly 20% of its resources. We are a wasteful culture. What is sad is that I think most Americans don’t care. It has been estimated that the nation as a whole wastes about $300 billion of energy a year. We are not talking here about energy that could be saved by investing in new technologies. We are talking about energy that could be saved just by switching things off or turning things down. As a matter of fact, 5% of ALL the energy used in the United States is consumed by computers that have been left on all night.

I can’t say I’m passionate about the environment, but it seems to me that we each have a responsibility to do our part to respect and preserve creation. We ought to be good stewards of what we’ve been given, not wasters.