Here and Now, for Eternity
In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: ‘Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.’ And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other-worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular. Martin Luther King Jr.
In his first sermon at his home-synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus read these words from the prophet Isaiah -
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Lk. 4:18-19)
Gazing at both friends and relatives with whom he had grown up, our Lord then declared, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
While I’m sure they were, for the most part, oblivious to what Jesus was actually saying, the people in the synagogue that day were impressed, and Luke tells us “all spoke well of him.”
Sadly, as he continued to speak, their praise turned to fury, and after the service ended, they tried to throw him off the cliff built on the edge of town. Why the change of heart? What did Jesus say that so quickly turned his supporters into an angry mob intent on killing him?
The answer is that our Lord dared to speak of the work of two of Israel’s greatest prophets, Elijah and Elisha. These two men, Jesus told the people, were sent by God to minister to others in desperate need of His grace: a poor widow living in the stronghold of Baal worship and a leprous Syrian in charge of the armies of Israel’s enemies.
The reason for this, Jesus told his audience, was because of the lack of faith found among God’s people in Israel.
It’s easy to hold on to an other-worldly faith that never demands the hard work of the here and now, a faith that separates the sacred from the secular, the needs of people, all people, for hope and healing. But genuine faith, Christ-centered faith, knows no such distinction.
Show me your faith apart from your works, James tells us, and I will show you my faith by my works. (Js. 2:18)
I took time this morning to reflect on the continuing struggles in my nation and our world for justice and freedom for the oppressed. And they are many. It’s easy to look the other way, to come up with reasons for inaction or excuses as to why we refuse to recognize the reality of systems and attitudes that perpetuate pain and poverty among others who, like us, have been created in the image of God.
There is no place among followers of Jesus for a theology of duality that separates body from soul and the secular from the sacred.
The kingdom of heaven, taught Jesus, is like yeast mixed into the world’s dough, like salt that seasons and preserves, and like light that dispels the darkness of this world, bringing glory to God. But in order to be these things, you and I must be willing to commit ourselves not to an other-worldly Christianity, but one that makes a difference here and now and will continue to do so for eternity.
In Christ,
Dan
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