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WHAT A SAVIOR! #16
GIVING AMERICA BACK TO JESUS
It’s one of the most wretched stories you’ll ever find,
and it falls under the category of “God showed me.” Best-selling author
Jon Krakauer – we’ve gotten Everest stories from him before – recently
penned the book, Under the Banner of Heaven, with this chilling subtitle:
“A Story of Violent Faith.” A couple of renegade fundamentalist Mormons
named Dan and Ron Lafferty decided that they had received a message from
God. In March of 1984, Ron began to pick up on what he was sure were “revelations”;
the most deadly one he wrote out “on a sheet of yellow legal paper.” And
the voice in his head seemed to be telling him to kill his own sister-in-law,
Brenda, and also her little baby, Erica. Four months later, the two boys
did exactly that. Slipping into their own brother’s house while he was
away, they slit the baby’s throat, and then went into the kitchen and
methodically did the same to the infant’s mother. For the crime, Utah
authorities sent Dan Lafferty to prison for the rest of his life and sentenced
Ron to death by firing squad. More than 20 years later, he still languishes
on death row for the crime of trying to do what he tragically thought
was God’s will.
We’ve spent three weeks now studying together in God’s inspired Word about
the personhood and the Deity and the pure, sinless nature of Jesus. And
today, seeing as the United States celebrated its 4th of July holiday
yesterday, it seems well to grapple with a monumental dilemma. If you’re
a Christian, you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. You accept Him as
the ruler of your life. What He says, you do. Where He sends, you go.
When you become convinced that it’s His express will for you to change
or alter something in your life, you’re willing to make that change. We
call that process sanctification, or discipleship, or simply a willingness
to let the Lord BE the Lord!
But here’s the rub. The followers of Jesus also believe that Jesus is
destined to rule over ALL. We have songs that go: “Lord of all, Of all
seen and unseen things.” The Bible describes Jesus as being ruler over
the heavens above and the earth below, of having authority over “all things.”
And so we look around at America, as the smoke from our firecrackers slowly
ebbs away and as we wrap up the red-white-and-blue bunting for another
year, and we think to ourselves: “I must help work so that Jesus will
rule over all of this. I want Him to have ascendancy and authority over
all things. So how shall I vote this November?” Have you ever sensed that
feeling welling up in yourself? Or heard it said on Christian radio?
There’s a wonderful essay to be found in John Stott’s great book, The
Contemporary Christian . . . and it caught our eye right at this juncture.
This is a pretty good little speech for the 4th or 5th of July; see what
you think:
“We long that He who is Lord,” Stott writes to his
fellow believers, “should be acknowledged AS Lord; this is our evangelistic
task. But even in a society which does not specifically acknowledge His
lordship, we are still concerned that His values will prevail, that human
rights and human dignity be accorded to people of all races and religions,
that honor be given to women and children, that justice be secured for
the oppressed, that society become more just, compassionate, peaceful
and free. Why? Why do we care about these things? Because Jesus is Lord
of society by right, and because He cares about them.” Then this writer
sagely adds: “This is not to resurrect the old ‘social gospel’ of theological
liberalism, which made the mistake of identifying a caring society with
the kingdom of God. It is rather to take seriously the truth that Jesus
is Lord of society and therefore to seek to make it more pleasing to Him.”
And right here, it is often commented, is where Christianity 101 gets
to be hard! Because it clashes violently with Democracy 101, which is
actually another upper-division course. Friend, I’ll be very frank with
you. I really want for you to be a Christian. I wish every listener to
this station was a Christian. I wish all of the listeners to the other
stations on your dial – talk radio, rock, rap, hip-hop, country, NPR –
were all Christians. Why? Because Jesus is Lord!
What’s more, I wish America and the former Soviet Union and Canada and
North Korea and Iraq were all, somehow, “Christian nations.” That’s a
huge debate for another time, and I’ll be the first to say I am glad for
the doctrine of separation of church and state. But the believer part
of me asserts that Jesus is Lord over all. This world is His. Kingdoms
and principalities are there because He ordains and permits them to be.
And I really want to work and pray and vote for things that will enable
my Lord to establish and realize His lordship.
Having said that, I live in a world where Democracy 101 and Christianity
101 co-exist and collide.
It was interesting to read something in Chuck Colson’s book, Kingdoms
in Conflict – and what a perfect title for our Bible study today! Most
of you listeners know that Mr. Colson is a praying man. He believes in
prayer. He came to Jesus Christ on a hot, steamy night where he wept and
prayed in the car outside his friend Tom Phillips’ house: August 12, 1973.
He prayed in prison as he served out his Watergate sentence. He prays
today as he directs the worldwide Prison Fellowship ministry. This man
believes in prayer, loves to pray, proclaims the power of prayer.
It’s rather surprising, then, to read in his book,
Kingdoms in Conflict, that he opposes the instituting of organized prayer
in America’s public schools. It’s right there on page 115 – he calls the
issue a “Trojan horse.” Why? Because you can’t make Jesus Lord by coercing
innocent third-graders and having them recite a prayer “in Jesus’ name.”
“I for one don’t want my grandchildren,” he writes,
“reciting prayers determined by government officials.”
And even though everything in me, as a Christian preacher,
wants to stand outside some public school and carry a banner and go “Pray!
Pray! Pray!,” I have to bow my head and ask God to give me wisdom in working
for the Lordship of my Lord and Master.
Colson goes on to suggest that we will never be able to reform the world,
or make people into disciples, or exalt Jesus to His throne by simply
passing laws. However, it IS incumbent upon Christians do all that we
can to help our world edge toward the loving Eden model that Jesus desires
for the universe He created.
“As citizens of the Kingdom of God,” he adds, “[Christians]
are to bring God’s standards of righteousness and justice to bear on the
kingdoms of this world.”
And of course, that’s where the Democracy 101 debates
really get lively. That’s all right. It’s a good and an appropriate discussion.
Well-meaning people can disagree and still love one another. No, you cannot
force other people to be good, but we can work to protect the least among
us and keep them safe. Keep them fed. Keep them clothed and educated.
Keep them on the receiving end of the list of gifts Jesus Himself describes
in Matthew 25 as going to “the least of these My brethren.”
There’s a nice little story later in this very scholarly book by Colson
and his writing partner, Ellen Santilli Vaughn. A Philadelphia kid named
Trevor, 11 years old, probably wasn’t astute enough to sort out the issue
of having “under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance. I don’t know that he
would have been equipped to deal with DOMA and the prickly arguments of
same-sex marriage and our U.S. Constitution. The nuances of the endless
pro-life, pro-choice debate would probably have sailed right past this
kid. But young Mr. Farrell, watching TV one night, saw a news report about
the homeless people living on the mean streets of the City of Brotherly
Love. And it must not have been the Fourth of July because it was cold
on those streets at 11:00 p.m. And somehow this innocent boy just sensed
that in a world where Jesus is Lord, people shouldn’t be sleeping in the
cold. People shouldn’t need to find sidewalk grates in order to find a
bit of warmth. So he took a blanket out of the linen closet in his parents’
upscale suburban home, and his parents drove him down to the ghetto part
of town. Trevor Farrell gave that blanket to the first emaciated sufferer
he found. A few nights later the family returned with more blankets. Then
clothing and some peanut-butter sandwiches. Pretty soon somebody donated
a van and TV cameras began to take notice. Colson observes that young
Trevor found himself explaining to the likes of Merv Griffin, Mother Teresa,
and President Ronald Reagan what “Trevor’s Campaign” was all about. And
what WAS it about? Twelve simple words:
“It’s Jesus inside of me,” he confessed to a watching
world, “that makes me want to do this.”
In Jesus’ perfect world, no one is cold. Give a blanket.
No one is hungry. Prepare and share a meal. No one is abused. Vote to
protect the dignity of all people. The flames of religious liberty can
still burn as brightly as yesterday’s Roman candles and sparklers while
we work to truly make this Jesus’ world.
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