What is Worth Knowing?

We are in what many call the “information age”.  The contents of entire libraries are at our fingertips.  University search engines provide every doctoral research paper instantaneously.  Second graders and seniors citizens alike Google each fleeting thought.  Television evangelist, both religious and political vie for our votes, our money and our minds.  Raw data is everywhere.  We have been deluged with input and stimuli, but rarely is contemplation encouraged.

Information is not just conveyed, it is spun.  The art of persuasion has given way to the tactic of spin.  It is now deemed learned to be able to make every statement as a propositional declaration to which dissent is a sure sign of a feeble mind.  Even what passes for dissent requires an insincere wink.  Thoughtful positions don’t make good sound bits and we seem to have the intellectual curiosity of gnats.  Public discourse has taken on the a Machiavellian nature.  Lies, overstatements and slight-of-hand have all become acceptable tools to cut through the milieu in order to sway the contemptible masses.

What if we were to attempt to preserve or restore our collective sanity?  What is worthy of the promise of human thought and creativity?  If we took just a moment to reflect and (dare we say) expand our vision, what is it that we might consider considering?  In the great narrative of our lives, what is worthy of our mental, intellectual, emotional and spiritual pursuit?

It would have to be something of a more affective capacity than the momentary news cycle, political season, fad or nouveau theology.  If we were going to stop and think about something for longer than the time it takes to delete the daily spam; if we are going to allow ourselves to feel something more residing than the last wave of nausea we experienced as we added up our monthly bills; then, it should be something of real significance.  It should transcend the moment and yet be relevant to it. 

It should be the kind of thing that stretches out for a ways in front of us.  It should matter.  It should be deeply relevant regardless of who controls the White House or the media outlets.  It should be the kind of thing with which philosopher struggle.  It should be the kind of thing that Jesus would ponder. 

Maybe a starting place is Ephesians 5:10, “and find out what pleases the Lord”.  Don’t dismiss me yet!  I am not talking about rules best suited for “gotcha” soundbites.  I am talking about the mystery found in the depths of relationship.  Finding out what pleases a God who came down from Heaven and laid His life down for the express purpose of being able to restore relationship.  The God who suffered the cross, specifically so that He would no longer count people’s sins against them. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

If He would suffer death on a cross in order to not play “soundbite gotcha”, what pleases Him?  If He fulfilled the law and paid the sacrifice, so that it would not be held against you – so that you could be reconciled to God – what now pleases Him?  We are called to walk in the Light of that knowledge.  Think about it…

Politics and the Church

If we have coffee in the middle of the NFL play-offs, chances are we are going to talk a little about football.  If any major news event is whirling around, we are going to talk about it.  If we had coffee right now, we might talk about politics.  We might talk about which speeches were good, which were bad, which ones made us laugh or cringe.  I enjoy the banter like I enjoy a great tennis match.  Serve, volley, lob, overhand slam, save – winner!  It’s fun, it’s great theatre, it’s like a soap-opera, except usually they keep their clothes on. 

It also important.  They are talking about billions of dollars and millions of lives.  All of that rhetoric eventually filters down to policies and legislation that affect each of our lives.  I think Christians that get involved in politics to improve the lives of their neighbors or who speak up for those who have no voice are to be commended. 

But what is the role of the local church or the pastor who is seen as the voice of that church?  When is the last time the words “church” and “politics” were used in the same sentence and your spirits were lifted?  When I hear those words together my heart drops.  For life to rise, I feel like I have to slide a slimy four-day-dead tuna off of my chest first.

The church has a high calling.  2 Corinthians 5:18-20
18    All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
19    that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
20    We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

What other message should we dilute or convolute that message with? 
It should be noted:
Jesus never ran for the Roman Senate.
Jesus never fought to overthrow the oppressive Roman rule.
He never organized a boycott.
Rather than berating individuals for their sins (and whether or not they were legal), the only people he chose to jump were those who were convoluting and distorting the message of the Father’s heart.

One of the major mistakes of the disciples was that they kept waiting for Jesus to bring His kingdom.  They envisioned that kingdom as a nationalist uprising.  They wanted Him to overthrow the governmental status-quo.  They were all about “Change” in government.  Jesus instead sought change in the human heart and he told them about a different kingdom. 

People only hear about a third of everything we say and they can only care about what they perceive that we care about.  We can’t let an eternal message be lost in the chatter of current events.  

We each have only one life, one voice, let us use it in forwarding the one-true-living-God’s message to this world without distraction.

God desires for us to be reconciled to Him through Christ. 

May our churches adopt the words of Nehemiah, “I am doing a great work.  I cannot come down…”