Pawn of the chessboard of history

Mid term elections are almost over.  Can I get an “Amen”?  Mailboxes no longer filled with bulk mail.  Notice that the initials for bulk mail is BM?  No more descriptions of candidates as either saints or demons, depending on who paid for the ad.  The explosion of yard signs like dandelions in spring will come to an end, at least for 18 months or so.  I love my country and our process of selecting leaders, but I do get weary of the event.

This year, like every other, there have been dire predictions from each side about the woes that will befall us if the wrong people are elected.  Here are some of the predictions that have been made so far (with minor exaggerations on my part):

• There will be an end to medical care as we know it and the sick and elderly will be dying in the streets uncared for.  
• The economy will grind to a halt and there will be depression-like conditions in every home in the US.
• Our southern border will be completely overrun by gangs of criminals coming up from the south. Unlike anything since the Vandals invaded Rome.
• The environment will hit a tipping point and life will be unlivable. 
• One candidate claims her opponent wants to pump sewage into our drinking water (this one wasn’t exaggerated a candidate said that).
• Aliens from Zortron will install June Bug Johnson as world dictator (okay I made that one up).

There is also an incredible effort in these elections.  If the church put the same effort in reaching the lost as politicians put into getting elected the church would not be in decline in America.  For example, in one campaign for an office that pays less than $30,000 a year one side has already spent over $300,000.  A friend of mine leads a team of 10 full time workers who spend better than 40 hours a week going to doors or making phone calls to rally the vote.  One individual I know made 450 phone calls in one day for a given candidate. 

Apparently, this election is a world-shaping, super-gigantic, over-the-top important cross roads of the republic event that may shape the history of our nation and the world forever.  Or maybe not!  Maybe what we need is a little perspective.

When Cyrus came to power he was the king of Ansan a vassal state under the authority of the Median king Astyages.   He was one of many lesser kings who ruled under the authority of a greater king.  His life, from the very beginning, was marked by political intrigues and unexpected victories and bizarre alliances.  But by the time of his death Cyrus the local king had become Cyrus the Great. When he died his empire was the largest the world had seen till that time.  In the west it reached all the way to the western tip of what is now Turkey and in the east it reached the middle of India.  From the Caspian Sea in the north to the Mediterranean Sea in the southwest to the Persian Gulf, Cyrus ruled an Empire that controlled a huge portion of what we call the 10/40 window. 

But as we look at Isaiah 44:28-45:4, we get a profound picture that Cyrus was elevated by God to his position of power for no other reason than to accomplish God’s will regarding the returning of the Jews to the Holy Land and the rebuilding of the temple.  Isaiah calling him by name 100 years before the event would be like someone picking President Trump by name in the year Woodrow Wilson defeated Charles Hughes.  Who knew?  In the last chapter of 2^nd Chronicles it appears that even Cyrus understood his place in God’s plan.    “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up!”

Let’s not miss the point that in spite of his political rise, Cyrus was nothing more than a pawn on the chessboard of history accomplishing the purpose that God had for him.  Maybe all our august elected officials are not the main pieces of the board, but only pawns. 

There are two points for us in this.  First, we need to remember that we maybe the pawns that God is using to accomplish his purpose.  Every Christian needs to be engaged in the political process.  Our Constitution begins with the words, “We the People….” We are the rulers of this nation and we the people need to exercise our role in leadership.  Second, no matter what happens God is still in control and His will is going to be accomplished.  A landslide by one political party or the other is no cause for despair.  We are not voting on God or His Kingdom.  We need to remember that the line from the Lord’s prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done” is as much a statement of fact as it is a request.

Looking for Jesus when He can't be found.

There is time as in the hour of the day and there is time as in the opportunity. In John 7, Jesus is at the Feast of Tabernacles. He is speaking in the temple courts. The Great Divide is growing between those who believe in Jesus and those who do not.  The opportunity for faith is theirs; they have in that moment the opportunity.  But Jesus tells them, “You will seek me and not find me and where I am you cannot come.”  While in their presence Jesus was speaking to these people of the time when he would return to the Father.  They would seek Him, but because they rejected the truth that he was from the Father, and he had returned to the Father, they would never find Him.  The opportunity would be lost. 

We are so familiar with the words of Jesus, “Seek and you will find.”  We hold these words like a no limit credit card that places Jesus at our bidding.  How do we reconcile this promise with this other saying of Jesus that we can come to the point that we will seek him but we will not find Him?  “Seek and you will find.”  “You will seek and not find.”  The time or opportunity is there and then the time or opportunity is lost.  We become flippant about sin in our life. We do not take seriously the grave warnings of scripture about righteousness. We treat both Holiness and un-holiness as matters of little consequence. We fail to seek the Lord when He can be found. As a consequence we spiral into greater depth and darkness, and into an absence from God.  It is only when we finally hit rock bottom we start seeking Jesus.  But we may not really be looking for Jesus, but only for a genie. So wrapped up is our self and our sinful life (shall we use the word Flesh) we don't want to have Him as Master and Lord. We only want Him to be a bail bondsman to get us out of the fix we are in and then we wonder why we can't find Jesus. Every dalliance with sin, every dabbling with evil is a potential one-way street to this hopeless destination.  Any individual act of sin is like an on-ramp to a highway to hell.  There are exits where we can turn around, but the longer we drive the less frequent the exits, the longer between exits.  We can even get to the point that there are no exit ramps at all.

So where is the place where we must be to seek the Lord in order to find Him? That place is the cross, His cross and our cross. It is the place where we will recognize the truly monstrous evil of our sin!  It is a place where we have a change of mind and will to turn from sin and self, and to die to these.  In a word it is the place of repentance. We can’t see Jesus without repentance.  We can search till the stars burn out and we will not find Him.  We must renounce ourselves i.e. the flesh, the world's system, and the devil and in Repentance we find Jesus.  May we never forget that before there is the blessing of finding Christ there is the repentance moved by the Cross. 

“Holy Spirit, convict me, bring your holy judgment on me, show me where I hold anything without repentance, show me where I must turn from evil. Grant to me, Lord, a true and heartfelt repentance.”

When Jesus ran away.

There is an occasion in scripture where Jesus ran away.  The One who went through the Garden of the Olive Press all the way to the most horrific death in the history of mankind had a moment when He ran away.  It wasn’t out of fear, but we see him on this one occasion running away.  There is a dynamic lesson for us in that moment.

The multitude had followed him because of the healings of the many sick people he had done. They followed Him out into the wilderness.  They had followed him long enough that He was concerned for their well being.  And so He feeds the crowds of people with as much as they want to eat.  In fact, the proliferation of food is so dynamic that after everyone had all they wanted there was food to spare.  In a poor, oppressed and overtaxed, occupied country this was very likely a rarity.  There may have been people there who had never been so full and still had leftovers. Some may not have known anything but scarcity their whole lives.  When the meal was over some of the crowd began to move and agitate to make Jesus their King.

Let’s face it; Jesus would make a great king. First, there is free, universal, health care that could cure every illness and every disease.   Typical medical care was often ineffective and was not cheap, so miraculous healing for free is a pretty good offer.  Also, having plenty of food provisions for the entire nation was not out of the realm of possibility. If five loaves and two fish could feed 5,000 families imagine what the entire economy placed at his disposal could do. It would be fantastic.   This move to declare Jesus king would of course mean a war with Rome.   But if he can heal the sick, why not combat wounds?  An army travels on its stomach, but with this kind of king provisions for a whole army could be easily carried in one bag.  From the perspective of a person looking for an earthly king no one could possibly do a better job than Jesus.

Being an earthly king was not on Jesus's agenda. The words in John “take him by force” carry certain violent overtones.  The multitude, which may have been turning into a mob, was not concerned with Jesus’s agenda.  He would be made king like it or not. As we read the parallel passages we get the idea that as the tumult builds Jesus dismissed the crowd, but they would not be dismissed, so Jesus sends his disciples away in their boat and He takes off for the hills. 

In describing Jesus's departure some early manuscripts (Sinaiticus among them) have the word “fled back” instead of the words “withdrew again to the mountain.”  We could discuss at length which word John used. In other words, Jesus ran away.  Jesus gathered his disciples and told them to get away and then in the chaos and pandemonium Jesus headed for the hills literally. Jesus moves out of the crowd perhaps secretly maybe in a fast walk or even in a trot, but He literally runs away.  Why? There would be no reasoning with this crowd and there would be no opportunity to teach them the difference between an Earthly and Heavenly Kingdom.  There would be no turning this misguided movement into the right direction. Best to leave it all behind and let It settle down.  Sometimes retreat is the best plan.

So, what does Jesus’s running for the hills have to do with us?  When we have a selfish agenda and we are trying to put a “God” sticker on it, when we hope to impose our will on the Lord and get him to bless what we are doing, the best we can hope for from Him is that He will walk away from us.  How often have we got our plans all laid out and then pray for God’s power and blessing and might to work out what we want?  Jesus will not be used for any agenda except the Father’s!  Jesus is not your personal ATM, valet, or genie!  It is high time that we stop trying to make our agenda something that it is not, by calling it God’s will.  “Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done” does not have room for my program.  You want to see Jesus walk away from you in a hurry? Do your own thing and try to get Him to endorse it.

Why are our churches ineffective at reaching the lost?

Could it be that we are not growing because we have such poor eschatology?  I am not suggesting that we should begin to schedule prophecy conferences.  I am not a big fan of prophecy conferences, some of which are little more than commercials to sell books that sensationalize current affairs and take scripture out of context.  Our poor eschatology is of a more profound nature than the simple folly of setting dates for the second coming.  It tends to be selfishly focused.  It is about how you can have some sort of advantage in the last days, inside knowledge, first in line in the Rapture, or stock pile food for the Tribulation all depending on your convictions or audience. 

In the movie Twelve Strong the Afghani General Dostrium (Dostum) is quoted as

You live in a place where life looks better than the after life.

saying to the American Army officer:

“Your anger comes from your fear.  Because you live in a place where life looks better than the after life.  That is not this place…. You will fail because you fear death.  Taliban welcome it.” 

In the west, and in the American church in particular, our lives are so good we can’t fathom any radical improvement to life.  We would all agree that our lives need some minor adjustments.  A small alteration here, a little modification there would make things a little better, but by and large life is pretty good.  We have luxury unmatched in human history, medical care that is accessible and effective, we have entertainments and distractions and wealth and pleasure.  We have begun to think of heaven as an improvement on all that we have.  We joke that Heaven is where ice cream will not make us fat.  It is a joke but it reflects a deeper and more fundamental understanding, or misunderstanding, of the afterlife.  We have begun to see Heaven as better rather than different.  Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the authors of scripture were stretched to find symbols and metaphors for Heaven.  These symbols and metaphors were highly cultural and contextual so without that culture and context it is easy for us to lack understanding of Heaven.

We all want a little improvement in our lives, but we are incapable of imagining the fundamental changes that heaven will bring. So the church has made the mistake of preaching a gospel of improved life and self help rather that quantum change.  “How to” sermons have replaced the “Kingdom of God is at hand” as our theme.  Our appeal is having a better marriage, family, financial standing, community, physical condition and the list can be endless. 

Our failure in eschatology is the same failure we face in our worship, evangelism, community service, prayers, again the list could be endless.  So, how do we preach good eschatology (and everything else)?  By focusing on Christ.  In my role I have the privilege and sometime the distress of worshiping with a great many different churches.  The pattern I see too often is that church and all of our theologies have begun to orbit around us.  From the description of the incarnation as, “It is like God became a dude and hung out with us,” to, “What God wants is for you to receive what you want”, Jesus is presented as someone whose role is to solve our problems, answer our requests and make life here and now better for us.   We have mistaken God’s love for us with a narcissistic expectation that God will spoil us. 

As long as Jesus is presented as a means to an end we cannot expect God’s blessings on our ministry, His power at work in our lives or His Spirit calling fallen humanity to repentance.  In terms of therapy, Jesus may not be the best option.  In terms of feeling good about myself, Jesus is not the first choice.  In terms of better, economic performance, family relationships, sex, political power and social stability Jesus is likely never going to be the top ranked option.  As long as these among others are our teaching and preaching themes we can expect the church to grow more and more inconsequential.

When we turn the conversation to the greatness and glory of the second person of the Trinity and the Biblical and apostolic preaching of the cross we will see people drawn to Christ, not the temporary trinkets they think they want.  When we want Jesus so much we do not care if anyone else wants Him, then we will be compelled to tell the world what a great Savior He is.  Then if He wills our churches may grow.