Thanksgiving in a Watching World

It’s Thanksgiving Day and I have much for which to be thankful to the ultimate Giver …of every good and perfect gift that comes down from above… (James 1: 17).  This past year, God has taught me more about Himself--and, about myself.  How rich His grace and mercy are toward me; and, how prone I am to wander from His ways.  God continues to work in our marriage again this year, using trials and His Word to refine us individually and help us surrender to His love, the ultimate source of our love for each other.  We have seen God work in the lives of our family and within their homes.  Finally, we have grieved with several dear friends and family members, and we are asking God to comfort them from the sting of loss. 

In both the blessings and trials this year, I have become more aware of the spiritual warfare evidenced in my own life and in world events.  Multiple scandals, mismanagement of tax dollars, and deception by leadership in Washington are daily news.  I pray that our president and all of our leaders will submit to biblical authority and that moral clarity and ethics would guide them.  But, I also ask God’s Spirit to reprove and correct me through His Word when the kingdom within my own mind becomes inflamed with pride and rebellion.  

I ask why our elected officials cannot restore authority and integrity to the function of our nation’s borders.  But I must remember to guard the borders of my own life as the Spirit bids me not to …love the things of this world [system of thought]…for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. (1 John 2: 16).  While I pray for justice, calmness, and respect for the rule of law among rioters and looters in Ferguson and other cities, I must ask God to keep me in perfect peace and my mind fixed on Him (Isaiah 26: 3).  When I am frustrated by a lack of moral clarity in our leadership and the actions that undermine the foundation of marriage, diminish the value of human life, disregard family values, and derail our educational system, I must ask what I can do personally to uphold these institutions and values.

I am concerned about the advance of power hungry tyrants and terrorists who grow increasingly bold where America has withdrawn from providing strong leadership.  And, I am even more concerned that many Americans view our nation as the aggressor rather than an agency that has defended freedom at great cost against numerous attempts by tyrants to dominate whole continents.  Rather than join the angry voices on either side of a deeply divided America today, may I reexamine why I think and believe as I do in the light of God’s truth.  For history records that the Puritans valued so much the freedom to follow God’s truth and to worship Him freely that they placed their lives in His care as they set out to cross the ocean and established communities governed by God’s principles.

John Winthrop, Puritan Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, wrote his sermon “A Model of Christian Charity” aboard the Arbella, in 1620.  According to an introduction to the sermon by John Beardsley, charter member of the Winthrop Society, Winthrop’s intent was to prepare the people for planting a new society in a perilous environment, but his practical wisdom is timeless.  Beardsley adds, In an age not long past, when the Puritan founders were still respected by the educational establishment, this was required reading in many courses of American history and literature

Consider how the following excerpt from Winthrop’s sermon would challenge his Puritan community to unity of purpose and love for one another:

For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly affection, we must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities for the supply of others' necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other, make others' conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor, and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us, as His own people and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of His wisdom, power, goodness, and truth then formerly we have been acquainted with.

Winthrop’s vision for the Puritan community under his governorship reflects his practical wisdom which is timeless in its warning to “Post-Christian America:”

For we must Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world, we shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God and all professors for Gods sake; we shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into Curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whether we are going…

Prayer:  Father God, on this Thanksgiving, revive within me a thankful heart for all You have done.  Help me to remember that I was once an alien to whom You granted citizenship within the “new nation” that you are building.  A nation whose citizens trust in the death and resurrection of Your Son, Jesus; a nation that You want to be like a ‘shining city on a hill.’  Through Your indwelling Spirit, help me to read and heed Your Word with willing joy.  Then, may Your love move me to live daily in such a way as not to dim the welcoming light of Your Truth that is desperately needed by all men and women.  Particularly, help me not to offend others unnecessarily when we disagree on issues of our day—issues that, while deserving a voice of moral clarity, must also be seen as tremors from the emergence of the Eternal Kingdom for which You are even now preparing the present world.   Yes, Thy kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven.  Amen.

Disintegration of the United States of America

Many would agree that America has made great strides toward ethnic integration during the past half century.  At the same time, integration of telephone, television, and other digital technology through the world wide web has produced a remarkable expansion in communications.

According to the dictionary, integration is “the process of making whole or entire.”  For an individual or part, integration is “the process of fitting in.” Thus, integration of ethnic minorities involves individuals that ‘fit into’ communities; meanwhile, the community is being “made whole or complete.”  Metaphorically, a cake baked from well stirred ingredients will have the same color and consistency throughout because the individual ingredients have been integrated.  Conversely, an integrated community or nation, would not have pockets of separation (segregation) in which minorities are excluded or at odds with the larger social-political dynamic.  Rather, each individual is given the opportunity to participate in making the community or nation complete.

In his inaugural address, January 20, 2009, Barak Obama emphasized our progress as a nation toward becoming an integrated whole (emphasis mine):

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.  We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers.  We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself…

Inauguration of Barack Obama, January 20, 2009

Three and one-half years after the president’s inauguration, our daily news is filled with indications that we are becoming more divided as a nation.  Instead of integrating and expressing “our common humanity” around commonly held values and mutual respect for ethnic, cultural, and political diversity, we are “disintegrating” into an increasing number of factions.

A dictionary defines disintegration as-- “to break into parts; dismember; dissolve.”  Things that disintegrate do not actually “disappear.”  Rather, they break into parts too tiny for us to see, like table salt crystals that “disappear” when stirred into water.  Each salt crystal, composed of billions of precisely arranged atoms forming a latticework is “disintegrated” or “dissolved” by the water.  The tiny charged atoms escape from the lattice into the water where they begin a constant, chaotic motion.

Contributing to our current “disintegration” in America is the president’s seeming inability to achieve a bi-partisan effort to rejuvenate the economy, address the growing federal deficit, curb spiraling health care costs, and establish a workable immigration policy.  The Obama campaign, perhaps frustrated by these failed efforts, now seems to promote disagreement and division rather than unity of purpose in the midst of economic hardship. 

Let’s look closer at two evidences of “disintegration” in America-- the “contraceptive mandate” within the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare); and, the president’s push to increase government revenue through higher taxes on wealthy Americans.  Please note that both of these examples of “disintegration” stem from an absence of “integration” of principles rooted in Judeo-Christian values which historically have been interwoven through the moral and ethical fabric of individuals, families, and communities.

Kirk Cameron, in his film production, “Monumental:  In Search of America’s National Treasure,” traces the influence of Judeo-Christian faith on the founding of America.  In the 17^th century, the integration of their Christian faith into daily life prompted Puritan separatists to risk great danger to escape to a little-known continent to gain the freedom to worship and practice their faith.  The influence of their covenant, expressed in the Mayflower Compact, on colonial culture over the following century and a half was instrumental in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.

With that brief history, let’s return to our two expressions of disintegration in America.  The first relates to the “contraceptive mandate” which would exempt churches but require faith-based institutions to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives, abortifacients, and abortion-related counseling.  Many people of faith oppose this portion of ObamaCare because they see it as a threat to religious freedom. As a result, the federal government now faces 24 lawsuits.

Anthony Picarello and Michael Moses, leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, summarized the moral and legal concerns of church leaders who object to the “…narrow exemption that intrusively and unlawfully carves up the religious community into those that are deemed 'religious enough' for an exemption, and those that are not.”  The idea that Americans can be divided between those who are “religious employees” and those who aren’t suggests a misunderstanding or a denial or even a disdain on the part of the current administration for what it means to “live out ones faith” or to “integrate” ones faith convictions with their personal and professional lifestyle outside of church.

There is a second area in which the “carving knife” is at work on the fabric that has held Americans together.  One can see the gleam of the knife at work when we hear talk of the “unfairness” in the tax code that supposedly favors the wealthy.   We are continually reminded that each American occupies one of three groups-- “the rich,” “the middle class,” and “the poor.”  Here is a now-famous statement by President Obama on the subject of creating and earning wealth:

If you've got a business, you didn't build that.  Somebody else made that happen.
                                – President Barack Obama, July 16, 2012 (Roanoke, VA)

President Obama appears to be suggesting that American entrepreneurs rely so much on the social, economic, and technological infrastructure that they should not mind giving more of their incomes to the government through higher taxes. The president may mean well by saying this, but his statements betray a woeful lack of integration of Judeo-Christian teaching with the entrepreneurial spirit.   Consider how the president’s challenge might sound if it were based on an understanding of biblical truth—here expressed by the Apostle Paul: 

For who regards you as superior?
What do you have that you did not receive?
And if you did receive it,
why do you boast as if you had not received it?   -- I  Corinthians 4:7

Saint Paul’s statement, unlike the president’s, challenges successful entrepreneurs to remember that human capability to earn or create wealth has been permitted by the grace of God, and that he or she is a steward of the power and position God has granted.  Thus, the Scriptural teaching has none of the president’s tone that has led to a divisive and destructive response within our national narrative.  Instead, it credits God, not government as being ultimately responsible for any prosperity we enjoy.

A regular awareness of our dependence upon God should foster a humble stewardship that recognizes that, as we earn or create wealth, we have a responsibility to be generous and to give joyfully to others and to worthy causes.  This obligation is further underscored through another principle of Scripture expressed in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (emphasis mine):

He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor,
performing with his own hands what is good,
so that he will have something to share with one who has need.  
                                                                                 – Ephesians 4:28

Here, the Scriptures emphasize not only the value of hard work and earning an income; but also that we use our income as a channel of God’s provision for those in need.  Rather than President Obama’s approach to “social justice” in which the government is the agency of “wealth redistribution,” the Scriptures appeal to the hearts of people who are blessed with talents, time, and treasures to act voluntarily and generosity to share with the needy of for worthy causes.  If God’s people were to (a) recognize Who it is that has given them the abilities to gain wealth, and then (b) become committed to use their talent, time, and treasures to provide loving help (not handouts) to the needy, the resulting acts from thousands of people acting at the local level would transform individuals and our communities in much more effective ways than welfare programs from far-away Washington.

Historically, a vast number of Americans have exercised great generosity, many having done so as a result of the very faith in and gratitude toward God that we have been describing.  May this spirit be encouraged by a correct understanding of the nature of man, the proper role of government, and the responsibility of individuals to work hard and be generous toward God and neighbor.  May we not abuse the stewardship of our freedoms which have allowed us to strive together as Americans against forces that would disintegrate our families, communities, and nation.

 Prayer:   Father in Heaven, thank you for our freedom in Christ, available to whoever believes and accepts the free gift of eternal life, purchased at the priceless cost of Jesus’ shed blood on the cross for us while we were yet sinners; guaranteed by Christ’s resurrection from the dead, and affirmed by His gift of the Holy Spirit.   Thank you for endowing us, as affirmed in the U.S. Constitution, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, You have seen fit to allow …Governments [to be] instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed….  How blessed we are that America has been founded on principles from Your Word,  and as a result has achieved what no other nation in history has in the way of religious freedom and the accompanying social and cultural successes.  America has been and still is an “exceptional nation.”   Thank You for our leaders who recognize Your authority, and their individual accountability, first to You and Your Word, and then to their constituency.  Grant wisdom to President Obama and to all elected officials and the justices who serve in the courts at every level.  Give these “civil servants” courage to reject political expediency or personal gain for the sake of what honors You and what is best for the individuals, families, and communities of this great land.  As a result, may we continue to have the freedom to labor, to worship and serve You, and to demonstrate Christ’s love to others both at home and abroad.  Finally, help us to understand the respective roles of government and of each individual citizen and not to confuse the two lest we become more and more a nation of entitlement leading to obsession with “our rights” at the expense of striving as faithful stewards to be fruitful and generous spirits that offer assistance to those who need help to become what God intends them to be.    Amen.