BLOG 5/4/18. THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS IS NO DUMMY

This certainly is no moment in our history to be naïve about the reality of the designs of the prince of darkness, nor of the reality of his being. From the beginning the Kingdom of God enterprise, the mission of Jesus, who is God come among us in flesh and blood, has been an encounter with the alien forces of the prince of darkness. Yet, it is never an encounter that lends itself to easy solutions. Yet, we who are Christ’s followers, and who intend to be faithful to his commands are easily seduced into making peace with the darkness … by the clever wiles of the prince of darkness. How so? Because he counterfeits himself in his agents of darkness by passing them off as children of light (cf. II Corinthians 11:13-14).

And this is certainly a murky context in which we live, what with those who are significant figures of leadership in government and in ostensibly Christian organizations, passing themselves off as children of the light, all the while espousing those positions and policies which are the antithesis of Christ’s teachings. Jesus said we would know who were his disciples by their works. Yet within the structures of this present society and those who, with fanfare, participate in the National Day of Prayer, who wave their Christian identity as a flag to gain support, … and yet who seem to have never read the radically counter-culture agenda of Jesus for his followers.

We need to remind ourselves that our citizenship is in heaven. We are not primarily citizens of any particular earthly nation. We are always aliens and exiles. In any nation, we are to the agents of Jesus New Creation. The stewardship of the environment is God’s concern, as is to be ours. Policies of peace, and civic order, and justice are God’s concern and are to be ours. To profess of be his followers also means that we have his mind, and are formed by a wholly other frame of reference. The policies of injustice which have given this nation the highest number of imprisoned folk of any nation in the world is God’s concern, and should be ours, what with all the minor offenses that put so many of them there. Paying workers a wage they can live on is a matter of justice that is God’s concern, and ours. Our ministry as a nation to those of other nations and religions is overt in Jesus’ teachings.

So, that when any who profess to be Christ’s followers in church or state want to legitimize their identity, we can test them by their works, their policies, their prejudices and their passions. So apropos to our present murky scene is the old adage: “What you do speaks so loud that I can’t hear what you say.” Or, maybe, the venerable old slave song: “ … everybody talking ‘bout heaven ain’t a gonna go there.”

We do not fulfill our calling to the salt of the earth, or the light of the world, by conforming to its policies that absolve us of our humanitarian concerns for the sick, the lonely, the poor, the strangers within our gates, or the imprisoned. This always comes at a cost. It makes us a threat to whose policies are determined by power and greed, and defend their insensitivity to such realities by labelling those who are advocates of Christ’s agenda as ‘do-gooders’, or ‘bleeding-heart liberals’. Christ’s authentic followers confirm that identity by passionately embracing just such an identity.

Our savior has commissioned us to do good to all humankind. We are, in whatever context we live, to be “the sweet aroma of Christ unto God,” and to be co-belligerents with all those others who are advocates of our Kingdom of God ethic. Our present culture is filled with frauds, Satanic “angels of light,” seeking to gain legitimacy as ‘Christian’ but whose works declare their hypocrisy. These in the highest places of government, to the interlopers in the Christian community. The prince of darkness is no dummy. Be alert and be discerning.