BLOG. 1.10.20. CHRIST’S CHURCH IS ALWAYS COUNTER-CULTURAL
Here, at the end of the week, given the chaos on the national and international scene, we need to be reminded that in whatever expression/community of the Christian we inhabit, … that the church, first of all, is a global community existing in multiple expressions, and a plethora of traditions, is a holy nation, whose calling is to be that of a community of Light in themidst of cultures of darkness. It is to be a community which is called to be God’s agent of righteousness and reconciliation, of peacemaking and of compassion for the broken, lost, hungry, homeless, unjustly imprisoned, and poverty-stricken of the world.
The reality is that we are citizens of the particular nations of the world. In those nations, we also need to choose the communities and political identities with which we will participate. Ah! But those choices are always made with the awareness of Christ’s calling to be primarily the demonstration of his New Creation, of his New Humanity. We become instruments of righteousness in national and international relationships.
This is an election year in these United States. As God’s new creation people out priority should be on those persons and those policies that most closely express demonstrate/incarnate the mission of God to the world in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. This is always costly. The darkness always resist the light. Greed and unrighteousness always have a way of trumping generosity and righteousness. Principalities and powers tend to resist the long-range welfare of God’s creation.
Our brothers and sisters in Christ who live in Uganda, or China, or Iraq … face similar, and often far more costly. But they are, with us, part of God’s holy nation, “the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. And they are in their context also counter-cultural, salt and light in cultures replete with corruption and darkness, estrangement and unrighteousness.
God’s new life in his people is always counter-cultural. Run with that!
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Peace!
