I heard a message last Sunday night at The Gallery Covenant church in St. Paul that really resonated with me. It had to do with politics in the church. I love getting into conversations about politics because I don't care about them! And that is what I will tell anyone. I don't care who wins the presidency, I don't care what bill was just passed, or where my tax money goes, and I really don't care what political party you side with. I don't care at all. I can't think of a more “earthy” thing to consume my time and energy. We let such a stupid thing divide us. Whether it be in a church, a school, a family, friends, marriage, we let this one stupid thing come between us and other people. Jesus called us to love people, it was a commandment!
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind….
and the second is equally important: love your neighbor as yourself.”
He never called us to love the U.S. I don't mean that we shouldn't love the country we live in, we should be thankful… but we care SO much about politics that we end up worshiping our country instead of loving God and our neighbors, and that is what I wanted to talk about.
Example- the 4th of July, we celebrate it like it is a religion. It is scary how much we all care about the 4th of July. I don’t know many people that choose not to celebrate it. But Christmas and Easter… how many people do you know that celebrate Christmas for the presents and make it about santa, and they make easter about the easter bunny and the eggs and candy? It is crazy how little we care about those holidays and their true meaning, but the 4th is a huge deal.
The reason this scares me so much is because we celebrate our freedom in America instead of in Christ. We talk about freedom and about how we are free because we live in America and if it weren't for our troops and past wars, we wouldn't be free. We assume that other countries aren't free because their earthly living conditions are not what ours are. But so many of them are happier because they have found freedom in God instead of a country. They know that this world is not what they want it to be, it isn't perfect, but God is perfect beyond measure. We are free in Him and nothing else. Feeling free because of America seems to be more like a yoke we carry while this country holds the reins. How is that freedom?
Enough about worshiping America, it pisses me off to talk or write about.
I have a quote that I want to share with you from Greg Boyd, the speaker from last Sunday night. “When you have the kingdom of God in common, the differences you have about how government should operate are dwarfed in significance”
I love this quote and I hope it is something that makes you think also about what we celebrate as this holiday season gets closer.
No comments:
Post a Comment