Loading...It has been a summer – indeed, a year – of social and political events that leave many of us wondering how to respond. As followers of Jesus, we believe that the way of the Cross is a way of life, not just something we put on for Sunday morning. So surely there must be a faithful way to interpret the times.
Some would have us retreat from current events (the well-known, if ill-defined, “public square”). Interestingly, this approach finds supporters both among the more eremitical sorts of Christians and among atheists who find it convenient to see us as part of the problem. But evaluation (often negative) of “the World” and those who run it is among the clear and consistent threads running all through Judeo-Christian thought. We can’t wall ourselves off from what happens in our streets and in our public debate.
That being so, others would have us take a side and label anyone who doesn’t agree with us as a sinner. And there are in fact times when calling actions or ideas sinful is valid, at least from our perspective. It is perhaps worth asking, though, what meaning “sin” has in modern, secularizing culture – and whether its current meaning might have more to do with image than with substance. Even while calling out the genuine evil that we see, we must guard against reducing God to no more than a rhetorical convenience. To use “sin” and “sinner” as labels that make clear the line between us and them ignores – conveniently – our own sin and the image of God to be seen even in those with whom we disagree most strongly.
A third path might be described as congregationalism – acting locally to meet the needs of our neighbors, including those affected by bigger social and political and economic forces. I confess I have trouble arguing against this approach. It has the virtues of practicality and humility, and if everyone were to join in doing it, might have more meaningful an impact than mere words. The trouble is that it can be no more than a band-aid, a treatment of symptoms rather than of the underlying conditions. If the Church is truly universal, it must address the problems of the world at all levels, including the systemic.
So where does that leave us? All of these options are attractive because they are comfortable. In one way or another they put God on our side. But the truth is less comfortable and more complicated. We are on God’s side, or at least we should be. At times this will bring us into alliance, and at other times into conflict, or at least disrepute, with those with different priorities. To follow Jesus will – not may, will – require constant evaluation of all of our “secular” opinions in light of the Gospel and our own experience of the movement of the Holy Spirit in the world and in our lives. And striving to stay on the heavenly way will sometimes make us seem out of step with nearly everyone around us.
But we will nonetheless be in good company. We will be following in the footsteps of the prophets and martyrs, and of Jesus himself. And perhaps with luck, or grace, the world may notice and the events that wash over us day by day may take on a holier cast. May it please God to make it so.
Blessings
Howie+
