by Joanie Butman
If the events of this week make you feel like the world is turning upside-down, don’t be alarmed. Maybe that’s exactly where God wants us because His is an upside-down kingdom where the last will be first, and the first will be last. The Biblical road to greatness is humility and servitude, and Christ will clear the path with love not violence.
Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:27-28).
If we truly want to make America great again, the teachings of Jesus would be an excellent place to start. They were radical for His time and still relevant over 2,000 years later. He spoke against social injustice in the most unifying way. Christ wasn’t socializing with the powerful and elite. He was dining with the marginalized – the sick, handicapped, lonely, poor, aged, widowed, orphaned, oppressed, outcasts of all kinds. He healed many of them physically but more importantly, he healed their souls by reminding them of their inherent worth as children of God. To Jesus, every life is precious as we are made in the image of God, but until we embrace the totality of that truth, we’ve failed to fulfill Christ’s command to love our neighbor. Jesus used His influence to be the voice for those without influence, and so should we.
The slogan, We Are All in This Together, is ubiquitous these days. This might be the most important lesson to remember as we emerge from quarantine. We are all in this together – not the corona crisis but life itself. Perhaps this crisis is a rallying call to a world divided. Hoarding didn’t begin during the pandemic. Humanity has been living in a climate of perceived scarcity and hoarding resources for far too long. More is not necessarily better. As humans we’re all driven by similar desires: food, shelter, safety, education, healthcare, love, and a life of purpose. Those commonalities unite us. Aren’t they the foundation on which this country was built? “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”* Then again, many of the men composing the Declaration of Independence were slave owners. Did they not see their own hypocrisy?
Witnessing the mayhem over the past week, one might be tempted to think that chaos reigns, but historically change is always preceded by upheaval. The transformation formula of order + disorder = reorder is universal on a national level as well as a personal one. What we’re seeing shouldn’t fill anyone with fear, but with hope. Hope in the fulfillment of Christ’s commandment to love our neighbor and Martin Luther King’s dream, “that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed that all men are created equal."
The Bible is an instruction book for life as well as a love letter from our Divine Father. It addresses every issue in life. The solution to all man’s ills lies within its pages. God’s truth is unchanging. He is the same yesterday and today and forever. Our national motto, In God We Trust, is printed on our currency, but is it imprinted on our hearts? Because love is God’s currency and it flows from the heart. The important questions to ponder are - am I living out my faith as Christ calls me to or are my beliefs confined to Bible study and Sunday service? Is my Bible a prop or a proclamation? Is the cross I wear a decoration or declaration? How do I choose to define neighbor? The path forward starts with how you choose to answer.
Choose wisely.