glenn packiam's blog

On the Limits of New Year's Resolutions

Resolutions are powerful things. We feel all the energy of a new year rushing forward, washing over past failures or shortcomings. I like goals and fresh starts and reset buttons. But they have their limits. And as with so many things, the better we are at recognizing their limits, the more likely we are to enjoy them for what they are.

Five years ago, I wrote a blog on why resolutions miss the mark. And while I may have been a little gloomy about the topic as a whole, there are a few thoughts worth repeating as we step into 2014 together. 

 

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Why does it seem that no matter how hard we try, we can't seem to make ourselves better? If Life gave out report cards, we would be lucky to hold a B average. 

What if the whole approach is off target? What if life-- and life with God-- is not first about progress and improvement?

The Bible has two favorite word pictures for our life with God. The first is of a potter and clay. We are reminded that God is the potter and that we are the clay. Using this imagery, God rebukes Israel for trying to take over what only God can do:

"You turn things upside down as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'He did not make me'? Can the pot say of the potter, 'He knows nothing'?" (Is. 26:19)

Jesus picks up on this theme by pointing out the futility of worry:

 

"Which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" (Matt. 6: 27)

We cannot make ourselves more like Jesus any more than a lump of clay can make itself into a vase. We are not the initiator of change; we are the responder. From the picture of a potter and clay we learn the first reason resolutions often miss the mark: 

God is in charge of the process and the progress; we are responsible for our response.

We often defend our addiction to progress with the word "growth". We need to grow this year-- that's why we have so many goals. The second Biblical image speaks to the concern for growth. Life with God is often pictured as a tree planted by streams.  

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in the year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." (Jer. 17: 7-8)

Here again we are reminded that growth is God's work. But there is another lesson from the tree:  

Bearing fruit is a byproduct of faith in God.

 

Will our lives be different as a result of walking with God? Yes. Will we be changed to become more like Christ? Yes. Is that the point, the focus of our efforts? No. The point is faith-- trusting obedience-- in God. The point is relationship and connection. Growth, fruit, is the external result of an internal work.  

Paul places our work, our effort, in the context of God's work in us:

"...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." (Phil. 2:12b-13)

God is at work in us. And He is in charge of the process and the progress. That's why it's slightly misguided to set our own timelines for growth.

 

Can we have goals? Yes. But maybe our goals should be more about how we can create space for God to work in our lives, how we put down roots by the River, how we can respond to His molding. 

 

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The words of the psalmist make an apt prayer for New Year's:

"So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom..."

 

It's the numbering of our days, the acknowledgment of our limits, the confession of our finiteness-- not the delusion that we can "do it all" or "have it all"-- that leads to wisdom. Don't let resolution-making spring from the myth that we are unbounded; don't make goals from a confidence in our own strength.

 

The psamist concludes:

 

"Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!"

 

What we find when we confess our limitations and the limitations of our own resolve is the blessing of knowing that only God can establish the work of our hands.

 

So, may His favor be on you this year.

Overview of Ephesians in 15 Minutes by N. T. Wright

For those already familiar with theologian N. T. Wright, this talk will seem a bit elementary-- and much shorter!-- than his normal lectures. For those unfamiliar with Wright, you may not see what all the fuss about this theologian is about. "Ephesians cannot be summed up in 15 years of study let alone 15 minutes," you may rightly say. But keep in mind that Wright is one of the rare breed of theologians who can write multiple 700+ page volumes on Christian Origins, a full-length 500+ page commentary on Romans, and yet write dozens of other books aimed at the general public, and succeed at both! That sort of excellent scholarship combined with accessible articulation are what make him special.

What is remarkable about this short talk, given not to seminary students but to the whole student body at a Wheaton College chapel, is how, in 15 minutes, he is able to show Paul's cosmic soteriology and how we fit into it. If brevity, as Shakespeare said, is the soul of wit (which for Shakespeare meant intelligence not humor), then N. T. Wright's wit and wisdom are both dazzlingly brilliant. The whole talk, only about 22 minutes long, can be viewed on iTunesU HERE.

NT Wright Gives Quick Tour Through Ephesians from Glenn Packiam on Vimeo.

 

 

The Order of Service at NewLifeSundayNight

Here is our "Order of Service" at NewLifeSundayNight:

Worship in Song
Music is one of the oldest worship expressions, and perhaps the most complete in the way it engages and moves our whole being. The Bible is full of injunctions to sing, shout dance, and play skillfully on instruments as we make music to the Lord. It also encourages us to sing a new song. For this reason, we begin our service with Matthew Fallentine and a team of worship leaders and musicians leading us in expressing our worship in song, often newer songs that reflect what God is doing in our midst today.

The Nicene Creed
Officially formulated and adopted at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, the Creed expands and re-articulates beliefs that were taught by the early apostles and used in baptismal rites as early as the mid-2nd century. It is also the only creed accepted across every Christian denomination in both Western and Eastern streams.

Silent Confession
This is quiet space to become aware of the places in our lives and relationships where we have tried to live independently of God. It is a time to confess our sin, acknowledge our need for God, pay attention to the Holy Spirit’s work in us, and surrender every part of our life and heart to Him.

Corporate Confession
By using language from Psalm 51 and the Book of Common Prayer, words that are centuries old (at least!), we are travelling a well-worn path of faith, humility, and surrender to Christ. It reminds us that we are not alone in our journey, nor are we the first to embark on it.

Communion and Prayer
From the earliest days of Christian worship, the Eucharist—the celebration of communion—was the centerpiece of the Christian gathering. It is the moment where followers of Christ remember His death, celebrate His resurrection, and anticipate His return.  

On Sunday Nights, we invite families and friends to get the communion elements from the communion stations as the band plays, and then to return their seats and pray with one another as they receive the elements together. We also have a prayer team available to minister to those in need of special grace.

The Lord’s Prayer
While it is certainly good to form our own words from our hearts as we talk to the Lord, there is something special about praying the words Jesus taught His disciples. We believe this prayer, with its praise, petitions, and proclamations, can shape the posture of our hearts and teach us to pray “in Jesus’ name”.

JoyTime
This is a time to give to God with glad and joyful hearts. Jesus taught that the way we spend our money is the best indicator of where our loyalties lie. So giving to God is a tangible way to express our worship. Jesus gave sacrificially of His life for “the joy set before Him”. We believe that giving to God should always be a joyful and sacrificial part of our worship.

Scripture Readings
Before the talk begins, there is a public reading of the Scriptures by different members of our community. Passages are selected from both the Old and New Testaments that correspond with the current series. 

The Sermon
The talks on Sunday Nights follow the same series and subjects covered on Sunday mornings. As the pastor of the Sunday Night “campus”, I serves as the lead teacher, and try to bring a thoughtful Biblical and historical perspective to the subjects each week. (Subscribe to the Podcast HERE.)

Rethinking "Every Tribe and Tongue"

[The following piece was written for Worship Leader/Song Discovery Magazine. What does it mean to "take worship to the nations"? It's a complex and layered subject...one that demands more a short piece like this. But perhaps this will be enough to get the conversation started. Here's my perspective as a worship leader who's grown up on both sides of the world. This post will link to the full article at SongDiscovery.com.]

As the famous American worship leaders returned to the table with platefuls of aromatic curries and rice boiled in coconut milk, their faces wrinkled with curious interest in something other than their discoveries at the buffet line. It was the faint lines of music drifting through the humid air. The sultry notes being squeaked out on a stringed instrument defied conventional pitch. And the light tapping on small bongo-like drums had no sense of "groove" or, for that matter, time signature. 

"Why don't Malaysians write worship songs like this-in their own style?" blurted one of the Americans. Because it's awful, is what I thought....[Click HERE to read the FULL ARTICLE]

When Bottom-Line Thinking Ruins Everything

This year was supposed to be the year my football team broke out of their rebuilding phase and rose to challenge the Patriots, Colts, and Steelers for the right to represent the AFC in the SuperBowl. Instead, we have sunk to cellar, hoping to crawl out with a new head coach who is younger than his best veterans and without a Pro Bowl quarterback who was supposed to be the second coming of John Elway.

The trouble began months ago when a teary man in his mid-sixties simply said he was firing one of best friends because "it was time". Pat Bowlen's joint press conference with Mike Shannahan, his Superbowl-winning coach of 15 years, was the most crying I've ever seen in the NLF-- except of course for the time Brett Favre retired...the first time. Pro football, as we are reminded every offseason (which should be called "contract dispute season") is a business. And in any business, the bottom line is what matters most. Friendships are good; team loyalty counts for something, especially during the season. But in the end, players, coaches, owners, and VPs must produce or be fired. 

America's pastime, baseball, now marred by multiple steroid scandals, is carnage on the altar of bottom-line thinking. Is it really surprising that the immense pressure to produce godlike statistics to match their godlike salaries has driven so many pro athletes to Performance Enhancing Drugs? Teams want to make more money; to make more money you have to win more; to win more you need the best coaches and players; to get the best players you've got to pay them the best salaries for their position. And when you pay them that much, they better produce. And when there's that much pressure to produce, vocational purity is lost. There is nothing sacred or pure about the game anymore. There is no longer anything special about being a baseball player or a football player or a basketball player. It's all just a business.

Such thinking is all around us. A few years ago, my wife and I took our daughter to a pediatrician that many of our friends recommended. At first, we appreciated his efficiency, the way we got in and got out. But after a few visits, he seemed more willing to write a prescription for Amoxicillin than to listen to our concerns. We began to feel like we were being herded through the office and rushed through an appointment so the maximum number of patients could be seen each day. In short, it seemed our pediatrician had reduced his vocation of caring for children and attending to their health to simply a business. And the more patients he had, the better his bottom line. Eventually we left and found a different pediatrician who was more willing to take her time with her patients, one who was running her business but preserved the purity of her vocation.

Bottom-line thinking has a way of undoing our best intentions. I know because my vocation is not immune to it. Pastors are tempted to evaluate their work through the same grid as pro athletes and pediatricians: as managers of a business. Our bottom line, though it could be measured in dollars, is more often measured in people. Because of that, it seems purer. And to some degree it is. It's better to evaluate a church by the lives it is affecting than by the money it's bringing in. But still, it's a way of reducing the richness and complexity of our calling as pastors into something as static and unreliable as numbers. Worse, it often leads us to justify a way of doing ministry that looks nothing like Jesus simply for the sake of reaching more people. The proof of the pervasiveness of that thinking is in popular church campaign slogans like "Reach the Lost at Any Cost."

It might be worth noting that Jesus didn't reach the lost at any cost. When the rich young ruler walked away sad because he wasn't about to sell all he had and give it to the poor, Jesus let him. When the prodigal son left home, the father didn't run after him. To top it off, Jesus seems to have made a concerted choice to avoid a more popular and potentially more effective approach to reaching people simply because it was less personal. The two large cities in Galilee of Jesus’ day were Sepphoris and Tiberias. Sepphoris, Galilee’s capital, was only a few miles from Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth. Both cities were centers of activity and influence. Both were within view of the places Jesus frequented. Yet neither is mentioned in the stories of Jesus. (Tiberias gets a passing mention of people coming in boats form Tiberias to look for Jesus.) Instead, Jesus, as Eugene Peterson suggests, worked out “his way of life in the intensely personal and God-oriented small towns of Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida.” It wasn’t that He didn’t have any other options. He most certainly did. Could it be that Jesus chose these more personal settings on purpose? It seems consistent with the rest of His ministry approach. When Jesus did set His face toward Jerusalem it wasn’t to perform a spectacle at the Temple, as Satan had earlier suggested He do; Jesus went to Jerusalem, to the epicenter of culture, to die. These are certainly not the choices of a person driven by the bottom-line of producing more or reaching more.

To be sure, all vocations have an element of business. We are to be shrewd managers, faithful stewards, making the most of what we have been given. It's not wrong to get paid for what you do...even as pastors. (Paul makes a strong case to young pastor Timothy about the merits of rewarding those who serve as elders, governing the affairs of the church, in particular those who teach.) And it's not wrong to watch the bottom-line in your business. But at some point, too much attention to the bottom line corrupts the purity of any vocation. We must ask ourselves not simply how well our business is doing, but how well we are doing business. Are we losing the purity of our vocation-- as doctors or lawyers or pastors or athletes-- because of an obsession with the bottom line? The bottom line is one piece of what we do as a professional in any field. But if the bottom line drives our decisions and shapes our vocation, we will find ourselves in the place my beloved Broncos are in: ruined.

Why Twitter Is Better Than Facebook

Turn on any news show-- even a sports news show-- and you'll hear fully-grown, well-groomed anchors talking awkwardly about "tweets". A little of a year ago, when I first started "tweeting", nobody-- including me-- really understood the point of telling everyone what you were doing at any given moment of the day. Now, all of a sudden, it's how freedom-loving Iranians are telling the world of their plight and how diva NFL receivers sound off about their contracts. Twitter is just mainstream enough that professional athletes are "tweeting" on the sidelines or during halftime; yet it's not mainstream enough for owners and coaches to really understand it-- hence the reason many teams have banned their players from "tweeting". 

I don't claim to be a Twitter expert or power-user. Neither am I ignorant about it's dangers to our already narcissistic culture. I am not sold out to this little tool. I know it's a fad and a year from now we might be atwitter with something else. Still, as I've considered how Twitter is different than Facebook, and the power hidden in this simple social media device, I thought I'd take a stab at the reasons I think Twitter is better than Facebook:

1. Twitter Is Concise
140 characters is all you get. So, an update is short. In fact, it's not really best for soul-baring, like the "OMG, I'm so depressed because my boyfriend just broke up with me" kind of nonsense you read in your Facebook newsfeeds. It's not even best for ranting about world issues or vague political jabs. Because of the character limit, Twitter ends up being very specific, particular information. Or links to it.

The character limit applies not just to updates but also to direct messages to another Twitter user. Imagine if Instant Messaging didn't require you to sit at your computer for 2 hours just to finish a conversation. Imagine if someone's message to you could only be a few sentences at the most....and that you could reply whenever you wanted...and that it would come to your phone like a text without you giving up your cell phone number. That's why Twitter direct messaging is better. 

2. Twitter Is More Private
Twitter doesn't care to know the school you went to, the networks you're part of, or even your marital status. I love that Facebook does all that, but I can see why some would prefer a more private way of connecting. It's this very reason that most athletes, musicians, actors, actresses, and a multitude of minor celebrities prefer not to have a Facebook, but will "tweet" every day. Terrell Owens and John Mayer are just a few examples.

This narrow field of personal information has also made Twitter the ideal social networking platform for many businesses in general, and news networks in particular. For example, I follow the Denver Broncos on Twitter. This means at different points during the day, my routines are pleasantly interrupted by updates on the latest from Bronco Training Camp. There are often pictures and links to blogs about how the new players are doing. CNN, ESPN, and other news outlets "tweet" breaking news...which on a slow news day includes word that Brett Favre is still retired, though he is working out. 

3. Twitter Is Targeted
Like Facebook status updates, your "tweets" only go to your friends. The difference is that while you may accept someone as a friend on Facebook who once dated a girl who used to go the high school that was your school's main rival six years after your graduated, you may not really care about what they ate for breakfast. On Twitter you can allow people to follow you while choosing not to follow them. It's not automatically reciprocal. So, you may have 2000 people following you, but you only need to get tweets from people you want to follow...and that list may be only a handful. As a result, your followers on Twitter tend to be people that actually care what you have to say, especially on a particular topic. So worship leaders may follow Bob Kauflin, author of "Worship Matters" (@bkauflin) because they like hearing Bob's thoughts on worship ministry, or receiving links to resources Bob has found helpful, or even occasionally, learning what Bob ordered at Starbucks. The point is, when you send out a "tweet", it's going to people who care about what you have to say even if you've never met them, versus a status update that shows up in a the news feed of hundreds of loose acquaintances who don't have a clue what you do for a living.

4. Twitter is Relatively Instant
Thanks to the iphone, when it comes to Twitter, "there's an app for that." Of course, there's a Facebook app too, but for the rest of us who have non-smart phones (stupid phones?), Twitter lets you text in your "tweets". You can even receive "tweets" via text. (Standard text messaging rates apply.) So if your followers choose that option, you can communicate to a targeted group of people concisely and instantly.

This comes in handy for things like a worship leader telling the choir that practice is cancelled tonight, or an airline pointing people to their website for a limited hour of cheap tickets. Perhaps it will become the way churches do announcements so as to eliminate the commercial break announcement videos in the midst of worship.

5. Twitter is Search-Friendly
Unlike Facebook, Twitter lets you search to see what others are "tweeting" about a particular event or item or person. For example, if you're a young author or musician prone to insecurities, you can see what people are saying about your new book or CD-- hypothetically speaking.

To make the searching easier and more "intelligent", you can use the "#" sign to set apart an event or item. This makes it a hyperlink in your "tweet" so that people can easily click on it and see what everyone else has said about it. I was at a worship conference where they asked conferees to use "#nwlc09" in any "tweet" about the event so they could easily see what workshops people enjoyed and why, and what the buzz at lunch was about. It's realtime feedack.

It's also "everyman journalism" on steroids. For better or for worse, we no longer need to wait for an on-site anchor to tell us about the event; we can look at the "tweets" of the people. The perfect example of this, was, of course, Michael Jackson's funeral. "Twitpics" and "tweets" let the whole world know the real-time inside scoop on that tragic day.

6. Twitter is Helpful
Generally speaking, the best "tweets" are the ones that answer questions or point you to resources. So, don't just "tweet" about what you had for lunch; tell us where to find the best coffee in town, or which free wi-fi spots are your favorite. Tell me a Bible verse that inspired you. Share a quote from a book you're reading. Send a link to a great blog (Ahem). Recommend a new CD. Don't make it diary drivel; make it maven-speak. Let us in our your personal expertise.

There you have it. Now, for the record, I love Facebook and will continue to use it. Facebook is like the town square: it's where we go to catch up with old friends and look at their family pictures or watch their vacation videos; it's where we network and do business and fall in love. Twitter is a like a telegram...on a steady diet of Performance Enhancing Drugs! So, in a sense, it isn't that Twitter is better than Facebook; it's that they're completely different beasts.

Oh, and you can follow me on Twitter @gpackiam! :)

Are We Too In Love With A Nation?

Like most of America, I was in front of my TV on Tuesday night. As it became clear that Senator Obama was going to make history as the first minority president, I felt a mix of emotions. I was excited to witness this landmark moment yet slightly disappointed in the outcome because of the potential of certain policy implications. But I was not surprised by his victory. His campaign was near flawless, his strategy shrewd, and his speeches downright inspiring.

What was surprising was the reaction of so many Christians on Wednesday morning. I heard words like “anti-Christ” and “persecution” and “end times” thrown around so much you’d think we were living in a Tim LaHaye-Jerry Jenkins book. The kind of fear, panic, despair—even anger—I saw in some Christians post-elections is a tell-tale sign that they have put too much stock in a government, or even in a nation.

Is it possible to love a nation too much? Is it possible to love a nation so much that we’re confused about our identity?

Don't get me wrong. I love America. I would rather be here than in any other nation in the world. It is a truly beautiful, remarkable nation. So, let me explain. God’s master plan is, has been, and always will be to rescue and redeem all of humanity. His first vehicle was the nation of Israel. Through all of Israel’s difficulty and oppression, they often lost sight of that. In N. T. Wright’s words, Israel asked, “How is God going to rescue Israel?” But Jesus revealed that the question should be “How is God going to rescue the whole world through Israel and thereby rescue Israel itself as part of the process…?” God’s plan was always to rescue and redeem the whole world. That plan began with one nation.

When Jesus arrived, he showed that HE in himself would fulfill all that Israel could not and in himself rescue the whole world. From Jesus onward, God’s vehicle on earth is no longer a nation, but a New People from every nation—the Church.

Another way to say this is that the Church is to the New Testament era what Israel was to the Old Testament era. We know this. Or so we say. And then every time there is a prayer meeting for America, Christians reach for 2 Chronicles 7: 14, claiming that if we humble ourselves, God will hear from heaven and heal our land, i.e. America. Let me point out the faulty logic. If the phrase “My people” is a reference to the Church, then the phrase “their land” must also be a reference to the Church. After all, if you asked an Israelite of Solomon’s day who “My people” or “their land” referred to, they would say, to Israel. So, if we’re going to apply “My people” to the Church, then we must also apply “their land” to the Church and our spiritual inheritance. You can’t keep quoting Old Testament verses about Israel’s rulers and applying them to America. To say it bluntly, America is not the new Israel. St. Paul makes it abundantly clear that that designation belongs to the Church. Neither should we take phrases that were said about the Church and apply them to America. America is not called to be a city on a hill. Jesus said those words to HIS followers—HIS disciples, the men and women who would become the Church.

To me, the debate about whether or not the Founding Fathers were Christians or had intentions of founding a Christian nation is largely irrelevant. Has it occurred to you that even if the Founding Fathers intended to create a Christian nation, that they could have been wrong for trying? The Founding Fathers, after all, for all their faith or lack of it, are not the Holy Apostles of the Church. If their quest was to found a nation on Christian values, they might have been misguided in that quest since God no longer works through one nation.

The Kingdom of God is not advanced by geo-political nation states. The New People of God—the Holy Nation and Royal Priesthood St. Peter refers to 1 Peter 2:9—are no longer people of one particular race or nationality. We are men and women from every tribe and tongue. I wonder if it is to any Kingdom benefit who is in the White House. God does not think in nation-states; he sees individuals.

The Kingdom has been advanced by the Church regardless of what political state the nation was in. After all, as my wife reminded me on election night, for most of my childhood, I grew up in a nation where the Prime Minister was always a Muslim. And the Church in Malaysia rose to the challenge.

I cant’ say whether or not the end is really here. But to say that the end is near just because a leader is in office who doesn’t represent values many Christians hold dear is simply foolishness. By that gauge, the end was nearer in the A.D. 60s when Nero intensely persecuted Christians. We would do well to hear again St. Paul’s words to the Church in Philippi, suffering (most likely) under Nero’s rule:

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (Phil. 3:20-21)

This is not Paul saying the world here and now doesn’t matter and I can’t wait to get out of here. This is Paul using Roman language (like “Lord” and “Savior”, designations Romans used for Caesar, and “citizenship”, which Philippians would have understood, having been colonized by Rome and granted Roman citizenship) to say the invasion of God’s Kingdom has begun. And His vehicle is not an empire or a nation; it is the Church.

We cannot be so in love with a nation that we miss the Kingdom—and the vehicle God has chosen to advance His Kingdom: us, the Church.

Why Jesus Isn't Running For Office

The frenzy has begun. The DNC is an hour drive away and the swirl of election buzz is about to burst open with gale-force intensity. Decision ‘08 (or whatever dramatic title the news outlets designed to christen this presidential race with) is only a few months away. The speeches are being honed, candidates are being smeared, and radio talk-show hosts are bursting veins and developing ulcers. 

Last election season, I found myself surrounded by a lot of busy and bothered people. I had no idea there were so many politically-concerned Christians all around me. It seemed like they were coming out of the woodwork. Acquaintances-turned-activists were handing me pamphlets and giving me their best two-minute speech on why I should vote for their cause or their candidate. You should have seen the look on their face when I apologetically told them that they were wasting their time on me. 

I can’t vote. 

I’m not an American citizen. Though my beautiful Iowan wife affords me the privilege of residency, I have not held my green card long enough to become a citizen. As a Permanent Resident, I can do everything but vote.

So, while I watched many Christians trying to rock the vote like their eternal security depended on it, I amused myself with this thought: Jesus would be a good president.

Think about it. If the Lord were around today in the flesh, we would be whipping our Christian political action groups into a frenzy. Churches would be a hive of activity, with media crews swarming, and publicists buzzing. I can hear the campaign now: “Bring God back to America! Jesus for President!”

It would seem so right, so natural, so Christian.

And yet so wrong.

We can’t be blamed for trying to elect Jesus; believers have been trying for centuries. The very first followers of Christ were so taken by their leader’s charisma and wisdom, they gave their lives to see him crowned. John and James, with the help of their mom, Mrs. Zebedee, vied for cabinet seats in the Jesus Administration that was sure to come. Peter cut the ear off a priest when they came to arrest Christ. Their behavior is not so ludicrous when you consider that they believed Jesus was the Messiah, the chosen one from God who would bring salvation to Israel. (It was Peter who first had this revelation.) To a Jew, serving God always had political implications. By definition, being the “people of God” meant belonging to a specific ethnicity and living in a specific geo-political nation-state. To be a Jew was to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God.

And that’s the way God set it up. He called Abraham out of the land of his father so that he could make Abraham a great nation. He blessed Joseph with wisdom and favor in Egypt so that he and his brothers—the fathers of the 12 tribes of Israel—could be saved during the years of famine. He raised up Moses to deliver them from the oppression of the Egyptians and to lead them into a promised land. He called Joshua to bring them victory over other nations, driving them out of the land they would claim. He gave them instructions on how to form an orderly, safe, free, and godly society, and orders on how to preserve it but not inter-marrying. He gave them a king that to this day is loved deeply by all Jews, and stands as the model of the kind of leadership that brings blessing to a nation. But then their sin became too great, and they were taken captive by other nations. Some tribes were scattered across the earth, lost forever. But still, they clung to a promise—the promise that God would restore, that they would return, that Jerusalem would be a shining light in the earth once again. It was the Messiah that would bring all this to pass.

But it was the Messiah who turned it all on its head. Jesus, the Son of David, Israel’s greatest king, had no desire to be king. His lack of political ambition was only the beginning. He began to teach about God and His enterprise as a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly one. For the first time, Jewish people were told how to be a citizen of a wicked earthly empire while following the God of Heaven. “Give to Ceasar what is Ceasar’s,” he said. You can imagine the slow shock of Christ’s Jewish disciples as everything they had been raised to believe about God and his work on earth began to unravel. Instead of trying to overthrow a wicked ruler, they were told to obey. When asked by an oppressor for their coat, they were to give their inner garment as well. When struck on the face by a heavy-handed ruler, they were to turn the other cheek. Then the worst came true: Jesus lived out these teachings, leaving no doubt as to the literal nature of their application. To the horror of his followers, Jesus allowed himself to be carried away by wicked Roman soldiers, tried in the court of a weak and unscrupulous ruler, and killed like a vile criminal. And with the Messiah died all hope of God’s Kingdom-- as they had known it-- being restored on earth.

Christ’s arrival on earth marked not the beginning of the Kingdom of God on earth as the ultimate nation-state, but the end. Israel was God’s chosen nation to bring salvation to the world and they had failed. Christ’s mission was to make the way to God open to men and women of all races and nationalities. That’s why the Apostle Paul claimed so enthusiastically that in Christ there is neither slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile. Even Peter, likely the most thick-headed disciple, saw the light. He wrote that followers of Christ are a “royal priesthood, a holy nation.” The Kingdom of God comes to earth now not as a political nation, but as a spiritual community of “called-out ones”.

Christ did not restore a nation; he formed the Church.

The Jewish people of the Old Testament were given principles for making a society godly, free, safe, and orderly. (Read the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy for a sampling of these laws.) These impulses are still alive in us as Christians today. But when Christ brought the sword between earthly citizenship and heavenly allegiance, we were left to wrestle with how to act on these impulses as a Christian in the civic square. There are gray areas now. And that is a good thing. I don’t think Christ intended to make it clear how every Christian should carry out his civic duty.

Our highest priority is the task of making men and women godly. The Scripture is clear that men and women only become godly through rebirth in Christ. It is Christ in us that is our hope of glory—not behavioral reform or a legislated morality. The Church, then, is the best vehicle for making men and women godly through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The civic square—the ballot box, political action groups, etc—becomes the vehicle for making society free, safe, and orderly.

How Then Should We Vote? (Simply my opinion)

1. A Christian should vote Christian values insomuch as those values contribute to making society free, safe, and orderly for all people, even the ungodly. Remember that the original covenant that began Israel as a nation, was God’s promise to bless Abraham so that he could be a blessing to all nations. Not just the nation of Israel; not just the nations that surrendered to Israel and its God; ALL nations. A Christian’s role as citizen, then, is to be a blessing to ALL people within the society, by making it safe, free, and orderly.

2. A Christian should also vote Christian values when his view on a specific issues is asked.

I, like all Christians, want the society I am raising my family in to be godly in the way that Christians define godliness. But I know that if I give in to the temptation to use civic, lawmaking channels to make society godly, my children may wake up in an America governed by Sharia (sp?) law. After all, if Christians can muster enough of a “moral majority” to outlaw Christian sins, what’s to prevent Muslims 50 years from now from working the system to ban the vices of an Islamic worldview?

This much is clear to me: the mission of the Church in its culture is to lead people to godliness by the power of the Gospel, and to make society safe, free, and orderly for all people through the power of the ballot. The latter leads to the former. A free, safe, and orderly society provides the Church its best opportunity for presenting the Gospel.

But the way it plays out is something we must wrestle with. Perhaps the wrestling will make us better Christians and citizens in the end. We would stop trying to make men and women godly through the ballot box, and truly become a blessing to our society.

And maybe then we’d stop trying to elect Jesus. After all, He took himself off the ballot a long time ago.