My mind has gone around and around since seeing what took place on January 6, 2021 at Capitol Hill.
My heart hurts. Solomon said that “there’s a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance” (Eccl. 3). This is not a time to celebrate or cheer. This is a time to weep, a time to mourn.
As a citizen, I’m embarrassed.
As a Christ follower, I’m appalled.
But those words don’t quite cut it. I can’t help but think of the issues and problems underneath the actions.
We have an idolatry problem in this country. The idol? Politics and for some today, a President. When a people’s hope is most realized in a person or a group of people, that hope will be like pouring water into a bottomless bucket. It’s empty. And not only is it empty, it leaves the ones holding the bucket frantic and panicked.
And one of the more unfortunate things about our time today is that this isn’t just a problem “in the culture,” this is a problem in the church. In some cases, to an alarming degree.
“The left” calls itself Christian Progressives. Scriptural teachings on sexual ethics are dismissed, abortion is celebrated, and the Bible is picked apart and which truths to adopt and believe from it are judged by the preferences of the people reading it. They co-opt Jesus to fit their political persuasion.
“The right” doesn’t really call itself anything, but there is a name for it – Christian Nationalists. God bless America is the rally cry. The Republican Party is God’s greatest hope. The church needs the government to protect her. All prophecies in Scripture point to our current events within the borders of this country. They co-opt Jesus to fit their political persuasion.
Be on guard. Politicians and political parties want to leverage your fears for their own ends. They will use rhetoric as a weapon, and make no mistake, it is one. Many others do this as well. And over the years, I’ve learned this the hard way.
This is a time for us to all ask God to search us, to know us, to know our anxious thoughts, and to see if there is an offensive way in us.
Allow me to say it bluntly: this is a time for true self-reflection and repentance.
If you have placed your hope in our President, it’s not too late to shift that hope to King Jesus.
If you have placed your hope in your own ideas and your own standard of truth and morality, it’s not too late to shift that hope to the Jesus who died for you.
If you have placed your hope in this country, it’s not too late to shift that hope to the everlasting Lord.
If you have placed your hope in this culture’s shifting ethics, it’s not too late to shift that hope to the sure and steady shoulders of Jesus.
If you have placed your hope in an election, it’s not too late to shift that hope to the One who needs no vote, for He sits on a throne.
If you follow Jesus, then please remember this and hear me clearly: you don’t get to co-opt Jesus to fit your preferences. HE is the KING.
He is the only One worthy of your worship.
His Kingdom goes beyond the geography of this country.
His blessing is bestowed upon you by grace through faith. And when you surrender to this King by faith, He calls you to do something radical – to pick up your cross, deny yourself, and follow Him (Luke 9:23).
That means you are called to obedience to His ethic. And it also means that you must begin recognizing that He should be in the driver seat of your political perspective.
If you follow Jesus, love your country. Be politically active, for in that sphere (as in other spheres of life), we can work to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).
But do so cautiously because politics can be a devious tool of the devil who wants to steal, kill, and destroy. Do so with an awareness that it is a vast platform for your heart to be wooed into idolatry.
My friends, may we be the Christ followers who refuse to worship the donkey or the elephant but, instead, worship the Lamb.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:9
