Last week as the family of Alese Coco said goodbye to her, another young girl was born and with her another family...Laura and Adam became parents of the very premature Madisen at one pound, seven ounces. no doubt "touch and go" can't begin to describe the tentativeness of these days of waiting to see if Madi will make it through several more months of NICU to emerge like a little butterfly from a cocoon of plastic and medical miracles to become a functional human being. Pray for them; such shock, such adjustment and such a commitment that must be made to this long and difficult process. But in and through the tentative new life comes the healing of other wounds and the resting of other fears and conflicts that had plagued.
Last week, Ian Paisley, the darling of the staunchest of the opposers to any kind of joint government in Northern Ireland, took a co-regency of sorts with the former head of Sinn Fein and thus laid to rest his years of words and pomposity about those horrible Catholics he had so viciously hated and so vocally decried. I heard him more than once in the sixties as he came here to seek support for a "protestant" government and way of life. No one seemed to take into account that it was the same Jesus. the same God. the same Mary and Joseph, for heaven's sake, that they hated over! But now, at 81, it seems that he has thought better of setting up an orange state, that perhaps orange and green aren't such a horrid combination. Other fears and conflicts laid to rest. Other new challenges birthed. Pray for them, too.
And today, Jerry Falwell, the man of the hour at the height of the moral majority, died. He, too, spent much time defaming and decrying liberals, people who weren't like him, even people who worshiped the same Jesus and loved the same God but did so with a different sense of social conscience than his. He, like Paisley, wanted to see a "protestant state" in this country, a political and legal "return" to a sort of theocracy that most of us would not have recognized as such had it been made possible. But in the words of the "begats" of scripture, "and he died."
In contrast, the Wittenburg Door (to which if you are not a subscriber, shame on you!) interviewed a young man in this issue whose call to other young people to a "new monasticism" draws from a wide array of spiritual fountains...some of which both Ian and Jerry would decry and others they would immediately embrace. But the point is, the nub of the discussion, is that regardless of the labeling, God's kingdom is coming, one heart at a time, not one political system or candidate or flavor of religion at a time. In essence, what Ian and Jerry both wanted for their countries was effectively Sharia law...it's just that it would have been a Sharia law of "protestant Christianity" and not of Islam.
But because the Kingdom of God does not come through political systems but through changed hearts, Sharia law (whether Islamic or Christian) does not work. A society of people who show love, that give grace, that see the poor fed and the dead raised does not come through "top-down" organization, not even to the tune of millions of conservative donation dollars per year. It is like the parable of the yeast: that kind of change, comes only one life, one heart, one moment, at a time.
Paisley has perhaps recognized in his age that the question he will answer before His God is not, "Did you make Northern Ireland into a Protestant nation, with your glorious self at the helm?" but "Did you love others in such a way that they were irresistably drawn to the Kingdom of God, to the Christ that both you and your political opponents love and adore?"
Change happens, loss comes, babies are born and politicians of many stripes pass into oblivion. But the Kingdom of the King who never dies is the only Kingdom worthy of our pledge of fealty, our devotion and our trust: His is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever...a kingdom not of this world, a power built not on politics or money and a glory that cannot fade away like the raucous words of an angry politician on a rant.
It's not hard to join this kingdom. Agree that He is who He says He is, that He died to pay the penalty you should be paying for your sin, invite Him to take all of you and make you all you never could be on your own...in Jesus' name! It is the simplest and most profound act of loyalty ever: it places us in a family, a kingdom that can never be taken from us, never be replaced by any political or social power. Let the politicians rant. They will die. Let them try to bring Christian Sharia; they will not succeed, for the Kingdom comes inevitably, in the King's perfect way--one heart at a time.
Last week, Ian Paisley, the darling of the staunchest of the opposers to any kind of joint government in Northern Ireland, took a co-regency of sorts with the former head of Sinn Fein and thus laid to rest his years of words and pomposity about those horrible Catholics he had so viciously hated and so vocally decried. I heard him more than once in the sixties as he came here to seek support for a "protestant" government and way of life. No one seemed to take into account that it was the same Jesus. the same God. the same Mary and Joseph, for heaven's sake, that they hated over! But now, at 81, it seems that he has thought better of setting up an orange state, that perhaps orange and green aren't such a horrid combination. Other fears and conflicts laid to rest. Other new challenges birthed. Pray for them, too.
And today, Jerry Falwell, the man of the hour at the height of the moral majority, died. He, too, spent much time defaming and decrying liberals, people who weren't like him, even people who worshiped the same Jesus and loved the same God but did so with a different sense of social conscience than his. He, like Paisley, wanted to see a "protestant state" in this country, a political and legal "return" to a sort of theocracy that most of us would not have recognized as such had it been made possible. But in the words of the "begats" of scripture, "and he died."
In contrast, the Wittenburg Door (to which if you are not a subscriber, shame on you!) interviewed a young man in this issue whose call to other young people to a "new monasticism" draws from a wide array of spiritual fountains...some of which both Ian and Jerry would decry and others they would immediately embrace. But the point is, the nub of the discussion, is that regardless of the labeling, God's kingdom is coming, one heart at a time, not one political system or candidate or flavor of religion at a time. In essence, what Ian and Jerry both wanted for their countries was effectively Sharia law...it's just that it would have been a Sharia law of "protestant Christianity" and not of Islam.
But because the Kingdom of God does not come through political systems but through changed hearts, Sharia law (whether Islamic or Christian) does not work. A society of people who show love, that give grace, that see the poor fed and the dead raised does not come through "top-down" organization, not even to the tune of millions of conservative donation dollars per year. It is like the parable of the yeast: that kind of change, comes only one life, one heart, one moment, at a time.
Paisley has perhaps recognized in his age that the question he will answer before His God is not, "Did you make Northern Ireland into a Protestant nation, with your glorious self at the helm?" but "Did you love others in such a way that they were irresistably drawn to the Kingdom of God, to the Christ that both you and your political opponents love and adore?"
Change happens, loss comes, babies are born and politicians of many stripes pass into oblivion. But the Kingdom of the King who never dies is the only Kingdom worthy of our pledge of fealty, our devotion and our trust: His is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever...a kingdom not of this world, a power built not on politics or money and a glory that cannot fade away like the raucous words of an angry politician on a rant.
It's not hard to join this kingdom. Agree that He is who He says He is, that He died to pay the penalty you should be paying for your sin, invite Him to take all of you and make you all you never could be on your own...in Jesus' name! It is the simplest and most profound act of loyalty ever: it places us in a family, a kingdom that can never be taken from us, never be replaced by any political or social power. Let the politicians rant. They will die. Let them try to bring Christian Sharia; they will not succeed, for the Kingdom comes inevitably, in the King's perfect way--one heart at a time.
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