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NewCity Orlando Sermons
Following Jesus in Politics | 1 Peter 2:13-17
Senior Pastor Damein Schitter finishes our July series, Following Jesus in Politics, preaching from 1 Peter 2:13-17. In doing so, he challenges the prevailing trends of privatizing and partisanizing faith and advocate for a revival of political discipleship grounded in Jesus's teachings.
Pastor Damein also presents four distinct postures the church can adopt in its cultural engagement: fortification, domination, accommodation, and incarnation. The latter calls for the church to move into the world with a mission of redemption and love. This helps us avoid the twin temptations of societal change: retreating into cynicism or pushing for revolution. Instead, following a long tradition of biblical figures and contemporary Christians engaged in politics, Pastor Damein advocates a path of transformative gospel living as a potent witness. This allows us to embrace our identity as loved and chosen people, free from self-righteousness, and grounded in the sacrificial love of Jesus.
Hello everyone. This is Pastor Damien. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando. At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2:Today's scripture comes from 1 Peter 2, 11-17. Beloved, I urge you, as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject, for the Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors, as sent by him, to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. And from Jeremiah 29, verse 7. And from Jeremiah 29, verse 7. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. This is God's word.
Speaker 1:Please be seated. Thank you, shannon. Good morning. My name is Damian, I'm the senior pastor and I'm grateful to get to conclude a four-week series that we've been going through in the month of July as you can see behind me called Following Jesus in Politics. Right as we go into the fall so in July-ish, we've been doing for the last several years a short series called Following Jesus in, and this year it was politics. So what I want to do is I want to give you a brief recap, because I don't assume you've all been here every week.
Speaker 1:Week one I opened the series by talking about the fact that Christianity is public, but it's often been privatized it's a public thing, but we've often privatized it and that Christianity is political, but it's often been partisanized. And so what we explored in week one is that we need, as Christians, a new political discipleship and it's not really new, it's rather recovering an old political discipleship A way to follow Jesus in politics and public life that resists privatizing the faith and it also resists privatizing the faith and it also resists partisanizing the faith. In other words, we need a way to follow Jesus in faith, hope and love in a good but fallen world. The second week what we explored was what it means to submit to authorities, because this is a very clear message in the New Testament, but we also explored what does it mean to resist authorities. And then, finally, what does it mean to persist in public holiness. Last week, ben talked about how Jesus models for us a way to navigate political conversations, how to tell the truth and influence others through a virtuous life, and finally, he explored what a Christian patriotism might look like.
Speaker 1:And this week, as I close the series, what I want to do is I want to orient and challenge us all at the same time in our political discipleship. Particularly, I want to explore and reorient our posture of political engagement, our coordinates that orient us in political engagement, as well as possible temptations in our political engagement. And then, finally, I'm going to do what you all love, which is I'm going to give you a test to see how well you're doing in political engagement. Okay, so, four, three, two, one. Do this really not quickly? All right, so let's dive into this, but I want you to know, as we do, that I'm making an assumption and I want to make that assumption clear, and that is, for most of us, our primary political discipleship has not been shaped by thoughtful, deep reflection on the scriptures and how we are called to engage the world. It's not been shaped either by church history in all of its rich textures, but rather it's been mostly shaped by listening to political pundits, whether it's on news sources or podcasts, and that that has been the primary thing that shaped all of us.
Speaker 1:Okay, as one commentator pointed out, as I read this month, the fire hydrant of partisan news is winning hearts, and I think that's a really important thing to say. It's not just convincing minds, it's winning hearts, it's wooing people to a certain view of the world. It's shaping how we love things and how we love or don't love people. He goes on to say a 30-minute sermon floats like a speck on the ocean surface of cable news. You could add podcasts or social media, whatever you want. He says we are what we eat, and while most of us theoretically know the gospel transcends political partisanship and division, it's another thing altogether to put that into practice, and so, in one sense, though, I get this. I get it because things move so fast and our lives are so full, we don't often take the time for contemplation or prayer or thinking or deep conversation, and so we're looking for someone to process information for us and tell us what to think, tell us who to be. And again, I want to make sure you understand I get this because I, like you, see things around me that make me mad in political engagement. I see things around me, like you, I'm sure, that make me deeply sad and concerned and, honestly, sometimes fearful for the future. And so, when this is our reality, we're looking for help from anywhere, and there are many people and sources who are ready to fill that void, to fill that vacuum, and so, in this series, it's been our desire to build a foundation throughout the fall for more learning and instruct us on how to live faithfully in our political discipleship, or you could say, public discipleship.
Speaker 1:Okay, so to say all of that in a question. What we've been trying to explore in this series is this how can we live faithfully as a marginalized community that the Bible calls exiles or resident aliens? How do we do this? Well, obviously we don't have a choice if we're going to do it or not, because we live as resident aliens, and that means that many of us, including me, have made and are making mistakes in our interaction and political discipleship. Some of us seek to withdraw, some of us seek to destroy, and it's often in line with what's most comfortable to us, what fits our natural inclinations. Some of us are reserved, some of us are assertive and energetic, some of us are prone to fear and safety, and on and on it goes, and all of these realities can shape the way we lean into the world around us, the way we lean into political discipleship.
Speaker 1:So today let's explore four postures, three coordinates, two temptations and one test of following Jesus in politics. First, four postures. What I'm doing here is I'm actually summarizing a lot of different sources. You could say it different ways, you could make it more than four, but for the sake of time, today there's four postures, and these are four primary postures that often shape Christians' discipleship in public life.
Speaker 1:The first posture many have called a fortification posture, and so this is where the fundamental calling in this posture of the church and Christians is to guard the integrity of the faith and the church against assaults from the world. All right, so in this view, the basic task of the church is vigilant preservation of our beliefs and institutions, and the basic threat then to the church is the destructive character of the larger culture around us, always pushing in, and so the goal then, the task of the church and political engagement and engagement and culture, is to fortify ourselves against those influences. Now, the strength of this model is obvious, right, it's so broadly embraced because it takes seriously both the Bible's call for us, as his people, to be peculiar people, to be different than those around us, and also the Bible's warning about the destructive and idolatrous nature of the so-called world, that is, all things that are not submitted to the lordship of Jesus. Yet All of these things come to play and we do need to be vigilant against those. I spoke directly to that in the third point of my first sermon, that we are to persist in holiness in our public life.
Speaker 1:But there are weaknesses to this posture, and mainly, I would say it's because it portrays God's relationship, and therefore our relationship, almost exclusively in terms of opposition. It's always us versus them when you're fortifying, because you need clear boundaries. Now this also makes sense to me, and the reason it makes sense to me is because the temptations to wealth, power, consumerism and on and on is great. But the problem is that this posture often disengages and detaches in the face of those temptations. We look at those temptations and say the way to fight them is not to engage and persist in holiness, but rather to withdraw. But the problem is is that when we withdraw, the enemy of the flesh comes with us.
Speaker 1:In fact, in one of his writings, john Owen writes about protecting ourselves from temptation when we overcome sin, and he talks about there's a way in which many of us engage this desire to protect ourselves from sin and temptation by building a castle or fortifying ourselves against it. And he said that's all great until when you find out that the enemy is actually within the walls. The enemy is actually with you because it's your flesh, it's your disordered loves. In fact, martin Luther picked up on this, this weirdness that's his word, not really the weirdness of what it means to withdraw. And what he says about this is, he says, quote some foolish men have not understood and have therefore taught absurd ideas about contempt for the world and flight from it, and because of this he says they have done absurd things.
Speaker 1:He says the proper contempt of the world is not that of the man who lives in solitude, away from human society, nor is it the proper contempt of gold, that of the man who throws it away and who abstains from money, as some do, but that of the man who lives his life in the midst of these things and yet is not carried away by his affection for them. This is the first thing that should be considered when we think about contempt of the world. So the first posture is that of fortification, but there are dangers there. The second posture is that of accommodation and, contrary to fortification, accommodation posture suggests that the church's fundamental call is to collaborate with those in the world in service of the common good. Now, the strength of this model is right. You've heard me talk about this. The reality is that accommodation, or this posture, does try to take seriously the Bible's call to go into all the world, which is what God's people are called to do, the Bible's call to go into all the world, which is what God's people are called to do. We are called to understand that God's common grace often gives us some common ground, even with those whose beliefs are different than us.
Speaker 1:But the problem with the accommodation posture is that the church can sometimes become indistinguishable from the surrounding culture, become indistinguishable from the surrounding culture. What happens is we're tempted daily, moment by moment, to trade our convictions for a little more money, for a little more acceptance, for a little more nearness to the halls of power. We compromise on our ethics or beliefs because it will get us in the right circles, it'll make us good with the right friends, or we'll pad our bank accounts or those who share interests with us. And this isn't just on the broad grand scale of politics. This is in our daily lives. This is in how we report on our taxes. This is in how we negotiate in various areas of our lives. There is a temptation here to accommodate or to compromise. We might reject Jesus's call to meekness and humility and seek the favor of those in power, because it gives us access to control or influence.
Speaker 1:If you walk into a room, in your workplace even, or go to a happy hour afterwards, who are you more likely to talk to? Who are you more likely to engage? Maybe, maybe not the person who you don't know, and you get to know the person who's off on their own, on the margins, the person who's newest to the team. You're probably going to go find the person with the most influence. Why? Because, rather than looking for how you can love, you're looking for how you can advance. This is the reality of the posture of accommodation that seeps in. Let me ask you some questions. What issues of our day tempt you to capitulate? What do we say because our culture won't accept us and we don't like that? What do we not want to do because we're afraid of losing power or influence? What about this question? Which of your views would change if your incentives were different, and particularly the views that you are most self-righteous about? Which one of those would change if your incentives were different, and particularly the views that you are most self-righteous about? Which one of those would change if your incentives were different? What if you were in that situation? Whoever they are, and you had their incentives, is your conviction that of Christ or is your conviction that of accommodation, how to get closer to power and status?
Speaker 1:Well, the third posture is that of domination, and the domination posture suggests that the fundamental calling of the church is to triumph over her cultural enemies, and, in this view, then, the basic task of the church is to extend its own values into the world, and the basic threat to the church is those whose values differ from ours. Now, the strengths of this posture are that, unlike fortification posture, this posture rightly believes that God has called his people into the world and, as a result, tends to move intentionally then into the culture, but still seek to remain God's peculiar people, trying to influence the culture around us toward God's created design. But it has serious weaknesses. This domination posture, like fortification, this posture tends to view the world in fundamentally oppositional terms. And yet it expresses this opposition not in withdrawal but with aggression. Inherent in this aggression, which most frequently takes political form, is a sort of aspiration to triumph, a perspective in which neighbors who disagree are viewed not as people to be loved but disagreed with as Ben talked about last week, but people to be defeated by argumentation. This is the domination posture you see so often in this posture, which we all have experienced at times.
Speaker 1:In our zeal to uphold the truth, we must guard against the temptation to see our cultural engagement as merely a battlefield where opponents are to be vanquished right. The gospel calls us to a different posture, one of gentle persuasion and humble service. And our task is not to dominate but to illuminate, to bring the light of Christ into every sphere of life through deeds of love and words of grace and mercy. And as we engage the world, we should do so with the conviction that true influence comes not from asserting our power but from embodying the reconciling love of Jesus Christ. And this leads us to the final posture and you know how these things go. It's the right one, okay and that of the incarnation posture, the one where exiles are sent by God into the world.
Speaker 1:And the incarnation posture suggests that the calling of the church is to go into the fullness of cultures, not to withdraw, and as we go it's to bear the fullness of the gospel as peculiar people, but for the purposes of redemption, not for domination. So, unlike fortification, the incarnational posture seeks to follow Jesus into every sphere of creation. Unlike accommodation, the incarnational posture not only moves fully into the world but also retains the integrity of our God-given character, and we proclaim the gospel as we do so. And unlike domination, the incarnational posture sees its movement into the world not as an angry movement of conquest, but as a hopeful movement of redemptive love, seeking not to triumph over its neighbors but to work for their flourishing. And this is what Jeremiah was tasked with doing in Babylon. Jeremiah was tasked with telling the people, as we saw in our passage today, to seek the welfare of the city If you read on in the passage You've heard To settle down To have their children marry, to build houses, to plant gardens, to go into all of the culture and bear the good news of God.
Speaker 1:And so, when we think about our posture, which posture are we or you more prone to? Which one of those postures do you find yourself drawn to? And I understand you're probably thinking well, all of them at times, and that's right. But the point of this sermon is to call us back, to reorient us to our posture Out of the four postures. I'm exhorting us all to follow our Lord Jesus into the posture of incarnation, into redemptive love. Now, let's keep going, because that's not enough. It's not enough simply to talk about posture, we also have to talk about coordinates. So, out of those four postures, there are three coordinates.
Speaker 1:You guys know how GPS works, right? Gps works by, wherever you are, magically finding your location and telling you how to get to the next one. But there is a phrase called trilateration. No, yes, I learned that word this week. What I did know I didn't know what it was called is that GPS needs at least three coordinates, three places, in order to triangulate, to find you where you are and what it does is. It can give you the latitude, longitude and even the altitude of where you are based on those three coordinates and essentially what it does is that you and I are here but we don't even know what's around that bend.
Speaker 1:So we rely on three coordinates above us, above our view, outside of our current perspective, to help orient us to where we are and, I think, as we lead out, follow Jesus in political discipleship, we need at least three coordinates to give us a larger perspective of how to navigate on our journey. We are to embrace and embody three coordinates for the love of our neighbor and the glory of God. Those three coordinates are first, creation's design. We need to look back to understand God's creation design for his people, for his world, and take our commission into the world, whether it's family work or being a citizen, from creation, from the way in which God's designed the world. We need to regularly reflect on God's original design for what it means to be human, what it means to be a creature made in his image, and what it means that we're always interacting with other creatures, other humans, who are made in his image, even if they don't agree with us. In fact, even if they're our enemies, they are still made in his image.
Speaker 1:All of our social, cultural and political lives are to conform to God's creational design. For example, this is where our culture gets our view of human dignity. This comes from Genesis, this comes from the Bible. It doesn't matter if a person's a Christian or not. In the West, many scholars not just Christian scholars have shown this is a very Christian idea that there's human dignity. What about justice for all, for all humans? That justice is meant not by the color of your skin or by your socioeconomic status, but by the fact that you're a human being.
Speaker 1:This is from the coordinate of creation, the coordinate of how God has designed things. So that's one coordinate we need to regularly reflect on. The next coordinate is not just creation's design, but creation's destination. Where was this all heading? What is the end? What is it for? What does a fully mature world look like? So what this means is when we're between the coordinates of God's design and God's destination. We now are to be a sign or a preview of God's goal for humanity and all creation and the end of history, which is why Christians often are so at odds with current worldviews. It's because we have a different view of what God designed human beings for and a different view of what the destination for human beings are. This is where we understand mutual flourishing, unity and diversity, fullness and completion. Maturity the idea of maturity, how we can assess what a mature civilization is, what a mature human is has to be linked between design and destination. Otherwise you don't know if you're maturing or not, maybe you're going the other way.
Speaker 1:But there's a third coordinate that we need not just creation's design or creation's destination, but also redemption's direction. We live in a world that's good, yet fallen, in a world that's good, fallen but also being redeemed and will be redeemed. And that means the redeemed people of God who are reflecting on God's design and God's destination for us. We must be oriented outwardly, toward the world we live in, and that means we'll confront and engage the cultures of the day, we'll embrace what's good and we'll speak out against what's not. But how do we know what's good, how do we know what's not? We triangulate. We understand that as we move out into the world, in this location that God has us, we're constantly reflecting on God's design, god's destination and God's redemptive direction and what he's doing. We are called to live as a contrast society, a society that is strong between this tension of God's design, god's direction and God's redemptive action in the world, as his agents, as his people, sent into the world.
Speaker 1:I'm just gonna read through a list. I've done a similar list before. Some of these are the same from years ago when I did this. Some of these are new. But what might a contrast society look like that has the three coordinates and the proper posture? What might we actually look like? Well, maybe we would be a community of marital fidelity in a world that is saturated by the opposite.
Speaker 1:Maybe we would be a community of truth that holds that truth humbly but boldly in a world of uncertainty, suspicion or arrogance. Maybe we would be a community that knows God's presence, moment by moment, in a secular world that doesn't believe he even exists or, if he does, he locates them outside of their relevance. Maybe we would be a community of generosity and a posture of I have enough in a world gone mad by consumption. Maybe we would be a community of forgiveness in a world of competition and revenge. Maybe we would be a community of self-giving love in a world of selfishness and self-gratification. Maybe we would be a community of wisdom in a world of proliferating information. Maybe we would be a community of humility in a world of arrogant self-interest. Maybe we would be a community of patience in a world of immediate gratification. But in order to be this community, in order to be this community that moves into the world, we need a proper posture. We need three coordinates at least, of God's design and creation, his destination and creation and his redemptive call to us. But we also have to be aware of two temptations as we do this and that's my next point two temptations of political engagement. By the way, if you're counting, we're almost there, because I don't know if you saw this it goes four, three, two and then it ends with one and that's it. So two temptations.
Speaker 1:Ben mentioned William Wilberforce last week. Many of you know who Wilberforce is, but here's a quote by Wilberforce reflecting on the work that God called him to do in his life, and he says we are Of course. We are Of course. As we engage in public, we're trying to influence those around us. That's what we're called to do. That's what salt and light is. You remember this? Jesus says that we're salt and light. That both gets in the culture, but it also confronts the culture. This is what we're called to. So in no way I hope you've heard me, or Ben in this series, say that to lean into political discipleship, the way that we are is to tell you to be more quiet or to only be kinder. No, we're inviting you into a fullness of being sent out into the world, and it's possible that many of you have unfortunately heard us in such a way where you haven't heard us say this yes, we are to be sent out into the world. We want to see change, for sure. But here are the temptations. Even as Wilberforce says, we're called to be salt and light and hopefully see change.
Speaker 1:He says these two temptations when working toward change is first, retreating out of cynicism or abdication. In other words, it's not working. Why is it not working? It's not fast enough. Why do we not see change after one conversation, or five years, or ten years, or eight years? Why do we not see change? And eventually we look around and we think everything is going wrong and then we start to lack faith in God's power and we retreat out of cynicism or abdication.
Speaker 1:He says the other is revolution. And he says this is also lacking faith in God's power, because what happens is, rather than cynicism, when things aren't changing, we say, well, we need to take this into our own hands. Things aren't changing. We say, well, we need to take this into our own hands. He says no Revolution also lacks faith in God's power. By taking matters into your own hands, he says the way forward is reformation To work in Christ for the reformation of society. This is also the way of the incarnation posture that orients itself by the coordinates of God's design, god's destination and God's redemptive direction, which is out towards a world to be salt and light.
Speaker 1:And you know, when we think of Christians like Wilberforce or we think about saints in the scriptures, like Daniel, who's in Babylon and who's engaging in a place of power, what we see is that they accept the realities of the public square and they're okay with ambiguity. Now, I know some of you are not okay with ambiguity. Listen, when we engage political life, we will experience ambiguity. It's just the way it is. When we engage political life, we will experience ambiguity. It's just the way it is. And all of these examples of moving towards trusting God, engaging culture accepts the realities of ambiguity, but they also preserved their integrity. So an okayness, a tolerance, a toleration of ambiguity doesn't slide into giving up on your integrity. A pure pragmatism. Somehow we manage this tension. Look at Daniel, go back and read those passages, the way that Daniel was able to do this. But the third thing we always see is they preserved their integrity through the way of reformation, through the way of salt and light.
Speaker 1:And what happens is that, in order for us to do this, we need to reaffirm our belief and conviction that the gospel is actually true and that we can build our lives on it. Not that it's true to get us to heaven, but it's actually true to help us navigate life. The second thing is we need to reaffirm the uniqueness of the gospel. There is nothing like this, there is nothing like Jesus, there is nothing like Christianity. There's a uniqueness to what we have for the world. There's a uniqueness of our redemptive call into the world to speak truth in love. No one else has this. They have self-righteousness or they have contempt, and those might be the same thing.
Speaker 1:The final thing we would need to do in order to accept the realities, the ambiguity of life in the public sphere, without losing our integrity, to move towards reformation, is we need to reaffirm the power of the gospel. We don't have to make it powerful. We do have to experience its power so that we can be a witness to its power. But we don't have to make it powerful, we don't have to grasp, we don't have to strive. Paul says our gospel came to you, thessalonians, not only in word, but also in power, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Paul tells the Romans I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God. Paul tells the Romans I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God. So how do we experience these things? How do we know that? The uniqueness of the gospel, the power of the gospel, how do we know that it's shaping us? How do we know that it's shaping us so we can move into this redemptive direction in the world, in the conversation of following Jesus in politics? Well, here's your test. One test, four postures, three coordinates, two temptations, one test.
Speaker 1:In our passage in 1 Peter 2, we see that Peter says Beloved. I urge you, as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Verse 12,. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. This word for conduct we could translate it way of life, lifestyle might be the way that we would say it it describes essentially our orientation toward the world in every aspect of our life. Okay, he actually uses the exact same phrase in chapter 1, verse 17, when he's opening his letter to exhort his readers to be aware that they are with God, their Father, in every respect in their life. And also, not only are they being observed by God, who's redeemed them, but they're also being observed always by their neighbors. Okay, so Peter frames it this way.
Speaker 1:We see this point of contact in a couple of other places, this importance of lifestyle, of living a life in front of your neighbors to the glory of God and so that they can see your good deeds. We see it in James. He says who is wise and understanding among you, let them show it by their good life or conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But, most notably, commentators will point out that Peter's point reflects primarily, probably primarily, jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus in Matthew 5, 16, says let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven, because the Sermon on the Mount is, if you've been with us for any time at all at New City.
Speaker 1:We believe that it is the vision of the good life. At the end, jesus says, just like any wise wisdom teacher would there are two paths. You can build your life on the rock, you can build your life on the sand, but the wind will come, the rain will come. The question is, your foundation will determine if your whole life gets blown away with the storm or if it preserves. And, of course, the good life is a life that preserves. And Jesus has just taught us what that life is, which is his teaching the Sermon on the Mount. And so, when we think about this, that means that the Sermon on the Mount is the ethic of the kingdom of God, what it means to do good works in front of your neighbor so that they can see them. It's the ethic of a transformed life in every way, a life that's filled with mercy, with purity, with faithfulness, treating others with dignity rather than as objects.
Speaker 1:Okay, and it's not mainly in our culture. You read the Sermon on the Mount. It's not heroic. Actually, it's actually confusing in our culture, because what we see in the Sermon on the Mount is that the beauty shines through in a way, when we forgive others rather than defeat others, when we love others rather than use others, and even our care for our enemies who don't agree with us. We move toward them with love.
Speaker 1:But so often this is viewed as foolishness. This is viewed as something that only people who don't live in the real world do, because people who live in the real world are practical. They know that you always have to be getting ahead, you always have to have your elbows up, you always have to be the first person in every meeting to make sure the most influential people in that room know that that was your idea. Or, if you're the most influential person in that room, you need to make sure that everyone else in the room knows that you're the most influential person, because this is the way to the good life in our culture. But not so with Jesus. His kingdom is upside down.
Speaker 1:For example, today in certain parts of the world, people will look at Jesus's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount about sex and marriage and they'll agree. They'll say that is good. But they'll look at the teaching on forgiveness and how we treat our enemies and they'll think that is wrong and weak, because there are shame and honor cultures, and if I forgive you, it doesn't mean that I'm gracious, it doesn't mean I'm living the good life. It means that I'm weak and I'm letting you take advantage of me and my family and my country right Now. Here in the West we tend to like the idea of forgiveness, but the way that Jesus talked about sex and marriage, that seems crazy and offensive and maybe even dangerous. You see, what's beautiful about the Bible is that the Bible is not the product of any one culture, but it's clearly been given to us by God because it both affirms things and critiques things.
Speaker 1:In every culture, someone will be offended by Jesus' teaching and yet attracted to Jesus' teaching all at the same time, but for different reasons in different cultures. Now here's the test how are we doing at that? How are you and I both offensive to the people around us but also attractive to the people around us? This is the test. Listen, some Christians are offensive but not very attractive, and we know who you are. Okay, in some cases, christians are attractive but not offensive, and we know who you are. Or, in most cases, christians are neither attractive or offensive. That's most cases. We just hang back, just let it all blow over.
Speaker 1:You see, people who are offensive but not attractive are a little bit like Jesus in that they're denouncing you know, he's denouncing the money changers in the temple, he's denouncing the Pharisees, he's lifting up the brokenhearted and the oppressed. And people who are attractive but not offensive are also a little bit like Jesus in that they are attracting outsiders. They're attracting those that society has shunned. But if no one is attracted to your Christian faith or character and no one is offended by your convictions and you've never received pushback from others because of your faith, then we are not like Jesus at all. You see, to be offensive takes courage and to be attractive takes compassion. But courage without attractiveness is probably not real courage. It's self-righteousness. You like to tell people off. You like to tell people off. You like to tell people how wrong they are.
Speaker 1:But attractiveness without courage is often not love or compassion, it's actually cowardice. You're afraid to speak the truth, you're afraid to be honest. So how are we doing at this? Do people ever want to come talk to you about their problems? Do they want to confide in you? That's great if so, but at the same time, do you ever receive pushback because of your faith? Do you ever receive pushback? Are you ever marginalized or looked at sideways because of it? To live as ex exiles, as Peter and Jeremiah say, as Jesus shows us, as Jesus teaches, we have to experience both. But for me, if you're like me at all, you say okay, but where do I get the power to do this? So you just want me to go try harder. Do you want me to keep a little notebook in my pocket that keeps a tally every time I'm attractive, every time I'm offensive, and then try to balance it off? And if I'm a little off on one, I need to go be more offensive for the gospel to somebody so I can get my ledger right. No, of course not.
Speaker 1:Ed Clowney, who over the years has influenced me. He has this great teaching in his biblical theology lectures where he talks about how God's people and Peter even says it here you're a chosen race, that God's people aren't the choice people of the earth, but they are the chosen people of the earth. He loved to quote then from there after 1 Peter, deuteronomy 7, where essentially Moses says God says through Moses I did not choose you because you were the greatest of nations. In fact, you're pretty small and puny. I chose you because I loved you and I loved you because I chose to love you. That's why I chose you. You weren't a choice people. You are a chosen people because I decided to love you, and that's the same for us If you're in Christ. God did not choose you because you're virtuous. He did not choose you because you're hardworking. He did not choose you because you're smart. He did not choose you because you're creative. He did not choose you because you're spiritual or beautiful. He chose you because he loves you and he loves you because he loves you and he loves you because he chose to, and what that means now is he makes us beautiful. He didn't choose us because we were beautiful. He, he chose us. Now he makes us beautiful.
Speaker 1:Just imagine what that would be like to let that sink into your very deepest parts of you, that when you engage with someone who disagreed with you, that you didn't feel that tinge of self-righteousness and anger to defend your point of view, because your righteousness, your position, isn't based on how well you can do that. Now you can be curious. Now you can lean in. Yes, you can tell the truth, but then you don't have to be afraid or have cowardice. What I'm really saying is that to let Peter's word sink into us, not only the exile part, but the chosen people part.
Speaker 1:Until we grasp this deeply in our hearts, I don't think we can have real courage. I think we can only have contempt. That looks like courage, it looks like swagger, it looks like self-righteousness, looking down on others because of their despicable political policies and, of course, feeling good about yourselves. No one looks down on people and doesn't also think that they are better, that they're more valuable, that somehow they're more special than the wrong people, and I don't think we can have real compassion without understanding this truth about us. I think that we will look to consume people by doing good things for them. What I mean by that is we'll serve people so we feel good about ourselves and we can reassure ourselves that we are the good people, but we'll be using people that we're serving in order to fortify our own insecurities. You see, until we know that we are this loved by Jesus, we won't be properly offensive or properly attractive to those who don't. We will need them.
Speaker 1:Jesus shed his blood for us as the ultimate exile, left home for us. He left home in heaven, he took on flesh and then he shed his blood on a Roman cross. He was convicted by the state to die for his enemies. Why? Because he loved us. Because he came from the Father with a clear sense that I am going to purchase these people, apart from anything that they've done, and then I'm going to make them into a people, not because they had the most potential, but because they're mine. I'm going to love them and I'm going to send them into the world so that they can in in receiving my love.
Speaker 1:Love other people. This is the opportunity we have. This is the opportunity we have to follow Jesus in politics, to follow Jesus in public. A certain posture, the right coordinates, aware of the temptations, and understanding that being loved is the way that we can truly confront people and truly have compassion on people. Let's pray, father. It's a lot, a lot of words, a lot of concepts, four weeks of thinking about these things, and yet what I ask is that, even in this moment, you would give us a little bit of clarity. As we move in a moment into this time of reflection, would you bring our attention back just for this time, to crystallize it, help us be present, help us hear from you. Based on what we've heard, and it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.