The Prez Sez

The Prez Sez

So the political world is buzzing about the President’s endorsement of same-sex marriage for these United States.  His opinion on this controversial subject appears to be grounded in real concern for the rights of others.  Most will respond either with outrage or agreement.  The issue is a polarizing one with few simple answers.  I see it as just one symptom of a much larger spiritual challenge in our time; self-love.  As a culture we are so enamored of our personal rights, we feel so entitled to live as we choose, that the will of God is all but forgotten.

Christians who are ready to sound off about gay marriage or abortion on demand need to read what Jesus said and take it deeply to heart. "Why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye." (Matthew 7:3-5, NLT)  Soaring divorce rates even among those who profess to be Bible-believing Christians makes the Church’s defense of the sacredness of marriage sound awfully hollow, don’t you think?

The Christian who is deeply humble lives in submission to God and not just on the ‘hot button’ social issues of the time.  Personal holiness gives credence to our moral arguments. But, there is no holiness without surrender, without submission, without daily dying to Self.  For many American Christians Jesus is Friend, but not King or Lord.  We want Heaven, but on our own terms. We desire peace with God, but only as long as we can reserve the right to act in what we think is in our best interest. “God bless me,” is our favorite prayer!  Even our President, in his announcement of his position on this issue, acknowledged that his choice was bringing him into conflict with the Christian faith he professes, yet he was ready to toss the wisdom of the Scripture in favor of the convictions of the age. I don’t see his choice in any way as unique. He is who most of us are!

The great tragedy of American Christianity is that it has been turned into a commodity , sold on the market of self-improvement. A little ‘Jesus’ will make you smarter, richer, more successful, and happier – is the jingle we sing.  And when it doesn’t happen, Jesus goes on the junk heap, along with all the other stuff we bought in our pursuit of self-fulfillment.  The Gospel  is great news, but not because it makes a better you.  The true Gospel creates a new you, one that loves God more than anything or anyone.  The true Gospel promises an abundant life, but not by the measure we commonly use.  Christ calls us to come and die, so that we may truly live.  He leads us beyond ‘eat, drink, and party’ – the American mantra of the good life – to ‘take up your cross and follow Me’ which is the path to life that survives the grave.

Yes the Prez sez that he will support gay marriage.  The world will not end because of it.  What he said does not drive me to despair, but rather to reflection.  I ask myself if I am radically surrendered to Christ as Lord?  Am I walking in step with the Spirit?  Only then will I have the credibility to say to the world around me, “Follow me” because I am following Christ!

Here’s the word from the Word, a promise that secures my hope. How about you?

"God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure. And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago. God’s purpose was that we who were the first to trust in Christ should praise our glorious God.

And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God." (Ephesians 1:9-14, NLT)