How did Jesus explain the impact that his followers were to have on the world around them? The answer is complex, and there are many passages of Scripture that we could study, but one of the places where Jesus addresses this issue in his Sermon on the Mount:
“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father”. (Matthew 5:13-16) The Apostle Paul uses a different word picture: “But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16) Jesus describes the impact that his followers are to have as salt and light, while Paul describes it as a fragrance (whether pleasant or repugnant, depending on the perceiver). What do salt, light, and fragrance have in common? They influence the way in which we perceive the world. The taste of potato chips or pretzels or nuts is different when we add some salt (sense of taste). The appearance of a room is different when we turn on a light (sense of sight). The air smells differently when there is a fragrance or an odor in the room (sense of smell). We perceive the world differently when there is salt or light or a fragrance added to the environment. Same world, different perception. How should the people who live and work and study around Christians understand the world differently because Christians are present?
I’ve been reading a masterpiece of a book that is titled To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. One of the profound insights that Rabbi Sacks brings to the table (there are many such insights on every page of the book) is his perspective on the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai as recorded in Exodus 19: “‘Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’ This is the message you must give to the people of Israel.’ So Moses returned from the mountain and called together the elders of the people and told them everything the LORD had commanded him. And all the people responded together, ‘We will do everything the LORD has commanded.’ So Moses brought the people’s answer back to the LORD”. (Exodus 19:5-8) What Rabbi Sacks points out is that the people agreed to the Law before it became binding. God did not impose it upon the people against their will. It was a covenant that God was offering to the people. It became binding only when the people accepted the terms of the covenant. God did not simply impose the Law; He waited for the people to respond. I find this very intriguing. Though the children of Israel were already God’s chosen people, there was a sense in which their response was what turned “the” people into “His” people. Though the descendants of Abraham had already become the people of God through a one-sided covenant that God had already made with Abraham, while Abraham was asleep and before Abraham even had any descendants who could agree or disagree with the covenant, the Mosaic covenant was different: It required buy-in. The people consented to be governed. They agreed to be governed by God, and by God’s laws. The people had a history with God, who had delivered them from Egyptian bondage and divided the Red Sea so that they could pass through. They knew their God well enough to trust in Him, and so they agreed to obey Him. It was not a white-knuckle obedience that was being demanded by an unknown God. It was loyal obedience born out of a history of relationship and trust. In light of the above, let’s examine what we are seeing today. In today’s Church we have several competing visions for the role of the Christian in society (no, I am not talking about Left and Right). Here are the competing visions, as I see them:
I see no biblical warrant for the first view, “change from the top”. Jesus never called the early Christians to take over the Roman Empire, and he does not call us to take over the United States of America or any other nation. The way of Jesus is the way of servanthood, not the way of domination. Our way of life is one of love and humility and servanthood, not one of political dominion. (This means that both the Christian Left and the Christian Right are equally misguided). We make a huge mistake when we try to tie Christianity to American nationalism or to a quest for political or military power or dominion. We cannot and should not use political power in an attempt to make America into a Christian nation. I believe that Jesus would be opposed to any notion of using political dominion to create a “Christian nation”. As we saw with the children of Israel, allegiance to God and to God’s ways must be freely chosen. When we try to impose God’s ways over those who do not claim allegiance to God, we stir up anger and resentment. Why should they be coerced through political power to obey a God they do not know or trust? They have no history with God. They do not know that He is a God of infinite love and infinite wisdom and infinite power, worthy of our trust and allegiance. They do not understand the price He paid in order to win us into a relationship with Him. They do not understand the power of forgiveness (both of God toward individuals and of individuals toward each other). They have no personal experience of God’s grace, and no experience of a personal relationship with a loving God. They are not positioned to obey God’s laws because they do not know God, the Giver of the laws. It is our role to invite them to join us in our repentance and to experience God’s life-transforming grace together with us. Trying to coerce them into living according to God’s standards through political domination is one of the worst mistakes that Christians can make. It will push them away from the Gospel and will harden their hearts against God and against us. It will have a boomerang effect. It will bring upon us the persecution we fear. The backlash will not come because the Christians are right and the rest of the world is wrong (though many Christians will interpret it that way). It will come because imposing Christian values through political domination is not God’s way. It is using God as a means to an end. God will not be used as a tool to fulfill anyone’s pursuit of political power. Our God is a roaring lion; He will not be mocked, and He will not be manipulated. The second view, “change from the bottom”, has some solid scriptural support but is not without its problems. As we have seen above, Jesus calls his followers to be “salt” and “light”, and Paul describes us as “fragrance”. It is true that if we are living as we should be living, Christians will have an influence from the bottom that will help those around us to see the world differently, which will affect the way they think, which will affect the way they vote. However, the problem with this view is that it still assumes that Christians should be influencing how people vote, so it still ends up pursuing political domination, though the path is now more subtle. Also, there is no agreement among Christians as to whether the values of the Right or the values of the Left are more closely aligned with the values of Jesus. The third view, “change from the outside”, also has some solid scriptural support, but may raise more questions than it is able to answer. According to this view, the Church exerts its influence over the world as salt, light, and fragrance, not through political activity, but simply by being the Church. We point to a better way, but we have no role in bringing it about here and now. God calls us to point toward the life of the world to come, not to make it happen through our own efforts (political or otherwise). Since the days of the Swiss Reformation, the Anabaptist/Mennonite movement has produced a volume of literature advocating that this is the true New Testament position, and their centuries of scholarship cannot be ignored. Jesus calls us to be “in the world but not of the world”. Does that allow for political involvement on the part of Christians? Should Christians vote, run for office, join a political party, participate in the military, serve on juries, pledge allegiance to the flag or to any earthly power, or do these allegiances run contrary to our allegiance to Christ? Can we say “Jesus is Lord” while still allowing for competing allegiances and alliances? Where does one draw the line between being “in the world” but not “of the world”? What does it mean to love our neighbors as ourselves? Where does our responsibility for the well-being of the world around us begin and end? Are we responsible to pursue the well-being of our family and friends, but not of our communities? Or of our communities, but not of our nation? Or of our nation, but not of our world? If we do have a responsibility to pursue the well-being of the world, what are the tools that Christians should or should not be using? There is much to be pondered here, and the answers are not simple ones. The truth seems to lie somewhere between the second and third views. Jesus never explains specifically what is the role of the Christian in a democratic society, so great wisdom is needed as we seek to discern the mind of Christ. In that spirit I offer the following guidelines:
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