A few years ago, around the age of 26 or so I realized I was an adult of sorts. It was then that I became engrossed in the American political landscape. For about a year or so I listened, read, and talked politics as it slowly dragged me to the gates of sheol. Recognizing, death and decay, I jumped off the wagon of political hyperbole and rhetoric. Life comes by words and so does death. What does Jerusalem to do with D.C. after all? Truthfully, they have a lot to do with each other but I was trying to start from the top and work my way down while Jesus said that we were to start from the bottom and work our way up (Matthew 20: 25-28). While in Portland, I heard some of that Sheol rhetoric that “Bush was not my president.” Well, Barack Obama is my president; I didn’t choose to have skinny, chicken legs yet here they are, therefore I will honor them as mine. So where does Jerusalem come in? We learn from Jerusalem to respect and obey authorities (Romans 1:1-7). And that is what we should do. We should do it better than everyone else. We should pay our taxes on time, work to see the law fulfilled, be the best citizens and politicians in all the land and do it with joy and peace.
Consequently, our country is not in economical trouble because of any one president (that is bipartisan rhetoric that is fun to believe yet full of fool hardy crap). Our country is in troubles of all sorts because of the people. People who like their cake and eat it too as well as eating everyone else’s cake (yes, politicians and government officials like a lot of cake also). Cake is good in slices. But to eat every cake that the eyes see is gluttonous and ravenous. Cake will take you to the grave, you have my “word” (Philippians 3:19).
Which brings us back to what Jerusalem has to do with D.C; Jerusalem teaches us that nations will be built and torn down by our words. We have nation building words (Jeremiah 1:10). As we go along with our Jerusalem mandates of obeying and honoring, we must be proclaiming the Words of the Lord which alone house life for a nation. The gospel is subversive to the systems of the world. If we want a nation changed it’ll be from the bottom up, any other change is superficial. Money in our pockets might be the worse thing for our homes if our homes only want to buy cakes.
1 Comment(s)
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
Good thoughts.