Post Election, 2012
“The grass withers, and the flower falls away: But the word of the Lord endures forever.” –I Pet. 1:24-25
It is over. It is over at last. What was intimated by many to be the election of the century has now come and gone. Yard signs are disappearing one by one. Bumper stickers are being covered up with a new layer promoting innocuous causes like AYSO or Recycle Now. Prophetic voices are now calming themselves; the fever subsiding. Winners are exulting in visions of power and prestige. Losers are crestfallen, quietly looking for exits out of the public eye. And the media are counting their millions in advertising windfalls.
Reflective voices are now trying to make sense of it all. Why did we do what we did? For what reason and purpose were we drawn to this candidate or another? And what will be the effect of new or continued office holders upon life as we know it? Then there are those quirky ballot initiatives that threaten to usher in a brave new world in some of our various states. No one can possibly foresee the effects of these.
For those who rejoice at our national commitment to continue down the same path for another four years, it is definitely cause for some nervous humility even in the throes of victory. We are going down some paths we have not travelled before with our national dashboard flashing some serious warning lights. To claim that all is well and not to worry would be nothing but a brazen display of naiveté and hubris. To trifle with well worn traditions in our lust for continued self satisfaction is always an exercise in tickling the tail of the dragon.
For those who are cast down in the despair of defeat, it is time to reaffirm that kingdoms may wax and wane, but the Word of the Lord abides forever. Whatever notions of truth we may hold, if they are truly true, they will remain so regardless of what politicians and courts may decide. And eventually, all will have to admit to their universality whether they like it or not. Those who see truth clearly can simply take comfort in that they see it before most. Truth has this habit of making itself known, if not by declaration, it will do so through hard and costly error by those who fight against it. Kicking against the goads is never a good idea.
Nations rise and fall as they walk either in truth or error. And we have little choice as to when we are born into a particular people group whether it is at a time of ascendency and fruitfulness or a time of decline and loss. Solomon rode the wave of blessing in Israel’s glory days. Jeremiah, alas, experienced pain and suffering right along with the nation to whom he was sent; a nation who had deserted their God. Regardless of the cultural and political circumstances in which we find ourselves, our job remains the same: to be God’s people shining His light wherever we are. And even in the darkest hour of impending judgment about to be visited upon Israel, God gave Jeremiah a sign for hope. He was to buy a field in Anathoth in spite of the fact that he was prophesying that Judah would be forcibly removed from the land by the king of Babylon. It was a stark and public act of hope in the future in the midst of the looming winds of war which would soon overtake them all. He signed and sealed the deed, called in witnesses, and weighed out the silver on the scales.1 It was an act of total defiance to the disaster that was about to sweep over them.
We are called to be people of hope. We continue to plant and sow, cultivate and grow, all in expectation of a harvest. Regardless of the winds of fortune about us, we still move forward in faith that in so doing we are doing God’s work. Martin Luther once wrote, “Even if I knew that the world would end tomorrow, I would still plant an apple tree today.” Own a piece of the future and buy yourself a field in Anathoth today.
Mercy and Truth, Mr. Moe 1Jer. 32:10
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Thanksgiving, 2012
“In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 1 Thess. 5:17-19
McDonald’s has drilled it into us that we deserve a break today, or any day. Pro-Active skin cream tells us that we deserve clear skin. TV lawyers tell us that if we or a loved one suffers from a host of ailments that we are entitled to certain benefits. Football fans feel they have a right to expect winning seasons from their alma maters. Banks and other businesses remind us regularly of our rights to privacy in all business dealings. College students feel entitled to certain minimum grades for showing up to class and warming a seat. If pressed, we all have expectations, rights, and privileges which we feel are coming to us as a result of either our status, age, sex, zip code, citizenship, or blood type. We exist! We are entitled!
There is one serious casualty with this kind of thinking. Gratitude gets totally pushed off the stage when entitlement shows up. If we feel we are owed the corner office, then when it comes our way we find it difficult to muster those gracious feelings of thanksgiving and gratitude which should accompany such a gift. If we “earned” it and “deserve” it, the whole concept of looking at it as a gift is gone. Compare that to receiving an unexpected blessing, a gift that we had no idea was coming our way. There is joy. There is this thrill of receiving something which we had not earned or was owed to us.
I was biking along a very remote stretch of highway up in some national forest lands one day and was turning around to head back towards home. I had not gone twenty feet when I spotted something by the side of the road. It looked suspiciously like money. Closer observation confirmed to my surprise that a clean, crisp, and totally unclaimed $10.00 bill lay there in the weeds for the taking. I claimed it as a gift, a totally unexpected blessing and reward for my biking exertions of the day. It did not make me a rich man. It would not even pay my gas bill home. But it was a truly unexpected gift. That made it so exciting. I could not wait to tell others about it. And it was a special joy to spend it that very day on some trivial lunch fare. I even had to tell the clerk where it came from. Silly, really, how much joy could come from such small change.
What if I were to sit down to my table every day and look upon my bowl of cereal in the morning and see it as a gift? What have I done to deserve this simple blessing when so many in the world go for days with little or nothing to eat? How many people have touched this product with their investment of time, fortune, and creative energies whereby I get to enjoy the simple pleasures of eating that which I could never create or make on my own? Oh yes, I earned the money to purchase the milk and Cheerios. But even this medium and system of exchange is so far beyond my understanding and remains complicated beyond belief. I am the beneficiary of a country that provides all this built on a sustained currency, a system of laws and government, and upon the spilt blood of thousands who have come before. There is no such thing as my money buying my food for independent me without touching a chain of events and people stretching coast to coast with a cast of thousands.
Even what health and strength is ours to get up and walk through another day is a gift, and we have no right to expect it to continue uninterrupted day after day. Every breath we take is a gift of life itself. Our miraculous five senses are an incredible gift from our creator that bring color, taste, music, texture, and sweet smells into an otherwise very, very bland existence. What would happen if we looked around this Thanksgiving at everything as an undeserved gift? I would suspect that it would be a sure way to drive off the Grinch of entitlement and multiply and magnify our joy. May your Thanksgiving be filled with joy.
Mercy and Truth, Mr. Moe
“In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 1 Thess. 5:17-19
McDonald’s has drilled it into us that we deserve a break today, or any day. Pro-Active skin cream tells us that we deserve clear skin. TV lawyers tell us that if we or a loved one suffers from a host of ailments that we are entitled to certain benefits. Football fans feel they have a right to expect winning seasons from their alma maters. Banks and other businesses remind us regularly of our rights to privacy in all business dealings. College students feel entitled to certain minimum grades for showing up to class and warming a seat. If pressed, we all have expectations, rights, and privileges which we feel are coming to us as a result of either our status, age, sex, zip code, citizenship, or blood type. We exist! We are entitled!
There is one serious casualty with this kind of thinking. Gratitude gets totally pushed off the stage when entitlement shows up. If we feel we are owed the corner office, then when it comes our way we find it difficult to muster those gracious feelings of thanksgiving and gratitude which should accompany such a gift. If we “earned” it and “deserve” it, the whole concept of looking at it as a gift is gone. Compare that to receiving an unexpected blessing, a gift that we had no idea was coming our way. There is joy. There is this thrill of receiving something which we had not earned or was owed to us.
I was biking along a very remote stretch of highway up in some national forest lands one day and was turning around to head back towards home. I had not gone twenty feet when I spotted something by the side of the road. It looked suspiciously like money. Closer observation confirmed to my surprise that a clean, crisp, and totally unclaimed $10.00 bill lay there in the weeds for the taking. I claimed it as a gift, a totally unexpected blessing and reward for my biking exertions of the day. It did not make me a rich man. It would not even pay my gas bill home. But it was a truly unexpected gift. That made it so exciting. I could not wait to tell others about it. And it was a special joy to spend it that very day on some trivial lunch fare. I even had to tell the clerk where it came from. Silly, really, how much joy could come from such small change.
What if I were to sit down to my table every day and look upon my bowl of cereal in the morning and see it as a gift? What have I done to deserve this simple blessing when so many in the world go for days with little or nothing to eat? How many people have touched this product with their investment of time, fortune, and creative energies whereby I get to enjoy the simple pleasures of eating that which I could never create or make on my own? Oh yes, I earned the money to purchase the milk and Cheerios. But even this medium and system of exchange is so far beyond my understanding and remains complicated beyond belief. I am the beneficiary of a country that provides all this built on a sustained currency, a system of laws and government, and upon the spilt blood of thousands who have come before. There is no such thing as my money buying my food for independent me without touching a chain of events and people stretching coast to coast with a cast of thousands.
Even what health and strength is ours to get up and walk through another day is a gift, and we have no right to expect it to continue uninterrupted day after day. Every breath we take is a gift of life itself. Our miraculous five senses are an incredible gift from our creator that bring color, taste, music, texture, and sweet smells into an otherwise very, very bland existence. What would happen if we looked around this Thanksgiving at everything as an undeserved gift? I would suspect that it would be a sure way to drive off the Grinch of entitlement and multiply and magnify our joy. May your Thanksgiving be filled with joy.
Mercy and Truth, Mr. Moe
Friday, November 02, 2012
The Patriot
If there is one who does justice, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her. –Jer. 5:1
If Halloween is our cultural celebration of things that go “bump” in the middle of the night, here is my contribution. By this time next week, our general populace will have decided the fate of much of the direction of our nation for the next four years. The fact that such power rests in our own hands is both invigorating and thoroughly scary. Anyone who has seen Jay Leno interview people on the street can easily attest that democracy is a frightening exercise when placed in the hands of people who think that Europe borders the U.S., that the Panama Canal was named after the man who built it, that Florida fronts the Pacific Ocean, and that Africa is the largest country in South America.
I am not sure what is more frightening, however: these people who cannot answer the simplest questions about world geography actually voting or intelligent Christians who refuse to vote because of dissatisfaction with our two-party system? I know and have talked with some in both categories: those who should not be allowed anywhere near a voting booth and those whose voice desperately needs to be heard. It is these whose vote would reflect intelligent citizenship but decline to do so that are the hardest to understand. Add to these the well meaning citizens who have informed opinions upon the issues of the day but just can’t find the time to make it to the polls or who forget to register. Taken together, they could represent a sizable force for good in any local or national election.
What is not hard to understand are the reasons for discouragement when it comes to national elections. True voices of passion and vision rarely get even a fighting chance to survive the bruising primary process. Vicious truth twisters and mockers make short work of Christian candidates who dare to speak for righteousness. The expense of a modern media campaign make compromise with big money almost a given. Candidates shamelessly exploit and manipulate various voting blocks with promises and/or half-truths. And then after the election, as often as not, winners disappoint us with their willingness to make deals with the enemies of truth or they unleash their own hidden agendas. Yes, there are plenty of reasons for weariness or downright apathy.
For anyone disheartened by the cultural backwash around us, I recommend the Book of Jeremiah as relevant and bracing material. Jeremiah found himself living in a culture with a Godly memory and tradition but one which had lost the essence and purity of that faith. Compromise infected the nation from the top to the bottom. The prophets and priests preached superficial messages that proclaimed, “All is well, all is well.”1 The lying pens of the scribes mangled the law into lies.2 The kings and princes were intent only upon dishonest gain practicing oppression and extortion.3 The people themselves had forgotten how to blush.4 And in the face of false teaching at church, the people compounded their guilt: “the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; and my people love it so.”5
Yet in the middle of all this decadence, Jeremiah continued to show a deep love for his countrymen and the nation of Israel. “For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken.”6 He mourned and confessed a temptation to flee to the desert.7 But for all of his brokenness, he did not flee. He continued to raise his voice to warn and rebuke even to the point of embracing imprisonment. Such love is the essence of true patriotism; a love of country that is not blind to fault but pleads for redemption. Hope lay in God’s grace which was willing to pardon even if one man could be found who did justice and sought truth.8
It is my sense that we also need to raise our voice through our vote for any man who shows even a semblance of respect for justice and truth. And as God was willing to reward even partial obedience, let’s not wait for the super pure candidate to rouse ourselves. God said to Jeremiah, “Do not be dismayed. Gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them.”8 I say, “Gird up your loins, and arise, and vote.” Being dismayed is no excuse.
Mercy and Truth, Mr. Moe
1Jer. 8:11 2Jer. 8:8 3Jer. 22:17 4Jer. 8:12 5Jer. 5:31 6Jer. 8:21 7Jer. 9:2 8Jer. 1:17
If Halloween is our cultural celebration of things that go “bump” in the middle of the night, here is my contribution. By this time next week, our general populace will have decided the fate of much of the direction of our nation for the next four years. The fact that such power rests in our own hands is both invigorating and thoroughly scary. Anyone who has seen Jay Leno interview people on the street can easily attest that democracy is a frightening exercise when placed in the hands of people who think that Europe borders the U.S., that the Panama Canal was named after the man who built it, that Florida fronts the Pacific Ocean, and that Africa is the largest country in South America.
I am not sure what is more frightening, however: these people who cannot answer the simplest questions about world geography actually voting or intelligent Christians who refuse to vote because of dissatisfaction with our two-party system? I know and have talked with some in both categories: those who should not be allowed anywhere near a voting booth and those whose voice desperately needs to be heard. It is these whose vote would reflect intelligent citizenship but decline to do so that are the hardest to understand. Add to these the well meaning citizens who have informed opinions upon the issues of the day but just can’t find the time to make it to the polls or who forget to register. Taken together, they could represent a sizable force for good in any local or national election.
What is not hard to understand are the reasons for discouragement when it comes to national elections. True voices of passion and vision rarely get even a fighting chance to survive the bruising primary process. Vicious truth twisters and mockers make short work of Christian candidates who dare to speak for righteousness. The expense of a modern media campaign make compromise with big money almost a given. Candidates shamelessly exploit and manipulate various voting blocks with promises and/or half-truths. And then after the election, as often as not, winners disappoint us with their willingness to make deals with the enemies of truth or they unleash their own hidden agendas. Yes, there are plenty of reasons for weariness or downright apathy.
For anyone disheartened by the cultural backwash around us, I recommend the Book of Jeremiah as relevant and bracing material. Jeremiah found himself living in a culture with a Godly memory and tradition but one which had lost the essence and purity of that faith. Compromise infected the nation from the top to the bottom. The prophets and priests preached superficial messages that proclaimed, “All is well, all is well.”1 The lying pens of the scribes mangled the law into lies.2 The kings and princes were intent only upon dishonest gain practicing oppression and extortion.3 The people themselves had forgotten how to blush.4 And in the face of false teaching at church, the people compounded their guilt: “the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; and my people love it so.”5
Yet in the middle of all this decadence, Jeremiah continued to show a deep love for his countrymen and the nation of Israel. “For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken.”6 He mourned and confessed a temptation to flee to the desert.7 But for all of his brokenness, he did not flee. He continued to raise his voice to warn and rebuke even to the point of embracing imprisonment. Such love is the essence of true patriotism; a love of country that is not blind to fault but pleads for redemption. Hope lay in God’s grace which was willing to pardon even if one man could be found who did justice and sought truth.8
It is my sense that we also need to raise our voice through our vote for any man who shows even a semblance of respect for justice and truth. And as God was willing to reward even partial obedience, let’s not wait for the super pure candidate to rouse ourselves. God said to Jeremiah, “Do not be dismayed. Gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them.”8 I say, “Gird up your loins, and arise, and vote.” Being dismayed is no excuse.
Mercy and Truth, Mr. Moe
1Jer. 8:11 2Jer. 8:8 3Jer. 22:17 4Jer. 8:12 5Jer. 5:31 6Jer. 8:21 7Jer. 9:2 8Jer. 1:17
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