July 07, 2014
Bringing Out the Best
Yesterday I attended a church
that had a patriotic themed worship music. With robust and rousing enthusiasm
we sang all verses of, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “America the Beautiful,” and
the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” It was not simply the words of the songs and
the tempo on the music that united the fellowship. There was no choir, no
worship team, and no assortment of musical instruments in accompaniment; there
was only one talented pianist and one strong, capable song leader. It has
literally been years since I’ve worshiped in a service where the lone worship
leader used his voice and hand signals, as though conducting a choir, to bring
out the best out of the audience.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----It would be interesting to know if this church’s culture carries a patriotic theme. A lot more people are distancing themselves from patriotism. Our church hardly tinkled a patriotic bell the weekend before the 4th, and if there were any mention of America at all yesterday, then I completely missed it. Some people just don’t think the gospel applies to politics or that politics has anything to do with the gospel. I profoundly disagree both ways.
-----What is politics? Is it not simply a group of people attempting to fashion a means of getting along with each other, which includes how the group they form will get along with the other groups of the world? There are two ways the gospel touches upon this effort. First, every person of the group is human. I say that not because we don’t know it, but because we obviously too overlook it’s import by automatically accepting the given it is. Part of being human is being part of a group. Hermits will argue this, but they are the exception. The rest of us deal with it because it arises from the mutuality side of the human’s dual nature. We must function with commonplace terms and themes and concepts and procedures in order to be a group. Then creating, adjusting, and maintaining these concepts are politics. Since the gospel is for the adjustment (so to speak) of the individual, and politics is part of the individual, then the gospel also carries a touch for politics. Or do we yet hide away the political part of our being from Jesus’ touch? Some say yes, then jettison politics from their lives as if they could enjoy the grocery store while eating with the hermit, ready to raise the banner of victory by persecution at any prospect that the rest of the people will use politics against them in their absence from it.
-----Well and good for them. The other way the gospel touches upon politics is apparent through the way God uses nations in the production of His efforts. The greatly instructive cases are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Rome incubating Israel, destroying the Northern Kingdom, punishing the Southern one, and cultivating the world field for the gospel seed, respectively. In all its English cuteness, His story is history’s entirety. Various countries spanning the globe throughout time have cobbled the highway carrying the effect of Christ’s eventual victory for all who obey. Most had little evidence of their place or involvement. But, from the patterns of history framed in the concepts of God’s Word, I see rather clearly America’s role in His story on a level of significance with Rome. It is not as prominently portrayed in the Word as is Rome’s role, but America’s conception in 1492 got a signpost in the heavens, as did Israel’s nationhood in 1948, and Israel’s capture of Jerusalem in 1967. America was created by God’s hand for a purpose. Her involvement in the victories of WWI, WWII, the eventual derailing of the collectivist utopian train in the late 1980’s, and the shelter her support of Israel has been against the crushing attack of the Muslim world strongly indicates that America has been the tool for holding back the man of perdition of II Thess. 2:7. But the loosening of our culture’s patriotic shoestrings, especially in the churches, portends the loss of her boots, without which she will fall. And then Israel will have to face a hateful world alone with God, like He’s always wanted it.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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