Christian Nation Building

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. -- John 15:10

It is almost like a tautology, because the vital commandment of Christ is to abide in love, to love God and to love our neighbors.  As we are told elsewhere in Scripture:  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10).

Love does what is right by others.  Love also confronts, protects, and defends.  Love sacrifices for the good of those we love.  Sometimes that means not defending ourselves against slander.  Sometimes it means letting air and light into evil.  There is no way to keep the commandments of Christ or abide in His love apart from the Holy Spirit. 

Lewis says somewhere that a truly Christian society would be “right wing” in its moral behavior but very nearly communistic in its social structure.  In other words, it would not be vastly different from the rural community where I grew up.  Though we were far from perfect, people cared what their neighbors thought – for the most part, and we could count on family, friends and neighbors giving aid to those in need.  Everyone I knew was a cultural Christian if not an actual church-goer. 

Culture, without the salt of practicing Christians, becomes corrupt over time.  Communism and socialism attempt to impose the acts of love through force.  In a different context, this is known as rape.  The socialists never seem to learn.  The instant they have control of the power of the state we are all going to live in their imagined utopia – whether we like it or not.

The reason the communist is so hostile to Christianity is because Christians take care of one another without the coercive power of the state.  The state can’t be god in that case.  The priests of the state cannot gain power over people who don’t need to be forced to do the right thing.  This is not to mention how the “right thing” as defined by the state is what is good for the state and its ministers rather than what is good for one’s neighbor. 

I don’t want a government that is Christian.  Christians do not need much government.  We don’t need “faith-based” initiatives.  Take away all the federal regulations, all the programs and bureaucracies – and leave the money it takes to run a massive and equally inefficient government in our pockets.  Stop being hostile to Christians and the country will become a better place.  Get rid of welfare.  The Church will take care of the homeless, the orphan, and the unwed mothers.  Christians will build hospitals and clinics that anyone can walk into if there is no Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance.  There will be more St. Jude’s.  We will fund the medical research.  We don’t need government schools.  We can build our own and educate our children as we see fit with Christian values. 

Of course, none of that can happen until we kill all the lawyers.*

*Just kidding

Roofing the Temple

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.  Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. -- 1 Peter 4:7-8

My father helped build the little country church that we attended.  Most of the labor was volunteered by the men of the congregation so that the expenses were limited to material, but they did hire one experienced and skilled builder -- a man named Angus or Ang.  Ang liked to tip a bottle, like his father who was a local doctor.  He wasn't particularly a Christian, but he was no particular wicked either.  As they started to put the roof on the building, Ang observed to the crew, "Here is where we cover a multitude of sins."  The double meaning raised a chuckle, I'm sure.  In the end, the various, small "cheats" of the carpenter's craft would not detract from the integrity of the structure, from its clean, unpretentious lines or its utility.  It is an old church building now and has been remodeled a little and added onto a bit, but the core of the structure Ang and Dad and the rest raised stands firm and solid.   

Another Apostle agreed with Peter:  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

We know that Christianity is more than rule-keeping, more than law.  The Law is a sign at the border of the kingdom.  Christianity requires us to love, not just those who love us, but our enemies.  It is not, however, a naive, pacifist sentiment.  It is doing right by, for, and to others.  Sometimes the best thing you can do for someone, the most loving thing, is to lock them in a jail cell.  Sometimes you have to tell someone that what they are doing has to stop, and, if they won't stop on their own, the thing that is right is to stop them.  Whatever that takes. 

Most of the time, though, we are able to express our love by helping, encouraging, and supporting others.  Most of our enemies are not crazed jihadists on some foreign field but the guy down the street who lets his dog loose in our yard, the sadistic supervisor at work, or the snotty, overbearing mother at soccer practice.  Those are people that we can easily afford to forgive and easily help out when they find their battery is dead or they need lunch money.  Consider them as target practice.  They are helping us become better Christians. 

The truth is that we are all a little like Ang's church house, with our ugly little fixes -- that bad two-by-four that needed a scrap tacked on and such.  If we stripped off the roof and walls, everybody would see the places where things didn't quite come together and are a little out of plumb.  Decent people are always harder on themselves than on anybody else, probably harder on themselves than they should be.  If I am a decent person, it is because I am honest about my out-of-square corners and the rafters that don't quite meet at the heel. 

I can't really do anything about that.  I built with the material I had available and with the help that I had.   Those who poured the foundation may have misread the level a time or two, but I think they mixed the concrete plenty rich, and it is not going anywhere any time soon.  I'm not perfect, but maybe I am solid enough.  In any case, I can love my Lord by obeying Him and love my neighbors by doing them good and never wronging them, and this old house maybe won't looks so bad.  Perhaps those passing by will say, "At least it has a good roof."