By: Rev. David Wilson Rogers
The challenge is tremendous and the cycle is overpowering. President Trump fires off a Tweet, and the media pounces on those 140 characters with a feeding frenzy of convoluted controversy. Social media gets involved and opinions fly faster than the frenzied flight of water fowl after a gun goes off. Some celebrate … some retaliate. Some cry foul and some sing out with praise. Some pray, some yell, some post, some fret, and some celebrate. Then, amid the frenzied fanaticism, fingers of blame are pointed, and the battle lines are drawn. It is a disgrace!
Christ called Christians to be healers and reconcilers. The fifth chapter of 2nd Corinthians reminds us that when we are fixated on the workings of this world—such as arguing over the latest Tweet to fly from the White House—we are guilty of regarding everyone from a human point of view. Paul vividly illustrates the problem as well in Romans 12, Philippians 2, and Colossians 3 that our calling as Christians is to take on the mind of Christ, be transformed by the renewing of our minds in Christ, and to clothe ourselves in the love of Christ.
That is not to say that the sin and evil in this world is without consequence or should be ignored by Christians simply because we consider ourselves to be too righteous to dirty our hands in the precarious propositions of partisan politics. Far from it! Christians must engage the world, must challenge the powers and principalities, but we must do so in the ministry of Christ.
The prophets speak loudly about the injustice of the world and God’s hatred for the pious practices of those who would make themselves look good in public, yet allow injustice, inequality, and incivility to rule the day. Isaiah 1, Amos 5, Jeremiah 7, and Micah 6 are just some of the prophetic chapters that remind us of God’s priorities to care for the orphans and widows, receive the stranger and foreigner with grace, plead for those who have no power or voice, end sexual exploitation, and restore economic equality.
The overarching call of scripture is for Christians to be faithful servants of God’s love and manifest that love as a blessing to the world. It is, as 2nd Corinthians sums up in chapter five, a call to be ambassadors for Christ and actively involved in ministries of reconciliation and peace. Sadly, many of us have given into the sinful rhetoric and rancorous discord of the modern political era. We no longer live in a promise of equality and hope, but react out of a culture of distain, anger— and fear. We place blame, cast shame, and seek to put down those who see the world differently. This is not the ministry of Christ.
As Christians, our call must be to rise above the Twitter tantrums, Facebook follies, Fox News foibles, MSNBC meanderings, and the mindless meme misunderstandings that are distorting and destroying civil discourse. It is sad to think that while media is fighting over the latest political drama, people are hurting and dying. We must ask ourselves, is fighting over gun control bringing comfort and peace to the hundreds of lives that are shattered by gun violence every day? Is yelling about climate change helping those struggling to rise from the devastation of fire and flood? Is posturing over the state of our health care system bringing healing to those who need it? Is quarrelling over a wall addressing the needs of the foreigner in our midst?
James reminds us in chapter one that our religion must be about caring for the orphans and widows in distress and keeping ourselves unstained by the world. Perhaps we can begin by connecting one-on-one with lives in need of God’s love and ignore the meaningless distractions flitting from the latest Tweet. God demands so much more and it is up to those who profess to love God to rise above human fighting and embrace God’s unrelenting love.
