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| Live at Peace With Everyone (Romans 12:18) | |||||
 Printer Friendly Version - opens in separate window I happened to be preaching in Cardiff the night of Monday 12 June when Jerry Springer the Opera opened in the Wales Millennium Centre. On arriving to an uncharacteristically quiet church I was greeted by some that had not managed to travel to the city centre to join the protests and assured that I would have a congregation soon. And soon, indeed, many people arrived with tales of daring-do fresh from the 'front-line' of protest and agitation. The truth is that over 1,000 Christians peacefully stood around holding placards declaring 'Jesus is Lord', 'Worthy is the Lamb who was Slain', 'God is Love' and singing hymns. Pictures of the peaceful protest can be seen on the Christian Institute web site.I have to give a wry smile at the application of the word 'protest' in such circumstances. Like a lot of words these days it appears to be being redefined to fit the Zeitgeist, denoting not a group of concerned people using their democratic right to be heard and considered but rather a bunch of agitators and troublemakers. I know some of the people who 'protested' and troublemaker is not the first word that springs to mind when I think of them. Compare this peaceful protest with the protests of Islamic groups in London not so long ago, in which placards declaring threats of death and vengeance to the Infidel were brandished, and you immediately see a contrast that liberal commentators are determined not to see. Another word that has gone this way is 'fundamentalist'. A word that denotes someone who faithfully adheres to the fundamentals of a faith or ideology, it may be applied as much to a convinced pacifist as it might to a rabid terrorist. Today it means something quite different, routinely applied as it is to the latter, meaning someone who violently adheres to the fundamentals of a faith or ideology. Language does this from time to time of course and many words have changed their meaning in the face of popular usage, or over-usage. 'Born again' no longer carries its original meaning outside those groups who still use it, i.e. someone born of God through faith in Jesus Christ, surely a description of every Christian. These days 'Born Again Christians' are routinely seen as a sub-group within the larger Christian community alongside more 'conservative' Christians. 'Evangelical' seems to have lost its meaning for many, i.e. someone who believes in the evangel, the message of the true gospel, and in the call to share it. So many disparate groups and individuals style themselves 'evangelical' now that it is no longer possible to understand the word simply by looking at the people who apply it to themselves. This being the case we would be wise to be prepared to find new words that describe ourselves as well as our beliefs. As Christians we may find this situation irritating but being determined to live at peace with everyone, we can be pretty good at finding new ways to explain our message. After all, if we are true 'Evangelicals', that is just what we are called to do and we find ever new and inventive ways of doing it. However, the secular world doesn't simply misunderstand, misuse and misapply words in a way that challenges us to find new ways of defining ourselves, it also misuses words such that they caricature and defame us and, more importantly, the God whom we serve. When 'fundamentalist' is applied to us in a way that characterises us as a bunch of irrational, Bible-bashing zealots and a danger to the peace and safety of society; when 'Born Again' is used such that it makes us look like a bunch of arm-waving, screen-touching mugs for Jesus; when 'protestors' is applied to us such that we are made out to be a party of party-poopers and 'puritanical' (another much-misunderstood word) killjoys, it is then that we must look at the rest of our verse, which says: "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone" You see, the exhortation to live at peace with everyone is balanced by the mandate to: "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matt.28:19,20) The two do not always work in harmony, which is why we are to live at peace "if it is possible, as far as it depends on [us]". Do we have a mandate, then, to make war? In a way we do, insofar as we struggle, 'Not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms' (Eph.6:12) We do not take up arms against our neighbours because such action would be contrary to the Lord's command to love our neighbour as ourselves. We do, however, take up the challenge to enlighten and inform our neighbours, telling the glad tidings that Christ Jesus died for sinners and that caricaturing him, ignoring him and otherwise dismissing him is not an adequate or a wise response. Indeed such protests as we saw in Cardiff (the latest in a long line), are not primarily designed to express the response of Christians' sensibilities at the slight and slander of the world. Jesus declared, 'In the world you will have trouble' and mature Christians are never surprised, much less amazed at the trouble the world brings our way. Rather, Christians protest and proclaim the truth for the benefit of the unsaved that, blinded and confused by a fallen world-order, stumble towards a well-deserved and terrible fate for the rebellion they have shown against the God who made them. A God who, even now, reaches out his arm to save all who would turn to him in repentance and faith. Whatever the world calls us, however it caricatures us, the message is the same as it always was: "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…God demonstrated his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Ro.5:6-8) The philosopher Sissela Bok wrote: "To be given false information about important choices in [our lives] is to be rendered powerless. [Our] very autonomy may be at stake." As Christians we must stand for the truth and counter the false information the world offers with the truth, both of the gospel and of the words we use to share the gospel. Not for our sakes that are wonderfully saved but for theirs who face the most important decision in a growing cloud of obfuscation and doubt. |
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