Let Jesus Freedom Ring
Jul 7th, 2009 by John
Has the Western Church squandered her freedom?
Visiting Ukraine like I do, I find that I am so pleased to re-enter the U.S.A. We are a remarkable nation with freedom’s unparalleled in the world. Hearing from my Ukrainian friends what their country was like under communism heightens my appreciation for my own nation. Yet…
Yet, the church grew from 25,000 to 20,000,000 from 100 AD to 310 AD while under harsh Roman Empirial persecution (and without the Constitutional freedoms and communication technologies we have). Also, the church in China from 1934 to the 1970s grew from 2,000,000 to 80,000,000* under the communist rule and oppression of Mao Tse-tung. No “Bill of Rights” for them and all missionaries were kicked out.
In his book The New Evangelicalism : Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity, Soong-Chan Rah makes the sad observation that the white (European-immigrant based) church in the U.S.A. is declining. We have had 233 years of unparalleled freedom and yet the church is dying in the West (the white church). Why is this?
I maintain that when the USAmerican evangelical church became enamored with political clout and sought “to change America” or to use politics “to give America back to God,” we forfeited our truest and deepest freedom for a pathetic, temporal substitute. We became slaves to a political gospel which has no power to change lives. The clarion freedom declarations of Galatians 5:1 and 13-14 were pawned away for Republican votes. We felt we needed senators, not pastors and evangelists; we needed representatives, not prophets and apostles; we needed Supreme Court justices, not teachers and missionaries. Ah, yes, get out and vote! Not, drop to your knees and pray.
Political freedom has cost many, many lives beginning with the Revolutionary War until the current war in Afghanistan. For those who served and now serve, and to those who gave their lives, I am truly grateful. Political freedom is costly. So is eternal freedom. It cost the life of the Son of God. Why we would, as a church, squander our core birthright for a bowl of political stew bothers me. A wise Seminary professor told us years ago, “When the Church plays the game the world’s way, she will lose every time.”
Some of the most vibrant, passionate Christian leaders I know grew up under communism in Ukraine. They knew freedom in Christ, and when political freedom came, they began using their freedoms as a country to placard the Gospel. They view the USAmerican church as a self-absorbed, materialistic church shackled to the American “good life” more than to the liberation purchased for us by Jesus Christ. We in America want the good life, not the God life. This seems harsh until we read that most Barna polls support the sad decline and materialistic values.
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another in love.
The Christian freedom paradox: We are liberated to be slaves to sacrificial love. Jesus Christ, the most free person to live on this planet, used his freedom to serve and to die. He said, There is no greater love than this, that a person lays down his life for his friends. Free to serve and die.
*statistics from Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways.
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Someone told me once that stuff is the crack cocaine of the middle class. And I think that ninety-percent of what we think needs to be done doesn’t really need to get done. I think we’re all a little distracted by the corners of our eyes, to borrow a line from Caedmon’s Call.
Reading this post, I thought of a scene from Wonder Boys, where Michael Douglas’ manuscript for a book he was writing blows away on the wind. And someone asks what the book was about. He says he doesn’t know. So then they ask why he was writing the book if he didn’t know what it was about. He says, “Because I couldn’t stop.”
That’s what I think of Christianity today. We’re trying to write this asinine story where we have a nice building, a manicured lawn, where everyone dresses and acts nice and has a good job. And no matter how much preaching and teaching goes on, we keep striving for it because we can’t stop.
Thanks, John for this word to us.
Yes, we in one way or another have lost sight of our calling. And I’m guilty too, to more degree than I would like to know or imagine. Even though I’m fairly dead to American and world politics most of the time.