Anguish

Psalm 4:1-8

      Does your heart ever feel torn when you look around and see the evil that is being done in the world? The senseless killing, the lies portrayed as truth, the deafening silence when persecution of Christians happens, the apparent lack of moral compass in our leaders. There is so much happening in our world that could lead a person to despair.

      Now imagine that you are right in the middle of this struggle. You are trying to stand for what is right and just, and those who oppose you are standing on lies and deceit.  You see their motives, but others are just oblivious. They can’t see, or won’t see what will hit them in the face, given time. Like Lemmings, they are heading for the cliff, but singing and partying as the march.

      King David had several moments in his life when he might have felt like this. One in particular comes to mind. His son, Absalom, had stirred up discontentment in some of David’s subjects. He had stirred the pot of blame and pointed clearly at his father. If only he were king, none of this would have happened. He pulled a classic political move. Paint the current regime as all evil, and yourself as the only solution. Point at them, while all the while deceiving and scheming how you will use the newfound power to destroy the enemy and solidify your new power and position.

      David feels somewhat alone. He prays for an answer from the LORD, even while he senses the LORD’s care and protection. His antagonist, perhaps Absalom, is destroying the kingdom without really knowing it. In his desire for power, he is setting up their his destruction. But David feels the pressure and wants some relief.

      Absalom keeps shooting at the role of king, and David in particular. He tells them to stop falsely ruining the image of the king. If Absalom is successful at kicking David out, he will become king, a position he has destroyed. In today’s world, think Washington, DC. We now don’t trust them to do what is right, and yet we need them to do what is right. We have shot so many holes through them that they don’t dare try to work on any solutions for fear of being shot again. No matter what they do now, we will make sure they fail, even though their failure means our failure.

      David calls on his detractors to take time to really consider what they are doing. They are destroying the kingdom from within. They need to take time and consider their motives. They need to stop believing their own public relations campaigns and start examining the truth. David says they need to search their hearts. Sometimes we need to do the same thing. We need to look inward rather than outward. We need to make sure we are doing the right thing for the right reason at the right time.

      Then David brings their chief complaint before the LORD. They have been complaining about a tough economy. Sound familiar? But instead of blaming Wall Street, David looks to the source of all true prosperity. He knows the LORD is capable of restoring both his position and the hearts of the people. He ask that the LORD’s favor would be on them, the light of His face. David knows that if the LORD looks favorably on them, the economy will return to better times. For them, that was a time when grain was abundant and the harvest plentiful.

      When we are tempted to get on a political bandwagon for or against the powers that be, let us take time to examine our own motives. Take time to take responsibility for our portion of the mess. Correct our heart’s bent and repent. Then we will be able to rest in peace.

Wrong Motives

Mark 12:13-15

      Have you ever been sent on a mission to do someone else’s dirty work? It really is a job they should be doing themselves, but you get stuck with it. It starts as a kid. We get sent to tell a sibling about a chore, or a punishment, instead of our parent speaking directly to them. We become the bad guy. Or perhaps the phrase, “Wait ‘til your dad gets home” sounds familiar.

      The three groups of religious leaders send these two enemies to try and do a job they failed at themselves. The chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders were too timid to arrest Jesus themselves. But they didn’t have the guts. They lacked evidence. But when did a lack of evidence ever stop tyranny?

      The Pharisees and the Herodians were on opposite sides of the political spectrum. The Pharisees wanted to establish a purely religious society from top to bottom. They wanted a Law driven society, with themselves as the arbiters of the correct interpretation and application of the Law. They wanted nothing to do with Rome and its evils. They saw Rome as an enemy, with its secular ideas and questionable moral values.

      The Herodians were political allies with the Romans. We might say they became Roman patsies. They became the front men for Roman policies. Rome spoke and they listened. They carried out policies against their own people that contradicted their Jewish values. If there was ever a question about who they would obey, it was Rome rather than the LORD. Rome had the sword, and the sword was mightier than tradition.

      So these two opponents come together to try to trap Jesus. And they start laying their trap with a big slab of butter. They flatter Jesus. Be careful when flattery is thrown into conversations, especially when they are out of context or inflated in their language. Jesus knew their hearts and could smell a rat. He wasn’t taken in by their flattery. They tell Him He is a man of integrity. They aren’t people of integrity, trying to trump up charges so that they can get Him killed.

      We might say that Jesus was His own person. He made up His own mind. He didn’t belong to any political party and wasn’t turned by a glitzy political campaign. He always told it like it is. He had no hidden agendas. He didn’t kowtow to pressure from a big named celebrity. He didn’t take dirty money. He was a straight shooter.

      There were two taxing systems in place during that time. One tax applied to everyone, including Roman citizens. The other tax only applied to non-Roman citizens. But more important than that was the accommodation that Rome made for the Jews. They allowed a minted coin to be used in that area that didn’t have Caesar’s image imprinted in it. This way money could be given to the Temple without violating the conscience of the people giving it. You wouldn’t want someone submitting “Caesar” as an offering to the LORD. “Caesar” would submit to no one, let alone to the Jewish God.

      So should Jesus and His disciples give money to support the oppressive Roman state? Should we give taxes that support abortion, corporate bailouts, ObamaCare, Fannie and Freddie Mac, secret buyouts of corrupt dictators, the International Monetary Fund…?

Racked with Guilt

Mark 6:14-29

      Guilt and revenge can cause us to act in very unexpected ways. And those reactions can happen no matter who we are or what social class we belong to. These reactions are human, and therefore cross all boundaries. The real question is not whether we have guilt and feelings of revenge, but what we do with those feelings.

      As we have seen in our own political landscape here in the USA, power in the hands of a few corrupts. Laws get passed. Laws get ignored. The normal procedures get ignored. Things are rushed. Backroom deals become the new way of legislation. Promises of change and openness go out the window like smoke from a crack pipe. Special privileges are granted. Frugality is preached while spending millions on more vacations. Do as I say, not as I do.

      John the Baptist had spoken the truth to power, and power had not liked it. The king’s wife was bent on revenge for having been made to feel guilty and having her sin pointed out to her. The king ends up racked with guilt after his wife’s plan and his ego get the better of him. What a mess! And their daughter ends up holding the bag, so to speak.

      There is a much better response to sin. Rather than running from it and then plotting revenge when your sin is exposed, the Scriptures give us the perfect antidote. When we confess our sins, they can be forgiven, and cleansing can take place. But this requires us to be humble enough to admit guilt. We must take responsibility for our actions. Some things are our fault! Finger pointing isn’t acceptable when you are guilty.

      But confession can be hard. We must say the same thing about our sin that the LORD says about our sin. That is confession. It is not enough to say the words, we must understand the implications of our actions on those around us. We must take responsibility for the hurt that we caused other people.

      Several places around the world have conducted reconciliation courts, where the perpetrators of violence face the victims of their violence and take responsibility for what they did. They look each other in the eye, and see the pain and the remorse in each other. And when there is a full accounting, revenge disappears.

      When the political landscape changes here in the USA, it would be easy for the new powers to take revenge on the old powers, punishing political rivals in the process. It would be easy. They could just use the coercive powers that were used against them. Silence the media. Cut off access to those who oppose. Demonize any alternative plan. Question every motive of the opponent.

      But grace requires us to take an alternative path. When someone wrongs us, we are to not strike back. We are told to withhold judgment of their motives and allow the LORD to handle the situation. We are to remain as servants, even of those who oppressed us. We are called to a much more difficult, even impossible path, the path of grace.

Intractable Political Landscape

Proverbs 14:19

                   Sometimes it can be difficult to keep your head up when it seems as if evil is getting and upper hand. I know many people who look at what is happening in this country and they fall into angry despair. They see their values being trampled, seemingly with no consequences. Underemployment at near record levels, 80% of jobs created are part-time, and skyrocketing debt, and leaders who just can’t seem to lead us out of this mess. It can be hard to have hope!

                   The reason so many feel this way is because their hope has gotten misplaced. We are not supposed to hope in our government to solve our problems. The government has a limited role, but was never meant to be the object of our hope. Governments tend to make more problems than they solve.

                   One day, our text tells us, there will be an acknowledgment by those who don’t follow the LORD that following the LORD was the right course of action. In the ancient world the way this happened was for the losing side to bow down in the presence of the winning side. One day the disobedient will acknowledge their disobedience.

                   I don’t expect this to happen in the present political climate. Each side has become more entrenched in their own positions. Each side sees the problem and therefore the solution in diametrically opposing ways.

                   The second half of our text gives us a hint of a solution. It states that the wicked will bow down at the gates of the righteous. This act had the connotation that they were not only willing to acknowledge that they were wrong, but also, they now depended on the righteous for mercy in their time of need. When people gather at a gate it had two common meanings. The first was for justice, because that is where court was held. The second was to beg for daily provisions. The wicked will perhaps come to a point when they will do both.

                   There are wicked, those who don’t follow the LORD, on both sides of our political landscape. One side does not have a corner on righteousness or unrighteousness. We can’t expect our culture to be somewhere we ourselves have not traveled and remained. We can’t expect our government to be upright when we as citizens are not people of integrity. We lie, cheat and steal, and our government does the same thing.

                   Someday righteousness will shine like the dawn. But until then we are responsible for our actions, for our conduct. We need to humble ourselves before the LORD and seek Him for our daily sustenance.