Gloria Dei

Promises are made, strategies are analyzed, and platforms are refined.  I remain optimistic that these political campaigns, however exasperating they are at times, can serve the purpose of  helping us to be a more well-informed citizenry so that we can find our way through all the spin and make the best judgments possible about the kind of leadership we most need at this point in history.

Whatever candidates we elect, I do hope that they will care unreservedly about working for the common good.  I hope that they will truly understand themselves to be “public servants”…servants of the people and the communities where they live.

This is where we as followers of Christ come in.  We have something to say about servant hood, about sacrificing for the sake of others.  Against the prevailing winds of self-promotion and self-enhancement, comes the cross current of our faith that calls us to remember that in our serving those who are the least among us, we are serving Christ himself.

The Advocacy Ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America say this:  “From its beginning in the Scriptures, the Christian faith story has a rich tradition of speaking to people in power on behalf of others who are not heard. Lutherans believe that governing officials serve an instrumental role in God’s purpose for the world when they work for peace, stability and the common good.”  (ELCA Advocacy homepage)

Striving for the common good is at the heart of Christian discipleship.  The call to follow Christ has always included a call to serve those who are most vulnerable, most needy, most in need of compassion and understanding.  And yet that aspect of discipleship can so easily get lost in other goals…ambitions…aspirations.

When Jesus revealed to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem where he would face suffering and death, Peter strongly questioned what Jesus was saying.  He couldn’t comprehend someone willingly facing that kind of humiliation and suffering.  And so when Peter heard Jesus projecting what lay in store for him in Jerusalem, he reacted quickly.  Peter took Jesus aside and said:  “God forbid it, Lord!  This must never happen to you.”  In other words, “Why go to Jerusalem if it is only going to mean pain and suffering, humiliation and death?  There must be a better way.  We cannot let you do this to yourself.”

But as logical and tempting as Peter must have sounded, it didn’t ring true for Jesus.  Jesus had a different understanding of what his life was to be about and that understanding did not include turning away from what awaited him at Jerusalem.  And so Jesus replied to Peter’s advice by saying:  “Get behind me, Satan.  You are nothing but a stumbling block.  You’ve got your mind on human things, not divine things.”  Peter’s humanity cried out for Jesus to establish the kingdom without the cross. 

Then Jesus spoke to all of the disciples.  Jesus wanted to cut through all the misconceptions that the disciples had about what life was to be like for those who would follow him.  If their life choices included following him, then he wanted them to understand what it would cost.  And so he said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” When Christ calls us to take up our crosses and follow him, it is an invitation to let go of everything we believe gives us life and to discover authentic life.  “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”  The death to which we are called may not be the death of our bodies but the death of old ways of living and coming alive to Christ’s way.  It may be the death of our ways of thinking and wanting that do not reflect the life of Christ. 

Jesus has a vision of what he desires life to be for us and he invites us to choose that life...life that embraces being emptied in order that we might be filled, life in which giving up what seems to be so important to us is to receive more than we ever imagined possible...life where forfeiting what we thought to be of greatest worth is to be gifted with what is priceless.

Life...authentic, abundant life is found in giving and serving because those actions best reflect God’s image in our lives.  As we chose to give and serve, we become what God always intended us to be.  God’s nature is amazing grace and generosity.  When we hold the hand of someone in pain, invest in our children’s growth in faith, strive to put to death old ways and follow the light rather than dwell in the darkness, we give away a bit of our self, our vision for the world and the world’s vision of us, and we discover Christ’s vision for us and life among us.  Losing our life for Christ’s sake means letting go of the claim that what we have is ours alone.  Serving means opening our lives to others and receiving true life from God.  Jesus invites us to choose the life that he offers.  He invites us to share in his own life, to take his life into ourselves, to live out in our own lives both the suffering and also the joy of it.

In the current issue of Sojourners magazine, Jim Wallis writes, “…things are changing.  God is on the move.  Christians are rediscovering and embracing God’s concern for justice.  The church is uniting across political and denominational lines around a shared commitment to fight poverty.  A new moment is dawning.”

This is the cross current that is renewing God’s people.    May God’s spirit enliven our nation that we may all join together in living as “public servants” as we move forward and strive for the good of all the people that God has made.  Amen.