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“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;”
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According to some currently standard accounts of the Christian faith, called by many ‘Progressive Christianity’, the Christian message is a call to social and economic justice, radical inclusiveness and unconditional affirmation. If this is the best the Church can do, then I would propose it is tantamount to throwing a drowning man a cannon ball.
Lets be clear. Working for social and economic justice are fine, even necessary. But, there is nothing uniquely Christian about being concerned with these things. Jesus did not have to die on the cross in order for us to see the self-interest inherent in these matters of justice. These are issues that occupy the concern of the entire human race. No religious sensibility, Christian or otherwise, is necessary to have these concerns. They are housekeeping matters within the human community. Christians also have a stake in working for a just world insofar as they are possible. But that is just the point. In a sinful world, estranged from God, they are finally not possible. Read the first three chapters of the Book of Romans and then see if you have any illusions left about OUR capacity to bring about a peaceful and just world.
The Christian cause cannot finally be equated with propping up the human project no matter how noble the effort. Saint Paul, no stranger to encouraging Christians to care for others, understood this very well. He sets the Church straight when he admonishes that the first and primary business of the church is to proclaim the crucified and risen Christ (to know nothing except Christ crucified.) For it is in the foolishness of what we preach (Paul’s words) that God rescues sinners from sin, death and the power of evil, by the peace and justice offered through Christ’s death on the Cross and His Resurrection.
The Church is distinguished by it’s message, not it’s works. It’s final goal is to reach persons bound in sin and headed toward death, not prop up causes.
What does this mean for us? As citizens of the human community we join with all people everywhere in our common human concern for peace and justice. As citizens of Gods kingdom, however, we know that these human efforts will never find ultimate fulfillment in this world. We do not await an earthly utopia but a heavenly kingdom, as the Word of God promises.
The work of peace and justice, therefore, that should occupy the center of the church’s life is the life line of the Gospel’s proclamation which announces the peace of God that comes through a living relationship with Jesus Christ; and the justice of God through which sinners are declared righteous, forgiven and free, by grace through faith, for Jesus sake!
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May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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1 Minute Daily Word 