Sitting out on the back porch this evening with my mother, we watched a popular Baptist radio and television preacher teach on compromise. His lesson was a good lesson in principle. The basic thrust was taken from the story of Solomon. Solomon was given a promise that if he followed the Lord as his father David he would not lack a descendant on the throne of Israel. Yet Solomon compromised by disobeying God’s command and took many wives.
Many parents in my church have confronted the question of what to do about athletic events that conflict with church attendance. Their answers differ, but many have taken an unpopular stand out of commitment to the Lord. When one young soccer player was told by his coach to show up for a Sunday morning game, he dutifully reported the assignment to his parents, Jim and Donna. They graciously but firmly told the coach that their son could not play on Sunday morning because of the family’s commitment to church. The coach was miffed, and tried to persuade Jim and Donna to change their mind. When they held firm, he made several threats concerning their son’s future in soccer. Undeterred, the boy’s parents stood their ground. From that point onward their relationship with the coach was strained. He resented their “unrealistic” priorities. Other parents of boys on the team also were critical of Jim’s and Donna’s decision and their “lack of commitment to the team.” Sadly, even some Christian parents disapproved of their actions. I have a suspicion that Jim and Donna, by putting Christ so obviously before soccer in their priorities, shone a bit too much light into the lives of other Christians whose values were more worldly. Jim and Donna didn’t say anything about the behavior of others, but the light of Christ shone through their actions. (In the photo above, my daughter kicks a soccer ball, but not on Sunday.)
That there are marks by which a Christian is known to be a Christian, is most certain. That there are characteristics which evidence the real state of the heart, both to ourselves and to others, is not a thing called in question by any. Where there is living religion in the soul, it will infallibly attest its existence and vitality by “marks and evidences.”Do you remember a few years ago when Jim Bowers and his family were shot down in Peru? They were missionaries and the government mistook their aircraft for drug runners. Jim’s wife and infant daughter were killed and the pilot was injured. At the funeral service, Jim announced that he and his surviving son would indeed return. Though I can’t find them now, I seem to remember that some of the commentators thought he was wrong and they mildly criticized his decision.
More recently we heard the tragic news of a gunman killing 5 Amish children in their schoolhouse. The Amish community quietly came together and buried their dead and prayed for the one who killed them. I understand that Bill Maher said this week that the Amish were “real Christians”. I know the news media really embraced the Amish and sympathized with them.
Why the different approaches to the tragedies? Why was Bowers wrong and the Amish right? I won’t pretend to have all the answers or even that there isn’t a difference. But it was Maher’s comment that the Amish seemed like real Christians to him that got me thinking of these two.
The Amish are an appealing because they are “quaint”. We like them because they’re different and sequestered. They have their beliefs, strong beliefs at that, and the hold them dearly, but they don’t try to spread them. That’s comfortable for American society. Such religious beliefs are museum pieces we can look at safely stored behind glass. When we stop thinking of them, they go away. They make no demands on us. But missionary Christians, whoa, that’s another issue. They aren’t safe. They are not museum pieces, they are involved in society. They vote and express their opinions and sometimes make demands of us. They climb outside the glass case and live lives that are compelling. Missionaries who get captured by the Taliban or shot down by the Peruvian government live lives that we can’t just observe from the outside and say “aww, that’s nice.” There is something about those kinds of lives that shout at us. There is something that would lead a person, a seemingly sane and normal person, to go and do those things. The two women captured by the Taliban were especially arresting for our news media because they looked good on camera. That kind of a thing gives instant credibility to them in the image-based culture of the news media. “Now what are we supposed to do with them?” they ask, “We can’t make them look crazy, they’re pretty!”
The juxtaposition of these two reactions demonstrate, to me, what Jesus meant when he said “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Mat 5:16 ESV)
For the last couple of years, I have been a subscriber to the Kairos Journal. It's a free, online journal that engages with a myriad of topics from the family, the church, education, and culture, all from a distinctly reformed perspective. I found the following article in today's journal particularly poignant and I will be interacting with some of its points in the coming days:
