At the Intersection of Faith and Politics - 11-29-2012

Part 1 of 2

Now that I have declared myself a Progressive Conservative, Christ follower first, some have expressed concern with the word “Progressive,” thinking in terms of socialism or humanism they believe this word connotes.  Yes, “Progressive” is often associated with Liberal politics, as well as Liberal Christianity. It is also associated with music from folk to metal to hip hop. Words have a way of being co-opted, and attached to various agendas that might actually not communicate the true meaning of the word. I am a staunch believer that words have meaning that need to be understood and embraced (I love the word embraced because it speaks to something more than simple understanding with respect to ideas), so I want to begin to explore this word "progressive" in this blog post.

As Christians, we need to think well about what we believe. Underdtanding what gives life meaning, why and how to live that out daily is important. I do not believe we, as Christians, need to dismiss ourselves from the political process, politics simply being the activities associated with governance. Although some consider it a subject to be avoided and others insisting on seperation, I find no reasoned basis to do so. My devout catholic mother did, especially at the dinner table. When the family got into the political debate over supper it could get loud and Mom would get upset insisting that religion and politics were not polite dinner conversation. I am not sure where that idea originated but it's one of those tradition aphorisms. At our table everyone had their point of view, and the discussion could get heated but we still loved one another. Oh, if that were only true of our divided culture too.

Here's the thing I am wrestling with, I believe that modern Conversative values, alone, may not be the best political ideas to live as Christians. Not that we abandon the good that is in Conservativism, and there is some, but there are many issues that need rethinking. That is the purpose of this weekly blog section. I confess I don't have all the answers but I'm willing to do some of the thinking and ask some of the questions, and I invite you to come along to think with me. Did you realize that as Christians it is good to questions our own faith (2 Corinthians 13:5 )? Why then would we not also do so for our politics? As Christ follower we need to consider the intersection of faith and politics, for we live in the world, and living sent today is our intersecting point. 

To begin, let's consider what the word "progressive" means and why I would use it in terms of my political thinking, while remaining conservative in many respects, yoking the two ideas together.  The main dictionary definitions of "progressive" are:

·         of, relating to, or characterized by progress
·         making use of or interested in new ideas, findings, or opportunities
·         moving forward or onward
·         favoring or advocating progress,  change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, especially in political matters: a progressive mayor.
·         making progress  toward better conditions; employing or advocating more enlightened or liberal ideas, new or experimental methods, etc.: a progressive community.

Now how does the word "progressive" connect with conservative ideas?  While these two words are not widely accepted together, yet, they represent ideas that are not diametrically opposed and can in fact work together well, when we are properly focused and putting Christ first in our politics. Conservativism is defined as caution or fear of change from the traditional. In the world we live in such concern is certainly prudent and our progress should not lead away from Biblical values. Conservativism should be rooted in Judeo-Christian "traditional values" and established on Biblical truth. Properly understood, our Christians values should flow from an understanding of the cosmic story the Bible tells (see blog posts for Mission of God's People).  

Conservativism is good, as far as it goes, if we understand what values we affirm for what they are, not what we want them to be, but must not allow fear to guide how we live. Putting Christ first in all things, it is one thing to be a cautious Christian, discerning the times, it is quiet another to be a fearful Christians. Caution can lead to a deeper appreciation, that can be expressed in love, whereas fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate. There is no room for hate in the life of a Christian. While seeking to maintain Biblical values we must make sure our thinking is in fact representative of the whole Bible story. I don't think we can say that about any politic today, certainly not the Left-Right of 21st Century America, which is why we should rethink what we believe and why on a myriad of  issues. Then we need to recalibrate our politic around those Biblical values.  

Jesus says to those he sent out: “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16 ). The three images here tell us three things Jesus is communicating: First, Jesus, as the Good Shepherd,  is speaking to his followers (sheep) who know his way, heed his word and follow his lead (John 10:27 ). Jesus is our leader and calls us to follow. Second, Jesus calls us to be shrewd as the world (e.g. snakes). That is we are to be sharp, perceptive, insightful and discerning, operating with a measure of Godly wisdom. Yes, Jesus is speaking to God’s mission, instructing His disciples in the art of witnessing but Jesus understood the whole story he was in and again we must do likewise. Through our mission and witness, I firmly believe that Christians are called to be thought leaders and culture shapers, who live the whole Gospel. Third, Jesus calls us to be "innocent as doves" - blameless and guiltless, above reproach - which clearly requires living counter-culturally. We should not live by the world's standard in any part of our lives, including our political life. Why then do we so often live in the world as the world does? 

Answering that question is beyond our scope here but one influence affecting our thinking I do want to address here is dualism. Dualism separates  the sacred, which simply means connected with God, and secular, which are things that are not regarded as religious. The prevalent idea of seperation of Church and State is based on dualistic thinking that insists we should compartmentalize our lives to keep religion out of politics, This usually comes from those who oppose religion, and misapply the 1st Amendment. for their own agenda. But dualism affects how we see and live in the world. It keeps us from seeing all of life, every facet, as sacred, and it is. Dualism keeps us from perceiving progress through the lens of a God who is at work in history. That is not to say that all things glorify God in our world but that God is able to work all things together for his global purposes - even the evil man does (Romans 8:28).  But do we embrace that truth?

What if we truly believed that 'The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it" (Psalm 24:1)? What if we saw progress as part of the  continuing work of God in history? What if technological and medical advances were God inspired ideas that are part of his story, regardless of where they come from, if they serve the good of humanity?  There is no doubt mankind has a tendency to corrupt what God designs but what if the great achievements of the 20^th and early 21st Century were really for the purposes of God’s glory filling the earth?  How might that change how we view progress, our politics and live in the story?

I think it would make a huge difference in our culture and our world. Not that it would change how the world thinks but it would help change how Christ followers think and how we live today, or at least it should. Eliminating dualism brings all things subject to Christ, in our worldview, as they should be. Knowing all things are sacred, though presently spotted and blemished, will lead us to embrace human progress as part of God's work in history. Again, there is more here than a single blog post allows but I invite you to take the time to watch these two videos and understand the progress that has been made (watching both will take about 30 minutes):  

Peter Diamandis: Abundance is our future 

Scott Todd: The Church Will End Extreme Poverty 

Can you say - glory to God!? Isn't it amazing what our God has done? God wants to do even more and will, as we partner with him in his plans. As you think about the the progress of the human condition we must be careful not to think as the people of Babel, that of making a name for themselves. Progress is not about human fame and fortune but God's glory and his purposes progressiving onward. Next time we'll look more at this idea of progess but I'll  condude here with this short poem that speaks to a proper attitude toward progress:

An old man going on a lone highway

Came in the evening cold and grey

To a chasm yawning both deep and wide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;

That swollen stream was naught to him.

But he stopped when safe on the other side

And built a bridge to span the tide.

''Old man,'' said a fellow traveler near,

''You are wasting your time in labor here;

Your journey will end with the closing day,

You never again will pass this way.

You've crossed the chasm deep and wide.

Why build you this bridge at eventide?

The laborer lifted his old grey head:

''Good friend, in the way I have come,'' he said,

''There followeth after me today

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm which has been naught to me

To that fair youth may a pitfall be.

He too must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.''

Author Unknown

 

Missional Musing - 11-27-2012

"The 'layman' need never think of his humbler task as being inferior to that of his minister. Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it. The motive is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act. All he does is good and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For such a man, living itself will be sacramental and the whole world a sanctuary. His entire life will be a priestly ministration. As he performs his never so simple task he will hear the voice of the seraphim saying, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.'" AW Tozer

All work is worship and all worship serves the purposes of God. If our work glorifies God through an attitude of worship, it serves the mission of God. Our work serves the mission of God when done for the glory of God. What are you working for today?

The Mission of God's People - Chapter 2 - Part 2.4

We started looking at the four section of the Bible story in Part 2.3, We said that the Bible begins with Creation and ends with the New Creation, and we also looked at the tragedy of the Fall that brought ruin to the whole of creation. Today, we’ll begin to look at part 3 – Redemption - which needs to be considered in two parts: Old Testament and New Testament. These are not two distinct part of the Bible, with God acting differently in one than the other, as is often thought. Rather, the Old and New Testaments are like two acts of the same continuing play. We need to understand what God is doing in both the old and the new to understand at a deeper level the whiole story we are in and the scope of the mission we have. Wright tells us here that, “our mission…has to be as comprehensive in scope as the gospel the whole Bible gives us.” Anything less in fact misses the whole mission of God’s people.

3. Redemption – Part I

Q – How have you understood the story of redemption? 

After the Fall, and following the Flood, “God chose not to abandon or destroy his creation, but to redeem it. And he chose to do so within history through persons and events that run from the call of Abraham to the return of Christ.” We must start at the Abrahamic covenant with the mission of God’s people ,if we are to understand the redemptive storyline that God is unfolding through the ages.  God’s mission of redemption didn’t start with the Great Commission of Jesus, his call to go and make disciples, as so many Christians believe today. When we start with Christ and the Cross we can miss an important thread that runs the entire story. God is not just dealing with our sin but in the “call of Abraham God set in motion a historic dynamic that would ultimately not only deal with the problem of human sin but also heal the dividedness of the nations.”

Undoubtedly, you know that at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) God confused human language and "scattered" the people across the planet. But why would God do this? Why would God not want people united together and cooperating in a massive building project? Was it that God felt threatened by man’s industriousness and ingenuity, though using faulty building methods, to erect a structure that could reach the heavens, or so they thought? Never! Certainly God wasn’t pleased with mankind’s self-reliance and independent spirit, he never is. God accepts a partnership at minimum but desires full dependence.  Rather God’s plan from the beginning was to fill the earth with his image bearers who possessed the knowledge of his glory. God confused languages and scattered the nations as part of his global plan to fill the earth as the waters cover the seas with the knowledge of who he is for every “nation.” The “nations” gathered at Babel, which by the way were not all the nations (see the story of Noah’s sons - Gen 10:32), had no right to simply stay in one place when God said “Go.” Nothing stands in the way of God’s mission being completed as he brings about the New Creation.

Back to Abraham, Wright tells us that: “The election of Abraham was explicitly for the blessing of the nations on earth. God’s command and promise to Abraham can legitimately, therefore, be called the first Great Commission.” The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3). It was God’s plan to bless “all peoples on earth” – every “nation” - through a people chosen for the task who would share the knowledge of his glory until it did fill the earth. (that is why I use Habakkuk 2:14 for this blog).

The Old Testament:

Here are some thoughts from Wright to introduce the key storyline of the Old Testament:

“God’s plan, then, was to deal with the problem of humanity – sin and division – through Israel, the people of Abraham…At Sinai, God entered into covenant with Israel, still with the rest of the nations in view, calling them to be representatives (priestly) and to be distinctive (holy)…It became increasingly clear that Israel could not and would not live by the standards of God’s law in response to his saving grace, but actually proved themselves to be no different from the nations…Israel, the servant of the Lord, called to be a light to the nations, turned out to be a failed servant blind to God’s work and dead to his Word. They too needed God’s salvation…Nevertheless, the Old Testament  continues through the prophets to point forward and insist that God would keep his promise to bring blessing to the nations and salvation to the whole world…the failure of historical Israel was anticipated by God and did not represent a failure of God’s plan. In the mystery of his sovereign purpose it would lead to salvation going to the ends of the earth as God always intended.”

There is much more to the story of Old Testament of course, that we'll get to, but before moving on to how God would continue to unfold his plan, we should consider some New Testament verses that tie together the continuing flow of God’s purpose through Abraham:

 

Romans 4:3 – “What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” We share the same faith as Abraham.

Romans 4:13 – “It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.” We share the same righteousness as Abraham.

Romans 4:18 – “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” We share the same lineage of Abraham.

Romans 9:8 - “In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.” We are in fact children of Abraham.

Galatians 3:7 – “Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.” We are by faith part of the line of Abraham the Lord is using to fulfill his covenant to bless the nations.

Galatians 3:8 – “Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” We share in a Gospel that is timeless, eternal and glorious beyond our understanding.

We should never minimize the Good News to a strategy, formula or even think it is simply about the forgiveness of our personal sin. God is redeeming the whole world, all of creation and bringing us to a new creation through a whole Gospel that requires the whole church living sent today.

Next time we’ll look at how the Lord plans to accomplish this through the New Testament.

Mission of God's People - Chapter 2 - Part 2.3

We have been looking at the people who know the story they are in - Chapter 2. See Part 2.1 and 2.2.

Wright takes us into the next part of this chapter through outlining the four major sections of the Biblical story line - Creation - Fall - Redemption in History and New Creation. The longest portion of course is Redemption in History. But what is important to understand about this story is not only God's plan of redemption, as the major theme of the total work of Scripture but where we came from and where we are going.

Grasping the two book ends of the Bible - Creation and New Creation - is key to understanding the story we are in. It's an old story that if you don't know where you're going you're not going to like where you wind up. But to this we can add that if you don't know where you have come from you will never get to where you are going. Wright tells us that "the Bible is not just about the solution to our sin problem and how to survive the day of judgment. It begins with creation and ends with the new creation. So our Biblical theology of mission need to take this great beginning and ending seriously."

Let's briefly look at the first two of the four parts today, some thoughts from Wright and some reflection on each section in today's post:

1. Creation -

Q - Why would knowing the beginning of the story be crucial?

Obviously, it tells us who we truly are. The challenge for us today is to remember who we are. Our culture tells us we're a cosmic accident, a freak of nature, just another species in the animal kingdom that evolved from a primordial stew. "Science" has rather adamantly suggested that we are nothing more than a compilation of chemicals that somehow developed a rational mind and so we can reject the "fairy tales" of religious ontology and the ideas that we're anything special. The debate over our nature didn't just start with Darwin however but predates Socrates. Anaxagoras, a 5th Century BC philosopher,  promoted a view similar to that of the Big Bang theory of today and held to a crude form of the theory of evolution. What this tells us is that thinking people have always been trying to underatand the story they are in, trying to discover meaning. But without our story beginning in a meaningful way we end up in a meaningless place. Wright shares that:

"The creation narrative provides two of the fundamental planks for the foundational Christians worldview, for it answers two of the most fundamental questions that all philosophies and religions answer in different ways. Where are we? And Who are we? That is to say, what is the universe in which we find ourselves? Where did it come from and why does it exist and is it even real? And, second, what does it mean to be human?...Does human life have any value, meaning and purpose?"
 

2. Fall  -

Q - how do you understand the effects of the Fall?

"Human disobedience and rebellion against the Creator God brought disasterous results (Genesis 3-11). Evil and sin weave their way into every aspect of God's creation and every dimension of human personhood and life on earth." Without understanding the nature of the Fall we will not pursue the redemption, restoration and reconcilation of all things - the reversal of the effects of the Fall through living the whole Gospel. Wright points out four effects of the Fall -

"Physically we are sibject to death and decay, living within a physical enviroment that is iself under the curse of God. Intellectually, we use our incredible power of rationality to explain, excuse and normalize our own evil. Socially, every human relationship is factured and disrupted - sexual, parental, familial, societal, ethnic, international - and the effect is consolidated horizontally through the permeation of all human cultutre, and vertucally by accumulation through the generations of history. And spiritually, we are alienated from God, rejecting his goodness and authority.

Before moving on to God's answer to the Fall, one observation need to be made about the nature of of what God created and the effects on Fall on it. In Genesis 1:31 the Bible says of his creation - "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day." Notice that God says it was very good and not perfect. If God had made creation perfect we would never have had the freedom to chose anything else, our story would be simply then meaningless. It is the freedom to chose that gives life meaning.

The efficacy of human choice however led to a wrong choice that wrecked much of the very good. of God's creation. Biblical history howver tells us that from the very beginning most chose poorly, which resultd in judgment, but there were a few who chose wisely - Enoch who walked faithfully with God (Genesis 5:24) and Noah who did everything just as God commanded (Genesis 6:22). What this tells us is that mankind had the ability to respond to God even after the Fall but chose not. The Fall did not create in mankind an inability to seek God but simply that the vast majority didn't in the choices we all make.

Instead, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6), which leads us into the Redemption. Now for living sent today.let's walk faithfully and obey God in everything  Give thanks with a grateful heart for what God has done for us today. Happy Thanksgiving.

 

Missional Musing - 11-20-2012

I really like this thought from the Gospel Coalition blog (You can read the blog article here.)

I think the major failing of Reformed anthropology is that it assumes that human beings are completely empty vessels. The distinction between total and utter depravity above makes this clear. Tullian is right, people can be much worse than they are. He puts this down to something like “common grace” – i.e. God restraining us by his grace from being utterly depraved. I think a much better explanation, and one that is consistent with how the early Church understood Scripture, is that all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. Human beings are intrinsically good precisely because God made us and called us “very good”. I know this will eventually go towards the endless arguments on human freewill or lack thereof. I don’t want to go there, but I will note that the Fathers, particularly the Eastern Fathers (including ones that the Reformed like including Athanasius and Chrysostom), had a robust theology of freewill. I didn’t see anything on human beings being image bearers of God in the above article. I just don’t think Christians can begin to talk about human beings without this as their starting point. What intrinsic value do human beings have if what we really are, in essence, is very bad? In Reformed theology, everything good is alien to us. We are not “very good” as God declared in the Scriptures. We must not take St Paul’s metaphors places where the text does not take us. Nowhere does St Paul say that being “dead in our trespasses…” means that we cannot respond to the Gospel – this is a non sequitur. Our deadness is caused because we have separated ourselves from Life. The consequence of sin is death – not because we are being punished for it, but because when we separate our selves from Life, we die. God did not tell Adam “if you eat of the fruit… I will kill you”. He said “if you eat of the fruit… you will surely die”. We are still God’s very good creation. We still bear his image – although this is obscured by sin. Things just aren’t as black and white as Reformed theology would have it. It isn’t Reformed theology OR Pelagianism. There is room for mystery in theology. How is it that we can hear God and respond positively? Our salvation is a mystery of the co-suffering love of God. Love requires a response, else it would not be love. It’s why the Revelator says that Christ knocks and waits, he does not barge in. We can respond to him precisely because we are his intrinsically good image bearers.

Now see Psalm 139:7-12

Living with the knowledge that we are fearlessly and wonderfully made should motivate us to live a life of gratitude to God, with thankful hearts for all that He has done for us, for living sent today. 

At the Intersection of Faith and Politics - 11-19-2012

Intersection of Faith and Politics is a new edition to this blog and one I hope to write on weekly. 

I  read this quote on Facebook  this morning -"Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself." - Henry B. Adams

This quote speaks to why I am rethinking Conservativism today. You can't live in this nation without being influenced to some degree by the two dominant ideologies of the day - Modern Liberalism and 21st Century Conservativism, unless you can find a cave somewhere to dwell. To some extent, our lives are shaped by politics and religion because they are meta-ideas - ideas about ideas important for societal life.Let me state right up front I have long thought of myself as a conservative when it comes to politics and liberal only with respect to grace and I'm working on love. Maybe the former because as Ronald Reagan once said, "if you're not a Liberal before your 25 you have no heart, if you're not conservative after you're 25 you have no brains" and the later because Jesus does tell us to love God with all our minds.

But what does this have to do with living sent today and being a Christ follower in the 21st Century? Well much actually since Christians today are represented on both sides of this ideological divide. Many Christians voted in the recent election and voted differently, placing importance on different issues, or maybe as a protest vote like mine has been in recent Presidential elections. Tens of millions of Christians participate in the political discourse of our nation. I think that's a good thing, unless perhaps you are an Anabaptist, because we are called to live in the world not of it (John 15:19). Yes, we must fight our battles differently than the world (2 Corinthians 10:3), but I find no command to dismiss ourselves from the political process in Scripture. Rather there are numerous Biblical examples of political leaders from Genesis forward. But if we are going to participate in this unalienable right we best do so from a solidly Biblical foundation, as Christians. 

Now with respect to the quote -- the central idea being expressed by Henry B. Adams is that my life is  all about my freedom to live responsible to me. Adams, from the Adams family - no that not that Adams family but the family of one of our Founding Fathers- was an historian and author and I am unaware of his personal faith position. I share this quote because it was posted by someone I know to be a Christian Conservative leader and an elected official. Adams expresses a couple of idea that are firmly established in 21st Century Conservativism today. One narrative that emerges from this past election cycle is that it's all about my personal liberty to live anyway I chose (which is actually a Liberal idea) and I am responsible to no one but me (another Liberal idea). But is there any Biblical basis for this thinking, as it has come to represent, at least in some large degree, American Christian Conservativism today? The indictment I hear, right or wrong, and read often from those on the political Left is that Christan Conservatives are only interested in what's in it for them and this quote speaks to that underlying philosophy The end result of this kind of thinking is that government is thought of as evil in any attempt to regulate their social contract but do we really want to say that's the case (Romans 13:1-7)? I think too many Christians Conservatives are operating outside of clear Biblical principles when they express the kind of thinking that Adams does in the above quote

That it why I am rethinking where I stand politically since the election which has been a time for many to do some serious soul searching. That's a good thing or you just flow with the status quo. First, let me say that I think we have a social responsibility as "salt and light" to be part of the political process, if that simply means voting. But when we do so we need to avoid cognitive dissonance - holding two or more conflicting beliefs. And, while I find little common ground with Modern Liberalism, as it seems the State is their god, I have been uncomfortable with what Conservativism has become, hijacked as it has been by Libertarianism, at least to some extent. So that's why I am starting this Intersection of Faith and Politics blog section of Living Sent Today.

My honest appraisal has led me to a number of issues with Conservativism today. First, I cannot find a basis for the fierce independence that is expressed by the movement in the Word of God and I think it is antithetical to the Bible's emphasis on community. Second, I do not find much socially redemptive working in the platform with an exception to a staunch opposition of abortion and same-sex marriage which isn't working. Both need to be rethought as our arguments to do not resonate in today's culture. But isn't it at least somewhat inconsistent to enthusiastically support government intervention through social policy and adamantly resist it in fiscal policy? And I certainly cannot agree with the ideal that we must keep taxes low because I don't want to give "my hard earned money" to the government or to think a few point tax increase for the richest 1% equates to the "evils of socialism." Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying government isn't part of the problem but maybe we need to rethink the reasons that it is. 

Our politics do shape our worldview as one component of how we see our world, they can also tinge our Christian witness in the world. That doesn't mean we withdrawn into a cloistered community but rather as Christians our politics need to be informed by a solidly Biblical worldview. We cannot hold two opposing worldviews or try to fit two dichotomous ideas inside another to justify our personal ideals, and remain Biblical.  Francis Schaeffer thought that the only livable worldview is Biblical Christianity and that all other worldviews are not livable in a consistent fashion. We need to weigh our ideas about what a Conservative Christian is in light of this. Schaeffer said that for a worldview to be livable it needs to be cogent (reasonable and convincing; based on evidence.), coherent (true to what it is) and consistent (no contradiction logically). So our political life needs to fit into a whole life concept shaped by a Biblical worldview and faith in Christ.  

In my search to make sense of my own political thinking, one that lines up with Scripture - cogently, coherently, and consistently - I came across this information concerning Progressive Conservativism: 

 "The outlines of a modern progressive conservative reform agenda includes tax reform that benefits working families and ends the special treatment of income from dividends and capital gains, preferences for domestic manufacturing, securing the social contract, classic Theodore Roosevelt-style trust-busting, enhanced regulatory oversight of the financial sector, a return to the old Glass-Steagall Act restrictions separating commercial banking and securities trading, measures to control the spiraling costs of post-secondary education, strategic investments in public infrastructure, action on climate change (my edit: I prefer to couch this in the language of sensible Creation Care as a responsibility to the Lord), campaign finance reform, and the tireless defense of both civil and religious liberty.

Taken as a whole, progressive conservatism offers a positive vision of a limited, but vigorous, federal government promoting the interests of America’s working families and communities."

I want to start unpacking this quote and blog weekly on the intersection of faith and politics for living sent today.  Your comments are welcome if civil and I welcome a discussion. Blessings.

Theological Reflections - 11-18-2012

Sunday is a time to slow down and  think more deeply about God so I hope to do that in this new weekly Sunday edition feature of Living Sent Today. I love Theology - thinking about God and all that God is. Without proper theological reflection life becomes all about my little world. It becomes about what I can do for God. But here's the thing...

The LORD doesn't needs us to do anything for him. In fact he doesn't even need our love. I know what you're probably thinking - "but Jesus' commands us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength." Of course he does. He is the creator and knows exactly what we need - we need HIM!.

Think of this - God existed in eternity past is perfect harmony with himself - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then God said - "let us make humans..." But it wasn't like one day God said to himself, "God, something is missing in our life" and so God created us to complete him and worship him. God forbid God needs anything but God because if God did God wouldn't be God. God is eternally complete in Himself.

But out of a his very nature as Creator, God created all things and out of his character of love created us to be like him - in his imago Dei. Jesus commands us to love God out of his nature of compassion and gave us the option not to out of the character of his grace. Jesus went to the Cross out of God's nature of mercy and he rose from the dead out of his character of omnipotence. God sent the Holy Spirit for us out of the nature of his omnipresence and empowers believers by the character of his omniscience. Jesus sends us in the out in the nature of his justice and calls us to live in character of his love.

God knows exactly what we need - we need HIM! And because God does know "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." 2 Peter 1:4. Jesus commands us to love the God not for his sake but for ours so we can experience His life in us as he has designed it.

God's commands are meant for us so that we can participate in his divine nature.  We desperately need that for living sent today.