Grievances and the Gospel
I like continuity, so my scroll through Facebook's On This Day feature is a fixture as I consider what I was thinking about on June 30 in past years. Given the murders at a Maryland newspaper this past week, and the general grudge, and in the culture against the media, I was reflecting on this observation from Charles Emerson's 1913: The Search for the World before the Great War. Emerson describes of St. Petersburg, Russia in that year that newspapers provided, "a common culture of aspiration."
I think the culture of aspiration still mixes with the ink in the blood of, if not on the fingers of, journalists, bloggers, pundits, opinion-shapers, cranks, and critics from every direction. I also find that we as Christians miss something in our default reaction when others dare to aspire to something different than the culture in which we, generally, have flourished.
In one breath, we are ready, brothers and sisters in Christ, to cry out in the wilderness that we have been marginalized and that the mainstream culture which has sidelined us and our values is about to be judged. In the next, should someone else without the Christian vernacular, and especially from the Leftward media, offer a critique of some aspect of American assumptions, we tend to immediately jump to the defense of the status quo. These twin grievances keep us awfully busy in the alienation business at odds with a ministry of reconciliation.
Elsewhere in my scroll through wisdom I squirreled away in various installments of June 30, Walter Lipman, one of the most illustrious examples of the kind of media punditry we are now inclined to despise or destroy speaks to this automatic defensiveness. He lifts the veil on public affairs and penetrates to the core of the human heart when he writes, sagely, "Ignore what a man desires, and you ignore the very source of his power."
Viewed through this lens, the complaints that surround us and may infuriate us when they come from people who don't share our core philosophy can be constructive. People, complaining, embittered, estranged, protesting people are giving us a gift. They are showing Christians charged by our Scriptures to weep with those who weep what they desire. Ignore that, and we ignore the source of their power and the start of a Gospel conversation which begins with agreement that we don't put our hope in even the best of the American culture.
How did Jesus treat the media in His day? Since we don't have blogs or newspapers to examine, those carrying the outrage of the day's events to Him are more than an adequate substitute. Jesus has closed what has come down to us as Luke 12 challenging His followers stoutly that accountability to Him as Judge is coming. Be ready. Read the signs and repents now. What's more, show that vertical repentance to God in your horizontal relationships with each other. In this atmosphere of understandable tension, the channel change offered to open Luke 13 is a possible diversion. The first verse reads, "There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices."
Jesus doesn't default to defending the status quo. He gives additional evidence that this world, its cultures, and its governments, are broken. In that sense, He could be branded a liberal or even an instigator. His application is noteworthy, however. He does not call for yelling more loudly or for mounting the ramparts to overthrow whatever offends the crowd we can gather. Instead, He directs the culture of aspiration to the grace and mercy needed across the political spectrum, and from the richest to the poorest. "Unless you repent," he confronts with the close of Luke 13:5, you will all likewise perish."
Lest we instantly turn our neighbor or coworker's every hurt into a parable for the eternal soul, and an excuse for our inaction, keep in mind Who spoke Luke 13:5. Jesus did confront unjust authority, even as he neither expected nor pointed toward Heaven on Earth under human government. Jesus did heal the hurt and take the side of those most exploited by this world's system. Only when coupled with His eagerness to take action in ways this world can see do we begin to understand the opportunity His own have. Everyone: discussion, every invitation subtle or forceful to be dragged into debate is an opportunity to meaningfully engage with the angry and the hurting, to help them see that there every unfulfilled hope is a longing to rest in Christ.
I think the culture of aspiration still mixes with the ink in the blood of, if not on the fingers of, journalists, bloggers, pundits, opinion-shapers, cranks, and critics from every direction. I also find that we as Christians miss something in our default reaction when others dare to aspire to something different than the culture in which we, generally, have flourished.
In one breath, we are ready, brothers and sisters in Christ, to cry out in the wilderness that we have been marginalized and that the mainstream culture which has sidelined us and our values is about to be judged. In the next, should someone else without the Christian vernacular, and especially from the Leftward media, offer a critique of some aspect of American assumptions, we tend to immediately jump to the defense of the status quo. These twin grievances keep us awfully busy in the alienation business at odds with a ministry of reconciliation.
Elsewhere in my scroll through wisdom I squirreled away in various installments of June 30, Walter Lipman, one of the most illustrious examples of the kind of media punditry we are now inclined to despise or destroy speaks to this automatic defensiveness. He lifts the veil on public affairs and penetrates to the core of the human heart when he writes, sagely, "Ignore what a man desires, and you ignore the very source of his power."
Viewed through this lens, the complaints that surround us and may infuriate us when they come from people who don't share our core philosophy can be constructive. People, complaining, embittered, estranged, protesting people are giving us a gift. They are showing Christians charged by our Scriptures to weep with those who weep what they desire. Ignore that, and we ignore the source of their power and the start of a Gospel conversation which begins with agreement that we don't put our hope in even the best of the American culture.
How did Jesus treat the media in His day? Since we don't have blogs or newspapers to examine, those carrying the outrage of the day's events to Him are more than an adequate substitute. Jesus has closed what has come down to us as Luke 12 challenging His followers stoutly that accountability to Him as Judge is coming. Be ready. Read the signs and repents now. What's more, show that vertical repentance to God in your horizontal relationships with each other. In this atmosphere of understandable tension, the channel change offered to open Luke 13 is a possible diversion. The first verse reads, "There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices."
Jesus doesn't default to defending the status quo. He gives additional evidence that this world, its cultures, and its governments, are broken. In that sense, He could be branded a liberal or even an instigator. His application is noteworthy, however. He does not call for yelling more loudly or for mounting the ramparts to overthrow whatever offends the crowd we can gather. Instead, He directs the culture of aspiration to the grace and mercy needed across the political spectrum, and from the richest to the poorest. "Unless you repent," he confronts with the close of Luke 13:5, you will all likewise perish."
Lest we instantly turn our neighbor or coworker's every hurt into a parable for the eternal soul, and an excuse for our inaction, keep in mind Who spoke Luke 13:5. Jesus did confront unjust authority, even as he neither expected nor pointed toward Heaven on Earth under human government. Jesus did heal the hurt and take the side of those most exploited by this world's system. Only when coupled with His eagerness to take action in ways this world can see do we begin to understand the opportunity His own have. Everyone: discussion, every invitation subtle or forceful to be dragged into debate is an opportunity to meaningfully engage with the angry and the hurting, to help them see that there every unfulfilled hope is a longing to rest in Christ.
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