Notes From Jon

When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace, the LORD appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

– 2 Chronicles 7:11-16 (NIV)

I’ve seen this verse used so many times to justify our idea of “Christianizing America.” It’s passages like this that have been misread to give the impression that some awful sin of our nation’s people (abortion, homosexuality, obesity, you name it) is the cause of any number of things that have happened recently (9/11, Hurricane Katrina, etc.). This is bad interpretation and bad theology.

We talk about being a “Christian nation,” and that’s definitely something we were founded upon. But so often, what we really mean when we say “Christian nation” has less to do with the Gospel and more to do with politics.

Notice that this passage says nothing about God giving any blessing to the people that he doesn’t give to anyone else. He doesn’t promise to give them any special protection. What he does promise is that when GOD’s people, called by GOD’s name, humble themselves and turn from wickedness, then he will HEAR their prayers, FORGIVE their sins, and HEAL their land.

He doesn’t say, “I’ll give you a Christian president.” Nor does he say, “I’ll favor my people with tax breaks.” Nor does he say, “Then you’ll be able to pray in schools again.” He simply says he will HEAR, FORGIVE, and HEAL.

And notice who the burden is on: GOD’S PEOPLE. Not the governor, not the president, not our senators. Not Pat Robertson or Jimmy Jackson. Not our denominational leaders. These may all be God’s people too, but that’s between them and God. The call to be humbled and to call upon God starts with YOU and ME. WE are God’s people.

When we pray for God’s will to be done and his kingdom to come on earth, we aren’t praying for a government that sponsors the Church. We’ve already seen in Rome and Nazi Germany what can come of that. Instead, we’re praying for the kingdom of God to come in our midst, like Jesus did. He went from village to village and town to town, spreading Good News, healing the sick, feeding the hungry.

Imagine what it would it look like if Jesus came to our community today. What would our community look like if Jesus came here doing what he did in the Gospels – preaching, healing, forgiving, feeding? What kinds of things would he do? Where would he go first? Who would he be sure to see? How would the whole community change because of his presence?

Now, instead of imagining Jesus doing these things, put YOURSELF in that picture – preaching, healing, forgiving, feeding. What kinds of things are you doing? Where do you go first? Who would you be sure to see? How would the whole community change because of your work?

Now ask yourself one question: What’s stopping you?

This entry was posted on May 26, 2006 at 7:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.