We live in a country that is very divided. The polarizing divide between beliefs and politics has fractured relationships among family and friends.  About eight years ago, I was very saddened to see on my Facebook a post from a friend who said, “If you don’t believe, (then he named a very controversial subject). If you don’t believe this then unfriend me or I will unfriend you.”

Tim Dalrymple of Christianity Today, said, “As an evangelical, I’ve found the last five years to be shocking, disorienting and deeply disheartening. One of the most surprising elements is that I’ve realized that the people who I used to stand shoulder to shoulder with on almost every issue, I now realize that we are separated by a chasm of mutual incomprehension. I would never have thought that could have happened so quickly.” – (Dissenters Trying to Save Evangelicalism from Itself, Feb. 4, 2022) 

Instead of focusing on politics, I argue the one thing we need is to center ourselves on Christ. The call to center ourselves in Christ may initially sound like a safe, if not vague, value to propose. However, it actually reflects the radical discovery that something bigger is now at the center of life, everything else that seeks to define and divide us becomes secondary.

In Christ, God is reconciling all things to Himself. If we become reconciled with God through our union with Christ...we become united with one another.

This became the clarion call of the apostles. Listen to what the Apostle Paul set forth in the Ephesians 1:22-23.

“And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.”

He continues in chapter 2:20 declaring... “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.”    

Something bigger has come, something that ruled over all, and something that transformed all. The Jews were a people whose identity was their ethnicity. They had understood God as protector of their ethnicity and national power. But in Christ that was all transformed. Jesus had brought a larger reality.

Jesus brought a transforming reality that confronted all humanity. The people needed to be saved NOT from Rome, but from their sin, and their sin could not be reduced to some outward laws, but to the heart. The gospel is a call to turn and receive forgiveness and join God’s kingdom that has come.

To be centered in Christ we must rethink our stance and make it obedient to Christ. How do we do that?

#1. Don’t allow what is secondary to define and divide us. This isn’t a simple or a small matter. This is why the apostles began to define what was primary. It led to the creeds, the central truths that defined what was fundamental and central.

#2. Don’t allow legitimate fears to pull us off center and become our new gospel. Culture wars are often rooted in very legitimate fears, whether related to the culture losing its moral compass, or the government gaining too much control. I don’t believe that God needs us to dismiss those fears, but they cannot shift the central purpose and passion around who we are in Christ. Let us not allow even legitimate fears, to replaces Christ as our true hope.

#3. Don’t compromise our commitment to truth. The whole prospect of knowing what is true and good has become rather challenging through these times. It’s become the age of “fake news” and “alternative facts”. We are all vulnerable to grabbing the facts that fit our narrative, while avoiding all that don’t fit. And in the end. those around us will have less reason to trust the truth we clam about anything, including Christ.

#4. Don’t give wholesale allegiance to any party or person other than Christ. When the day came to vote in the 2024 election, I was feeling the tension of being trapped within the choice that voting called for. And something arose in my spirit; it brought forth this simple affirmation. Jesus is my king! It was a spiritual declaration I needed to make. A spiritual declaration I found freedom in and still do. I would vote as faithfully as I could discern, but I would not let my spirit become morally defined and divided by either side.

I was reminded that it is the endless effort of our human nature to divide our world into the good and the bad and then affirm our goodness. When Jesus entered this world, the religious leaders of his day had formed various litmus tests that define what is good and what is bad. To the leaders, Jesus didn’t fit their definition of what is good. But Jesus didn’t view the world the way those leaders did, because it wasn’t that way. To Jesus the world was not divided by good or bad. Jesus viewed the world as those who lacked true peace with God and others, and those who had true peace with God and others.

Things have not changed much since Jesus’ day. We see more of it because of the news or posts on social media. My concern is what happens when we don’t talk to one another because of our opposing views. When our differences stop us from crossing the aisle, anger and resentment are the outcome. It then becomes a volcano that is ready to erupt. So, the choice is ours, remain divided or take the time to visit someone you disagree with. Find out why they believe what they believe. Don’t make it a debate, but build a relationship.

Meet me next at the P.E.W.

Pastor Joel