America, Israel, and Illegal Immigrants

Living in the Bible Belt, I've bumped into a lot of people who seem to think that America is God's chosen nation much like Israel (and Judah) was God's chosen nation in the Old Testament. I hate to rain on everyone's parade, but I have to thoroughly and vigorously disagree with this presumption. When we treat America as if it were some kind of 20th and 21st century "Promised Land" with the status of God's favorite nation, at best we are cheapening the Gospel and at worst we are flat misrepresenting it.

It seems to me like the prosperity enjoyed by the United States over the last 60 years has had more to do with the fact that pretty much the entire Western world, excepting the U.S., was bombed into oblivion in WW 2 thus giving the U.S. a huge economic advantage and putting us in the position to manufacture and sell goods to the world without much real competition. At this point I suppose you could interject that the destruction experienced in Europe in WW 2 was in some way God's judgment, but that would make you much more presumptuous than me.

But let me play along with everyone for a moment. Let's pretend that America somehow has replaced Israel as God's chosen nation. I heard this on NPR this morning. Apparently the private prison industry has been lobbying law makers in the Southwestern United States to crack down on illegal immigrants. If this were to happen, these private parties in the prison industry could make a lot of money by imprisoning the illegal immigrants in question.

Well America, I know you know this, being God's chosen nation and all, but for the sake of redundancy let me remind you of Leviticus 19:33-34

"When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God."

I would also remind you (again I know you know this, being God's chosen nation and all that), of all the warnings spoken through the prophets concerning God's impending judgment because of the way Israel mistreated the aliens in their land (for example: Jeremiah 7:5-7; 22:2-4; Ezekiel 22:7, 29; Zechariah 7:9-10; Malachi 3;5).

But that's just me speaking theoretically. I mean, America isn't really God's chosen nation any more than Switzerland or the Democratic Republic of Congo is God's chosen nation. Because the whole point of Christ's coming was to fulfill God's mission of reconciliation given to Israel (Gen 12:1-3), and to open the door for people of all nations to become part of the people of God (1 Peter 2:10). And that's the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Walking Down A Dream

My wife and I had a very short courting period before we were engaged (no sense in beating around the bush, right?). Anyway, after we had been engaged for some time, she told me that the one thing that turned her off on me when we were first getting to know each other was that I told her I had no ambition in life. Now I suppose that wasn't an entirely true statement; I do have ambitions, I just set the bar really low. All I've ever wanted out of life was to get married, buy a little house, have a job where I could provide for my family, and to own a dog or three. Anything else that comes along is just icing on the cake.

I know my stance on ambition runs contrary to that of most younger people in our country. When I was in Bible College, the unspoken assumption was that everyone who was there was going to go out and set the world on fire and be the next pop-Christian celebrity by virtue of their wisdom and great feats of social justice. I have to admit that in my pride and delusion, I entertained such thoughts as well. But those thoughts were so graciously dashed to pieces after I spent a couple months interning in a small church. In my short experience with ministry, it seems to me that this job will either quickly humble a person or will pour fuel on the fires of their delusion and turn them into more of a tyrant than a minister of the good news of Jesus Christ.

Don't get me wrong, I long for the coming of the Kingdom. As often as I pray, I pray for God's Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (italics mine). I know He uses the Church to accomplish that will and I know that it is in the Church where we find the fullest expression of the Kingdom here on earth. To that end, I will do my work to the best of my abilities and I will seek to foster a sense of expectancy both in myself and in those to whom I minister, knowing that the Holy Spirit works through us, unworthy as we might be.

But at the end of the day, it's His Kingdom I seek, not my own. So I make it a discipline to check my ambitions at the door. I have a wonderful wife, I own a house, I have more than one dog, hopefully come Monday I will have a garden planted. I already consume and have so much more than I would ever need that to aspire to more would be gluttony. Will God use my work and bless it to the advancement of His Kingdom? I believe He will. Am I going to be fool enough to tell Him how best to do that? Well that's what makes beating down my ambitions a discipline, doesn't it?

Anyway, all that is to say I do have a dream, a grand goal I aspire to in my life. I've had this goal for a long time now. It's probably started as a seed planted deep in my spirit and that seed was watered and began to grow after I learned about Ramblin' Jack Elliott and watched the documentary movie about his life.

Before I die, I hope to walk across the country from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, just for the experience of it. This morning I read about someone who just a year or so older than me who is doing this! Too cool! Here's his blog: http://imjustwalkin.com/

Who knows, maybe I'll bump into you on the road some day :)

A Haiku: Upon Picking Up Dog Poo In The Yard

Diligently I
Pace back and forth through my yard
Seeking brown treasures

Meet Rosie

Some people collect baseball cards, some people collect tea sets, my wife and I collect puppies. The house next to our friends in Royalton had three dogs tied up out in the yard and one of those dogs had four cute little puppies. Every time we would go visit our friends, these little puppies would run out and say hi to us. Now we had a bad experience with trying to add a third dog to our pack last fall (we'll call that the Gracie incident) so for a while I was pretty strong about refusing my wife's request that we bring one of those puppies home (even though I really wanted to!). But then my wife got a job interview up the road so I told her that if she got the job then we'd get one of the puppies. So say hello to Rosie!



She's a Heinz 57 mutt but she sure is cute! And as you can see, she gets along great with our two boys.





I can't help but wonder that if we find our calling by looking for the place where our passions meet our gifts then maybe someday I'll will open "Shotgun Willie's Ranch for Free Range, Unwanted Dogs" where I will live out my days throwing frisbees till my arms are sore and rolling around on the ground being licked by 45 dogs :)

I always heard ministry could be dangerous...

Despite the stereotype of the minister in 21st century North America as an overweight man with soft hands and a bad comb-over, driving around in a Cadillac, Scripture and the history of the Church paints ministry as a dangerous calling. All but one of the 12 Apostles met violent deaths. Saint Paul was beheaded. Jeremiah the prophet is said to have been sawn in two. The faithful have been burned alive, fed to lions, and generally abused in all sorts of ways. So when I got into ministry, I knew there was a chance it could turn out to be dangerous

(which is why I don't understand all the evangelical whining about those mean atheists trying to "take God out" of the public square: first, that's ontologically impossible, and second, whatever happened to "all men will hate you because of Me"? but that's another story for another day)

But I didn't realize just how dangerous it could be until yesterday...



So I guess I was sharing my office with a brown recluse spider. Now it's just a smudge on my carpet, but I can't help but thinking that where there was one brown recluse, there are probably more nearby. So now ever time I feel (or think I feel) anything tickle my leg, or neck, or back, or head, I get the heeby jeebies :)