• Colossians 3:11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
• 1 Corinthians 12:13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit
so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all
given the one Spirit to drink.
• Galatians 3:26ff So in Christ Jesus you are all children of
God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed
yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor
free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If
you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the
promise.
It is election season again.
Is it me or are these things coming around way too frequently these years? It
seems like only yesterday, or last year anyway that we just had a provincial
election, and I am sure that next year we are having another municipal election
and now we are in the middle of the second federal election since we have lived
in this riding, and we have only been here for three years. That seems like a
lot of elections.
There are some very positive
things about elections. We do get to see and chat with our Members of
Parliament and interview their rivals. Both our incumbent MP, and his most competitive challenger, have helped on the Salvation Army
food truck in the previous two weeks. This is great because they have an opportunity
to meet those in most need in their prospective riding and those of us on the
truck are able to have their ear and speak to the issues that matter most to
the people the Salvation Army serves.
Susan, the kids and I have
lived across the country. We have lived on NDP Orange Vancouver Island, the
Tory Blue Prairies, and in Liberal Red Toronto and here we are again back on
the ‘left coast’. I have learned some very important things from this. One
thing I have learned is that not every Liberal/ Tory/ Green /NDP (pick your
least favourite party) is evil. It is true. There was a time when I thought
that if you supported a particular political party, you must be either an idiot
or a very bad person. I was wrong.
In Swift Current, I had the
opportunity to get to know our Conservative MP a bit – he was,
I believe, a good solid Christian. He came to speak at the Swift Current
Salvation Army’s Centennial celebrations, and I had a lot of respect for
him.
In Toronto we worked very
closely with the Liberal Cabinet Minister's office, who represented Regent Park – I didn’t get
to know him well, but we did work with his office and his assistants. One of
his key people, Roz, I believe, even worked for the Salvation Army before she
worked for his office. She and his other staff were a great help with some
immigration issues that faced a number of our people, as well as various other
things.
Since we have been back on
Vancouver Island, our NDP MP has been a great advocate for some of
our initiatives. And, of course, he and I went to high school together in
Victoria many years ago and this riding is also Susan’s dad’s old riding; so,
we have a few points of connection.
Honestly, it has been a much
greater revelation than it should have been that there are great people who are
members of all the political parties - even whatever party you may dislike the
most. There are many great people in politics who we have gotten to know over
the years. In Swift Current, the mayor’s grandma was part of our corps. And, of
course, here the mayor’s husband is part of our team. There are many great
people running for each of the parties. And I don’t think that God (or
conversely the devil) has more influence over one party than the next so please
don’t let the devil trick you into thinking he does and thus gain some measure
of control over you.
Christians, people who
honestly serve Jesus, people who regularly read their Bibles, people who pray
every day – even more than we or you do, they will vote for a member of that
political party that you cannot stand or even understand! And they may even be
a member of said party.
On election day, you are of course able to vote for whomever you want, for whatever reason you want to vote for them – but please don’t become a victim of the present campaign. Don’t become collateral damage. Don’t let yourself be manipulated by being worked up into a rage or worked down into helplessness. Don’t let the devil mess with your mind and your emotions. He wants to mess you up. MLK jr said, “don’t let any man drag you so low as to make you hate him.”[1] The devil wants to make you hate Trudeau, O’Toole, Singh, or your local MP. Don’t do it! Genesis 4:7b “Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Once we were are divided by hating others, the devil can make us do all kinds of things that drag us into self-destruction and the destruction of others. Ephesians 4:27, “do not let the devil get a foothold.” He can divide us and destroy us.[2]
So, we need to remember that in the Christian Church, Colossians 3:11 paraphrased: there is no Liberal or Conservative, NDP or Green, Libertarian, People’s Party, Bloc, separatist or nationalist but Christ is all, and is in all.
Paul wrote in the 1st Century:
• To the Colossians, 3:11, “...there is no Gentile or Jew,
circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is
all, and is in all” and,
• To the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For we were all
baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave
or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” and,
• To the Galatians, 3:26, 28,29, So in Christ Jesus you are
all children of God through faith, ...There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither
slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ
Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs
according to the promise.
Why did Paul write this same
thing to different people in different congregations in different cities? Paul
wrote this because among his friends and colleagues, there were divisions that were
threatening to tear them and the whole church apart. People in Paul’s group,
Paul’s friends, were letting the devil into their churches.
How were they letting the
devil into their churches? They were holding the door open by identifying first
as Jews or Gentiles, circumcised or uncircumcised, slave or free, men or women
and only later as Christians – and then they would inevitably wind up fighting
amongst themselves about these important things. So, you would have people who
were previously united in the purpose of telling others the Good News of how
Jesus can save them in and from their struggles who were now focusing INSTEAD on the
election type issues that were important in the first century.[3] That is not to say that the
issues aren’t important; it is to say that we need to solve the issues as
members of the same team, God’s team. And God’s team is unified in loving Him and
others and trying to serve Him and others – even if we have different ideas
about how to do that, we need to work together as a team united under His
leadership. That is what the Church is.
People invited the devil into
the churches in the First Century by caring more about the issues that divide
them than about the only real solution, which unites them – the love of God and
Jesus Christ. This division threatened to destroy the whole First Century Church
before it even had its footing. As Jesus said, recorded in Mark, “A house
divided against itself cannot stand” (Mark 3:25; also Matthew 12:25, and cf. Luke
11:17) and Matthew, “no one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13). This
is what the devil was trying to do – he was trying to make them care more about
an issue (as important as it may be) than about God and their neighbour so as
to divide them. Divide and conquer.
The devil is doing the same
thing today. You can actually see him prey upon good, solid people, trapping
them in their own hatred for others who hold opposing ideas. We Christians
invite the devil into our lives and our churches by fighting with each other
instead of praying for each other and serving together. And friends this is a tragedy.
God has used you who are here
in this room and others who are part of our group (as we are part of His Church)
to do some great things for others and for the Kingdom during Covid; and
friends God has used you and those who have come before you to do some amazing
things in this community for over 70 years. Don’t let the devil mess things up
by dividing us!
• 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For we were all baptized by one
Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we
were all given the one Spirit to drink”
• Galatians 3:26, 28,29, So in Christ Jesus you are all
children of God through faith, ...28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither
slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ
Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs
according to the promise
• Colossians, 3:11, “Here there is no Gentile or Jew,
circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is
all, and is in all”
So Friends I implore us today
to put our differences aside. If the devil has got a hold of our lives in
anyway by making us hate one another, we can pray now and God will deliver us
from that hate. The Enemy is trying to
divide us. For when we are divided we will fall but when we are united in
Christ we will stand firm and we will stand forever. So rather than hate the
world into destruction, let us love the world into salvation. And then the
world will know we are Christians by our love.
Let us pray.
[1] Martin
Luther King Jr, A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of
Martin Luther King, Jr (Ed. James M. Washington (HaperCollins: New York,
NY, 1986)
[2] Cf.
NT Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters (Louisville, Kentucky,
USA.: John Knox Press, 2004), 179.
[3] Samuel Ngewa, Galatians 3:26-4:11: Africa Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 1448: All categories have become one because they are united in Christ
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