Welcome to Tuesday children! Today we go back to the dawning of the
Age of Aquarius, the time where flower powers was a rallying cry, and
Jesus people were being baptized in whatever body of water they could
find. It's the 70's baby and it's time for a far out edition of
Tuesday's Musical Notes!!! Can you dig it? So pull up close to your Kum
Ba Yah campfire and get ready to dive into the hippest blog on the net.
We have the most "right on" platters on the planet and we are ready lay
it down to the brothers and the sisters all around the world. So c'mon
people now, smile on your brother as The Youngbloods teach us how to
try to love one another right now...
In
most folks' mind, the song "Get Together" is emblematic of the protest
songs of the late '60s and early '70s when the Viet Nam war was at its
peak and the new and ever growing media of television was fanning the
flames of protest by funneling video from the front lines. Upon its
reissue it peaked at #5 after it was used in a radio public service
announcement for the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
It was a time of incredible stress as the United States was experiencing growing pains from the civil rights movement, the women's liberation movement and the aforementioned very unpopular, Viet Nam war. The Viet Nam war was such an ever present issue that it was a constant theme that it permeated every moment in our lives, including our church lives. I fondly remember in churches around the nation, prayer was continually being lifted up to "bring our boys home".
Some may come and some may go
We shall surely pass
When the one that left us here
Returns for us at last
We are but a moment's sunlight
Fading in the grass
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
These themes are as poignant for us today as they were in 1967. We must constantly be aware that every moment that we have on earth is precious and we will be held accountable for how those moments are spent. Trying to love one another is the hardest thing we will do with our lives. Reality dictates and the Bible declares that we will be hated if we embrace the precepts of God, the strongest one of these precepts is love. The Gospel of Matthew 10:22-23 King James Version of the Bible/The Message Paraphrase parallel The Gospel of John 15:17-19 KJV/The Message parallel Notice that our role in these verses is to love and persevere even though we are hated.
Unfortunately, we live in a very cynical world. That cynicism has marched its way into many churches as they have grown critical of anyone who attempts to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a different way than they do or even worse, condemn the sinner rather than condemning the sin. We have allowed denominational differences to dictate our conversations into criticism and guide our discipleship into dividing lines. We even on occasion have allowed our passions to over run our mouths (or fingers if we text, use twitter, or other forms of social media) to condemn the very ones Jesus commanded us to love. (Matthew 5:43-48 New International Version of the Bible/The Message parallel) Jesus commanded us to "go and tell" (The Gospel of Mark 16:15-16 KJV/The Message parallel), but for many in the facebook world it would seem that Jesus' command to Christians was to "scream and yell". This ought not be.
Perhaps the difficulty comes from a misinterpretation of the "go and tell" command. Jesus didn't command us to build large and beautiful buildings and "pack 'em in". He didn't command us to hold conferences on how to be great husbands and wives. He didn't command us to fill gigantic arenas and hold a worship concert. These things are great tools, but the modern church has allowed them to take the place of our primary directive. These distractions border on idolatry as they take us away from what Jesus said, "Go into the world. Go everywhere and announce the Message of God’s good news to one and all." Notice that Jesus doesn't say, "go and save the world." He says "go and tell them about me, THE Good News".
I fear that far too many times, followers of Jesus do not tell the world about The Good News because we place the responsibility of salvation on ourselves. This too smacks of idolatry. When we come to the point that we realize salvation is a work of Holy Spirit, not any work we may do, we are released from an action that is not ours in the first place. It is then that we can experience the freedom that comes in simply TELLING the old, old, story. That is all we are commanded to do. And by so doing, we show love to everyone as we share the Good News that Jesus came to be the substitutionary sacrifice for our sin. He died for us. He was buried and then came back to life 3 days later. He is at this very moment preparing a place for those who believe. He will return to restore the broken relationship between believers and God and take us to be with Him forever. That place is called heaven and it is only for those who believe and receive Jesus. The alternative is a place called hell. It is for those who refuse to receive and believe Jesus and is a place of eternal separation from Him.
There is such a hopelessness and despair that comes when you have no knowledge of what your eternity future will entail. But for those that follow Jesus, those that "die daily" to themselves and serve Him as they serve others, there is a hope that surpasses anything we can understand as we know that our eternity future is one that is found in a restored relationship with God through Jesus. This hope becomes our motivation... to smile on your brother and try to love one another...right now.
"Jesus Commands Us To Go", title track from the 1984 album by Keith Green compiled posthumously by Melody Green
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving you,
Randy
No comments:
Post a Comment