PEA RIDGE — I must admit that I am a “creeper” when it comes to Facebook (that’s what my daughters call me). I don’t have a lot of time to commit to the social network, but when I do I love to read status updates and I rarely post. You can learn a lot from Facebook and Twitter. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not interested in who broke up with whom or what someone is eating at the moment, but I am very interested in religious and political comments.
I am amazed how easily we can take a political situation and state with such theological certainty what God is up to, what God likes and doesn’t like, and what God is going to do to those whom we do not agree with. If God did everything we said God was going to do there wouldn’t be a living creature on earth, and all of humanity would be the first to go!
And yet we each are called to say something about God. So what is it we are supposed to say?
As one who has done a lot of Biblical study, even in the original languages (Hebrew and Greek), I am many times thrown for a loop of what exactly the Bible is saying, and honestly I am quite suspect of anyone (clergy especially) who thinks they know exactly what is being said. Sowhat is my recourse? I have to take the life of Christ as my “ground of all being.” I use to make fun of that old cliché “what would Jesus do?” Not any more.
So what would Jesus do?
What did he do? He spent most of his time with those who we would not be seen with, when he was angry it was usually at the “church folk,” and he went way out of his way to help those who were poor, outcast and hurting. So when I hear a political argument bring up the topic of how God feels about something, I have to look at Christ. That’s as close as I can get to even pretend to know what God is up to, and every time I find myself coming up short.
So I will share my status update with you: “God forgive me a sinner, and help me to be less judging and more loving, caring and forgiving to everyone regardless of who they are.”◊◊◊
Editor’s note: John Gibson is the pastor of Mt. Vernon Presbyterian Church, Pea Ridge. He can be contacted through this newspaper at [email protected].
News, Pages 2 on 03/07/2012