Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The citizenship of Christians

Ted Gossard over at The Community of Jesus has been running a series entitled “Christians and War.” Here is a quote from part 3

We in Jesus must be countercultural in many ways. We're not to live as this world does. This may seem problematical. Is war and killing intrinsically evil? After all, there were certainly physical battles sanctioned by God in the Old Testament. But we see that even David, the man after God's own heart, was not allowed to build the temple, since he had fought in so much warfare. War may not be intrinsically wrong in itself, though no war fought here and now is without wrong being done on both sides.

But Jesus brings in, understand it all or not (and we don't) a new way to be Israel. That will not render to Caesar what does not belong to him. Since their identity is those whose Lord is Jesus. Not any Caesar. Because of that, I take it, they will not go into battles for nations. Because as the one holy nation, scattered throughout the world, their ethic is redemptive, in Christ. They are part of the mission to bring God's salvation and reconciliation, through the good news of his kingdom, in Christ, to all.

1 comment:

Ted M. Gossard said...

JPS, Thanks for the link.

I know this is very much beside the point, so I apologize. But after running into Lukas McKnight's blog on commas, I realized I was comma-ing my sentences to death. And on looking at it, I also figured I was making too many short sentences. So I've been working on my writing, and the old chopiness stands out in your quote of me here.

But the important point is to communicate. Amos wasn't great in grammar, but God used him. God wants to use us all in Jesus. If we wait to have it all right, we'll never do anything (right) at all.