Another State of the Union address from our president calls for another response from citizens of the kingdom of heaven.
Our president shared some good news and good thoughts with us. I heard him say that we welcome everyone who loves our country and pursues legal immigration. I also heard him say many things that provoke antagonism, rather than inspiring cooperation and unity.
What if our response begins by giving thanks to God at all times? We know and depend on the fact that God makes all things work together for good and we know that there is no authority except from God.
We also know that great power brings great responsibility with it, which is why Paul includes a command to pray for those in authority. Praying for others is a positive expression of energy and raises our consciousness of being ambassadors and advocates, rather than adversaries.
As ambassadors, we remember to have salt in ourselves. Salt kills the yeast of the corrupt human ego—arrogance, pretentiousness, combativeness, and the adversarial spirit. As ambassadors, we can hear in people’s complaints an opportunity to express sympathy, along with the chance to provide the cool, living water of God’s grace. God’s grace inspires us to be patient, kind, and wise as we direct conversations with people toward recognizing best practices in government and working and praying as we are able to promote those best practices.
God bless us as we seek to extend His kingdom during our sojourn through this world and these times.
Jesus was found hanging out in the margins of society. He distanced himself from those who put their value in power, money and from those who used both things to further marginalize those who needed the most help. The only way to love our country, according to Trump, is clearly to never critique it, but rather to never question it or him. Why is loving our country such an important focus? Especially when much critique is so warranted with ICE and in how we treat the poor, the foreigner, the outsider. Was Jesus not a refugee and foreigner in his own land? Perhaps we should ask where the kingdom of heaven is truly active. It’s nowhere near billionaires, power and money. So where would that be? Perhaps we can try looking at where the power is concentrated and do the opposite. What is Trump (& the powerful like him) most passionate about? When we look to do the opposite, it can be found: in the margins, where we can begin to see the kingdom of heaven in action. If Jesus were here, what would his priorities be? To ensure ppl loved the country he was in? To work along ICE to detain anyone deemed unworthy of the country? Or perhaps, would he instead be in the margins with these very ppl? Perhaps he would be ridiculed and hunted by ICE and politicians for speaking up for the lowly, the powerless, the mistreated, the corrupt and instead focus on exposing the power-hungry elites for who they are? Or maybe Jesus has changed since his own ministry two-thousand years and would instead be pursuing a nationalistic and dehumanizing agenda that no longer believed the poor and marginalized matter.