Musings

I find myself not being left or right politically.  But also, I do not classify myself as someone who is in the middle as a moderate.  My worldview, my perspective on life, comes from a different place altogether, that shapes not only my politics, but most everything in life. 

Thomas Groome, has defined politics or political activity as something that we do intentionally and deliberately.  He wrote, “I in understand political activity to be any deliberate and structured intervention in people’s lives which attempts to influence how they live their lives in society” (Groome, 1980, Christian Religious Education, p. 15).  By this he is not advocating for some kind of Christian nationalism, but rather, how we live out our lives in society – how we interact with others, how we support and engage with one another.  It depends, though on what kind of education is being expressed.

Groome in defining the nature of Christian religious education expresses that its purpose is for leading people out to the kingdom or reign of God as it is expressed through the preaching and teaching of Jesus Christ.  We discover in reading Matthew account of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount that he expresses, “Seek first the reign of God and God’s righteousness” (6:33).  When we realize that the reign that Jesus has in mind is the shaping of peoples’ lives to be aligned to the things of God, to what matters to God, then we realize we are being called to be advocates for peace, to recognize that living life embraces a reliance upon God, and loving one’s enemies, we realize the reign of God challenges all the kingdoms and empires of this world. 

We tend to live our lives on continuums and describe our worldviews as being on one end of a continuum or the other.  The reason for this is that most continuums have polarizing endpoints, and for the most part we express our identities by aligning ourselves in relation to one side of the continuum or the other – rarely finding middle ground with others. 

However, in seeking to be a disciple of Christ, I have come to discover time and time again, that I have been called to walk, not on a continuum, but on a different pathway – one where I walk with Christ, who holds my life together (see Colossians 1:17).  When Christ declared, “Repent, for the reign of God is at hand,” he was not so much making a religious statement, as he was making a worldview statement – what our purpose in life is to be, how we go about living our lives.  Jesus was declaring that where we as people look for life along various continuums, that, in reality, we will not discover along them the fullness of our humanity.  Our being humane with one another cannot be found on the majority, if not all, of the continuums which offer are available to us. Rather, Jesus invites us to look to him – not to a different continuum, but rather a different path altogether.

As stated above, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expresses, “Seek first the reign of God and God’s righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). 

In seeking first God’s reign, seeking to live out a manner of being that is framed by Jesus’ Sermon the Mount, particularly the Beatitudes, I find that I need to contemplate, examine, and address all life issues from a different criterion, a different worldview, from a different pathway – in the spirit which Jesus expressed to Pontius Pilate, “my kingdom is not of this world. . . . my kingdom is from another place” (John 18:36).

For example, what does it mean to take on a life perspective the way Jesus looks at and embraces life?  Jesus expresses a way of living that embraces all of life, a whole life perspective – from the moment of conception, to focusing on the healthy development of children, to shaping adult opinions which respect the interests of others, even extending to forgiving and loving those who mistreat us, including those we consider our enemies.  I often wonder, if we as human beings embraced such a way of being with one another, in the way Jesus lived, even to forgiving those who crucified him, what kind of world would we foster in which the love of God frames and shapes our living amongst one another and with one another – be they family, neighbor, stranger or enemy? 

It is living not along any of the polarizing continuums which present themselves constantly to us, almost all which focus on a preoccupation with ourselves, but rather in seeking to follow and embrace the path of Jesus that we seek what Jesus seeks – the flourishing of all humanity as one created in God’s image. 

Perhaps the reality of our current contexts is that we cannot avoid living on polarizing continuums such as where we find ourselves relating to political perspectives, but can we be persons, who in having been shaped by Jesus’ focus on the reign of God, who are more compassionate, more understanding, more loving, to be more humane,, in short, to be different kinds of human beings on the continuums we find ourselves, not seeing the other as opposed to us, but also a human being whose interests and perspectives we seek to understand, even if we regard them as an enemy.  It is because in following and embracing Christ Jesus, that we too can seek the flourishing of humanity in light of God’s reign, and by doing so, be different kinds of human beings, transforming society and seek to elevate the common good, engendering an equality that views every human being as created in God’s image.  Seeking first God’s reign is to walk and live according to a different cadence, on a different path, that challenges and reframes all the other continuums that shape our lives, so that we might live differently and more humanely as people created in God’s image.