Rising River Media

(Or, Keeping Your Sanity During A Political Season Gone Rogue)

          In recent years we’ve experienced some of the most raucous and polarizing politics I’ve seen since the late 60’s. My guess would be that things are going to get worse before they get better. The current trajectory toward extremism and polarization (both left and right), is not something easily or quickly changed. And since Jesus isn’t a card-carrying member of either (or any) political party, I’m convinced that any “divine response” to the current political-national-cultural situation will be outside any of our pre-constructed boxes. I’m convinced that God is far less impressed with our politics than we are. Just ask Daniel.
          I recently spent some time reading and reflecting on the Old Testament book of Daniel, and I found his perspective on events far more encouraging than anything I’ve seen in the news or on the internet. It was time well sent. The book of Daniel gives liberal scholars heartburn. If written by Daniel more than 500 years before Christ (which I believe it was), then its historical accuracy confirms both the inspiration and the prophetic predictive power of Scripture. It’s not my goal here to recount all of those incredibly accurate predictions leading up to the time of Christ. I simply want to reflect on a few lessons Daniel taught me about politics and kingdoms.

God Rules (Daniel 4:34-35; 2:20-21)
          “At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?'”
          Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, discovered what Daniel already knew, namely, the “big picture” that God rules over men and nations. Nebuchadnezzar was king because God allowed him to be king in order to accomplish God’s greater kingdom purposes. In His sovereign Kingly rule, God allows men to be men, to make choices (both good and evil) and to experience the consequences of those choices. History is the stage on which the sovereignty of God and the free will of men express themselves in real-time. God rules, and He knows what He is doing, even when men are oblivious to any greater purpose. Just ask Nebuchadnezzar.

The Kingdom Has Begun (Daniel 2:44-45)
          “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
          To make His point about sovereignly ruling over human history, God gives Nebuchadnezzar a dream about the four kingdoms which will dominate history from his own day until the coming of Jesus (Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome). Welcome to Daniel Chapter 2. In his interpretation of the dream, Daniel declares that in the days of the fourth kingdom (Rome), “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed.” Here’s the point, which can be easily missed: The Kingdom predicted by Daniel in the Old Testament is the very same Kingdom proclaimed by Jesus, by the disciples and by the early Church in the New Testament. In other words, the Kingdom of God has begun. Jesus brought the Kingdom. Jesus taught the Kingdom. Jesus modeled the Kingdom. Jesus made disciples of the Kingdom. And while the full manifestation of that Kingdom awaits Jesus’ return at the end of this present evil age, the God of Daniel is building His Kingdom by redeeming and calling out a people for Himself, delivering them from the domain of darkness and transferring them to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Colossians 1:13). When those redeemed Kingdom citizens gather together, their gathering is what the New Testament refers to as “the Church” (or ekklesia, “the assembly of those who have been called out”). The Kingdom of God is the message, and the Church is the messenger. The Church proclaims the reality that the Kingdom of God has come in the person of Jesus, the Messiah-King. In God’s sovereign providence over history, the Kingdom of God triumphs over all the kingdoms of men (Revelation 11:15). Daniel understood this. Do we? We are called to be disciples of the Kingdom, not disciples or acolytes of any political party or lesser kingdom.

The Kingdom Of God Continues Beyond The Rise And Fall Of Empires.
          Daniel understood that the Kingdom of God is eternal, while the kingdoms of men are temporary. As a result, Daniel never hitched the wagon of his faith to the rising star of any empire. He was a servant of the Most High God and His Kingdom. In fact, the rulers of empires and the kingdoms of men sought out Daniel and His God, not the other way around. More than once, rulers hitched their wagon’s to Daniel and His God. Daniel lived through the fall of one of the four predicted kingdoms (Babylon), and the rise of the second (Medo-Persia). He served both, but only to the extent that serving them also served God’s Kingdom purposes. Daniel never allowed events to cloud his perspective. He saw clearly what those around him saw only dimly, if at all. He understood that the Kingdom of God continues on, far beyond the rise and fall of man-made empires and kingdoms. Daniel understood that the unnamed “stone . . . cut from a mountain by no human hand” (who we know to be Jesus) would eventually crush all competing kingdoms, including the kingdom he was then serving.
          Okay, there’s a practical point that you and I need to wrap our heads around as we find ourselves engulfed by political agendas and current events which threaten to overwhelm us. The Kingdom of God is bigger than all of these agendas and events. As Christians, we are citizens of a different and greater Kingdom, the Kingdom of God (Philippians 3:20). Jesus is our Messiah-King, and He outranks Presidents, Senators, Congressmen, Judges, politicians, commentators, lobbyists, and political activists. I can’t find any example of Jesus praying and asking the Father to “save Rome”; but I do find examples of Jesus teaching His disciples to pray, “Your Kingdom come; your will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.” The kingdoms of this world are destined to perish; the Kingdom of God is destined to triumph. Which kingdom are you investing your life in?

Nations (And Political Parties) Are Always Being Weighed In The Balance (Daniel 5:24-28)
          “Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” 
          Okay, let’s begin with some quick exegesis. The words MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN are Aramaic and translate as NUMBERED, NUMBERED, WEIGHED and DIVIDED. As Aramaic was the language of Babylon, the King and his advisors knew what the words said, but they didn’t understand what they MEANT. The words of the prophecy were clear. The meaning of the prophecy was not. Enter Daniel.
          One of the great spiritual themes and connective threads of the Old Testament is that God is always holding men and nations accountable, weighing them in the balance-scale of His justice. We see this theme at work early-on in the book of Genesis, starting with the great flood (Genesis 6) where God weighed the human race in His balance scale and found all but seven people “wanting.” There’s a reason why people today attempt to refute and reject the flood as historical. If true, it reminds us all of our accountability before the God Who created us, and in Whose world we are but tenants. Accountable tenants. But there is another example in Genesis of God’s prophetic insight concerning the future and His weighing of nations in the balance. We discover it in God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15:
          “Then the LORD said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.'” (Genesis 15:13-16)
          There is more in this passage than we can unpack here, so I’ll simply touch on a couple items. First, we see God’s sovereign understanding of the future as He tells Abraham that his descendants will spend 400 years in “a land that is not theirs” (Egypt). He then reveals that, following their sojourn in Egypt, Abraham’s descendants will return to the land where Abraham currently resides (Canaan). Why the 400 year delay and detour to Egypt? Because “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” The Amorites inhabited the land of Canaan prior to the conquests of Joshua. Their “iniquity” is the stuff of legend which I won’t go into here. Here’s the point. God gave the Amorites time and opportunity (400 years) to “be themselves” and to make those moral and spiritual decisions that would determine their ultimate destiny. In the process, God was watching and weighing them in His great balance scale, which was apparently tipping in a bad direction. God’s historical space-time judgment upon the Amorites would come at the hand of Joshua and Israel, but not for another 400 years. He is patient and forbearing. But even divine patience and forbearance have their limits.
          Here’s my takeaway from this passage. Both Genesis and the book of Daniel warn us in clear terms which rational men should not miss (but frequently do) that God actively weighs men and nations in His great balance scale. No nation or people escape His scrutiny. And, yes, that includes you, me and ours.

Generations Forget Too Quickly (And Pay The Price)(Daniel 5:1-4)
          “King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.” 
          A little history. Belshazzar was the eldest son of Nabonidus, King of Babylon, and reigned as Co-Regent with his father, thereby making Nebucchadnezzar his grandfather (or “ancestor,” as the Aramaic word is frequently rendered). Chronologically, there were 12 years between Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, and 23 years between the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign and the last day of Belshazzar’s reign. Let me ask you a question. What were you doing 12 years ago, and what was God teaching you? How about 22 years ago? Have you forgotten the lessons you learned then, or have you “moved on”? Belshazzar had “moved on,” and it cost him . . . dearly. Whatever lessons Belshazzar had learned in the court of his grandfather, King Nebuchadnezzar, about God, His holiness, and His kingdom authority, had apparently been forgotten in less than a generation, and with disastrous consequences.
          Belshazzar’s forgetfulness echoes the forgetfulness of another generation. Following the momentous events of Joseph in Egypt (Genesis 39-50), we discover that a new generation also suffered profound memory lapse, “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). Forgetfulness of all God has done for us is both common and expensive. In the case of Daniel and Belshazzar, it took someone from the previous generation (Daniel) to explain to the new generation (Belshazzar) what God was doing. But the damage had been done, and it was too late to escape the consequences.

Keeping Your Sanity During A Political Season Gone Rogue
          Wrapping up this longer-than-usual newsletter, allow me to offer a handful of “Sanity-Keeping” thoughts.
          1. God Rules (So, Trust His Plan), even when it appears that the rest of the world around us has “gone rogue.” Daniel survived national collapse, calamity, and captivity (first Jerusalem, then Babylon), the wrath of rulers (such as Nebuchadnezzar), the collapse of Babylon, and the persecution of evil and jealous men of great political power (remember the whole lion’s den episode?). I believe his message to you and me today would be, “Relax, God’s got this.”
          2. The Kingdom Has Begun (Sow In To It!). We have the blessing of seeing and experiencing what Daniel could only see prophetically from a great distance. What Daniel saw in type and shadow, we now experience because we live “on the other side of the Cross”: the Kingdom of God has begun. And we’re part of it! Don’t set your sights on anything less than the Kingdom. By our faith, our message and our good deeds, we sow in to God’s Kingdom work in our day.
          3. Kingdoms Rise And Fall (So, Be Careful Who And What You Hitch Your Wagon To). This is a tough one. We can get excited about seeing how God foreknew the rise and fall of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. But would we be as excited about God’s foreknowledge if it included the fall of the United States? By the way, Rome still exists, but not as a worldwide empire. Greece, too, still exists, but only as a shadow of what it was under Alexander the Great. Beware of hitching your faith to the kingdoms of men. Daniel didn’t. Neither should we. We serve a greater Kingdom that will never end, and will never betray those who place their faith in either the Kingdom or its King.
          4. How Are We Doing In God’s Balance Scales? (Which Way Are You Tipping?) If Daniel (and the entire Old Testament) teaches us anything it is this: God is continually weighing men and nations in the balance of His great scales. This being the case, what does His scale tell us about the future trajectory of our own city, state, and nation? In the perceptive – perhaps even prophetic – words of Thomas Jefferson, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever . . . .” (Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII). If and when God’s scales tip beyond recovery and judgment falls, let that judgment find us serving as faithful Ambassadors of His Kingdom, and nothing less.
          5. As A Disciple Of the Kingdom, Who Are You Serving (And What Are You Doing)? Welcome to the most difficult, revealing and practical question of all. As Christians and people who take the word of God seriously, the life and experiences of Daniel present each of us a basic question: Who do you serve? The Republicans? The Democrats? The (FILL IN THE BLANK) movement? If your answer (or mine) is anything other than, “I serve the Kingdom of God,” we have a problem. Too much of the visible Church has “gone rogue” at a time when clear focus on the values and priorities of the Kingdom are most needed among God’s people. We’ve been lured and distracted by shrill voices and competing agendas. Don’t get me wrong. I believe Jesus does, indeed, call us to be involved in the world around us: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, befriending the stranger (or “immigrant”), visiting the prisoner, caring for the sick, and MORE. But we do all of these things as citizens and Ambassadors of a greater Kingdom, as those called to bring the values of His Kingdom to bear on the issues and problems of our nation and our world. Our good deeds on behalf of the Kingdom of God toward those in need are how we manifest the salt and light of God’s Kingdom, just as Jesus taught us in Matthew 5:17 (for more, see our book, “30 days And 30 Ways Of Doing Good.”) 
          6. Remember, God’s Kingdom Ocean Is Much Larger Than Your Little Boat. In the JFK Presidential Museum and Library is a small plaque that President Kennedy kept on his desk in the Oval Office. It reads, “O, God, Thy Sea Is So Great And My Boat Is So Small.” It is the first stanza of a poem by Winfred Ernst Garrison, and it offers perceptive readers a small dose of humility and perspective. God’s plan for His Kingdom stretches from eternity past through eternity future. Our part in it is like a small boat on God’s great ocean. He calls us to trust Him, and to obey all He has instructed us to do. He’s got this.

I have never understood racism or racial bigotry. And that deserves an explanation.

You see, unlike most of my West Coast friends, I was born and raised in the American South. More specifically, in North Carolina. I grew up in the age of “Leave It To Beaver” and “Ozzie and Harriet.” But I also grew up in the age of racial segregation and discrimination. I remember separate bathrooms for blacks and whites. I remember the social trauma of integration at public facilities, such as parks, bathrooms, swimming pools and more. I remember the uproar over school integration that led to the creation of a private academy in my home town. I remember the controversy when upwardly mobile black families began moving into traditionally white neighborhoods, including a new family right across the street from where we lived. I remember these things and more. Not because I read about them in the newspaper or watched them on the evening news (there was no evening news as we know it, prior to the Kennedy assassination and Walter Cronkite). I remember them because, well, I went to school with them, played with them, called them my friends. For me, “Driving Miss Daisy” and “The Help” are more like documentaries than entertainment. I remember because it was my life growing up.

But in all my years growing up, through high school and college, I never understood genuine racism, racial bigotry or racial hatred. Nor do I understand it today. Don’t get me wrong. I understand something of the history of racial slavery in America and the 100-year legacy of racial animosity slavery engendered. No, I don’t fully understand everything, or the full depth of pain and suffering of the African-American community over the 100+ years since slavery was abolished. I don’t fully understand, and I probably never will.

As a result, I do not understand events in Charlottesville. Why? Because they embody a racism and bigotry on steroids that defies rational understanding, even for someone who grew up with it. They embody a spectre of past dark moments in American history which most of us had hoped was part of our past, not our future. But, apparently not. And what is worse than the events themselves (which are tragic and reprehensible) are the polarized and agendized responses being served up by people who should know better.

Fools And Consequences

We have become a politically agendized a and polarized society. If that comes as news to you, where have you been? We no longer have common issues. Our once-common issues have become partisan polarized agendas. We no longer vote for people of ability and character, but for the shrillest voice we think can further our agenda. We no longer talk. We engage in shouting matches at town halls and city parks. And we seem to do it mainly for the benefit of the news media we hope will come and give us our 30 seconds of fame and help us go viral on Facebook and Twitter. We offer carefully prepared sound bites rather than meaningful conversations. And our agendas require politically correct verbiage. We immediately attack anyone who is naive or foolish enough to say “sibboleth” rather than “shibboleth” (O.K., you can read all about that sordid episode in Judges 12:5-6). We have become “rhetorical reactionaries,” guilty of “verbal violence” and of attacking anyone who doesn’t react with the appropriate verbiage demanded by our agenda. If you don’t embrace my agenda, use my polarized verbiage, and do it all on my schedule (Now! Not later!), then you are a racist bigot. Any hesitation at describing an event like Charlottesville as “terrorism” or a “hate crime” – even a pause to reflect and think on what has happened – means instant political condemnation. Our agendas demand that we be unthinking “rhetorical reactionaries.” Whether such non-thinking is the cause or the result, our polarization is increasing, not decreasing. No society can survive such polarization for very long. And the fault lies with each of us; you and me, and no one else. And that includes Donald Trump.

O.K., I need to take a moment for some political clarity. I did not vote for Donald Trump (or Hillary Clinton) for reasons I have explained elsewhere. I didn’t vote for him then, and I wouldn’t vote for him (or her) now. I have no interest in either blaming or excusing him. But I am interested in challenging the growing polarization of our shared culture, lest we become a nation of “fools” and their followers.

The Biblical definition of a “fool” is someone who acts without regard for the consequences of his (or her) actions. In other words, they don’t THINK about what they are doing or saying. Such “fools” are willing to sow the seed of anger, bitterness, and hatred without any thought to the harvest of hate, anger and bitterness it will inevitably produce. The leaders of the Charlottesville demonstration, such as the infamous David Duke, are not simply racist bigots promoting an aberrant philosophy of “white nationalism.” They certainly are those things, but it’s actually worse than that. They and their followers embody the Biblical definition of “fools,” people who act without any regard for the consequences of their actions. The consequence of their “foolishness” is the perpetuation of a racial bigotry and hatred that many of us had hoped was in its death-throes. Such “foolishness” breathes fresh life into the almost-dead specters of the past.

But David Duke and his racist ilk are not the only biblical “fools” on the current stage. They share the stage with “foolish” politicians and activists who use such tragedies to behave as “rhetorical reactionaries,” galvanizing their base, furthering their political agendas and deepening the polarized divide in our common social fabric. A biblical plague on both their houses.

Racism, Discipleship And The Kingdom of God

From a biblical perspective, racial bigotry, and the evils which flow from it, including various forms of racial discrimination, is a sin. . The sin of racism embodies an attack on the image of God which we all share in common. Race is NOT a privilege, but a gift. It is a gift from the God Who created us in His image. By sharing that image we share a both an equality and a common dignity. No person, race or ethnicity, is more (or less) equal than any other. To discriminate against any person because of their race or ethnicity is to not only question their dignity and  equality,  but to question our own. We diminish ourselves by diminishing others. All lives matter, because all lives share a common equality and dignity by virtue of a shared image of God. If you are searching for a true and lasting basis for racial and ethnic unity, that’s where you’ll find it. No where else. The English Poet, John Donne was right 400 years ago when he wrote, “any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee” (John Donne, c.1572, Meditation 17). Bells will soon toll in memorial services in Charlottesville. But they won’t toll only for the three victims of that senseless violence. They’ll toll for us. For you and me. A haunting reminder of the price paid for allowing “fools” to guide our thoughts and actions.

But, there’s more. In the Kingdom of God, faith and redemption are the great equalizers of all people and races. According to the Gospel of the Kingdom, everyone of every race and ethnicity enters the Kingdom of God the same way and on the same equal terms: by faith in God’s redeeming work in the person of Jesus, the Christ. As a result of that redemption and inclusion in the body of believers, all traditional distinctions of race and ethnicity disappear, as the Apostle Paul declares:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

“Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” (Colossians 3:11)

In the highly stratified and segregated social structure of the 1st Century, where social, racial and ethnic hatred and bigotry were common, such inclusiveness and equality practiced by the early Christians was nothing short of radical. Apparently, it still is.

But there’s more. In the Kingdom of God, there always is.

In the Kingdom of God, race and ethnicity represent gifts from the One who created us. In the words of the Psalmist, each of us is “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). For a Christian and disciple of the Kingdom to declare that he (or she) is “ashamed” of their race (as I have seen posted on social media recently) is be a “rhetorical reactionary,” a biblical “fool” who is willing to deny both the gift God has given you and the purpose for which He gave it in the false hope of scoring some misguided political point. Our race embodies a gift, but not a purpose. And as disciples of the Kingdom, God will hold us accountable for how we use the gift he has given each of us. Our purpose is to use the gift of our race to glorify the God Who created us in His image, to manifest the values of His Kingdom (including radical equality), and to love and serve others as Jesus demonstrated and commanded.

About Those Confederate Statues

As a disciple of the Kingdom, I am not called to adopt the agendas of this world. The Kingdom of God is its own agenda, and it judges all competing agendas. To uncritically adopt the agendas of this world is to risk being a biblical fool; engaging in activity without regard for the consequences of what I am doing. As a disciple of the Kingdom, I haven’t been called to defend (or destroy) Civil War Statues. But as a Christian and a “son of the South” I think it is time for them to go to museums,  warehouses  and private property or collections. But remember. Unresolved anger and bitterness live on a constant search for objects to attack without ever resolving the underlying cause. Today, that unresolved anger and bitterness are expressing themselves through attacks on monuments. Let me know when that solves your anger issue.

I have a suggestion. I want to suggest that the statue of Robert E. Lee in the public park Charlottesville be moved to a new public location: Arlington National Cemetery. You see, the original 200 acres of Arlington National Cemetery (since expanded to 600 acres) was the property of Robert E. Lee’s wife, Mary Custis. The Custis Lee Mansion (now Arlington House) was their home until it was seized by the Union at the outbreak of the war (the property was designated a cemetery for Union soldiers in 1864). I would suggest that the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville be moved to a prominent location by the Mansion, on the hill overlooking Arlington Cemetery. Why? As a reminder. There are over 16,000 Civil War graves at Arlington, 2.1% of the estimated 750,000 (+) casualties (as estimated by Dr. J. David Hacker) from that terrible bloodletting.  Lee’s statue can serve as a visual reminder of the terrible price we as a nation once paid for the same kind of unresolved racial bigotry, anger, hatred, and bitterness we are witnessing today. Standing on the hill at the Custis Lee Mansion, and alongside Lee’s statue, visitors can survey the 600 acres holding over 300,000 graves. Increase that number by 150% and you’ll only begin to approach the number of lives already lost to racial hatred and bigotry in America. Maybe, just maybe, when the reality of those numbers begins to sink in we’ll be ready to say, “No more. No more.”