By Pastor Jeff Jacobs
Unity Lutheran Parish –
St. Paul, Saetersdal and
St. Matthew’s, Granger
As I write, Election Day is a few days away; this will not be published until a week after. In these contentious times, I simply pray all goes properly, and that we who are Christians behave well, now and in days to come, as citizens – not just US citizens, but citizens of the kingdom of God.
For most of the Church’s two millennia, few “citizens” had voting rights. They were peasants, farmers and tradespeople, and kings, nobles, bishops and the wealthy controlled the political world. So when Paul wrote to the Ephesian community, “Put way from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander” (Eph. 4:31), he wasn’t addressing external politics, but relations within Church.
Like all institutions in this broken world, the Church was subject to human sins of pride, envy and anger. Paul reminded them the Holy Spirit kindles something better in a redeemed people who were “members of one another” (4:25) and God’s “beloved children” (5:1).
Because “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” (5:2), Paul called the Ephesians – and us – to “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love” (4:32-5:1).
God established the Church as a sign of the coming Kingdom of righteousness, peace and love. It will not be perfected in this life, but pursuing lives of grace, we point to the hope for a renewed society. And we are privileged, as our forebears weren’t, to have a voice in governing society now. So let us not fall into divisiveness, but speak and act in ways reflecting Christ’s intentions for “what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4:29).
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