Anglican Perspectives

The Race Before Us

 

Like many of you, I stayed up late, well after 1am, to watch the Chicago Cubs become world champions in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. I haven’t watched many “Game 7’s” in the world series, but this one was so evenly matched, so full of heart-stopping drama, so well fought that it must go down as one of the best (if not THE best) in the history of the World Series!

 

I also appreciated what Terry Francona, the Manager of the losing Cleveland Indians, said of his team: “They need to walk out of here with their heads held high because they left nothing on the field… they tried until there was nothing left.” I think the same could be said of Chicago—everyone played their hearts out. Nobody was sure of the outcome until the very end.

 

In many ways it was a picture of the heroic effort and focus that Paul wrote at the end of his life to Timothy:

 

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the LORD, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:7-8)

 

As followers of Jesus Christ in North America, we too are in a great contest. Here in the United States, we are fast approaching the day when we will elect our next President. It has been a race that has deeply disturbed many of us. This presidential race has challenged us to search our hearts and souls for a way that we can vote that is most faithful to God’s word and his Kingship.  Reasonable, biblical Christians have disagreed—and I have followed all of the arguments online and in social media.

 

I’m not going to add to the arguments—but I am going to challenge us with this truth:

 

The race will NOT be over on November 9. Whoever is elected President of the United States will inherit a nation that is deeply divided along economic and racial lines, with a government that faces a host of seemingly insoluble problems, and a thoroughly secular culture that is becoming increasingly hostile to the Christian faith.  On November 9, as followers of Jesus Christ in the Anglican way, how will we engage a culture that is post-Christian, increasingly pagan, religiously pluralistic, and hostile to our faith and our churches?  There. I’ve said it.

 

What can we do to run the race NOW, and in the days ahead, as Paul did?  What can we do to leave nothing on the field, to “run in Christ” until there is nothing left? Let me suggest a couple of things we can do.

 

  1. Pray!

The problems we are facing today are beyond fixing by any political leader. The problems we are facing today are beyond any secular institution’s ability to solve. As Christians who honor God’s word, we understand that the root of all our problems—greed, racism, violence, etc.—is sin. (Romans 3:23). Sin is our natural, human, willful rebellion against God which alienates us from God, each other and the human dignity with which he has created us. This is a spiritual problem.  If we want to bring the whole gospel to bear on the whole person, we must address the spiritual roots as well as the tangible fruits. Otherwise we are simply applying band-aids to a head-wound.

 

Jesus told a parable about a woman facing an impossible judge, “To show them [his disciples, including you and me] that they should always pray and not give up.” (Luke 18:1ff) This parable comes in Luke toward the end of Jesus’ public ministry, when peoples’ expectations of him as a political Messiah are at fever pitch, while the reality of Jerusalem and his death on the cross is impending. It’s almost as if Jesus was saying to his disciples then, and to you and me today, “Look, you’ve got to get rid of that triumphalist attitude. You’ve got to settle in for the long haul.  You have to stand, and stand, and stand again in the face of evil that’s ramping up—and you’ve got to do that– like the widow– through persevering prayer.”

 

We need to have the widow’s stance in prayer that will not back down in the face of impossible situations, discouragement and delay.  I love what Malcolm Smith says about this kind of prayer:  “Prayer is joining my will and my determination to the will of God, knowing that the will of God is RIGHT.” (I recently preached on this topic) 

 

In the American Anglican Council’s REVIVE! Church revitalization workshops , we challenge leaders and congregations to start with prayer. It’s the highest priority and the most important “first step” we ask leaders to take. Have you assembled a prayer team at your church to ask God to show you what HE wants to do through you and your church, in your community, in 2017 and beyond? Have you considered joining your prayer team with teams from other churches in your community—to pray for your city, and to pray for repentance and revival in America?

 

  1. Work together with likeminded, Biblical Christian across denominational lines to defend our religious liberties and partner together in mission

 

As I posted from Washington DC, last week, Dr.Albert Mohler rightly noted that America is now moving from aggressive secularism to triumphalist secularism—that stage in which secular authorities and institutions will no longer tolerate peaceful coexistence with religious faith. We see this in the September 2016 report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights which claims that faith groups are using religious freedom as a pretext for “discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any other form of intolerance.”  Translated: if the government decides Christians are not being “politically correct” in their public speech and actions, our sincerely and freely held Biblically based beliefs can be deemed mere discrimination and punished accordingly.

 

In 2017, The American Anglican Council will assume a greater leadership role in the The Common Ground Christian Network Our goal is to partner with like minded, Biblical Christians from all denominations in defending our religious freedoms so that we can fulfill Christ’s Great Commission together. We are coordinating this with the launch of The Anglican Lawyers Network within the Anglican Church in North America to further this partnership and to resource Anglican leaders to defend their congregations from such attacks.

 

In the months ahead the Common Ground Christian Network will send a “Pastoral Letter” to all of its members—including Anglicans—to educate all of our churches about the growing threats to religious freedom in America, how to anticipate these attacks and how to defend against them.

 

But we are also going to work together on missionBecause we share a common Biblical faith and commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of all we have no reason to silo ourselves behind denominational walls. There is too much at stake to let denominational differences impede us from making disciples in North America (Matt. 28:16-20) together. We will engage each other, to explore how we can partner in planting new churches, revitalize and remission existing churches, and engaging millions of unreached Americans with the transforming love of Jesus Christ together.

 

  1. Remember where your true citizenship lies

 

“But our citizenship is in heaven.  And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”  (Philippians 3:20). 

 

Until Jesus comes, Paul teaches us to run the race.  Leave nothing on the field.  We must do everything we can, in the time we have left, to extend God’s Kingdom here in North America. The Kingdom of God is not Republican.  It is not Democrat, Libertarian or Green. The Kingdom of God is the range of God’s effective will, where what God wants done IS done (Dallas Willard). We find the range of God’s effective will in God’s word, the Bible. Our job now is to leave nothing on the field as we search the Bible and ask God what he wants to do through us, and our churches in our communities before Jesus comes back. And then we need to spend ourselves as fully as those players did in Cleveland, pursuing a much greater loyalty than team or country.  We must do all we can to extend God’s Kingdom, in Christ’s transforming love, and all through the power of His Holy Spirit.

 

Phil-Ashey-2014The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey is President & CEO of the American Anglican Council.

 

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