Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.” Luke 11:17
When breaking down the above passage from Luke’s Gospel, one discovers that it basically says what it says in our English translation, just as it did in the original Greek. The message contained in this passage is not an enigma; it is not cryptic or mysterious. It is written plainly and easy enough to understand for the simplest of readers to get the point. Sometimes a kingdom is a kingdom and a house is a house, as in the scripture above.
Undoubtedly, scholars who read this and don’t agree with my assessment will soon be scurrying for their study tools to prove me wrong , and I just couldn’t resist baiting them. Hee hee hee.
My purpose in writing this is born of an exercise that a church group of mine did the other night. Our facilitator, a Godly man in my eyes, divided the room into two parts; one Left and one Right. Those on the left he called (for the purpose of the exercise) Liberals. Those on the right side of the room were deemed Conservatives.
After not a little bit of moaning, he instructed us as to our objective in the exercise. Those of us on the left side of the room were to state why we supported the liberal candidate, while those on the right were to do the same for the conservative candidate.
This seemed to be an easy task for both groups; the political commercials had already begun airing, after all, and the spin doctors had begun to take their toll on all of us. But then the facilitator threw u s a curveball; he insisted we use only reasons that we could back up Biblically. I can assure you, to make the scene accurate you must insert more moaning here.
Being a man who likes to think of himself as politically informed, I was one of the more vocal protesters, finding myself on the opposite side of the room than I would have chosen given the chance. Now this is a great group of people, and they were game in trying to find Biblical reasons for supporting each candidate, whether or not they agreed with their side of the room. There were few exceptions to this, and I, I must shamefully confess, was one of them.
I didn’t want to play in my political stubbornness, and after a few moments I excused myself and found my way outside to the porch, where I was soon joined by a friend from the other side of the room. He, like me, was on a side he would not have chosen.
This man who joined me is what I would call a close friend . When it comes to Jesus, we see most everything eye to eye. We have had many conversations covering a plethora of topics, and rarely do we disagree. Perhaps the lone exception to our unity is politics; he leans hard one way, and I the other. Given the peculiarity of our relationship, one might think we would avoid talking politics, but this is not the case. On the contrary, we probably choose that topic to discuss more than any other.
In spite of these core differences in political beliefs, we have managed to remain friends and grow closer as we’ve come to know one another. Somehow, we have managed to put our differences aside and accept each other on common ground. In many ways, our relationship symbolizes the state of our country; when it comes to politics we are divided, despite the many things we share in common.
Inside the house, the exercise continued; the room divided into two parts, and an empty space in between, with only the facilitator in the middle. It was with this image in mind that I decided to write this.
It is no secret that our nation has been divided in the last several elections. The same is true with the polls when it comes to the issues. Pick an issue, any issue and see if that’s not the case.
I think when it comes to my friend and I, we use Jesus to help us bridge the gap. On this bridge we find we are able to meet in the middle, moving from the right and the left respectively, until we are close enough to be united.
When I looked down the center of that room I saw two groups, one representing Left America, and one representing Right America, and a lone man standing in the center. This represents to me how my friend and I come together despite our differences.
I love our friendship, just as I love this country. If those of us on the left can just move toward the center, if those of us on the right can just do the same. If we can believe that Jesus is standing in the middle and flock to Him, we will no longer be divided. Instead of two groups we would be one, instead of division we would have unity, instead of politics we would have community, instead of desolation we would have life…the list goes on.
The relationship endures for my friend and I, the same is true for my group, where a strong sense of community prospers.
Can this be done by an entire nation? I don’t know. I do know it can be done by two men on opposite sides of the spectrum. I also know that it can be done by the little group that meets from my church, even though we seem to be a diverse collection of souls. My prayer is that our nation can do it; that somehow we can look to God and trust Him to help us deal with our differences.
People are different, so I doubt that in this world we can ever all agree, but we can meet in the middle, we can get along, we can respect each other, we can love each other.
My intent in writing this is not political; it is simply to express my perspective that community is possible, no matter what we think of issues or politics or religion.
I will leave you with another scripture, may God bless each of you with peace and joy, and may we find a way to share His love on common ground.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13:34
