BEING THE AWAY TEAM

  An article in last week’s Lookout makes a point I have been bringing up for the last several weeks. Something has profoundly changed in America.  It didn’t happen overnight but none the less it has happened.  America is no longer by default a Christian leaning and thinking nation.  We now face many beliefs and ideas even in our own backyard.  The author of one of the articles who grew up in Canada, where the church as for years been only one of many voices, described it as being the away team at a football game.  The away team can’t count on the crowd support; in fact a good home team won’t make it easy for them.  We see this more and more in the opinions of many Americans towards the church.  We aren’t hearing cheers as much as jeers.  The away team can’t count on the referee’s calls going in its favor.  We see this in many judgments coming down from the Supreme Court, they aren’t going our way.

          Now we can see this as a threat, and it is, but it is also an opportunity to be a witness.  Our response is important to the future of America and to the church.  We need to look to Christ and the early church to know how to respond.  Our response needs to reflect the person and character of Christ.  Christ reached out in love to those who were lost without compromising his beliefs.  To the woman caught in adultery in John 8 Jesus offers acceptance and forgiveness, but he then challenges her to stop sinning.  He didn’t look past her sin, but he didn’t hold it over her either.  He offered her hope.  Our world, our nation, our neighbors could use a big dose of hope.  The world may offer many things, but eternal hope isn’t one of them.  We must believe that we have the answer because we do.