If you’re familiar with my preaching at all, you know that I often remind people to lay down their “sacred” and “secular” labels. For followers of Christ, they’re largely unhelpful categories. Christians don’t have “secular” jobs, for example – for the place where a Christian works is a mission field. Christ is fully engaged in that place of employment, and in that job assignment. There’s nothing “secular” about it.
In our careless labeling of this and that as “secular,” we have put up a wall where the Lord intends no wall to be built.
I graduated from high school in 1981. That year, Dr. Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984), who founded L’Abri in Switzerland, identified a critically significant problem that we’re experiencing in American culture: We the People – specifically, We the Church — have backed away from our high calling to influence every corner of society with the good news of Jesus. Here’s a taste of Schaeffer’s “A Christian Manifesto” …
“As we turn to the evangelical leadership of this country in the last decades, unhappily, we must come to the conclusion that often it has not been much help. It has shown the mark of a platonic, overly spiritualized Christianity all too often. Spirituality to the evangelical leadership often has not included the Lordship of Christ over the whole spectrum of life. Spirituality has often been shut up to a very narrow area.”
Please allow me to summarize, hopefully without diminishing. Friends, you and I have retreated from our post. We are failing at our assignment. We have bought into the lie that the Church is to conduct its ministries on the periphery of American life. Also from the “Manifesto” …
“Our view of final reality – whether it is material-energy, shaped by impersonal chance, or the living God and Creator – will determine our position on every crucial issue we face today. It will determine our views on the value and dignity of people, the base for the kind of life the individual and society lives, the direction law will take, and whether there will be freedom or some form of authoritarian dominance.” If that was true in 1981 – and I submit that it was – how much more does it apply to us now?
Friends, the “sacred-secular divide” of which I spoke is antithetical to the Great Commission which was given to us by our Lord. It is not who we’re supposed to be. And it’s not what we’re supposed to be about. In every sphere of life – including the public square – you and I are Christ’s salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16; 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21).
Do not fall into the trap of believing, quite contrary to the claims of Holy Scripture, that “religion” belongs on its own shelf in American life – while art, economics, education, entertainment, government, law, media, politics, science, and sports get to occupy their own more prominent spaces. Last time I read my Bible, it said that every one of those spheres of life falls squarely under the direct claims of our risen Christ.
Last Tuesday, I got a chance to hear John Ashcroft (U.S. Attorney General under George W. Bush, 2001-1005) speak and answer impromptu questions. He told a story that I found compelling. When Ashcroft was a young man, and new to the world of politics, an older lady advised him about his most successful course of action in regard to his emerging life of public service …
“1. Kneel down. 2. Stand up. 3. Speak up. 4. Lay down your life.”
That was sound advice, and it proved to be both wise and costly for Ashcroft. Whether or not you and I enter the field of public service, friends, we can rest assured that we’re called to sacrifice for the truth. Humbly but boldly, we must speak up – and it will cost us.
From a Biblical perspective, life isn’t divided into airtight compartments, you see. All of life is under the Lordship of Jesus. Do you remember the hymn? “This is my Father’s world: O let me ne’er forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet.” Jesus is Lord! He rules over our souls and bodies. He rules over our private thoughts and public pronouncements. Contrary to public opinion, He rules over Church and state. Christ never bailed on His Lordship, but we – His Church – have ceded ground that wasn’t ours to give away.
We can’t blame the intelligentsia. We can’t blame the academy. We can’t blame the media. We can’t even blame the “secular humanists.” Our silence and inaction – the Church’s silence and inaction – created no small void. When a weak Church leaves a void, it never goes unfilled. Other gods and fools rush in. When Christ’s followers won’t speak up, other eager voices scribe the culture’s (and even history’s) metanarrative – including the very definition of truth itself.
And, when pastors won’t speak up, the culture is handed over steadily to those who hate God, despise order, promote chaos, and declare evil to be good. I want to say this with crystal clarity: If you’re not willing to be hated, don’t be a pastor.
Here and now, fidelity to Jesus requires engagement, not disengagement.
It requires boldness, not backpedaling.
It requires obedience, not obfuscation.
From his study of Joshua, A.W. Pink (1886-1952) understood that the people of God are called to take possession of all that He has assigned us to – even in the midst of hostile enemies. Pink understood a powerful and real tension: “On the one hand Canaan was a free gift unto Israel, which they entered by grace alone; and on the other, they had to fight for every inch of it!”
Claiming Christ’s territory doesn’t make us obnoxious. It makes us faithful. In fact, if anything I’ve written here leaves you feeling proud or self-righteous or infuriated by the bad behavior of “all those unbelievers out there” … you have misunderstood me.
What I am saying is this, friends: Now is the time to let our light shine!
This is what it means to reclaim a dying culture: credible testimonies and lives lived for Christ … courageous speech and actions … public and holy boldness … and unflinching commitment to grace and truth. Right now, we can’t afford to be or do anything less.
An earlier “A.W.”, A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), issued an earlier sobering observation: “It appears that too many Christians want to enjoy the thrill of feeling right but are not willing to endure the inconvenience of being right.” In my humble opinion, it’s our timeless Achilles’ heel.
All of this leads me back to where I started. If you’ve ever heard me preach, you likely heard me mention Genesis 3:15. That’s because, from my vantage point, that verse changes everything. Right after the fall in the garden, there’s already gospel hope! A Messiah is well on His way! We know that the serpent’s total defeat under Christ’s heel is certain, but we know that it’s delayed in its fullness. For now, the Lord lets Satan test each generation of God’s covenant people – as God teaches us to battle untruth and stand for His righteousness.
I pray God finds us faithful. You and I are agents of Christ’s reconciliation. Ambassadors of God’s redeeming grace.
“This is my Father’s world: Why should my heart be sad? The Lord is King: Let the heavens ring! God reigns; let Earth be glad!”
Pastor Charles
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