PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

Acts 23:6–11

Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.” When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things.)

There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. “We find nothing wrong with this man,” they said. “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks.

The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”

CONSIDER THIS

On the one hand, it looks like Paul pulled a trick play right out of the playbook of Sun Tzu. A common enemy produces allies, but if the allies can be turned against one another the focus on the common enemy is lost. And if the alliance can be broken by appealing to a deeper bond between the common enemy and one of the allies, all the better. You’ve heard the saying, “My enemy’s enemy is my friend.” Paul, as a Pharisee, knew the Pharisees believed in the Resurrection of the dead and that the Sadducees did not believe it and further that it was a point of bitter dispute. 

Though it’s not a great analogy, Paul knew Sadducees and Pharisees were something akin to the Democrats and the Republicans today. They weren’t so much political parties as they were theological parties. In my estimation, they weren’t so much theological parties as they were ideological factions. Whenever an ideologically partisan faction masquerades as a theological movement it quickly gets political and people get murdered in the name of “God.” (It’s a much larger and more nuanced conversation but this is the essence of Christian nationalism.)

You’ve heard the saying, “Politics makes strange bedfellows”? That’s what we see here. Some of the leaders of the Pharisees, the ones trying to kill Paul, actually took Paul’s defense. In the end, though, it didn’t work. Rather than getting the attention off of himself, Paul had to be forcibly removed by the soldiers to keep him from being literally torn to pieces. He became the proverbial rope in their game of ideological tug of war.

This is our first sign that the conflict is far more ideological than theological in nature. Do you remember the day when avowed enemies, Herod and Pilate, shook hands in a common alliance against Jesus? That’s the problem with so many religious disputes. They are often just power battles clothed in theological garb. When theology devolves into ideology it’s a short step to idolatry (manipulation and control) which inevitably pushes out doxology (surrender and worship).  The power of the gospel, by its very nature as the power of God, threatened to undermine and undo the power of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

I think there’s a word tucked in here for Christians in an embattled and embittered election year. Religion and politics don’t make for nice company. However, worship and prayer make for good church. 

This kind of thing continues to happen in the church among the people of God to this very day because we choose to stay at the level of religion and politics. In our efforts to fight what we consider to be false ideologies with what we believe to be good theology, we usually wind up becoming counter-ideologues ourselves and the whole thing becomes about power and winning. We tend to slaughter our opponents not so much with weaponry as with our words; and yes, it still happens in the name of “God.”

Unless our theology becomes doxology it is really only veiled ideology that turns to idolatry (i.e., control). 

So how does theology become doxology? Thanks for asking. 

Get down on your knees. Declare aloud, “Jesus is Lord.” 

By way of qualification let me say this: The gospel is political though Jesus is not a partisan. And the kingdom of heaven does mean societal reformation (though we should be wary of social engineering). And certainly, a democratic constitutional republic is worlds different from an ancient imperialistic empire. In the midst of all this complexity, the real worship of God under the lordship of Jesus Christ matters most. Despite all our differences in this society and across the world, we must labor to find each other underneath the banner of the cross in true humility and self-giving love. Only here might we bury our broken politics and behold the resurrection of genuine political engagement. This is what the church is. This is what great awakening looks like. 

THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, I am your witness. I long to be like you. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness.
I receive your love and release my selfishness.

Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.

THE JOURNAL PROMPTS

What questions and concerns does today’s post raise for you? How might we work through any confusion toward clarity; rather than throwing up our hands in frustration over what is admittedly a challenging entry? How might religion and politics be subverted by worship and prayer in your heart? Home? Church? City? Nation? 

THE HYMN

Today we will sing “How Firm a Foundation,” hymn 46 from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. Get your copy here. 

For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt

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