A Moment Aside --- 31 August 2021
Some of these words sound strange.
“Fiction” –
Something held to be made up, and therefore, untrue.
“Empire” – The
un-Godly powers of the world, often quite selfish.
“Gospel” – the Good
News of Jesus Christ and the way of life it engenders
“Judged” – Assessed,
looked at, considered for its value
So Gospel and Empire judge
each other and find the other to be fiction. Empire doesn’t like Gospel because
Gospel criticizes it, finds it empty and without the eternal value Empire
awards itself. Empire is full of self-aggrandizement and the worship of itself.
It will go to great lengths of violence and terror to build itself up in front
of others and in its own eyes. Empire demands service and fear on its own
terms.
Gospel stands against
Empire because it serves the will of God and the freedom of God’s people.
Gospel gathers followers through freedom and forgiveness. Gospel knows Empire
to be false and empty, even if it is powerful in an earthly sense. Gospel
serves out of love and will suffer what Empire deals out.
Empire says it will last
forever… but it never does. Gospel knows it will last forever because it serves
God and God’s people in God’s grace.
For I think that God has exhibited
us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have
become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals. We are fools
for the sake of Christ… (1 Corinthians 4:9-10a)
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