Today’s Scripture
Reading (October 19, 2017): Matthew 18
I have to admit that the American Second Amendment to the Constitution
confuses me. The Amendment, as it is written,
says this - "A well regulated militia, being
necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and
bear arms shall not be infringed." I
understand that I am treading on dangerous ground, but in everything, I like to get to the reason behind
the words. In the case of the Second Amendment, the idea is clear. The defense of
the United States, at the time that the amendment
was passed (December 15, 1791), was almost solely dependent on the
people. The American War of Independence was not quite a decade in the past. If
Britain, or Canada, which at the time was an extension of Britain, was to come knocking again, then the
people needed to be equipped to fight off the invaders. All of that made
complete sense – in 1791.
As we flash forward to
2017, the United States has one of the best equipped standing armies in the
world. No sane nation is going to try a frontal attack on the U.S. Even at the
beginning of the Second World War, the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
was intended to be a sucker punch that kept the U.S. out of the war. The
strategy failed miserably. The enemies of the U.S. now know that any damage
that they can inflict on the nation must be
conducted through terrorist means. And the reality is that too often the
Second Amendment is used against the people. We have taken an amendment, which
was initially meant to keep the nation
secure, and used it to hurt, not the enemies of the United States, but the
citizens. Attacks like the one in Las Vegas, the
Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Sandy Hook, and Columbine High School,
just to name a few, were carried out with the very same weapons that the Second
Amendment guarantees to the citizens of the nation so that they can defend
themselves from foreign aggressors, maintaining the freedom of the country.
The weapons, intended to be aimed outward, have begun to be pointed inward. What is to be done with that fact is up to the American Public,
but we, at least, need to understand that the original conditions that demanded
the Second Amendment, no longer exist.
Jesus parable of the one
lamb who wanders off is essentially the churches second amendment. Only, in
this case, the church seems to want to abolish the amendment. The basic idea of the Jesus story is that if one lamb
wanders off, it is proper for the shepherd to leave the ninety-nine to go out
and find the one. A church member once commented that he never understood the
story. Numbering himself as one of the ninety-nine, he argued that he was more
important than the one who had wandered away. He missed Jesus point. The church
is to be always pointed outwards. We are
designed to be an organization who is still
trying to find the one. The difference between reality and Jesus story is that,
in the church, the ninety-nine are commissioned to go out and find the one –
the job is not just left up to the shepherd. The ninety-nine are equipped (armed) and given the
responsibility of finding the one.
But pragmatically, we have
rejected Jesus instruction. In fact, we want him and his employees to abandon
the amendment and to stop looking outward. We don’t want to be empowered
(armed) to go and look out for the lost, and we wish that Jesus would just look
after us and forget about those who he might consider to be lost. We appear to be very content just being us. After all,
the ninety-nine are more critical than the one. We only wish that Jesus would see the world that
way.
After all, the world is
all about me, and we are disturbed that Jesus doesn’t view our world the same
way that we see it. We are upset that
Jesus keeps sending us, the ninety-nine, out to find the one. And that he keeps
making sure that we are equipped for the task.
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: Luke 10
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