Make Straight Paths
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“People ask me how it happens that my children are all so promptly obedient and so happy. As if it chanced that some parents have such children or chanced that some have not! I am afraid it is only too true, as someone has remarked, that “this is the age of obedient parents!” What then will be the future of their children? How can they yield to God who have never been taught to yield to human authority? And how well fitted will they be to rule their own households who have never learned to rule themselves?”
What is activism as it applies to the American, Christian man, and how is it done? We must first till the fallow ground in our own acres before we move on to the white harvest of the local church and greater society. Let us go to the Corner Stone and start from there.
Jesus' family values, by modern social standards, seem unemotional at best and otherwise downright terse and unfeeling. Key phrase: by modern social standards. In Charles E. Moore's essay, Jesus' Surprising Family Values, published in the Plough Quarterly Magazine, the analysis is simple:
Jesus told a would-be disciple who wanted to show basic decency to his deceased father, “Let the dead bury their own dead” (Luke 9:60). He commanded his disciples: Leave parents, siblings, spouse – even “hate” them – and follow me. When his own mother and brothers came to see him, Jesus’ reaction was terse: “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Looking at those seated around him he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:31–35).
While he never denied the family’s worth as a creation of God, he made clear that its importance is not absolute; it is not the primary means by which God’s grace is transmitted to this broken world. Something else is.
Jesus calls his disciples to give their allegiance first and foremost to him. Those who forsake human security, including their families, will receive “a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29–31). In calling into question the primacy of the family, Jesus asks us to imagine a different social order, an all-encompassing community based not on natural ties but on discipleship. Jesus came to establish the new family of God[...].
This "different social order" is clearly demonstrated in Acts 2:41-47. (All reference to the hippie movement aside) The early church was a communal body. The communion of the saints was in no wise limited to the common bond of salvation or in just sharing the Eucharist and other sacraments, but was a symbiotic telepathy between believers all over the world. One in need means all are in need. One who suffers means all suffer.
Furthermore, this patriarchate role is in no wise contrary to the institution of the family unit in the Old Testament. We see this value of discipleship illustrated in the failure of Adam, as well as in the success of Noah, Abraham and Moses.
Adam's and Eve's eyes were only opened when Adam partook of the fruit because Adam was who broke the covenant with God. This does not mean that Eve couldn't be held responsible, and she was. But God's relationship with Eve, as Adam's helpmate, was a product of His direct communion with Adam.
In the days before the flood, all the earth was wicked. Even Noah and his family. But Noah found grace in the eyes of God. And God made Himself and his plan of salvation manifest unto Noah, who then became the mediator through whom his family found redemption.
God spoke with Abraham. Out of all the men on earth and all the members of Abraham's family, he was the one with whom God chose to commune personally. But through his devout following of God, his household was saved, and went forth to become God's chosen nation.
Through Moses did God speak, and afford an escape for all the Children of Israel in Egyptian bondage. No other man would God speak through at that time. Though Aaron was right by Moses' side, Aaron only heard the Words of God as they were given to him by Moses.
As individuals, our wives, children and other dependents must make their own rational choices. But as men of God and family leaders, we are doubly accountable unto God for the spiritual maintenance of our families. We are responsible for the level (or lack) of Christian activism in our homes. The next problem comes in the form of ignorance. Most men have no clue what Christian activism is.
"I just don't feel called to that type of ministry." These are the times I want to make like Saint Nicholas and slap a brother in the face. When you witness with your own eyes the death, destruction, and septic corruption of the world around us, but you turn your cold heart against it because you haven't received some Damascus Road revelation specifically commissioning you to go out and do what you've already been commanded to do, you are not much of a man at all.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. - James 1:27
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. - Matthew 25:42-43
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lordrequire of thee, but to dojustly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8
As Christian men and activists, our families should see us daily putting the will of the Father before them. This is difficult and does not appeal to the emotions, but it is both scriptural and manly. We must radically shift every aspect of our lives to accommodate Christ the Pinnacle.
Christian Activism is doing. Let that statement be the prelude of part two.
The Blue Shepard
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