There are so many topics that one can choose to write about
in the church, in personal life, in the life of the nation. There are so many
happenings in the Conference, in the State, and in the Nation. We have many
decisions to make at the personal, local, and national levels in order for our
communities to continue to move forward. Some decisions will be bad, and some
will be good. We can only pray that the decisions we (and our leaders) will
make will be based on ethical values that are consistent with the ethics of the
Kingdom of God
If we believe that God is with us and in us, if we believe
that Jesus Christ leads our lives, that we are moved by the Holy Spirit, then
our way of being must be congruent with the Gospel that Jesus preached and
taught; the Good News that Paul preached and taught.
The Kingdom of God presents us with some basic principles
that we must keep in mind when making decisions that are based on God’s will.
The first principle is love: to love
God with all our hearts, with all our strengths, and with all our minds. Of
course, an integral part of this principle is to love every human being as we
love ourselves. The second principle
is justice: to act justly, to be just. In our dealings with everyone around us
we are called to see all human beings as equal in the sight of God, which means
that we are to treat everyone without regards of race, national origin,
immigration status, gender, class, or sexual orientation. We do not have to
agree with people’s behaviors but must make sure that everyone be protected by
our laws, and be treated with the same care and concern we want people to treat
us. Our actions and attitudes are not always going to be on par with the laws
of the land, this will be a tension that Christians in any country in the world
must confront because our final
allegiance must be to our God.
The third
principle of the Kingdom of God is hope: to live with a sense of God’s will
that a better world is possible. A world where human relations are based on
people’s needs instead of people’s desires, a world where people care for
everyone because they see in each other the image of God, the promise that a
better world is possible because God is in the world. The fourth principle is peace: to do and to promote peace in the world
but not just any peace. The Lord wants that the peace we promote in the world
community be a peace that looks at the needs of all human beings and not a
peace that will benefit some at the expense of others; a peace that promotes
security and development, a peace where everyone has work which promotes self
sufficiency and independence.
With these Kingdom principles in mind, we must strive to
make decisions that are Godly and righteous decisions. These principles lead us
to open the doors of our church to everyone. But not only that, by being
disciples of Christ we are called to go further, we are called to go out into
our communities and invite people to come in, to reach out to people in our
neighborhoods and invite them to be part of our faith community of God’s
household. In simple terms: to share the grace and love of God with everyone we
meet, and where distinctions made based on race, sexual orientation,
theological or ideological ideas, gender, or status are not the focus.
If we want our churches to live the principles of God’s
Kingdom, if we want our faith communities to be expressions of God’s beloved
community, communities that show the diversity in our neighborhoods; we must be
willing and open to “love the stranger.” That is to say, we are called to
receive in our midst whomever the stranger might be, whether they speak English
or not, look like us or not, eat different foods than we do, sing songs
different from ours, or are different in any other way.
In order for us to bring into our circle of faith “the
stranger,” God’s strangers, we must be willing widen the circle to include
everyone God has already called in. No one is left out!
Next time I would like to explore how these principles connect with the three simple rules of the Methodist Societies: Do no harm, Do all the good you can, and observe all the ordinances of God.
