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The Rot of Ingratitude (Politics in the Pulpit #4) (CC Downtown)
Christ Church on December 20, 2024
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Immigration in Clown World (Politics in the Pulpit #3) (CC Downtown)

Lindsey Gardner on

INTRODUCTION

Perhaps you’ve noticed with relief as the political signs suddenly disappear around town. But I noticed one sign has, so far, stubbornly stayed in the front yard with a defiant slogan. The slogan? “We’re all from here.” The postmodern mind wants all cultures to be simultaneously celebrated and indistinguishable. I presume that the owner of the sign would not be keen to have us all ask to be put on the deed to their home, nor would they be interested in any of us moving into the spare bedroom.

 

THE TEXT

And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 19:33-34

 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

As we consider this issue, we must remember that love is the center pillar of the law. Love to God flows out in love to neighbor. As Paul taught, love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom. 13:11). The immigration and assimilation laws of a Christian nation must be governed by the law of love. However, love shouldn’t be confused with saccharine permissiveness.

This law before us in this text demands that in the commonwealth of Israel a non-native who came to dwell in and amongst Israel was not to be vexed. The word vex indicates brutal oppression, particularly by the sword. In other words, ethnic persecution is off the table. But this shouldn’t be confused as a contradiction with the other commandments to entirely drive out the Canaanites, sparing none. The latter is dealing with the conquest, the former is what to do once Israel had settled in their rest.

Also, bear in mind that it was not just Hebrews who followed Moses in the Exodus, there were other families who simply attached themselves to Israel as they left Egypt (Ex. 12:38). Such strangers were to be treated as one native born, and thus the obligations of the neighbor love outlined in the rest of the Law was applicable. This manner of treating strangers is set in contrast to the cruelty which the Hebrews endured during their Egypt enslavement. Hovering over this and every other Law of Moses was the divine authority of the Lord their God.

So then, God’s sovereignty over us and His deliverance of us from bondage should shape everything. This includes how we construct our laws pertaining to immigration.

 

MORE RAW MATERIALS

We need to recognize that in thinking about this issue we are dealing with some of the ugly offspring of Enlightenment thinking. The modern idea of nations has largely been shaped by the individualism which emerged from the Enlightenment. It views people as utterly independent marbles who just so happen to live within the lines on the map. But this neglects the covenantal and familial nature of tribes and nations as found in Scripture.

For instance, strangers who decided to dwell in Israel were required to abide by Israel’s covenant laws. In one case, a half-Israelite man blasphemed the Lord; so Moses, after seeking the Lord’s will, ruled he must be put to death (Lev. 24:10-16). This episode was followed by the introduction of the principle that non-natives must abide by the covenant laws of Israel: Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God (Lev. 24:22).

So then, this would include the prohibition against tampering with boundary lines. “Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof (Job 24:2). Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set (Pr. 22:28). Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen (Deu. 27:17).” Meaning, it would be unlawful for an individual or group of foreigners to come into Israel and erase settled boundary markers. Additionally, a stranger was not allowed to break the Sabbath (Lev. 25:6); if he wanted to observe Passover he would need to fulfill certain legal requirements (Cf. Num 9:14 & Ex. 12:48). One other application is that the Leviticus 24 passage indicates that a stranger could be sentenced to death for blasphemy, and, by implication, any other capital crimes described in the Mosaic law.

 

BLACKMAILING HOSPITALITY

What our nation has been faced with since the 1960s was a system of immigration law that is effectively lawless. Immigration, as envisioned by a general equity of the OT law would provide us a framework where immigrants would need to be committed to abide by our laws (including reasonable immigration requirements), not interfere or undermine the Christian faith, and be committed to working for their own welfare.

The United States has been a desired destination for immigrants nearly since our founding. The appeal was the fact that we were a Christian nation, there was ample opportunity, and unrivaled freedom. This has been supplanted by the offer of partaking of a welfare State if you can simply get here by nook or by crook. This is simply a form of theft, taking the taxes from citizens and giving it to those who have not worked for it. This is State-sanctioned lawlessness. This is jack-booted charity.

Now, this ought to do nothing to curtail the compassion and mercy-ministry of the church. Poverty is a grievous thing, and Christ commands us to take compassion on the impoverished. But that compassion, generally speaking, is expressed in Scripture through opportunity to work (as seen in the gleaning laws). God’s compassion on us is free grace, but it is free grace that raises us up into true worship and service.

As we face the prospect of a program of deporting illegal immigrants en masse we must also be cautious to not become lawless or cruel in carrying out this duty of justice. The enemies of truth will delight to blackmail the Christian duty of hospitality to advance the lawless program of socialistic governmental maternalism. The State broods over everything, insisting on caring for us all, and therefore it cannot imagine turning any away from its nest. It wants its nest to contain the whole world. Biblically thinking Christians need to recognize two things: first, the breaking of our immigration laws should be met with justice; and, secondly, we need to refuse to have our biblical duty of generous hospitality weaponized against us.

We’re commanded in Hebrews: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares (Heb. 13:2).” This is not a mandate to the State but to Christian households. Hospitality to immigrants means to treat them with the love of Christ, summoning them to join us here in the courts of Jehovah, and not oppressing them. Our civic rulers are tasked with not showing pity to the lawless (Lev. 24:16). However, not showing pity is not the same thing as administering cruelty. Mobs are wicked, even mobs who think they are moving in a righteous direction.

 

LOVE GOD, HATE SIN

In this season of political opportunity we must be ever mindful that our Christian duty is to love what God loves, and to hate what God hates. God hates the slop of globalist gobbledygook which the propagandists tell us is our strength. False gods and those who serve them are not our strength (and that holds true for citizens and non-citizens). God also hates ethnic vainglory and inhospitality. So in thinking this through, don’t forget that either.

All nations are included in our mandate of global discipleship. But you can’t disciple the nations if you are not walking by faith and obedience to all of Christ’s commands. A Christian nation which gladly watches its borders erased, its God blasphemed, and its property stolen will no longer be in a position to teach the nations anything, let alone disciple them in the ways of the Lord. Freedom only comes to a nation through the forgiveness we receive through Christ. Forgiveness assumes two things: a law which was broken, and a promise to no longer reckon it against us. We do great evil to grace by neutering the force of the law. Our aim must be the endgame of all nations enjoying the freedom which Christianity ushers in to a culture.

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A Ziggurat of the Unborn (Politics in the Pulpit #2) (CC Downtown)

Lindsey Gardner on

INTRODUCTION

The conservative Christian cause emerged victorious on many levels this week. But one of the most important principles of warfare is to not get lost in the fog of victory and give way to gathering spoil before the enemy is entirely scattered. God has kindly given us a tailwind for advancing Biblical justice and truth in the civic sphere. The enemies of God have made it plain that they will not renounce or retreat from the need to heartlessly destroy the unborn. Victory is not permission to set down your weapons. Rather, it is the best opportunity to press our advantage.

 

THE TEXT

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.
Isaiah 49:15

 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Isaiah foretold the various exiles that were approaching both Israel and Judah for their rebellion and idolatry. When the just calamities arrived, Zion would be tempted to ask whether God had forgotten them. To answer this, Isaiah, by the Spirit’s inspiration, gives one of the most tender statements of God’s mercy which is found in Scripture. God summons to mind the image of a nursing mother tenderly cherishing the son of her womb. God points at that and asks a question. Could a mother treat the child which was knit in her womb with disdainful indifference? Could a nursing mother forget to kiss those sweet cheeks, or to nurture the vulnerable life of her infant?

The picture of a woman nurturing her child is a true picture. It is feminine glory. To mar that image is to mar femininity itself. Nevertheless, there have always been horrific instances of women who neglect, abandon, or even slay their young child (Cf. Deu. 28:56-57). Such mothers may vandalize this painting, but the Painter of that image, which is the Truth behind that image, will not and cannot mar it. God declares to Zion that He will not forget her.

The consequences for our sin may cause us to think God has forsaken and forgotten us. But the wonder of the Gospel is found in this incomprehensible mercy of God. He will not forget. He has graven the name of His people upon the palms of His hand. The Gospel, as presented here in Isaiah, requires a true portrait of maternal and feminine glory. For that image is a shadow of the true mercy found in the heart of God the Father towards the Church.

 

THE HORROR WE DON’T ABHOR

Therefore, the horror of abortion which we have culturally tolerated is an affront to the very Gospel. It is not a long and involved argument to show from Scripture that human life begins at conception in the womb of the mother. Jeremiah was set apart by the Lord from the womb (Jer. 1:5). Moses’ Law applied lex talionis for the crime of striking a woman and causing her to miscarry (Ex. 21:22-25). In both the story of Jacob & Esau doing jiujitsu in Rebekah’s womb, along with the story of John the Baptist leaping at the voice of Mary, who was already pregnant with Jesus, we see undeniable evidence that life begins in the womb. Not only that but significant theological categories are established in these stories. Many Psalms praise the providential hand of God knitting us together within our mother’s womb, and being our covenant God from our conception. The incarnation of Christ in Mary’s womb requires us to affirm that the union of God with human flesh took place at the holy conception.

But our nation has insisted that the authoritative Word need not shape how we think about life in the womb. We have chosen instead to draw an arbitrary line the sand for when life is viable according to the expertise of the all-wise and never fallible physician. For instance, Arizona passed a constitutional amendment enshrining the right of every individual to abort their child before “fetal viability” which they define this way: “Fetal viability” means the point in pregnancy when, in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional and based on the particular facts of the case, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.

The white lab coats of the medical industry have become the robes of a priestly class. It is by their omens and priestcraft that it can be discerned when a child must be sacrificed to the gods. Our nation has refused the Word of God and has submitted to the word of health care professionals.

 

THE TENDER MERCIES OF THE WICKED

The abomination that is abortion demonstrates that truth of Proverbs 12:10 that the tendermercies of the wicked are cruel. When God made an image of Himself He made man with righteousness, knowledge, spiritual life, and authority. Genesis teaches that image is displayed in both male and female, not male alone. This is because in the union of husband and wife there is the possibility of the conception of more image bearers. The womb of the woman is where those image bearers are seemingly brought out of nothingness into being.

The wicked feign compassion for women’s rights. Yet their mercy is as a tender as a bludgeon. Their compassion is as soft as a brick to the back of the head. They have persuaded an entire generation of women to despise the glory of bearing in their wombs a being which will exist forever. A being whose purpose is to hymn God’s praise for everlasting days, dwelling in the joy of God’s joyful life and light. The progressives and squishy conservatives have deluded themselves into thinking that women can determine to snuff out such a life without any eternal consequence or guilt. Mothers are told they can crush that skull, dismember that body, poison it with saline, turn it away through a blockade of pills and not bear any guilt or shame.

We might stand astonished at the tales of gruesome horror from ages and cultures in the past like Nineveh or the Aztecs. But we daily erect a ziggurat of unborn babies throughout our nation. And we have the deluded pride to proclaim that it is health care for women. That’s like a little boy throwing a baseball through his parent’s living room window and then claiming to be a home renovator. The health of a woman is found in honoring God with her feminine glory, and in that alone. This is worship. Offering up our bodies as living sacrifices. This is faith. For the Christian, bearing godly seed (Mal. 2:15) is an act of faith that this world will be remade and will be filled with a countless multitude of redeemed men and women.

 

A WORD TO OUR NATION

So, to God’s people, do not despise the feminine glory of a mother nurturing her child from conception. For this is to cherish the greater glory of God’s everlasting mercy to His people.

To the State and Federal Government, the Word of Christ demands that you end this atrocity speedily. Christ, by His Word, commands that you unsheathe the sword of justice against this grievous injustice.

Nationally, we have sinned grievously. The various calamities which have visited us are the result of our stubbornness. Yet God points to a picture of a nurturing mother and says His tender-mercy is like that, only greater and higher and further.

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Voting in the Unraveling (Politics in the Pulpit #1) (CC Downtown)

Lindsey Gardner on

INTRODUCTION

We are on the cusp of another election. It is incumbent upon God’s people to understand what we are and aren’t doing when we vote. The message of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ is Lord of Heaven and Earth, and therefore all matters fall under the purview of His authority. Politics isn’t some dirty thing that Jesus is too holy to have anything to do with. Rather, the civic realm is to submit itself to the scepter of Christ’s righteousness, cleaning its stained robes in the blood of Christ the Redeemer of the World.

 

THE TEXT

Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God: And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace. So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said. And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.

Exodus 18:19-26

 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Here we have the foundation and precedent for representative governance. As the nation of Israel was being formed in the Sinai wilderness, Jethro offered counsel to Moses regarding the resolution of various sociological episodes. Moses ought to spend his time teaching the people God’s Law. His task was instruct the people as to how to walk before the Lord (vv19-20). But the great prophet of Israel need not conduct the exam or grade the papers. Thus, Jethro counsels the appointment of God-fearing men into a tiered form of judgement (vv21-22 ). If Moses would heed this counsel, Jethro insightfully foresaw that the people could go about in peace (v23). Moses took on board this good counsel and implemented it right away (vv24-26).

This had two effects over time in the life of Israel. First, it placed an expectation amongst men that they were to be raised up to some degree of leadership before God and unto the people. Responsibility was laid on the shoulders of parents to raise sons who could eventually judge rightly and in accordance with the Wisdom of the Law of the Lord. Second, this also led, eventually, to the establishment of the synagogue system wherein the community would (in various ways) elect their elders. This then was incorporated into the life of the early church, where elders and deacons were put forward by the people (Cf. Acts 1:20-26 & ch.6). Moses once longed for all of God’s people to be prophets, full of His Spirit of Wisdom (Num. 11:29). At Pentecost, God filled His people with His Spirit, in order that they might all serve Him in their various offices and callings, with Christ as their head.

 

WHAT IS VOTING?

Voting is not a sacred duty. Your sacred duty is here on the Lord’s table. But we can rightly speak of voting as a civic duty. It is a duty of reminding our three branches of government that their power rests on the consent of those governed. By not voting you are arguably consenting to be governed by whomever everyone else picks.

Of course, our nation has more than a few corridors which even the most meatheaded building inspector would condemn for demolition. This includes the silly commitment of progressives to expand voting to more and more people, hunting for an infallible word under the banner of democracy. The 19th amendment effectively just doubled the number of votes for married couples that vote the same and cancelled out the votes of those who vote against each other. Still others advocate for lowering the voting age to 16 or lower. But this is misunderstanding the mechanics and meaning of voting.

A vote is the citizen’s participation in selecting which person should be given the particular job description which the constitution gives to them. Power is corrupting, and this is why our government was chopped into three segments. Your vote is an exercise in dominion over these branches. The term “citizen magistrates” is an appropriate way to describe it. This was a glorious development which our founding fathers brought into history.

In voting you are exercising a certain amount of God-given authority over the constitutional government we have consented to be governed by. It is through wise and prudential casting of votes that we remind politicians that government is not God, but answers to God through the conscience of “we the people” and the lesser magistrates we elect. The potency of our vote is thus greatly weakened by faithlessness and unfaithfulness. If Christ is not the acknowledged head of a nation, it will lead inevitably to godless men attempting to take dominion of the world for the glory of man instead of the glory of God.

De Tocqueville offered a worthwhile perspective in his evaluation of early American life and government: “The nation participates in the making of its laws by the choice of its legislators, and in the execution of them by the choice of the agents of the executive government.” In voting for the executive you are selecting the man best suited to executing the laws of our nation. In electing senators & representatives you are selecting the man best suited to drafting laws. This principle also should be born in mind when selecting sheriffs, mayors, and city council members.

 

HOW SHOULD YOU VOTE?

Our constitution is structured in such a way as to reward the victor of an election and leave the loser with absolutely nothing to show for their labors except for a pile of cheesy campaign ads. In a parliamentary system, losers often still get a slice of the pie. But American elections are winner-take-all. This helps to answer the question how should I vote? Who do you want to give constitutional authority to? Who do you think will best stay within the confines of that constitution and honor the biblical precepts which the founders envisioned? Who will secure the blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Conversely, it often helps to ask yourself, who do I want to make sure is never given power over me and my children and my liberty and my earthly possessions?

This is all another way of say that your civic duty to vote must be done in unwavering faith in the fact that Christ sits upon the right hand of the Father. He is ruling over the nations with the rod of His Word.

“Thy Kingdom come” is a plea for Christ’s majesty to illuminate all the earth; not only the mountains of religious life in the ecclesiastical sphere, but in the plains of economy, in the hills of civics, along the lush river valleys of family life. But the light of Christ must not be restricted to only that, the light of Christ must and will shine in the dens of sin and in the crevices of wickedness. There must be no corner of this planet which is not bright with the warm and piercing light of this Gospel. Our job is to apply that Gospel wherever we go, including the voting booth.

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