The work of God is to believe

Grace and Truth article

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The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.—John 6:29 NIV

God uses the church to call all people to peace through our Lord Jesus Christ. For much of this year, however, the church in the United States will recess from God’s ministry and devote its energy to electing a Democrat or a Republican to the office of President. In the subsequent four years, the losers will groan and the winners exult.

Consider the difference between what we expect to happen through the election and what will likely occur. Everyone will be exhausted. Peace will not break out. Instead, on Nov. 6 the losing party will begin a campaign to take the White House from the winners.

With all its contradictions and disappointments, politics consumes the energies of modern seekers of all stripes, just as the pursuit of food consumed the energies of the people in John 6.

Nothing is wrong with political activism and food, except they perish and do not deserve disproportionate amounts of our energy and attention. Belief in God demands one’s full attention; politics and food have to follow.

It is one thing to believe in Christ personally, and a vulnerably different thing to convince one’s neighbors to pursue Jesus Christ. It is easy to justify our refusal to share God’s good news because of the bad and worst practices of Christian evangelists. The difficulty is to convince people of eternal things in the face of such overwhelming material bombardment.

Our neighbors’ exasperation with the futility of material pursuits may wear them down to the point where they are ready to hear God’s good news. Often, however, a gap between worldviews challenges Christ’s followers to close the distance between church and neighbor.
I participated in a local anti-oppression group and learned that my understanding of oppression and others’ understanding of oppression differ fundamentally. The more we talked, the clearer it became that we did not understand each other’s worldviews. To some in our group, to proclaim God’s good news as the only way people receive eternal life is itself an act of oppression.

I had to close my lips, pray and reflect on the wide divisions between the political views associated with the church (on my side) and the concerns represented by some in our group. Something greater than a political party must close that gap.

The yearning for freedom from oppression is common to all. Many of our neighbors struggle to find relief and deliverance. It appears the gap has widened between the church and her neighbors over what oppression is, who it is that oppresses people and what deliverance means.

To my neighbors, the message of deliverance from oppression has thudded to the ground. Some in our group are distanced from the church and its understanding of God’s good news. Other neighbors have heard the good news and responded favorably. It is not satisfactory that while some eat and are full, others seek food that perishes, fill their minds with fruitless ideologies and place their hopes in people and parties that are perishing. I long for people to know the true freedom that comes only through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The challenge of this gap between the church and neighbors should stir us to make sure we remove every offense between them so that we present God’s good news of Jesus Christ clearly.

I will not campaign for any other, advocate any party, donate to any campaign fund, attend any forum of one party to contend against another party or vote for anyone in 2004. God’s solution for the oppressor and the oppressed is the one man, Jesus Christ. I reserve all my energy and hope, my labors and efforts to represent him alone.

Karl McKinney, former co-pastor at Reba Place of Rogers Park in Chicago, now works for Mennonite Mission Network.

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Additional Notes

Karl McKinney, former co-pastor at Reba Place of Rogers Park in Chicago, now works for Mennonite Mission Network.