Deepening Your Christian Life XV

I Samuel 15

The rejection of Saul, Israel's first king, by the LORD is a disturbing and powerful story. The insistence by the LORD that the Amalekites be totally wiped out and their property totally destroyed seems excessive. As has been shared before, this "total destruction" strategy of war among the city states was common between them. The objective was not only to win the battle, but destroy the legacy of that people forever. We saw the same strategy commanded in the taking of Jericho (Joshua 6-7) and the execution of Achan because he had taken "the devoted things", those devoted to the worship of the gods of the people around them. The danger was that gradually the people would dilute their single faithfulness to the LORD by adopting the practices of the people around them.

I invite you to take a brief but broad look at the Old Testament history of Israel considering this very real hazard in their development. Remember that the objective of the LORD was to create a covenant people of His own who were to live "holy" (meaning separate, distinctively different) lives in a special "community" (a common unity of values, customs, and above all single faith in the LORD). The risk is that, as the children of Israel encounter people who follow the values, customs, and polytheistic beliefs around them, they will lose their distinctiveness and their sense of relationship and dependence on the LORD and forget who and whose they are. The journey from Egypt to life in the Promised Land (from the orgy before the Golden Calf - a celebration in honor of Ba'al, one of the fertility gods worshipped both in the Sinai Peninsula and in the Promised land - in Exodus 32 forward) was a test of the people to find the LORD as their only God. In fact, it was this issue that made the children of Israel spend 40 years going around in circles through the Sinai! Repeatedly, the people fall into syncretism (the mixing of their faith and lifestyles with the faith and lifestyles of those around them). Monday, when we read of Solomon's rise and fall, we will see a similar pattern. This is also a major theme of the prophets, which they talk about as "spiritual/cultural adultery". Most graphically, the prophet Hosea is asked to take a harlot (Gomer) as his wife as a symbol that the people have prostituted themselves and taken other lovers besides the LORD.

We can say, in response, that we are glad that we don't live by such strictness as the Church and that syncretism is no longer a problem for us. But is that true? When Jesus came, his central preaching and teaching was on "the kingdom of God," a proclamation of God's rule of a people who would "love the LORD their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength" and "love their neighbor as themselves." Those who followed Christ would be formed into a community, a gathering of people within the larger society, a religious version of the Roman "ekklesia", the Church. I Peter 2:9-10 says of the early Christians in the Church,

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God..."

Jesus prays in John 17 :15-19 about his disciples,

"My prayers is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them [set them apart as holy, as distinctively different for your purposes] by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself [I set myself apart] that they too may be truly sanctified."

The experiment of being a separate people of God in the midst of a society that does not share the same values, customs or beliefs is still being carried out in its next version, the Church. The difference is that we are expected to take that distinctiveness and spread it throughout the world, making disciples. The distinctiveness has not changed, but separation has become evangelism.

I believe that this is issue has huge relevance for our own day. So let me conclude by inviting you to consider these questions. First, why is it so important in both the Old and New Testaments that we be holy - set apart as distinctive to the LORD, both as individuals and as a community of people? Second, how might the problem of syncretism (the blending of our values, customs and beliefs with those in society at large) be compromising and even adulterating our faith and sense of community? Third, what does it mean to be in but not of the world? We live at a time in USAmerican history when Christianity is no longer the only major religious and cultural game in town. Can we co-exist and still keep our distinctiveness? We now live in an openly multi-religious and philosophically varied society in which many people are deeply spiritually hungry, but not necessarily wanting that spiritual food from the Christian Church. How do we present the gospel in a way that people can once again receive it? We live in a culture where the values, customs and beliefs of the Christian faith are being pushed to the margins in the biggest arenas of thinking and policy making in our society. How do we avoid total irrelevance? We live in a world where tensions with another evangelistic religion (Islam) are bringing our world to the edge of cataclysmic disaster. There are extremists on both sides (Christian and Muslim) that think the Amalekite strategy (just wipe the other out) is the way to go. What do you think is the proper strategy in light of what the Bible teaches? Your answers to these questions are crucially important, and the future of our faith and our planet are at stake.