c. scott andreas

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Click here to get your tickets from Fandango.

Saturday, July 29, 2006.

President Bush:

Greetings.

I’m writing to humbly request that your administration adopt a consistent ethic of Life and Justice.

Recently, you exercised your veto power for the first time to strike down a bill supporting stem cell research on unviable embryos which are currently discarded. This research could very well offer us new treatments for diseases such as AIDS and several cancers, potentially saving thousands of lives and countless suffering in the lives of our families and friends.

This bill received bi-partisan support and was passed by the senators and congressmen and women whom we have chosen to represent us.

These embryos are not “destroyed” in the research process - they represent thousands of cells yearning to become something beautiful and life-giving. Your policy discards them as medical waste. Yet this research could result in a tremendous victory for Life.

Medical researchers and scientists are more than willing to take on this endeavor. And the afflicted are crying out in hope for life and justice.

Will you not hear?

Hopefully yours,

c. scott andreas

I recently listened to an interview with Benedictine nun Sister Joan Chittister on religion and politics in the Bush Administration. She’s a social psychologist with a Ph.D. and 11 honorary degrees and a prolific writer. Here is a brief excerpt:

I do [feel called by God], but I don’t feel called by God to impose my life on yours. I believe that I’m called by God to keep God a constant question in the human heart. I believe that anything that uses God as an instrument of oppression on other people is not of God.

To have a religious voice in the public arena is very faithful to the founding fathers. Therefore, no single church or tradition that weighs and measures everybody else’s attitudes, standards, or moral decisions…But when you take a religious voice and turn it into a religion in the center of the system, there’s something wrong with that.

When you begin to use that kind of religious criteria and translate it into law, into God’s call for Armageddon — why are we in Iraq now? God apparently wants us there? Not my Jesus. If those are the criteria, we’re going to be in a lot of other countries for “religious reasons” in another 12 months.

Bill Moyers: Depending on the sources, there’ve been 37,000 civilians killed in Iraq — many say perhaps 100,000. Why is abortion a higher moral issue with many American Christians than the invasion of Iraq and the loss of life there?

Sister Joan: I’d like to ask you that question. I’m absolutely certain that some women we’re killing over there are pregnant women. Now what do you do?

Just because you’re opposed to abortion does not mean you’re pro-life. Just because you want a child born does not mean you want a child fed, a child educated, a child housed…That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth.

We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of “Pro-Life” is.

Listen to the interview here if you like. Let’s start this conversation.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow recently stated on national television:

What the president has said is that he doesn’t want human life destroyed.

I wish to support our president in this endeavor. Over the next several days, I will begin publishing open letters written by myself (and perhaps you) to our nation’s leader.

My goal is not to criticize the current administration. There’s enough of that. I’m here to encourage those in leadership to adopt a consistent ethic of Justice and Life.

If Mr. Snow is quoting our president accurately, I look forward with hope to the changes that will result.

I pray that our nation’s leader might hear and respond to this prophetic call to Justice and Life which he claims to embody.

Join me in this, won’t you?

- csa

This is the formal conclusion to a four-part series; I may or may not extend it.
Read parts one, two, and three.

I concluded the previous installment by highlighting a portion of Jesus’ statement which I believe has profound implications for us today. Now, we’ll explore what he meant by this.

Jesus tells us that “the Kingdom of God is at hand.”

Other translations of this text include “is/draws near and draws nigh.” The Greek word used here is “eggizo“. It means to join one thing to another or to approach. There are two implications for this interpretation. First, we see that the Kingdom of Heaven is immediately available to us — we need only respond to this call to repentance (that is, allow our minds to be completely transformed — from which action will flow).

Second, we see that the Kingdom of Heaven is approaching the kingdoms of the world. As God has no intention of retreating, his Kingdom will crash into earth as he reclaims, restores, and renews what is His.

When a king comes to visit — or better yet, take up residence, it’s a pretty good idea to put things in order. We see this in the Parable of the Ten Minas in Luke 19 (a mina was about three month’s wages for a laborer). In this parable, a king entrusts three servants with a significant amount of resources in order that they might invest and grow them. But we’re told that “his citizens hated him…saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’” In this story, those who submit themselves to the authority of the king are trusted and loved. Conversely, those who refuse the king’s authority and failed to obey him were put to death.

As such, we’ve good reason to submit ourselves to the Kingdom of God. We’re called to trust in Him, to freely give as we have received, to minister to widows and orphans, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked — in other words, to be Just. The King calls us to push against the pain and brokenness of sin. Though we’ve long participated in its destruction, we must do what we can to make good on it. Not for salvation’s sake (at least as we tend to think of it). But because we know that the will of the King is obedience, justice, restoration, and renewal. Waiting around for him to simply return would be much like the third servant in the story of the minas. He was viciously scolded and had what was entrusted to him taken away.

Today, Christ calls us to enter into the Kingdom, much like he called his first-century disciples. What might living life in the Kingdom of Heaven look like today?

Greek references from Blue Letter Bible.

This is the third part of a series. Read the first and second parts.

Previously, I’d asked why it is important that we repent in the manner Christ called us to repent — such that our minds are utterly and completely transformed.

Jesus tells us that “the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Many interpret this to mean that the world will soon end — thus, people should repent now so they don’t wind up in hell later. Well, sure. But this is quite a reductionistic interpretation. Let’s take a closer look at this phrase.

First, “kingdom” used in the context of a first-century Jew did not refer to a physical place as we understand it. Instead, it indicated the right or authority to rule over a people. The word has much more to do with sovereignty and obedience than it does a spot on a cosmic map.

Our culture tells us that “heaven” is a place in the clouds where angels play harps and you get to do whatever you want — say, throw rocks at me for rambling. This was not what Jesus’ meant by heaven — nor did he mean a far-off place where we’ll one day go to worship God. The word for heaven, “ouranos” referred to the “order of things eternal and…perfect where God dwells.”

The “Kingdom of Heaven” refers to God’s authority to rule over the created universe.

Therefore, Jesus speaks to those who do not recognize God’s authority. His primary message is a call to obey the Lord as the good, wise, and just ruler of an eternal kingdom whose bounds are limitless.

What’s more — this Kingdom is “at hand.”

Check back on Friday for the (formal) conclusion of this series. Until then, leave a comment! What’s on your mind?

Greek references from Blue Letter Bible.