You are imago Dei.

You are imago Dei.

It’s easy to forget who you are in these stormy times.

Unfortunately, turning the calendar to 2021 will not bring peace and harmony to our country and world. No, we live in the same nation and same world we lived in last week. A nation and world full of conflict and division. The current social and political climate feels like a long and tense dinner party. Over the last year and continuing this year, a multitude of idols, quips, movements, opinions and ideologies have been invited or uninvited guests at the table, competing for our consumption, allegiance, and worship, while the body of Christ has been ordered to dismember and silence itself in the name of safety.

If the past is any indicator of the future, the dawn of 2021 does not usher in peace and harmony but bears the same unrest and discord – a continuation of last year’s detestable dinner party. But, this year, will we see growing animosity and persecution of the Christians at the table? At least a couple dinner guests, sociologist professors Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry, express concern that “Christian Nationalism” threatens not only COVID-19 herd immunity but also American democracy itself.

Whitehead and Perry warn that American “Policymakers and health care professionals will need to attend to this [Christian Nationalist] hurdle as they plan and then execute any broad-scale vaccination strategy.”2 While they explain that “Christian Nationalists” are distinctly different from those who attend church, pray to God, and read the Bible, it may not be long before “nationalism” disappears from the buzz-word and Christians categorically become the “hurdle” that must be “attended” and “paid close attention to”. After all, Jesus was a hurdle for the Pharisees of His day.

In Luke 14, Jesus is reclined at the dinner table of a leader of the Pharisees. The Pharisee and his guests are paying close attention to Jesus’s every move, criticizing His actions and the company He keeps. Jesus’s crowd of followers – tax collectors and sinners – have tagged along to listen to Him, much to the chagrin of the Pharisees and scribes. During the meal, Jesus turns to his followers and explains that each of His disciples must carry his own cross and love Him more than anyone else. He urges them to count the cost of following Him and then encourages His disciples to “[h]ave salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.”3

Each of us needs to invite Jesus Christ to sit not just at the table of our unending dinner party, but to sit at the head of the table. Each of us needs to be in constant communion with Him through prayer, the Word of God, and fellowship. How else do you fear, know, and love God, understand who He is and how to rightly reflect Him to others, fill yourself with His Spirit, and test the veracity of dinner table talk?

Jude aptly describes the certain guests at the table of whom we need to be wary as “ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”4 He says, “[T]hese people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct – as irrational animals do – will destroy them.”5“These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm – shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted – twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever.”6“These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.”7

By contrast, Jesus is not a selfish, hidden reef but the revealed bread and cup of our love feast who feeds all.8 Like a cloud, He causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.9 But unlike a cloud carried along by winds, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.10 He is not an unfruitful tree but the living Vine that bears much fruit.11 He has defeated death once and for all and is alive forevermore.12 He is not uprooted but the Root of David.13 He is the One who calms the wild waves of the sea14 and casts his blood to cover our shame.15 He is the Bright and Morning Star.16 In Him, there is no darkness.17 He is the Way, the Truth, and the Light.18

We should listen to Jesus.19 He tells us to have salt in ourselves and be at peace with one another. Like salt, the Holy Spirit in us preserves us from corruption and flavors our thoughts, words, and actions in a course of life that promotes and effects peace with a mild and loving spirit. As salt-filled people, we reflect the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who live in a Holy Communion of unconditional love and service to God and then others, by sacrificing ourselves for Him and for each other. 20 Your self-sacrifice is the cross you bear. You are imago Dei.

“Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up on Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”21 Stay strong in Christ.

Mercy to you, and peace and love be multiplied,

Hailey

References

1 Perry and Whitehead, “Toxic Christian ideology is infecting the Covid debate. And that's bad for everyone.” (Jan. 2, 2021); Perry and Whitehead, “Christian Nationalism Talks Religion, But Walks Fascism” (Feb. 5, 2020).

2 Perry and Whitehead, “Toxic Christian ideology is infecting the Covid debate. And that's bad for everyone.” (Jan. 2, 2021).

3 Mark 9:50; Cf. Luke 15:34-35.

4Jude 1:4.

5Jude 1:10.

6Jude 1:12-13.

7Jude 1:19.

8John 6:35; Luke 22:20; Romans 5:8; Luke 9:10-17.

9 Matthew 5:45.

10 Hebrews 13:8.

11 John 15:5.

12 Revelation 1:18.

13 Isaiah 53:2; Revelation 22:16.

14 Psalm 107:29; Luke 8:23-25.

15 Isaiah 53:5; Revelation 1:5, 3:18.

16 Revelation 22:16.

17 1 John 1:5.

18 John 14:6.

19 Luke 9:35.

20 Matthew 5:48.

21 Colossians 2:6-8.