Dear Reader,

As Christians this season of the year holds special significance as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is a time different from any other on the calendar in which giving is more important than receiving, reflecting the very essence of the life of our Messiah and Saviour. It is a time of joy, peace and goodwill, but it is also a time for deep reflection, both introspectively and extraneously.

For me, the nagging question for Christians is, are we too comfortable for Christ? It seems to me that the question is particularly relevant against the background of the deep crisis facing our beloved country, and the urgent need for the church to take a bold and courageous stand against the culture of corruption and mismanagement that is strangling the nation and taking us down a steady downward trajectory.

Faced with the same dilemma, the late Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr over 45 years ago asked Christians whether they wanted to be anvils or hammers – meaning that they are either moulders of society or are moulded by society. King asked, “Who doubts that today most men are anvils and are shaped by the patterns of the majority…or to change the figure, most people and Christians in particular are thermometers that record or register the temperature of majority opinion, not thermostats that transform and regulate the temperature of society.”

King continued, “Many people fear nothing more terribly than to take a position which stands out sharply and clearly from the prevailing opinion. The tendency of most is to adopt a view that is so ambiguous that it will include everything, and so popular that it will include everybody…not a few men, who cherish lofty and noble ideals, hide them under a bushel for fear of being called different.”

At the heart of the type of “liturgical lethargy” so evident in Jamaica, is the issue of the separation of church and state. Many pastors and Christians believe that the church has no place in politics, leaving the question hanging for believers like myself: “How do you separate God from government, and who is to lead the people in righteousness?

A very curious writer asked a set of compelling questions, “How can we implement God’s Word and demonstrate love for the poor if we do not get involved in politics? How do we take care of the poor, the widows and the orphans without being involved in politics? Governments govern people, they will decide if we are going to live as free people or oppressed people. They will also, by their laws, decide on how we are going to worship God – whether it be freely or under persecution. They will also set the standard of morality by the laws that are enforced.”

Added the writer, “Many Christians will say that Jesus wasn’t involved in politics. He also did not tell his followers to join any specific political party or movement…But if we look at Jesus Christ’s stand in His day, we will see that He took quite an extreme political position. He basically challenged the existing order by announcing a new government – that is the Kingdom of God – and He Himself as head of it.”

In a wonderful book God and Government, author Gary DeMar in response to the question, “Are we as Christians getting side-tracked from our proper and central concerns by delving into such mundane issues?” replied by quoting the words of Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reformation who declared, “If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that one point.”

DeMar emphasises that “the battle today is over lordship. The issue of politics today is the issue of sovereignty. Who is the Lord of all of life to whom man must give his total allegiance, Christ or Caesar? The answer to this question is the difference between liberty and slavery, justice and tyranny.”

As the corruption and immorality continue to eat away at the fabric of Jamaican society, it is the voice of the church and the prophets that should be the loudest and the strongest. The Jamaican church desperately needs people whom Rev King described as “maladjusted” men who are not afraid to challenge the status quo. King put it aptly when he spoke about those “Millions…patiently knocking on the door of the Christian church where they seek the bread of social justice, have either been altogether ignored or told to wait until later, which almost always means never…This command not to conform comes not only from Paul but also from our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, the world’s most dedicated non-conformist, whose ethical nonconformity still challenges the conscience of mankind.”

Jesus’ mandate was clear and powerful. He proclaimed,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me

Because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor

He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted

And to declare liberty to the captives

And recovery of sight to the blind

To set at liberty those who are oppressed

And to declare the acceptable year of the Lord.”

As we reflect at this time on the birth and life of the Messiah, the question remains, “Are we too comfortable for Christ?”

With love,

bab2609@yahoo.com