current events essay 2.0
good news weekly 3.11.23
we are starting to get locked in on the easter season, now a month away. believing by faith for great days ahead.
this is an evolving essay on current events. i use it to help me avoid getting bogged down in the needless concerns of the day. we must keep a broad perspective to avoid being prisoners of particular moments. so anyway .. here it is
current events essay 2.0
small talk is brutal when you are a pastor. no matter how hard i try to be a normal person, things get weird. in most conversations between adults, pretty quickly, your children + career become talking points. whenever i tell people i started a church in my hometown, one of three things happens
1. they are intrigued and ask follow-up questions.
2. they avert their eyes and change the subject.
3. they quickly assert their church bonafides to make sure i know they don’t need to be ‘saved.’
this reflects where religion sits in our country in the 2020’s, a perilous place. reflecting the divided times we live in, people seem to feel religion needs to be either WAY MORE or WAY LESS involved in our public square. as i move through palatine, often at PAFA football games or Conscious Cup, i want to be a good neighbor, not just a good resident.
candidly, most christians and churches are good residents but not good neighbors.
good residents take care of what’s theirs. they mow the lawn + pay taxes + keep their part of the building/block clean. they do their part. do what’s required.
good neighbors make sure everyone else on the block is taken care of. they shovel extra driveways when it snows + help those whose homes have fallen into disrepair. good neighbors don’t settle for taking care of what’s theirs, they take care of all that’s Gods, that is, they care about everything.
the damage of our cultural fighting, is that is allows to see people who think differently as opponents, not neighbors. our global + digital focus has lessened our sense of responsibility to our geographical focus.
we go from one dramatic world event to another, often quickly loading our ideological canon to shoot out strong feelings on the story of the day. just in may 2022 as one example, the shooting in Uvalde, Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade, the crypto crash, January 6th Committee Hearings and rapidly rising inflation all felt like generational events, and that was a pretty normal month. the world appears to be moving faster and the need to think wisely is increasing. rather than try to successfully parse each unfolding situation in real time, i have been working on to articulate what I believe about current events in a more cohesive way. my plan is to return periodically to this content to update it as i learn more.
don’t read this as me trying to convince you, read it as me trying to inspire you to articulate your own beliefs.
1. i want to avoid the foolishness of immediate reactions + headline judgements.
Richard Jewell during the Olympic Bombing in 1996, the Duke Lacrosse case, and Jussie Smolett are well-known examples of how our culture rushes to judgment on the first few rumors or facts. Whether Joseph or Mary or even the Lord Jesus, the Bible has many examples of people judged harshly + incorrectly because of hasty assessment. we must do our best to avoid certainty in particular situations until we have additional information.
Proverbs 18:17
The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.
2. i believe human life is created by God and must be protected and cherished.
whenever life is lost or quality of life is lowered, God’s desired outcome has not been reached. from the womb to the tomb, all people with beating hearts matter to God. my views are inevitably shaped by a preference for life.
although there is a variety of views acceptable for what role the government should play in helping those in need, the church + individual Christians have a mandate to help. any opportunity to ease suffering or increase opportunity is something Christians should pursue. often this is where religious folks have failed, by having strong views unsupported by their actions.
James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
3. i choose to focus on personal responsibility AND systemic issues as important factors in almost every news event, not one or the other.
when we focus solely on personal culpability, we lose compassionate nuance. when we focus solely on systemic issues, we lose internal locus of control. we must being willing to see in issues like politics, race, gender, sexuality, violence, criminal justice, that systems produce the environment for disaster and individual people pull the literal and proverbial triggers of disaster.
the biblical support for this concept is Israel’s relationship with God in the Old Testament. sometimes, they were blessed (David and Goliath) and sometimes cursed (Achan) by one person’s actions. yet at other times, blessed (Jericho) or cursed (golden calf) by communal decisions. ideologies that refuse to integrate both systemic and personal responsibility for culture are unhelpful.
4. i choose to reject a partisan left or right identity, while also rejecting the faux morality of passive moderation.
the political system in the united states + the (social) media environment underpinning it wants us to see ourselves as on a team competing with an opponent. with sporting + war metaphors galore, most events are almost immediately transposed into combat. many people dislike this dynamic, with some attempting to be a moderate. this is usually articulated as being less binary about issues and more gracious in speech.
however, the moderate is not inherently more spiritual than the partisan. to give a biblical example, in Acts 5, Gamaliel rejects Jesus and doesn’t want the apostles killed. He is less evil than the Pharisees, but no less passive in working to solve their mistreatment.
the moderate tends towards passivity to avoid offending others. honoring Jesus by serving our community is anything but passive. it requires strong convictions, hard work, and not becoming part of the world system, while still living + working inside of it. to be a kingdom independent is to work towards a biblical vision while accepting often feeling a bit politically homeless or misaligned.
5. i reject the false feeling that expressing my opinions on the news of the day is essential.
as the pastor of Good News in the Neighborhood, my responsibility is to God, my family, our congregation, and our local community. the need to broadcast binary certainty to the world at large about my thoughts + opinions clearly causes more damage than help. it is bad fruit of our performative culture to assume in others that quiet is indifferent.
by being willing to avoid stepping into every news cycle, we preserve our right to learn more and to change our opinion later. we don’t just want to build a church of competent warriors, but also kind neighbors. we believe you can be clear on biblical truth without being required to yell about it.
when our energy is spent on well-crafted opinions about things we can’t control, we lose some of our energy to help our neighbors with things we can control. going small and going local is the primary way any of us can ‘change the world.’
if you are still reading, we want to be your neighbor. even if you disagree with lots of what was written here, we still want to work together on making our community a better place to thrive. i love palatine + this newspaper is our attempt to bless it.m
this is good news.
–pastor luke macdonald
Luke 6:32-6:34 says, “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.”
When we moved to LA a few years ago I was given a project even though I didn’t know it. Within a few minutes of moving in we met our neighbors on our right. They were kind and happy and the wife and mom that lived there ended up being a Godsend for me as I got the kids into a school. Every time we saw them they smiled and asked how we were doing and even gifted the kids with a Christmas gift.
On our left was a different story. We met the woman because our garbage bins weren’t put in their proper spot and she was correcting us but “isn’t normally like that.” A few weeks later she came to our door stewing because our boys were playing outside in the alley way that we share. She was saying that they shouldn’t do that and that our boys gave her boyfriend a dirty look and well, you get the idea. She continued to take her concerns to the HOA meeting and the other neighbors to get people against us. The unkindness has continued with all sorts of scenarios but I could just focus on those or focus on what God wants to do in me through this particular source.
I don’t know about you but usually God puts people in my life to remind me how much I need his love and help. As this verse says, it's easy to love the neighbors that are always happy and kind but anybody can do that! As I began to see this assignment on my heart from God, this saying my grandfather used to say comes to mind, “I can’t say it has been easy because it ain’t” It has grown and stretched me. As I have prayed for her and asked the Lord why ‘I got the gift of living next door to her,’ I feel like God has asked me to have compassion on her. My gut is that she is really hurting inside and her unkindness is coming out of a lot of pain and hurt.
Growth only comes when the pain of staying the same is more than the pain of the change. Chances are you read this newsletter to grow or stimulate your thinking as a Christian. And quite honestly I find my own whining about my neighbor annoying, so either I had to try and show kindness (at the very least) or stay in my own bubble and be a victim of her actions.
I have a hunch that God has given you a combination of neighbors like he has me. They might be at work or at your kid’s sports teams or your actual neighbors but where is God asking you to love where it is difficult. You might be the only source of kindness that person receives today - let’s love our neighbors better together.
Last Sunday Sermon Video
a message on despite you, God wants to use you. check it out:
Cup of Leadership
“for even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” mark 10:45
kristen is a great servant. she gives her whole heart to doing whatever our family needs day in and day out. she is tireless in working for the good of those around her. she is giving her life for the good of others.
dr. king was also a great servant. he led loud and spoke truth to power in a way that made great change for his people and the world. he gave his life for the good of others.
servanthood is not about being anonymous or famous, it’s about doing what those around you need.
we hear the word servant and pivot to domestic workers or invisible housekeepers. and certainly those people can be servants. but if the point of mark 10 is that jesus is the ultimate servant, kinda tough to make the case that there is something inherently ideal about being under the radar.
someone isn’t a servant because of how anonymous they choose to be, but rather because of how much they subject their own desires to the necessities of others. you are a servant when you leverage
our world has such a complex relationship with notoriety these days. so many people crave it, yet loathe those who have it. so many people admire those who are known, yet also resent them for it. my suggestion is to separate your assessment of the servanthood of others from how well known they are for it.
happy third winter (it’s after fake spring but before real spring)
luke + kristen
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