Upside-down gospel

With the end of one year we formally enter an election year, a presidential campaign likely to be unlike any other in my lifetime—and that’s coming from someone who remembers the fiery populism of George Wallace and the turbulent election of 1968. With each moment of new vitriol, Donald Trump seems only to rise in the polls. Nations rage, and Americans are restless, raging too.

I am humbled to remember that any child of King Jesus is also a child of King David. David had six wives. That is, before he took two more from other men’s houses. Yet he was somehow “a man after God’s heart” even when his actions seemed to sow chaos and treachery. “By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel,” God said (2 Samuel 3:18). What made him God’s anointed and at the same time such a scoundrel?

Only this: God ordained him. And over and over David turned back to God, acknowledging Him as Creator and pleading for His mercy, as his only redeemer and friend. Where would we be without the trust of David and the psalms proclaiming it?

Christianity doesn’t create conflict-free zones. It creates peace and joy in the heart of conflict zones.

Radical is not a strong enough word for the ultimate work of the Davidic covenant, the good news that a scoundrel and philanderer can become a child of God, can be even God’s anointed. It’s outrageous. It confounds all our sense of right and wrong. When we grasp this news, realizing we are all King Davids at heart, it’s enough to turn the world upside down. Christianity doesn’t create conflict-free zones. It creates peace and joy in the heart of conflict zones.

In this new year, I’m looking for ways the church confounds a lawless, terror-prone world with its upside-down gospel and outrageous love. Here are three examples unfolding at year’s end:

Airlifting Iraqis. On Dec. 10 the Nazarene Fund made possible the first evacuation of Christian refugees from Iraq. In the company of television show host Glenn Beck and advocate Johnnie Moore (Defying ISIS: Preserving Christianity in the Place of Its Birth and in Your Own Backyard), 149 Iraqis made their escape to start new lives in Slovakia. The Nazarene Fund has pledged to help them for three years, working with the Slovak government and the local Catholic hierarchy, setting up housing outside the town of Nitra where they will receive language training and job assistance.

“We want to make sure they can integrate and be sure they learn the language and have places to stay,” Moore told me. “The goal is not to tether them to charity but to help them get on their own feet.” The Nazarene Fund has raised $12 million to do this and has plans for more such evacuations.

Standing by Syrians. John Samara, a Syrian pastor who early on in his country’s civil war (2012) took refuge in Houston, was just back from Damascus when I spoke to him by phone in early December. “In Syria it feels you are standing at the gates of World War III,” he told me. Yet Samara and his ministry, Ananias House, continue to partner with 36 churches in Syria that are growing. The group provides material aid and spiritual discipleship reaching Muslims and Christians alike.

Refugees feeding refugees. On Dec. 19 about 200 refugees planned to gather for a pot-luck Christmas feast at a Dallas church. The brainchild of Samira Izadi Page, director of Gateway of Grace and an Iranian-American, she and her husband launched the ministry and partner with 50 area churches to help refugees. A Muslim convert to Christianity, Page received asylum 18 years ago in the United States. “The negative portrayal of refugees these days causes them to feel unwanted, to feel shame, insecurity, anxiety and fear,” she said. “To share the joy of Christmas with refugees who have never experienced Christmas is a great way of removing some of the fear and anxiety.”

At one time we all were separated from God, strangers and aliens, but the blood of Christ has brought us near to Him, breaking down walls of hostility everywhere—and giving us hope in a hostile world for a new year.

Email mbelz@wng.org