Right now...lead!

So, there they are, this preachers alliteration about past, present, and future.

Lean forward: the glorious future gives us expectant hearts. Learn from the past: the past is our teacher to instruct and guide us. Leave the past: we can't forget it. But, we can move it out of our path.

Least in the Kingdom: favoring others will mediate our demands about the past.

Then there is the right now, the present. What in the world is the Christian worldview about life in the present? It's just another Lea word, but perhaps the most important. It is about our influence on the world around us.

Lead: to be the spiritual leader to the people in our sphere of influence.

Right up front we'll have to settle the matter of spiritual leadership. We tend to give that assignment to pastors, teachers, church staff members, small group leaders, professors, denominational workers, and those called and ordained to ministry status. Spiritual leadership is more than those specifics, however. In my belief system Christian parents are spiritual leaders. Even more, every believer is a spiritual leader in the circles of his or her personal influence---at work, school, in the neighborhood, in civic associations, sports, and virtually every influential placement. Yes, those formalized roles are certainly God's calling to places of organized service in the church and other spiritual service. They provide essential leadership in pursuing the mission Jesus assigned to his church. However, every single believer should be motivated to follow Christ decisively and model the blessings of faith to the people around them.

And, that's a pivotal point in the dynamics of our nation today. Our secular culture has discounted the mission and influence of Christ's church. The numbers are certainly proof of that societal shift. Pay attention to the main stream media obvious attacks on the church and its leaders. Christian faith is today surrounded by question marks because church life is challenged and questioned. Right now, today, the Christian witness through church life has been diminished by media portrayal. In all of the blather about race, gender, abortion, politics, and many of the troublesome dynamics of life the church is censured, often ignored. What registers today is the simple influence of believers with convictions and voice about the spiritual realities of life. What is more, the influence of sincere Christians is a biblical mandate---

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good

works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 5: 26, ESV

And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are

considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise

authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great

among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be

slave of all. 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: 42-45, ESV

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you

as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

1 Peter 2: 12, ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own

possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of

darkness into his marvelous light.

1 Peter 2: 9, ESV

But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a

defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with

gentleness and respect.

1 Peter 3:15, ESV

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to

meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more

as you see the Day drawing near.

Hebrew 10: 24-25, ESV

Understanding past, present, and future is a significant element of our Christian life. The right now dynamics are critical in dealing with the stresses of human relationships. Yes, the church should speak, and those leaders who guide our congregational life. More to the point, the life and witness of every believer is the right now character that can lead our nation to relational unity and solidarity.

Right now, every one of us should lead.

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Least among you.

The Christian life and the worldview that reflects it begins with convictions about human unworthiness. Yes, we are created in the image of God and are of great worth in God's eyes. Redemptive history annotates God's eternal love for us, to the point that Jesus Christ bore our sins and suffered death for us. Still, our species wrestles with identity issues from our earliest years. We are an egocentric lot, that is, creatures totally self-absorbed. Being called into genuine Christian faith begins with convictions about lowering ourselves---

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his

cross daily and follow me.

Luke 9: 23, ESV

For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.

Luke 9: 48, ESV

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the

Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

Ephesians 3: 8, ESV

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in

the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied

himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being

found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

Philippians 2: 5-8, ESV

It's a broad and thorough topic in Scripture, the humility of Christ and the virtue of a humble spirit in his followers. Right before Jesus taught his disciples about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of God he stood a child in front of them. It was a vivid illustration of the biblical concept of least. Greatness in God's Kingdom is measured by least and not most, humility and not pride, "less of me and more of him", a popularized version of John's declaration, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3: 30, ESV).

Today's horrific banter, terrorizing destruction, riotous behavior, and threats against human life are in great part ego issues. The deal today, sad to say, is a comparative contest about whose past is worse. More than anything else, it is prideful, boastful, ego trip for those wishing to be recognized as the hardest pressed in history. Perhaps it is the need for recognition, or for a more prominent seat at the table, or maybe even for some kind of cash settlement for injuries inflicted on the succeeding generations. So, OK, I get it when the world's ways are dictating policy and making decisions. What I don't get is when Christians join the melee and jettison Christ's teaching about the least. Standing proudly in the winner's circle of our many cultural crises today may be a sign of defeat rather than victory. Remember this: the least is the greatest in his Kingdom.

So many Christian bloggers and wordsmiths have called for a national revival to awaken the spiritual virtues of our nation. Yes, I will second that one. Even more, I'm praying for a spiritual awakening among God's people, the approximately 400,000 congregations in the United States of America, roughly 65% of our national population. When we stop playing the who's on first contests we might be able to settle some of the basic questions that threaten our unity as a nation. You know, like who's lives matter? What an infantile, egocentric question. Get real people! Right now is a choice time to join King David in his prayer---

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?

Psalm 85:6, ESV

Who's the greatest in this deal? Two whom does society owe the most for being the champions of misery? Families of slavery victims? Poor white trash? Victims of criminal behavior? The poor? Uneducated citizens? People with special needs? The homeless? Left-handed people? The wealthy? Fat people? Politicians? Welfare recipients? Veterans?

No, the greatest is the least among us. We should all strive for that.

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Leave it over there.

Forgetting the past isn't such a big deal these days. Geezerhood comes equipped with an automatic sensor that momentarily deletes things along the way. I'll go repetitive and share what someone told me a few years ago, again---

The human brain is like a bucket. From the moment of birth throughout life we put

things into that bucket. At some point in time the bucket becomes full and memories

start falling out. What falls out first in what was put in there last. That's why we can't

remember what we had for breakfast this morning but we can remember a common

event that happened 60 years ago. Yuk! Yuk! And true.

It's one of the new guessing games those of us in the senior adult cohort get to play---doing the multiple choice options of why we walked into a room or what was on the grocery list. Still, the elusive answers usually pop into view as we recite the alphabet or scroll through the notes on our mobile phone. Now, what was that password?

Whether or not we can actually forget something is a matter of debate among the experts in the neuroscience department. The confusion about where the past fits into our life plan is equally perplexing. Our Christian worldview and the eternal promises of God compel us to lean forward in life, a preference for the joys and blessings that await us. In the same way we know that the past offers us educational advantages. We can value the past because it is our teacher. But, then, there are Scriptures about forgetting the past. Make note of what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians---

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting

what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,  I press on toward the goal

for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3: 13-14, ESV

This instruction caused me some confusion several years ago when trying to get a handle on the influences of past, present, and future on my pastoral calling and church service. At first glance the Apostle's words seemed contradictory---commands to forget the past, which I thought was my teacher, while straining forward toward the goal of the upward call of God. It puzzled me that I should value the past because of its learning potential but still fughedaboutit (forgive my slang). The straining toward the goal part made perfect sense because our basic orientation should be one of leaning forward.

That's when I did the word study around the Greek term the Apostle used to define the act of "forgetting". It's not all that complicated. He used a compound word built around the Greek word "lambano", Strong's Concordance # 2983. It means "to take", or "to take up with the hand", or "to take up a thing to be carried". Forgetting the past isn't about erasing it, eliminating it, or changing it. They are all virtually impossible for us humans except maybe when we reach our golden years. Forgetting the past in the Philippians passage is about taking it hand and moving it out of the way so that the past doesn't impede our forward movement. Paul's word portray a conscious, deliberate, personal decision to prevent the past from being an obstacle to our spiritual progress. Lay hands on that troubling stuff back there, move it out of out path, and leave it over there. The past can still teach us from that angle.

There are many other Bible passages that encourage this same thought. Isaiah 43: 18-19 is one example---

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a

new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the

wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43: 18-19, ESV

Surely God didn't want his people to forget the miracles of the Exodus, how he delivered them from peril during forty years in the wilderness, his guiding them to the Land of Promise. No. God didn't want them to worship their past and miss the joys of the new thing he was doing.

It's a lesson we've stopped teaching in the past couple of generations. We've become so egocentric and self-serving we won't move those things that are distasteful to us out of way and leave them over there. So, we de-face things of value to other people, destroy monuments and memorials that mean something to many fellow citizens, and lose our traction in forward movement toward the glorious promises God has made to us.

Forget the past? Sure. It just means to take those troublesome past events in your hands, move them out of the way, and leave them over there out of your path forward.

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