A penny for your time...

Economy.

Do you feel scared?  Angry, perhaps?  Anxious even a little?  Right now that four-syllable word is being thrown around in American politics and media like a racial epithet.  It's being murmured around water coolers as if it were an office rumor about layoffs.  And it's being prayed about around dinner tables as though it were the name of a beloved family member on their deathbed.

I had an interesting thought the other day, and I'd love to share it with you.  Three words that are central to the study of economics are supply, demand, and scarcity.  Scarcity is the problem of infinite human needs and wants (demand) in a world of finite resources (supply).  Supply and demand are inversely related.  This means that when supply of an item is high, its demand drops for lack of need or want, and therefore its value drops.  When its supply is low, then the need or want often increases, which raises its value.  The study of these dynamics is the focus of economics. 

The most universally finite of all of our resources as humans is time.  That's not to say that time is finite--it's just that the amount of time that we have to live is very limited.  Because of this, we feel greatly compelled to get a good value for our time, because its supply is so utterly limited. 

We seek high paying jobs because it seems to say to us that our time is of more value than other people's time.  We honk and yell in traffic jams as a protest of the injustice that is inflicted upon us when someone or something steals our highly valued time.  And we fail to spend time with our families, churches, or hurting people because, "Darn it, we're earning money to put food on the table, to tithe, and to pay for the welfare system."

One of the most beautiful things to me about Christ's message is the idea of a resurrection from death.  If you believe that Christ died and was resurrected to show us what will one day happen for those who make Him the Lord of their lives, then a very interesting thing should take place in your personal economy of time.  You see, supply of time has sky-rocketed for the believer who trusts in Christ for the resurrection.

This should, effectively, decrease the value you place on the importance of time--especially as it relates to your own personal goals.  In a Christian worldview where we believe that time is given to us by God in great abundance even beyond death, when would it ever be appropriate for us to not give our time away to someone who was in need of aid?  Time is of little economic value to the Christian, except that he or she invests their time in relationships with other people, or cultivates their personal talents through their time to help others who are in need or can't support themselves.

What, then, does Christ say IS of value to a person who wants to be like Him?  Well, while your personal ambitions should not be of great importance to you (and isn't very important to God), He places INFINITE value on poor people, hurting people, sick people, immoral and imprisoned people, and lonely people.

Infinite value.  If we, as strong and secure Americans, are not giving radically of our time and money to aid the people around us, we are investing in a market that will eventually collapse.  It is only through a life that lives itself outward--oriented towards the needs of others--that we can hope to "redeem the time, because the days are evil," as the apostle Paul instructs.

So, in these hard economic times for America, be of good cheer.  The economy within which Jesus calls us to participate is not a collection of external systems that flux and fail.  The economy that Jesus calls us to participate in is one that springs up from within us as believers, reorienting us towards the needs and desires of others instead of our own. 

This is the gift of Jesus to the world which we in turn must give to others.  This is the wellspring of peace that surpasses understanding.  This is the economy of grace.

The Antichrist is vying for power in this very election!

Hey friends,

Despite the amazing nature of this revelation, I have something very important to say before I move on to this powerful news. I want to apologize to all of my friends who don't follow Jesus that might be reading this note. This is an in-house discussion that is intended for my fellow Protestant friends, and it's all mentioned here in love with no intention of starting any fights.

Okay, let's start from the Scriptures, shall we? You might assume I'd consult the Book of Revelation or the major prophets for this kind of eschatological matter. Sadly, there aren't actually any references in these books to the Antichrist. From where, then, do we as Protestants draw this title?

Incidentally, John is the only person to use the term in the entire Bible, and he does so in his 1st & 2nd epistle. Surely these verses will help us discern just who exactly this antichrist really is...and 1 John 2:18-27 doesn't disappoint:

Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.

I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

In this passage we see 3 of the 4 references in the entire Bible to this mysterious "antichrist". In this letter of encouragement from John to specific congregations in which he has played an apostolic role. It is not addressed to future generations of the church, i.e., you or I. It has a very specific meaning for its intended audience, and it is our role to draw the application for our lives out of that meaning.

John mentions that the antichrist is coming to those congregations, and that many antichrists had, in fact, already come to them. Well, that's strange... Isn't the antichrist some major world leader who would lead the world into the end times? How come he had already arrived at those churches? And what's this about antichrists in the plural?

You can (and should) read 1st & 2nd John to get a feel for what John's message was for these churches. It is a bold and beautiful proclamation of love. It is a declaration that the systems of man (religion, law, government, etc.) are essentially redundant to the believer now that we have been called to this higher plane that is loving each other as Christ loved us.

So, where does the Antichrist fit into this, and how can we be on the lookout for him in this election season? John mentions exactly what the antichrist will try to block from our view in a passage just before the above quoted:

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

In other words, friends, the antichrist is any element of the election process that causes us to not prefer others above ourselves. If you're a democrat and you feel or express enmity against your republican brothers and sisters for their their "narrow minded" or "unenlightened" politics, you are strengthening the campaign of the antichrist. If you are a republican and you are looking down your nose at your democrat brothers and sisters who so clearly don't hold onto the Christian values that are so obviously exemplified in the republican platform (i.e., war, corporate greed, fierce nationalism, etc.), then you are strengthening the campaign of the antichrist.

No matter what your specific eschatology may be, one thing that John is happy to remind us about is the fact that love is the most important characteristic we can hope to exemplify in our politics. Politics is not an excuse we find in Scripture for Christians to forsake the role of peacemakers so that we can choose sides and join in the rock-throwing. If anything, it is a perfect opportunity for us to fight against the principalities and powers that distract us from our primary calling: to show Christ's love.

So, as you go throughout your election season, don't be afraid that you're going to vote for the antichrist. According to John, you have more of a chance of bringing him to power by belittling your political opponent than you do by casting a ballot.

Functional Savior

I swam from my sink to the ocean,
And drilled through the holes in my head,
Then sank to the top of Manhattan,
With thoughts that I'd see God again.

My heart's taught me lessons that I can't defend,
It runs me in circles that don't have an end,
Love pushed my heart out of comfortable style
and fuels me into the extra mile.

Buy all you can and live like a king,
Try to be happy with purchased things.
Vote with the party or keep with the trends,
Just ask yourself, "Why does this feel like pretends?"

But share in a sorrow, or aid in a strife,
And see if that isn't where God's hidden life.