What is the Responsibility of the Church (again)?
I’m continuing my series on the government shutdown and the church. Don’t worry, I got the memo that the shut down is over. To quote the President, “let’s be clear,” he really likes to say that, doesn’t he? The shutdown has given me some much needed clarity on the church’s responsibility. It has opened my eyes to the all encompassing reach of the government in this Republic. And to quote Francis Schaeffer’s title- How Should We Then Live? How does the Church do her job? And what is Her responsibility in the the city, the state, the nation and the world?
“ I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”-I Timothy 2:1-4
17 Tell us then what You think about this: Is it lawful to pay tribute [levied on individuals and to be paid yearly] to Caesar or not?
18 But Jesus, aware of their malicious plot, asked, Why do you put Me to the test and try to entrap Me, you pretenders (hypocrites)?
19 Show me the money used for the tribute. And they brought Him a denarius.
20 And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and title are these?
21 They said, Caesar’s. Then He said to them, Pay therefore to Caesar the things that are due to Caesar, and pay to God the things that are due to God. – Matthew 22:17-21
I think we have the rendering to Caesar part down. We tend to remember that. Pay taxes. Fill out forms, jump through the governmental hoops, albeit with grumbling, but what about the last part of the verse?
“Pay to God the things that are due to God”?
” External religious worship religion as it is expressed in outward acts] that is pure and unblemished in the sight of God the Father is this: to visit and help and care for the orphans and widows in their affliction and need, and to keep oneself unspotted and uncontaminated from the world.”
James 1:27
Many ‘Church run’ organizations are actually funded by government grants. Foster care is government run and regulated. When are we going to stop screaming ‘less government’ and replace it with more action.
Jennifer Toth, author of Orphans of the Living shares in the author’s note:
“One director of a children’s home acknowledged that immediately after a girl in his home begins menstruating, she is taken to the local Planned Parenthood clinic once a month for Depo-Provera shots to prevent pregnancy.”
These government run and government supervised institutions obey the law of the land and the popular thinking of the day, not Biblical principles. Toth laments “I intended this book to be about the kids and their lives in foster care….(the system) It was falling apart as I watched, and damaging children not just by simple errors but by systematic failures as well…The bureaucracy seems almost designed to entrap and then prohibit a healthy outcome for its wards.”
The humanistic system does not work. The government run- foster care system is failing, the orphanages are failing because they have no godly or moral foundation. It cannot have one, the Supreme Court ruled in 1947 in Emerson vs. the Board of Education, the wall must be ‘impregnable’. That is not to say that there are not godly social workers, Casa workers, foster parents, group home leaders, orphanage directors- but the Supreme Court has, in many cases, pulled the rug out from under them as running their state and federally funded organizations according to Biblical principles. Again, I ask what is the responsibility of the church? What does Jesus say?
Receive. Accept. Welcome one little child for His sake.
“There are a lot of intractable problems in the United States, but the problem of children in need is curable. We can all do something about it today, individually through the smallest acts….if every church in the United states would see to it that just one child is adopted, the problem of homeless children in this country would disappear.”- Leigh Anne and Sean Tuouhy
Don’t give up hope. As we look around the nation, we can see the pin pricks of light of those who are making a difference, those who fly under the radar, those secret agents, ambassadors of Christ, who despite the current social and circumstantial events do the work of the Church. Next week, I’ll be sharing about some of these stories. Individuals are making a difference in individual lives. Isn’t that amazing? God works through weak human flesh to accomplish His work, first that all should be saved and whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me.(Matthew 26:45) If you are not sure what you should/could do, pray. God in His infinite wisdom will show you. He gives wisdom to those who ask liberally and ungrudgingly.(James 1:5) Join me next weeks for stories of saints who are doing the work of the Church!