8.21--In It, Not Of It

My wife, Jessica, and I just returned from a 5-day vacation to Texas. We flew into the Arlington area, then drove down to San Antonio area, from there went to Burnet, and finally back up to Arlington. When we were trying to decide where we were going and what we wanted to do while down, we realized that we have too many friends and family to see and that Texas is just too spread out to see all of them between Monday and Friday. So, we made the best of the situation, had a whirlwind visit with about 18 hours clocked driving around the state, and we saw everyone we could for as absolutely long a time as we could.

And I realized something very important about myself while there: I am a Texan, through and through, but now New Jersey is starting to seep into me and take root! I am a much more aggressive driver, I expect my corn to come straight off of the cob in the summertime, and it took me a few seconds to remember that I have to pump my own gas down there! Now, I don’t know exactly what to think of this. I have always seen myself as something of a spy, or infiltrator here in Jersey. I have come equipped with the best that Texas has to offer in regard to hospitality, gentlemanliness, more “y’alls” than you can shake a stick at, and a good ole southern outlook on life, and my job was to infect all of this into the hustle and bustle of all them yankees in the northeast.

I was called to be in New Jersey, but not of New Jersey. And yet I’ve caught myself, for better or for worse, becoming a little bit of one. Now, there are obviously way worse things that one could be. New Jersey has been Jess’ and my home for over a year and a half and we’re having a blast here, but for a Texas boy, ain’t nothin good bout compromisin one’s national integrity.

That’s all part of inserting yourself into a new community. When you live in and amongst people, interacting with them daily and immersing yourself into their goings-on, you start to pick up some of good qualities and their bad qualities. You become a part of that community, and that community becomes a part of you.

This is exactly what we see happening to the Israelites in our chapter from this week. God’s people are living in community with others—fulfilling their purpose in the world, if you remember: blessed to be a blessing for others—and, as with any people within community, they start picking up some of the good and bad qualities of the others within that community.

Some of this is okay, even encouraged. Did you know that it was Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, a Midianite priest, who first suggested to Moses that he should appoint judges over the Israelites? These judges would come to take over the leadership of the Israelite people after Joshua’s death, and it was at the urging of a heathen, a gentile, that the practice was even started! Other qualities and practices were not kosher, and resulted in the Israelites distancing themselves from their God. The Midianites, the same group that introduced judges to the Israelites, also cause them to forsake their God and enter into immoral sexual practices while worshipping a foreign god named Ba’al.

In the infamous words to that beloved sitcom, “You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the Facts of Life.”

But God was not all right with this. You see, God called the Israelites—and you and I today—to live as people who are in the world, but not of it. They—along with all of us—are called to continually uphold God’s commandments even while being in community with those who sometimes seemingly outright disobey and disregard them. We are called to learn from those with whom we are in community, sometimes even put into practice some of their teachings, but above all we must remember who we are and Whose we are, a lesson that the Israelites were not so good at upholding.

So what does this mean for us today? The Story says that the Israelites would “prostitute themselves” to other nations and other gods, which would lead to a time period where they were subject to another nation and it seemed like the hand of God had been removed from them. Then, at the darkest moment of desperation, God would raise a judge up to deliver God’s people and they would enter into a time of celebration and of peace. And then, shortly after, they would again turn away from God, and they cycle would start all over again.

Should we, in an attempt to keep ourselves from making the same mistake, isolate ourselves from the rest of our culture and society so that we cannot be tempted by the ways of the world? Some think this is the only safe way to be a Christian, especially in today’s world.

Should we, in response to Christ’s call to make disciples of all nations, force everyone we meet to conform to our community, to our standards and ideals, or else exile them from our presence and from our land? Some hold, and many in history have held, the belief that this is absolutely the call of the church, and to do anything else is heresy.

But I think that the lesson of the Israelites in the book of Judges is a little bit more complicated than that. God did not isolate them from the entire world, but placed them in the midst of a land abundantly populated. God did not place them over everyone in the land, giving them the ruling power over all other peoples, but called them into a community with those around them. It seems to me that the only logical result is that we are supposed to do the same, living in and amongst people who do not believe the same things we do, inviting them to life together, not coercing them to comply or banishing them from our lives.

And in this community, we must remember that while we all share our lives, our beliefs, and everything else that make us who we are, we are also still a people who are called to be in the world but not of it. We must remember the call to experience life together, to even learn from and engage the good that we can from every community and every people, while at the same time holding fast to our God. When we find ourselves “prostituting” ourselves to other peoples, other nations, or other gods, we must take a step back and re-center ourselves on Christ. This discernment is not always an easy process, but it is the one that God calls us to and equips us for.

There is a song by Luke Bryan called “We Rode in Trucks.” It is a song about his life growing up in Georgia, and a lot of what he says matches well with life in Burnet, TX as well. One of the lines from the second verse kept popping into my head as I thought about being in the world but not of it. The line is “We thought tobacco and beer in a can, was all it would take to be like our ol' man. But I saw how it made my momma cry.” We learn a lot of great things from our parents; in fact some 80% of all gained knowledge comes from one’s family. But there are also things that we could go without learning, habits that we could go without picking up.

Our challenge is to live a life of discernment, a life anchored on our God, and a life in community.

So may you remember who you are and Whose you are. May you engage the communities that God places you in. May you learn and apply the lessons worth learning and may you stand firm on Christ and reject those things that would pull you away from Him. May you learn the lesson of the Israelites in judges, and may you readily engage this world as someone who is in it, but not of it.