On Thursday, Pr. Rolf Preus asked about Rep. John Lewis' description as a Christian hero. None of us know Rep. Lewis' personal beliefs, but how he expressed them publicly especially in terms of his political career does raise questions about how Christian encouragement to help others and act rightly can sometimes overshadow and as that below here shows even deny the importance of Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Rev. Austin has written here on this thread that the recently deceased U.S. Representative John Lewis was “as great a Christian hero of our time as we will ever see.” Lewis gave the benediction at the National Prayer Breakfast a few months ago. He spoke to the audience as his “brothers and sisters” and said that we are a “people of faith.” Then he added, “It does not matter whether you worship one God, many gods, or no gods. We are all brothers and sisters.” Later on, near the end of the benediction, he said that we must believe in one another. We need not all believe in the same God, but we must believe in one another.
Rev. Austin, this is what I found after spending about a half an hour of my time searching the internet to find something from John Lewis that would indicate what his religion was. I could not find anything he had said about Jesus as the Savior of sinners who died for us and rose again. He said much about Jesus’s moral teaching, but I was not able to find anything he said about who Jesus is and what he has done to save us sinners from our sins. You know much more about this man than I do. Perhaps you can share with me something Lewis said that actually communicated the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This is the social Gospel; how we act is presented as more important than the God we believe in. This brings up Two Kingdoms' theology. How do we best work with others who believe differently to help one another while remaining true to our belief in Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation? The day of Rep. Lewis' funeral was not a proper day to discuss that; the time may be proper now although I still believe it best not to specifically focus on Rep Lewis in discussing the matter.
Interestingly enough, while not containing a call to social action is so much of a way, NBA player Jonathan Isaac has shown us that this can be done:
One NBA player, Jonathan Isaac, is showing courage by standing up to the mob; he is not kneeling during the anthem or wearing a BLM shirt. His thoughtful explanation during a post-game Q&A is worth consideration by us all:
Reporter: So you didn’t kneel during the anthem, but you also didn’t wear a Black Lives Matter shirt? Uh, do you believe that black lives matter?
Isaac, who is black: Absolutely. I believe that black lives matter. A lot went into my decision. And part of it is, my first thought, is that kneeling while wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt don’t go hand in hand with supporting black lives. My life has been supported through the Gospel, Jesus Christ and that everyone is made in the image of God and that we all fall short of God’s glory and that each and every one of us, each and every day do things that we shouldn’t do. And say things that we shouldn’t say. We hate and dislike people that we shouldn’t hate and dislike. Sometimes it gets to a point where we point fingers about whose evil is worse. And sometimes it comes out as whose evil is most visible. So I felt like I just wanted to take a stand on, I felt like we all make mistakes but the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that there’s grace for us. That Jesus came and died for our sins and that if we all would come to an understanding of that and understand that God wants to have a relationship with us, that we can get past skin color, we can get past all the things in our world that are messed up, jacked up. I think we need to look around. Racism isn’t the only thing that plagues our society, that plagues our nation, that plagues our world.
Here's a link to the video: Link
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