The Gathering

A fellow worker with whom politically I could hardly be further distanced and even theologically there is a good degree of separation, asked me to come in early to work so that I could pick him up after dropping his vehicle off to have new tires put on it.

Why would he ask me?  Why would he expect someone with so many geo-political, sociological and theological differences to go out of his way to help?  Because, despite our sundry differences, we share one overriding unifying factor: We serve the same Lord!

No, we don't walk in lockstep in our theological or political journey but we are both doing our best to follow Jesus Christ. Despite any differences, we mutually come together on the most important rallying point in life: Jesus Christ is King!

He has no doubt and I have no reservation of this mutual calling and heartfelt response to the voice of the Master, regardless of our intellectual musings. We are different in thought patterns but identical in heartbeat. We, from our different backgrounds and intellectual shaping, are cast from the same discipleship mold.

This, I believe is the answer to the political divide of left and right in our country - to stand in the central truth of Christ as King regardless of who is president, of binding faith over blinding faculty and the polar draw of love over the polar differences of logic.

Read with me from the prophet Isaiah: "And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all...these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer....for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations" (56:6-7).

Do you suppose all these foreigners were in agreement on all their intellectual considerations?  Do you suppose they had no social or political disagreements?  What was the specific binding point Isaiah pointed out?  All who "bind themselves to the Lord."  Read the passage again. Do you see it?  The unifying call Isaiah offers is to "love and serve the Lord."  

How about we try to do that?  Not everyone will. Not everyone even calls on the name of the Lord in this country. But what if all who do call on his name did so together in the similarity of heart regardless of the dissimilar thoughts of the mind?  What if the right and the left held hands over the Central Truth of the King Jesus?  Jus' Ask'n.