Thought for Today
Genesis 1:31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Genesis 3:12 The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate."
Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Matthew 19:17 And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments."
What is your idea of an ideal world? Our earliest ancestors-in-the-faith provided us with the Creation Story in Genesis. Every creative act is deemed good. Even today, we sometimes refer to ideas of an ideal world as Eden or a new Eden. Yet that ideal world gave us the lamest excuse ever offered. When God asked, “What happened?”, Adam answered with, “There’s only you, her and me here. It wasn’t my fault!” What is your idea of an ideal world?
This morning, Greta and I were discussing some critical, earth-shattering issue (I’ve already forgotten what it was!). I answered her comment with, “Well, in an ideal world . . . “ What did I mean by an ideal world?
In my ideal world, in last Sunday’s football game at Gillette Stadium, would both teams have won (not tied but won)? In that ideal world, in last night’s game between the Bills and the Jets, would both teams have lost (not tied but lost)? As a 3rd generation native Texan, can I even conceive of an ideal world that does not include football?
In my ideal world, would my body autocorrect to always maintain a healthy body mass index (BMI) and a healthy nutritional balance? In that ideal world, by now would I be 15-20 feet tall? What is your idea of an ideal world?
Human history is replete with examples of our attempts to achieve various understandings of what an ideal world should be like. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels jointly developed a theory we refer to as Marxism. That theory attempted to explain the class conflict between capitalists and laborers and to offer a version of an ideal world. Marx produced The Communist Manifesto in 1848. Vladimir Lenin and his followers used that as their springboard to launch the Russian Revolution of 1917 and ultimately what became the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. That idea was not ideal!
Just a few years later, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party evolved their own economic policy and system to create their version of an ideal world. That ‘ideal’ system gave the world eugenics, an immoral and pseudoscientific theory that claims it is possible to perfect people and groups through genetics and the scientific laws of inheritance. Eugenicists used an incorrect and prejudiced understanding of the work of Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel to support the idea of ‘racial improvement.’” (www.genome.gov) It also gave us WWII and the Holocaust. That idea was not ideal!
Our Founding Fathers of the U.S.A. tried to give us a system which works in what is obviously not an ideal world. Whether or not any of them were thinking in terms of producing an ideal world is a question best left for historians and political scientists. But, with a national election looming close on our horizon, we all should carefully examine the stated beliefs and ideas of the candidates among whom we must choose. Maybe we should concurrently consider our own ideas of what characterizes an ideal world. As we consider for whom to vote, we should ask ourselves, “Will this candidate advance my idea of an ideal world?”
I am a Christian. I am a Christian minister. When I think about an ideal world, it is hopefully not a surprise that I think of the Lord’s Prayer. Each week during worship, we pray that line above from Matthew’s gospel, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” How often, as we pray those words, do any of us ponder what the Kingdom of God really looks like? Jesus gave us many Kingdom statements. "Matthew 13:31 The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; "13:33 The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened." "Matthew 13:44 The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” The Kingdom of God is an ideal world where everyone lives by those other words of Jesus, “Luke 10:27 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
Stay safe, live to advance the Kingdom, trust God,
Pastor Ray