It has been addressed a few times here, directly or indirectly, that a heart that lacks generosity does not adequately reflect the heart of God. This is repeated a number of times throughout scripture and was a major part of my reading for today.

If I had a dollar for every time I was told that I am functionally rich simply by living in the United States I could probably afford the life these speakers seemed to think I was living. But this is the avenue generally used to point out why we should be generous. God has given us so much! Put us in this land where we have a relatively comfortable go of it, He gives us wealth and health and status and all these other great things, how can we not give it away again? And everyone in the audience who has not been receiving wealth and health and status, while possibly eager to give what they can, find it hard to believe they are doing so out of some kind of abundance.

The universal of the Christian life is not the experience of this earthly life, but the greatest gift God gives. The passage at the top of this post claims God gives "abundant redemption." And so He does! Christ, in going to the cross, paid a steep price for our redemption, and has removed a great deal more sin from each of us than we may even realize. It is not just a bit of redemption that we must supplement, it is not just enough redemption to get us back to square one. God has provided an abundant redemption, one that covers over all our sin and brings us into communion with Him. We are called to be generous not because we have much by this world's standards, which we may, but because God has given us more than we could ever repay or fully grasp and has asked nothing in return but that we lean on Him in all our ways. Surely we cannot afford to be less generous than that.

It is common to hear the United States referred to as a Christian nation. This idea is raised in contrast to Muslim nations overseas, it is raised to discuss laws that seem fitting for us as a Christian nation, it is raised to talk about our influences and our founding fathers and the basic thread running through our culture.

I submit that this is not only false, but dangerously so.

The danger lies in the fact that, when we allow ourselves to believe that our nation is itself Christian in some fundamental sense, we set ourselves up to blur the lines between our faith and our nation. Patriotism is seen as a Christian virtue, absolute support for the military and police seen as Christian practices, despite the fact that neither of these are given in scripture. We allow ourselves to believe that what the nation does is what Christianity looks like, that we can tell a Christian from a pagan by their voting record. Israel believed they would be blessed by God because they had Abraham as their father; Americans act as though we will be blessed by God by claiming Washington as ours.

Now, it is true that John the Baptist was preparing people to receive Christ, but his words should not be read as something we must do before coming to Him. Instead John here states that this is the fruit Christ will seek to have growing on His branches; that those who are His will be producing good fruit, fruit that bears evidence of repentance. How does John here summarize this fruit? It is an opposition to materialism, it is a free giving to those in need, it is being content with what you have and not bending situations to get you more than you need. Is this the fruit of our culture? Do we live in a nation where those who hoard resources are called to task? Does our culture encourage us to live in humble means and give all we do not need to those who do, do we receive daily messages praising restraint in getting more and more? Who blankets our magazine covers but millionaires and billionaires?

When we allow ourselves to believe that this is a Christian nation, and thereby allow ourselves to believe that our nation somehow informs what our faith should look like, we end up practicing a faith that stands in direct opposition to the word of God. This culture is not Christian and trying to call it such spreads lies about what it means to be Christian. If we are to engage with the culture correctly, we must sever this notion and treat the culture for what it is. We cannot hope to grow as Christians, or show others what it means to be a Christian, if we are too blinded by our national pursuits to see the Christian life.