Lame Duck Christians

Today is Lame Duck Day, in honor of the signing of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, which reduces the amount of time between the Presidential election and the inauguration of the incoming President. Originally, there was a four-month gap. The amendment changed it into a two-month gap, because, for the time between the election of a new President, and his or her installation, the nation is essentially leaderless. The sitting president is a "lame duck." In the final months, he is simply ineffective. This happens not only in government (and pretty much at every level), but in the work place, and other areas of life, too. At the end of high school, they call it "Senioritis."

As Christians, we know this world is not our home. That our permanent residence is with God. The temptation exists, therefore, to sit in our pews, to simply try to live pious lives, and just shut the world out. After all, it's a scary place, full of trouble and temptation. If we can just close ourselves in and avoid the sins of the world, we should be okay come Judgement.

Never mind that this approach entirely misses the point of Christianity.

Jesus tells the story of a man who gave his servants bags of gold (Matthew 25:14-30). To one, he gave five bags; to another, two; and to the last servant, one bag of gold. The servants with five and two bags of gold went out and increased their master's wealth.

²⁴ “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵ So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

²⁶ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? ²⁷ Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

²⁸ “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. ²⁹ For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. ³⁰ And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

You and I may not belong to this world, but we have work to do while we're here. We don't have the privilege to sit back, to simply shut ourselves in as pious hermits, and wait for Jesus to return. As I mentioned yesterday, He is coming back, and He expects us to prepare the way. There's a world of souls who need to know Christ. A field prepared for harvest. So what are you going to do about it?