“You invited my enemies from all around as if for a day of festival; and on the day of the anger of the Lord, no one escaped or survived; those whom I bore and reared, my enemy has destroyed.”
Lamentations 2:22
This verse is from a rough passage in Lamentations. God is allowing horrible things to happen to Israel. God’s chosen nation reaps the consequences of its actions. This is a lesson we should remember.
For as long as I can remember, there have been people in the church and in the government claiming that the United States is a nation favored by God. That instinct has only grown in recent years.
The United States isn’t alone in this hubris. Throughout Western history, virtually every nation that rises in power believes it is because of God’s favor.
Maybe it is true that we have been favored by God. Maybe it is true that God has given us over to our sins, then greed and exploitation generated our power. Likely, the truth is a mix of the two. Regardless, no nation has ever been more favored by God than Israel. That should be sobering.
Israel, God’s chosen nation, continually receives harsh words from God in scripture. God compares Israel to a prostitute and judges Israel as worse than Sodom, a city divinely judged.
God twice sent the people of Israel into exile, only to be eventually decimated and scattered by the Roman Empire.
The immortal words of Uncle Ben to Peter Parker seem relevant: “With great power comes great responsibility.” When a nation is favored by God, it must not see that favor as license to act without love and justice. Favor from God bestows a responsibility to share His favor, His love, and His justice.
If a nation favored by God does not reflect the character of God, it should expect judgment. God’s favor does not mean a nation can do no wrong. It means the nation should do no wrong. God grants favor to share His character with the world. When a nation fails to love mercy and justice, when a nation fails to remain humble, God no longer walks with that nation. Rather, He invites the enemies of that nation to destroy it.
A Quote to Consider:
“Man is a microcosm; for he possesses a soul and a body, and is placed between spirit and matter; he is the place in which the visible and invisible creations, the tangible and intangible creations, are linked together.”
-St. John of Damascus
A fellow artist, who teaches at a Christian college, once said to me, “Matter matters.” This pithy phrase has stayed with me ever since.
As I have grown in my theology and spiritual understanding over the years, the importance of the physical world has become clear to me.
Sometimes, in the Church, we act as if the physical creation were an afterthought. Many act as if matter doesn’t matter. They act as if what is truly important is the unending period of time in which we will be floating on clouds, singing praises to God.
But that is not the picture given in scripture.
Matter is a part of God’s eternal plan. There will be a new heaven and a new earth where our resurrected bodies reside. We won’t float in clouds; we will walk on dirt paths.
God did not have to create the physical world. He chose to. We are physical beings because God wanted us to be this way. Yet we are more than physical. We are also spiritual.
Our physicality and spirituality are not casually linked. They are essentially linked. We are not body and soul. We are embodied souls. We are a reflection of the totality of creation, both the seen and the unseen.
The secular world tends to underestimate the importance of the soul. The Church tends to underestimate the importance of the body. God declares the importance of both.
A Prayer:
Lord,
Keep us humble and mindful of your mercy. Teach us not to confuse power with favor or blessing with permission. Form us into people who love justice, honor the body and the soul, and reflect your character in the world.
Amen.
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