Remnants

I don’t know about you, but I’m a remnant kind of guy. Sometimes I feel like a thread that is somehow out of place within the fabric of this nation. I’m not woven into either of the two sweaters that have been made in the U.S.A. that the left and the right are selling. I’ve come to accept myself as a remnant. Webster defines a remnant as “a piece of fabric that has been left over after rest of the bolt has been sold. A small remaining group of people.” This definition fits me. I know I have lots of company who have sized up this situation like I have. Let me explain.

As I read my Bible, I am awestruck about how societies become polarized into left and right characterizations. It’s a simple fact of human history. Although the pundits in the U.S. have mistakenly led us to believe that we have somehow cornered the historical market with this characterization. In my Bible, the other fact that strikes me is the existence of a remnant that lives in the midst of raging disagreements between the left and the right. The interesting thing is that God always has, (and always will), have a special place in His heart for the remnant. As written in Jeremiah, 3″I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. 4I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” (1)declares the LORD.   It’s time to become grateful that we are remnants, rather than surviving or enduring as victims torn between the rage of the left and right in the U.S. culture wars. As remnants, we are, and always have been, God’s people upon whom He showers special concern, incredible blessing, and divine consideration. We’re the fortunate one’s. Stay with me.

The Dumb/Downside of Dichotomies

Dichotomies like left v. right, conservative v. liberal, fundamentalist v. progressive are convenient, man-made characterizations that put people into boxes. We do this so we can label things such that they are easily recognizable. The faulty assumption is that if you can recognize something, you understand it…that what you say is in the box is, in fact, in the box. Dichotomies also put God in a box (although such a task is, in my opinion, absurd). The attitudes, values, and judgments we adopt through our infatuation with dichotomies are also filled with half-truths, lies, biases and other creature comforts in our daily lives that lull us into resting upon the couch of ignorance. We become accustomed and comfortable viewing the world and behaving in a certain way. Because of this, far too many of us stop learning, growing, questioning our beliefs, and challenging what’s inside our respective boxes. Unfortunately, the habits we develop during ordinary course, daily living seep into our relationship with Jesus Christ as individuals, and as the body of Christ; His church.

In the U.S., our obsession with dichotomies has put the term Christian in a box. Recently, I was encouraged to create a byline for the articles I write. I was cautioned by numerous parties not to put the word Christian in the byline, even though I write about life from my Christian perspective, because I would be immediately thrown into with the Christian right stereotype and nobody would read my stuff. As many readers have shared with me, my Christian faith is not what is purported to be the Christian faith by proponents of the Christian right. I find it fascinating that I have unintentionally developed an audible defense mechanism when people inquire about my faith. I hear myself say, “I’m a Christian, but…” This response is one I guess I developed because I realized that my Christian faith has been hijacked by people who claim to have boxed up Christianity in the U.S. in a socio-politically useful dichotomy. As Sojourners Managing Editor and theologian Jim Wallis writes, “This is a call for people of faith everywhere to stand up and let their faith be heard. This is not a call to be just concerned, or just a little worried, or even just alarmed. This is a call for clear speech and courageous action. This is a call to take back our faith, and in the words of the prophet Micah, “to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.”(2)

It’s time to be delivered from the dumb, downside of dichotomies. What does this path look like? Keep reading.

Dry Ground

The passages in the Bible that we become most familiar with may leave us with the impression that “I’ve got that one down pat.” I find that my understanding of God’s Word, even the most familiar passages, changes over time. Verses that I have not understood take on new dimensions of meaning for me. The Scripture that I have become familiar with develops new applications in my life as circumstances change, and the world around me continues to evolve. I’m very grateful for this. I have come to appreciate the truth that God’s Word is alive, capable of expressing His truth, no matter what the season or the circumstances. We remnants must prepare ourselves to be enlightened by a new, pertinent application of God’s Word to our lives, the emerging role of the church, and our approach to the current state of the world around us.

I’m really glad that God created dry ground. It only took Him until verse 9 in the first chapter of Genesis to accomplish this! I can’t imagine living my life on, in, or under the water. Every time I get off a boat, I’m wobbly for a couple of hours. The same is true when I spend anytime in the ocean. I like to dive under the water but enjoy emerging above the surface. I have no desire to become certified for scuba diving. I’ve watched way too many episodes of Jacques Cousteau and shark-stuff on the Discovery channel. I was simply not created to spend any length of time in, under or on top of the water. I’m a dry ground kind of guy. When I struggle with the sensation of wobbling after being in or on the water for any extended period of time, I’m grateful that God planted Adam and Eve in the Garden rather than in some sort of pond somewhere. I’m reminded that I was created to be a dry ground creature, not plopped in a pond on the left or right of His leading.

Scripture provides us with a superb, present day application for The Way He continues to forge for His remnants to navigate safely through the left-right dichotomy:

• Exodus 14: 21-22 reads, “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.   For we remnants, we trust God makes the way. It takes courage to travel the pathways of life on dry ground. When I attempt to imagine the Red Sea piled up, towering before me on the left and the right in these verses, it reminds me of the world I inhabit today in the U.S. It would be easy to just stand there, turn back, or dive into the waters on the left or the right of the pathway God had created before me. I’m not trying to make myself out as courageous or anything like that. I’ve just learned that I can trust Him to take me safely to places on the pathways He provides. Remnants are like that I guess.

• Genesis 8:13-17 says: 13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry. 15Then God said to Noah, 16″Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you–the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground–so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it.” (3)

Noah had a boatload of remnants. Imagine being on the deck of Noah’s ark, standing next to Noah. You finally see a glimpse of the first, visible piece of dry ground appearing above the surface of the water, after being at sea for so long. I can feel the tears of joy emerging from my eyes, hear the shouts of joy coming from my mouth, my heart begins to float and my spirit soars. I am jumping around, overwhelmed with euphoria. I’m grabbing the closest animals that I can get my hands on, hugging them with all my might. I’m ecstatic. Noah’s dancing. To be a participant in the reality of His promises unfolding within our lives is the privilege of the remnant. Scripture reveals that God displays His most powerful demonstrations of His might, grace, mercy, love through the lives of remnants.

• Imagine being one of the priests carrying the ark of the covenant in Joshua chapter 3. Let’s say you’re the first priest whose feet touch the water’s edge. “Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.”  (4- emphasis mine).

Imagine the sight of that imposing wall of water towering over you on one side, and the dry ground appearing before you. I’m afraid I would have just stood there, paralyzed by the awe of it all. I’m surprised there is no account of at least one of the priests dropping their hold on the ark and running like mad in the opposite direction. Nobody fled. Everybody “moved out” from their positions and followed the way God had made, “since you have never been this way before.”   Remnants realize that we have “never been this way before.” We trust in the fact that He is able.

Summary

As you walk through life this week, learn to assume a new posture as a remnant journeying through the midst of our culture war between the left and the right; stand on the deck of the ark next to Noah, on the shore of the Jordan with Joshua, or alongside Moses as he raises his staff facing the Red Sea. Yearn to see the reality of His promise of dry ground unfolding before your eyes. Anticipate the first glimpse of dry ground appearing before you; ground that is created and revealed by our God. Follow the way God has made, “since you have never been this way before.”

Learn to dance with Noah, jump for joy with Joshua and marvel at the miracle with Moses. Pray for those you know who are confined within the wall of water on the right or on the left.   Pray that you, yours, your community, this nation and this world shall return to the pathway that God provides in the midst of our culture war. Pray for those imprisoned within the left and right dichotomy. This is His gift to us, His remnants.

This has always been, and is, the only way to the Promised Land.

Bibliography & Notes

1  Jer 23:3-4

2  http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.display&issue=050428#3
Exodus 14:21-22

3  Genesis 8:13-17

4  Joshua 3: 15

5  Joshua 3: 3-4

6  Joshua 3: 3-4

7  Exodus 14: 22