Honor
I heard a sermon this last weekend about honor, and it has stuck with me more than a usual sermon would. This preacher was talking about honoring people and how honoring those in authority over us, even when they are wrong or annoying or whatever else, is really honoring God.
This is a difficult thing for me because one of my favorite things in life is sticking it to the man. When that ignorant and power hungry flight attendant tells me that I’m not allowed to bring my guitar on the plane as thought this is the first flight that I’ve ever taken with a guitar, I take great joy in smiling, saying “ok, thanks” and then marching the guitar straight into the plane, and watching it fit perfectly into that overhead bin. When that weird conservative church person says that we probably shouldn’t sing a song with “lesbian” in it (God is not a white man), I enjoy making sure that if there is one song on our set list that night, God is not a White Man is on it.
This might sound just bad and rebellious, especially if you are a nice and honoring person… But there is a good side at to standing up against the powers and/or the oppressors as well at times. After all, what great human leader, including Jesus himself, did not make a stand against the powers that be and the status quo at some point? Jesus didn’t just always go with the flow, or they wouldn’t have killed him… People like Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, Nelson Mandela..etc These people didn’t do the amazing things they did without having something in them that was unafraid of bucking the system and doing what was right. But, of course there’s quite a difference between something like standing up for something like the oppression of the poor and something like wearing jeans on the platform on Sunday morning… There’s a difference between not bowing your knee to Nebuchadnezzar and sticking it to the TSA agent who tells you to move to the longer, slower line.
I want to learn how to tell the difference between righteous protest and immature rebellion. I want to learn how to honor people well without turning into a doormat or a coward.
What do you think? How do you distinguish the important issues worth protesting from the silly ones that you should just go with the flow with when they both feel unjust and make you angry? For the time being, I’ll probably get in the longer line if they ask me to, but I’m still bringing my freaking guitar on the plane no matter what that crazy flight attendant says.
This is a difficult thing for me because one of my favorite things in life is sticking it to the man. When that ignorant and power hungry flight attendant tells me that I’m not allowed to bring my guitar on the plane as thought this is the first flight that I’ve ever taken with a guitar, I take great joy in smiling, saying “ok, thanks” and then marching the guitar straight into the plane, and watching it fit perfectly into that overhead bin. When that weird conservative church person says that we probably shouldn’t sing a song with “lesbian” in it (God is not a white man), I enjoy making sure that if there is one song on our set list that night, God is not a White Man is on it.
This might sound just bad and rebellious, especially if you are a nice and honoring person… But there is a good side at to standing up against the powers and/or the oppressors as well at times. After all, what great human leader, including Jesus himself, did not make a stand against the powers that be and the status quo at some point? Jesus didn’t just always go with the flow, or they wouldn’t have killed him… People like Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, Nelson Mandela..etc These people didn’t do the amazing things they did without having something in them that was unafraid of bucking the system and doing what was right. But, of course there’s quite a difference between something like standing up for something like the oppression of the poor and something like wearing jeans on the platform on Sunday morning… There’s a difference between not bowing your knee to Nebuchadnezzar and sticking it to the TSA agent who tells you to move to the longer, slower line.
I want to learn how to tell the difference between righteous protest and immature rebellion. I want to learn how to honor people well without turning into a doormat or a coward.
What do you think? How do you distinguish the important issues worth protesting from the silly ones that you should just go with the flow with when they both feel unjust and make you angry? For the time being, I’ll probably get in the longer line if they ask me to, but I’m still bringing my freaking guitar on the plane no matter what that crazy flight attendant says.
Gotta go with the radical move that points to His Kingdom here on earth...just need to follow as Christ leads! Journey On!
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