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Ask Not What Miracle Your God Can Do For You
By Stew | posted 02/07/2008
"Jesus replied, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Matthew 22:37-39)
In most instances, it is a mistake to mix politics and religion. Beliefs and opinions can be so strong and conflicting that not much good is done by upsetting the hornet's nest. Nevertheless, fool that I am, today I got to thinking back 47 years ago to January 20, 1961, when JFK in his inaugural speech made his famous call to action of every American:
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.
That's JFK's patriotic call from the past. In those days, America was more a Christian nation and less a secular, multiple-religion country. JFK, a Catholic, had a Christian context for his address, ending his speech with these words:
[Let] us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.
These words are similar to words that Ronald Reagan used towards the end of his inaugural speech:
[The crisis we are facing today] requires our best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that together, with God's help, we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us.
This got me to thinking about how consistent these presidential calls are with Jesus' call in Matthew (22:35-40):
One of the [Pharisees], an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
What would a national leader, of either party, call on us to do today? I'll offer that a national leader could do even better than JFK or Reagan by incorporating the words of Jesus in his or her bipartisan call to action:
Ask not what miracle your God can do for you, but what miracle you can do for your God. What we can do for God is simple: love God with all our hearts, souls and minds and our neighbors as ourselves. Our lives in this nation and this world hang on that love. Remember that God loved this world so much that He gave His Son, so that believers will have eternal life beyond this world. But here in this nation and on this earth, God's work must truly be our own work of love, a work of love that requires our best efforts, our willingness to believe in ourselves and in our capacity to perform great deeds - and with God's help and blessing - miracles.
To respond to this message, email Stew at stewka@comcast.net.
