What do you do when you hear that? Probably depends on the circumstances. If you’re outside and it’s starting to rain, you look for a place to stay dry. But if you’re on a battlefield you might drop to the ground and look for a place to stay alive. Cover can mean a lot of things: a way to stay warm; an effort to address—to cover—a topic, providing all the necessary information that’s required to do or understand something; it may point to an attempt to hide something or someone. More specifically the need for cover can intersect with some basic ideas concerning how to be an American. On the one hand we Americans celebrate our independence, meaning we can decide how to live our lives; we’re not being regulated by the government as some people are in other countries. But there are limits to our personal freedoms—aren’t there? If there are then the extent of those limits need to be discussed, argued for and against, and considered with great care. In this regard the question is: Does the law “cover” everything pertaining to our rights and freedoms? Does it provide protection against the encroachment of our freedoms, covering us from such encroachment by others?

It’s a conundrum for me, one that was prompted by the recent presentation of the Olympics. Personal rights and freedoms were on full display as the games were exhibited and the participants and spectators were interviewed. The opening ceremony included a presentation of a variety of characters engaged in what appeared to be a celebration of their own existence. Different types of people were displayed in a manner that suggested a diversity of gender which emphasized inclusion rather than separation. Unfortunately, the manner in which this presentation was composed seemed to “mimic” a famous presentation of the the Last Supper that Jesus and His apostles had prior to the Lord’s crucifixion. The resulting discussion wasn’t a happy one, and the assessment of what was done is still debatable. However, what it did do was get everyone’s attention. The games did more that simply present sports competitions; it became a display of various facets of culture that are current in the world. It certainly prompted me to pay closer attention to what was being said in the interviews of the competitors, and to consider the agenda that was being displayed by the presenting television network. The conclusion that I came to was that the games were being presented as an activity of the entire world; meaning that only the common denominator of shared humanity was being given focus. But the understanding of our shared humanity did not include a judgment of right and wrong. Everyone was affirmed as sharing that common humanity without reference to specific values derived from religion or politics. The beliefs and values of individual countries were not being given attention; the focus was on the human capacity for “friendly” competition; something that everyone could appreciate.

For Christians the games could be assessed in this manner, with its importance dismissed accordingly, or it could be regarded as a wake-up call regarding the direction that the “world” is taking. If it’s the latter, then the question is how to respond to that challenge? We could ignore it, and many people who count themselves Christians might do just that, meaning that as long as we can continue to practice our faith as we wish then we can let the world do what it does. However, American evangelicals don’t often respond in this way. Our approach is to either ensure our freedoms to worship as we see fit, arguing that our way is the right way and insisting that our government ensure our right to do this. Or we attempt to isolate—insulate?—ourselves so that we maintain our position over and against a lost and dying world. You might say we “take cover” from the vileness of this world. The question is: what is the right thing to do? My answer is that we should run for cover, but the cover I have in mind is not simply isolation and self preservation in a traditional sense. We need to be involved to the degree that our circumstances allow, and do so in accordance with the Lord’s blessing. The world is an evil place and its destruction is inevitable, but in the meantime we can represent our God in a variety of capacities: in the workplace, through casual acquaintance at the various places we frequent, i.e. the fitness center, the grocery store, or at a sporting event. And we can exercise our right to be involved in the governance of our country according to God’s calling. It depends on what’s being exhibited and what level of engagement is called for. Yet we do need to take cover, but that doesn’t mean running away from the danger and isolating ourselves. The cover I have in mind is the cover that God provides in whatever circumstance we’re engaged. It’s that cover that we need to run toward. It’s the cover derived from fellowship with the Lord!

Our relationship with the Lord has a potential dynamic that can sustain us as we encounter the world and present Him to lost people. In our American setting that includes our participation in the culture of America. In thinking about this consider the appeal that Jesus made to His disciples when He stated:

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5)

The nature of that fruit was indicated when the Apostle Paul stated:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

The world is an evil place; lost in its own delusions. And it is the case that Christian values affirmed by the majority of American citizens in the past are no longer predominant. The values of common humanity without reference to religion preside as our American values today. What Americans contend for is freedom for people to live their lives in whatever way they deem appropriate. People shouldn’t be forced to believe anything. Whatever is being imposed on people without their consent should be resisted. This is true regarding values derived from religion, political philosophy, or some version of common sense. Common sense suggests that people should be able to choose what is obviously appropriate for themselves and their communities. The problem is that people are not able to naturally agree sufficiently in order to establish and maintain a community through commonsense. In our modern culture great diversity of lifestyle is being exhibited because the population has diversified to a great extent since the founding of the nation. Such diversity chaffs under the authority of government, even though majority rule establishes that authority. This shouldn’t be unexpected; democracies aren’t the answer to the human condition, they rub against our freedoms in a manner akin to monarchies and communist regimes, although they’re less onerous; and values derived from religion aren’t able to dispel that resistance. There will always be contention—and the use of force—involved in maintaining the organization of any community.

What’s the point? American Christians need to decide what kind of cover they need in these days. Is it a cover that will maintain our lifestyle? Is it the cover that will protect us from bodily harm? Is it cover that’s provided by the government, or cover provided by the Lord? Or are they one and the same? What’s our focus? In coming to terms with this question I think we need to consider what we’ve been presented with in the Good News we’ve received. We need to cover all the bases presented by the Gospel, resisting the tendency to confuse the various concerns of life and, instead, focus on what the Lord has presented us in our crucified and resurrected Messiah. Jesus modeled for us a response to a world that’s deluded in its understanding of itself. He didn’t lead a political revolution—something that first century Judaism expected from the Messiah. In fact He predicted the fall of Israel, including the destruction of the temple, before He was crucified. (Matthew 24) Instead, our Savior ushered in an unprecedented revolution of human existence in which our very nature was redeemed. Jesus, speaking to His disciples stated:

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in Me, and I in You. (John 14:16-20)

Jesus made a way for our God to dwell within us. We truly are new creatures in Christ. “Old things passed away, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) The specifics of the world’s delusion may change over time, but our response to it should always be the same. Ours is not a matter of a divinely appointed government. The Romans recognized themselves as ruling by divine right even though their understanding of divine power was quite different from that of our forefathers. And Jesus submitted to that authority as well as the misguided authority of the Jews. He let Himself be put to death. The fact that we modern evangelicals actually believe in the same God that our founders embraced doesn’t mean that our goal should be to impress those beliefs through rule of law. We may be able to participate in the making and enforcement of law, but that doesn’t dismiss us from the responsibility to represent our God in the same manner that Jesus did before those ancient authorities. Jesus yielded to the authorities of His day and called His followers to follow His lead. And the Apostles continued to present the Good News in a manner that affirmed the love that God has for all. They didn’t try to start a revolution in order to insure their survival, or to impose their beliefs on others. The revolution that they called for was a revolution of soul inaugurated by our risen Lord, a new way for all people to understand themselves and their God. It truly was—and is—revolutionary.