What Rights do we really have?

During the 19^th and 20^th centuries we see a rise in the Lockian ideas about rights. We even find them in our own declaration of independence sent to Great Britain in 1776 There Thomas Jefferson articulates our fundamental natural rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He adjusted it from Locks original life, liberty and ownership of property. These form the basis of our understanding of rights for various aspects of life.

In western society we often talk of the rights we have or that we should have. We often talk of the freedoms we have and the right to have those freedoms. We use that logic and thought to justify invasion and aggressive political happenings. Then we as “Christian” America come behind these ideas and baptize or ordain them into society as holy and untouchable. It is because of that mindset that we can justify attacking other traditions and chastising them for limiting the rights of its believers. It is that mindset that offers us a gateway to attack ideas or lifestyles counter to our own.

It is now that I want to challenge those notions. I want to ask what rights our faith offers us. I want to separate or at least rearrange our citizenship so that we can clearly understand what rights we have and where they come from. I think that we will find out that the Lockian or the Jeffersonian ideology of natural rights doesn’t apply to us as Christians. I think we would all acknowledge that God wants us to live good happy lives but we all must agree that in this fallen world he we have been given the right to sacrifice much for those around us.

This notion of the right to life could be interpreted in many ways because we are instructed to lay down our lives, to take up our crosses to offer our lives as living sacrifices. Those ideas initially don’t sound very exciting or at least not as appealing as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In other places we are told to rejoice in our sufferings. Suffering seems to be a major part of our existence as Christians but I wonder really how much we suffer and for that matter how much we offer of ourselves.

I heard an old hymn one day that had lines that went something like this “All to the I surrender all to the I freely give.” You know the song don’t you. I heard not to long ago Tony Campolo give an appropriate 21^st century remix of that song that went something like this. “10 percent we surrender, 10 percent we freely give.” That’s a hard line to swallow. I don’t intend to make light of tithing or giving in general but for the sake of understanding our spiritual rights it seems to me that this demonstrates some of the absurdities that pervade 21^st century understanding of life.

I am still in wonder and awe of our rights as Christians because I am still working to find these promises of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You see it isn’t even really there with happiness in Galatians 5 we are instructed to have joy, in Romans 5 we are instructed to take joy in our sufferings. Are these the rights that we signed up for. Our rights seem more present as we are instructed to care for the poor and downtrodden as we are instructed to love our enemies and the Lord God with all our hearts.

Where are our rights well we do have them I suppose being that we are Americans living in the United States but the challenge for us is to be reminded that we live under a different bill of rights we have an amendment to the amendment that Goes something like this.

You Christians have the responsibility to Love the Lord God with all your heart, mind, body and soul.

You have the responsibility to Love your neighbor as yourself.

You have the responsibility to love your enemies.

You have the responsibility to care for the poor.

You have the responsibility to care for God’s creation.

You have the responsibility to lay down your life for the sake of the Kingdom of God.

Our system of rights doesn’t quite fit does it. We all know that anyone of us could go on and on with different aspects of the Christian life that we are supposed to adhere. You see I don’t think it is always the “hard stuff” like sex, drugs and alcohol that trip us up as much as our complacency our unwillingness to live with relentless abandon. Many of you might say that I don’t know what I am talking about but if that is so why do we throw fits over the Ten Commandments being pulled out of a courthouse on the basis of our rights. Where in the Bible did it say that we would be given equal treatment by the government I believe it tells us that we will face persecutions.

We say we have this down and this is a non-issue but yet there are still poor and homeless on the streets every night. You say that is their own fault and that they should get a job and true as that may be but God didn’t give us an out on those claims we are stilled instructed or called to be Christ to those people to show love and compassion to offer food clothing and shelter when needed.

It seems that for Jesus and the Kingdom of God it is a lot less about the concept of rights and a lot more about the expectations of how we live. Jesus came to this earth not to teach us about a life beyond this as much as he came to demonstrate and teach us how to live. Isn’t it about time we became a little radical. Isn’t it about time we became who we say we are. To be Christians to show them who we are by the love that we give. We are instructed to be faithful not successful. We have an expectation that looks beyond the dimensions of ordinary typical existence but to an idea that demonstrates a life of passion and expression.