Mentioning specific politicians’ names in the church realm usually makes people uneasy, to say the least, as we often cling to a hope that church and state should be forever separated and all. And yet, God seems to insist that the impact of the Divine on our lives should carry across the board, the…entire…human…board. We seemed to have a precious bit of that in former President Jimmy Carter. Granted, I had not quite come around during his time at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. I did not experience a hostage crisis that must have been absolutely debilitating to family and friends of those taken against their will. I was not a consumer during an inflation nightmare for many, when waiting for a few cars at a gas station now is nothing in comparison to the lines that emerged then. With all that being said, the former peanut farmer from Georgia did his fair share of positively impacting the world during his latter decades of a century’s worth of living.
For us in the church, we will admire the man who insisted on teaching Sunday school at the rural Maranatha Baptist Church, located in the same small speck of a town where he was born in Plains. He even started teaching Bible lessons at age 18, when he was a midshipman in Annapolis. He continued during his time in the White House, and kept going long after he and Rosalynn (77 years of marriage by the way!) returned to their relatively modest home. Every Sunday school teacher has their own way of teaching, and in an interview, he said, “What I try to do each Sunday is begin my lesson for about 10 or 15 minutes discussing current events, the recent experiences that I have had or where I’m going next week. And then seeing how that applies to biblical principles, basic moral values that apply to every human life.”
The church is still attempting to grow in the “applying to every human life” part. We don’t believe that staying in first century Galilee or 16th century Germany or even 20th century America is going to work. We learn what was written and said and lived long ago, and do our best to impact our own, our loved ones, and as many lives as possible for the better. And yes, not just in the church, but the state side as well: across the…entire…human…board. James Earl Carter, Jr., seemed to believe that to the point of helping build houses with Habitat for Humanity, yes, and minimizing the spread of deadly diseases in Africa (because children of God all over the earth are adored just the same by the Divine, after all), not to mention playing significant roles in shaping peaceful solutions in strife-filled nations around the world.
But yes, the political climate is rather tenuous at the moment. It’s not going away any time soon, but the matters of the state are the church’s matters, too: the treatment of humanity, God’s loved humanity, with food, housing, transportation, environment, and basic dignity, are all under our purview as the 21st century disciples of Christ. The faith does not stop around long tables in Sunday school rooms. As hundreds would flock to see a former president teach about the Bible in a blink-and-you’d-miss-it town, he would always hope people would leave with more than just a photograph. Instead, an impact: a lesson learned not just with factoids about first century Galile, but a lesson in terms of how we can bring a glimpse of the death-defying and life-giving love of God to further reality today.
Maybe I wouldn’t have agreed with him on all the Biblical applications, even if he was a moderate Baptist and all. But I can still wholeheartedly say: well done, good and faithful servant. Well done, indeed!
In Christ,
Pastor Brad
From the Religion News Service: https://religionnews.com/2024/12/29/jimmy-carter-beloved-sunday-school-teacher-ex-president-dead-at-100/