Jeremy L. Berg

I confess: I have picked up following politics as a side hobby and guilty pleasure torture over the past several years. Why? Part train wreck scenario that I just can’t look away from, and part trying to be wise and informed in trying to pastor people in the Way of Jesus. My hobby entails listening to a couple podcasts and dipping into the cable news echo chambers to see what Kool-Aid people are drinking.

Well, this found me of course scrambling to find a way to livestream the first Republican debate last night on Fox News. (We recently cut the cable.) I’m not interested in commentating on the debate, only to say that the most obnoxious, extreme, performative and (ahem) least qualified voices continue to get the most attention. Quiet wisdom and nuanced arguments don’t get clicks or go viral.

I want to talk about that television viewing phenomenon called “split screen” when you try to hold two things in your view at the same time. Not so much split screen interviews, but when you can watch two entirely different programs at the same time. Remember the little screen inside the bigger screen? I’ve noticed a “playing through” ads feature while watching golf this summer. When they go to commercial, they still keep a tiny window visible to keep watching the action.

As Christians called to “fix our eyes on Jesus” and not turn our attention to the left or the right, we have our own challenge to navigate a different kind of split screen reality. Let’s call it split screen spirituality or the temptation toward dual allegiances. Let’s face it: It’s hard to watch Jason Day’s tiny golf ball and hear the quiet golf commentator on mute, while the Dodge truck ad with energetic music is filling most of the screen. I think Jesus had a spiritual parallel when he said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matt 6:24).

The Gospel of Luke opens with a split screen scene. One side of the screen has a camera in the ancient Roman Senate where Caesar Augustus thinks he’s running the world. “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria”. Meanwhile, like the little tiny screen when the high paying commercials interrupt, there’s a hidden camera in a backwoods stable capturing a little baby revolution-in-the-making. ““Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened.”

Last night I watched a huge, high quality production broadcast live on a national stage with millions of eyes tuned in to 8 podiums. There was flashy colors and lights, countless reporters and news outlets, big topics, big questions, big performances, and big egos on display. Today, I’m back in my pastor’s study with an ancient book open, contemplating the other side of the split screen (or little tiny window easy to tune out). Next week I will walk into two college classrooms where I will try to convince 60 young adults that the little screen focused on a little grassroots movement led by backwater fishermen in the shadow of a big world superpower IS really the screen that ultimately matters.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed…Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree.”

Jesus of Nazareth

Let everyone around us fawn at the big-budget political mayhem swirling continuously around us. Let us keep our focus on the little pop-out window on the screen of history that bows humbly before the manger and stands in awe with lowly shepherds. Let worldly politics be a little side hobby (though I don’t recommend it!), and let King Jesus and his upside-down politics rule in our hearts and minds continuously.

I justify my dabbling in world politics on the side in that I get to spend the majority of my days reading about, writing about, and teaching about the social-political ideas of Jesus and the Kingdom. My fear and burden these days is knowing that most people are bombarded non-stop with worldly politics, and only rarely tune into what Jesus and His vision might add to the conversation. I wish the average American Christian had a 50/50 split screen with the Kingdom grabbing half one’s time and attention. The reality is that the split is probably 95/5 with the Kingdom window too small to see and on mute.

I just got back from a walk down the trail to grab some lunch. As I approached the church, sitting on a bench was a 75 year old looking man taking a rest in the afternoon heat. In the good old days, he would have been listening to the birds singing in the trees above and staring at the flowers that line the trail while he caught his breath. Today, the old man sat staring down at his iPhone watching/listening to his favorite political pundit filling the screen of his mind with the contentious sounds of political rancor. (I could hear it from 30 yards away!) I get it. I enjoy my own podcasts on the trail (with earbuds!). I just hope he spends the rest of his day leaning into the life-giving, hope-filled sights and sounds of the other Kingdom.

How about you? Are you living a split screen political life? What percentage is the split between worldly concerns and Kingdom concerns? Is politics just a small side hobby, or might it be an all-consuming obsession?