Men Who Bring the Sunrise

*"The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: ‘When one rules over people in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings grass from the earth.'" - 2nd Samuel 23:3-4

"The hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known." - Gandalf the Grey, speaking of Aragorn, Return of the King*

It has been cried out in the streets by conservatives for decades now, "Masculinity is under attack!" And, it is. But who are the perpetrators? It's easy to point at the pagans, the leftists, the feminists, and to respond to their rage with a rage of our own. Perhaps sometimes a certain kind of Godly rage is necessary - every generation should have prophets who publicly invite the wicked to repent. But what happens when the call is coming from inside the house? How should we respond when violence to masculinity (and/or femininity) is coming from people who say they're on your side?

The response to the culture's denigration of God-given male and female roles has produced plenty of both courage and cowardice. There are those who have decided to lean into the maintenance of a comfortable status quo by committing to the redcoat pleasantries of not bringing up politics or religion at the table, and those who have committed their lives to the Whiskey Rebellion of raging against anyone who tells them who to be and how to live. In this cultural moment, we need to be George Washington and learn to contend with both redcoats and rebels.

Some of the leading voices in conservatism today are men, young and old, who see the world through an "everyone's out to get me" lens, so they've decided they need to be out to get everyone first. They attack both Biblical and even national fundamentals, like the wonderful gifts of marriage and family. They isolate blame towards various groups either by ethnicity or by gender as the source for the culture's woes (and it's not even just white men who do this). Perhaps most paramount to these crass individuals is the belief that our western world is so broken that it needs to be completely scrapped and abandoned for other "more forgiving" parts of the world, like, oh, I don't know, let's just say Romania.

But that's not the kind of masculine strength that our God has written of in His word. God's word tells us that when righteous men rule, it is like a beautiful sunrise after the rains have watered the earth. And what does that combination of rain and sunshine bring about? It brings about life abundantly, like grass from fertile soil. Tolkien speaks of his masculine archetype Aragorn in this way: "the hands of the king are the hands of a healer." Brothers, as a lesser ruling vassal in both God's kingdom and His little province of your home He has placed you over, does your rule bring life? Sisters, are you tender soil for the rain and sun of the Godly leaders in your life? Let the enemies of God rage like a storm on our left and our right. We will be busy bringing the sunshine, as our healing hands display the legitimacy of King Jesus.

- Brian, and your elders.