“What God Really Wants For the World”
February 9, 2025
Luke 5: 1–11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him. ***
It has been a challenging week to think on this story of Jesus’ calling his first disciples. While Luke paints a compelling story of divine power despite Simon Peter’s feeling of unworthiness, I have been distracted by thoughts on whether Christ-like discipleship can prevail in this world.
With so much which is antithetical to Christ-like principles today, I am asking myself if God really needs us anymore. Would God’s desires for the world be better accomplished without human involvement?
To be sure, God wants people to enter into lives of Christ-led discipleship filled with meaning, purpose and action for the sake of making known to all people tangible acts and words of hope, care and compassion. But to listen to the prominent voices in American society today makes me wonder if God would rather not have much to do with us, certainly not as representatives and ambassadors of Jesus’ mission we read of in the Gospels.
As he stepped to the podium to deliver a prayer at the inauguration of the new president last month, the Rev. Franklin Graham addressed the president directly: “Mr. President, the last four years, there were times I’m sure you thought it was pretty dark, but look what God has done!”
And what exactly did God do?
Later, the new president declared that he had experienced an epiphany in July when a bullet dinged his ear at a rally in PA. He said “I felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”
There is a questionable theological premises at play in this claim — God’s ability to intervene in the laws of nature, or the wisdom of God’s decision to let an assassin fire a bullet in the first place. The premise caves easily. Why didn’t God intervene a few seconds earlier and prevent the entire thing from happening? Why let the innocent man in the stands die?
Yet you see the more dubious theological premise the president smuggled into his claim that deserves our attention. It is so obvious that it almost seems silly to ask.
Does God really want America to be great?
I have written about my concern over Christian Nationalism that many politicians and evangelical preachers are promoting in our country. It threatens not only our nation, but also our faith. Christian nationalism is a form of religious nationalism that focuses on promoting the pseudo-Christian views of its followers, in order to achieve prominence and dominion in political and social life. It stands in stark contrast to Jesus’ saying: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mark 12:17)
Whenever political discussions include references to “God’s will” it is usually tied to what politicians want. Yet it is possible to talk in general terms about what God wants because, after all, Christians believe that God has made divine will known to us via scripture, church teaching, and our own efforts to faithfully follow Jesus. So while I do not think it is possible to ground a political platform in what God wants, I do think it is possible to reflect on what God wants for the world God loves.
“For God so loved the world” is a verse of scripture that even those with little knowledge or interest in religion can quote from memory. God does want this world to have a future. I believe this story of calling fishermen to follow Jesus into a discipleship defined life is the earnest desire of God for the world.
The trouble is that empires tend to forget about the world’s future and instead focus on their own. With “America First” rhetoric it seems clearer each day that it is a zero-sum game for the world. Gone are the primary components of following Jesus and living your life in a way that reflect his teaching which is what those fishermen accepted in the Luke 5 story. Christian discipleship is about loving others, caring for the poor, acting honestly and fairly, making peace, refusing to be part of oppressing or exploiting others, and living humbly. The list goes on.
There are many examples in scripture that God wants the world to be ruled by just people. So do God’s people. Psalm 72 is one example.
Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son.
May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice.
May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, And the hills, in righteousness.
May he defend the cause of the poverty of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.
You see, God wants just rulers to rule so that God’s people can thrive. Power ought to be used to improve people’s lives, and God is clear about whose lives ought to be improved first: the powerless, the needy, the poor, and the stranger, victims of tragedy, those without any recourse to improve their own lives.
In today’s world, this category of people includes migrants and refugees, disabled children in America’s public schools and many more. God does not prefer the unlucky to the lucky because God is picky-choosy with divine love. Like a good mom, all of God’s kids are favorites. But God pays particular attention to the unlucky because they need a little extra help. The rich are not worried about their daily bread; they do not worry about grocery prices or having enough to feed their children.
There is no sense talking about God wanting America to be great again. God does not always share our estimation of greatness. We learn over and over again in the scriptures that God is one whose eye is on the lowly, the poor, the oppressed. In contrast, sometimes God passes over the great, at times even thwarting their plans. This instinct of God’s and one which relativizes human standards of greatness comes clear in the Song of Mary we read back in Advent. “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:52). In other words, politicians who praise their own greatness ought to remember that God “deposes kings and sets up kings” (Daniel 2:21).
Even if God does choose to make a nation great — as God does for Abraham’s descendants in Genesis — God does so for the sake of the world, a blessing “for all the families of the earth” (Genesis 12:3)
Any nation claiming that God has blessed it with greatness ought to ask itself the aim and purpose for using that greatness. It is crystal clear to me that those advancing America First or Make America Great again are not intending to use their energy and aim to make anywhere else in the world great, too.
Whenever Christians ask what God wants, our first instinct should be to point to Jesus. He is what God wants: his way of being, his way of loving, his way of becoming neighbor to all. According to Jesus, God does not want people to want to be first — if they do, God is going to send them to the back of the line. So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’ (Matthew 20:16)
According to Jesus, God does not want people to welcome strife and division into their lives, nor does God want them to pass by helpless victims they stumble by on the side of the road. (Luke 10:25–37)
According to Jesus, God wants this world to be the kind of place God knows it can be, the kind of place God created it to be: a place where justice rushes down like waters, where enemies are loved, where orphans and widows are welcomed and taken care of by the powerful, where people pursue peace, where actions are informed by compassion.
It is fair to point out that citizens more readily achieve these goals than rulers, Kings or Presidents. It is far easier for me to feed a homeless person or provide shelter for the unhoused than for the government to do it.
But the question is whether God wants America to be great in the way that Chistian Nationalists and the religious right claim, and my best guess is that God wants this world and America to become a better reflection of Jesus.
Yet if that world is to truly happen, our powerful rulers will have to worry less about being great and more about being good. Here they might heed the words of Micah 6:8: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord your God?” ***
St. Francis once wrote to a close friend about the nature of God and qualities we all can strive to embody. If you are struggling, trying to resist powerful movements within Christianity and this nation — and yet feel called like those fishermen to follow the ways of Jesus, then take these words of St. Francis as encouragement for the week ahead.
You are love.
You are wisdom.
You are humility.
You are endurance.
You are rest. You are peace.
You are joy and gladness.
You are justice and moderation.
You are gentleness.
You are our guardian and defender.
You are our courage.
You are our haven and our hope.
*St. Francis is known for his ministry to the poor and underprivileged, his care for nature and animals, and founding the Franciscan order. Son of an affluent cloth merchant, St. Francis of Assisi lived in wealth and ease until God used a meeting with a person with leprosy to change his heart.
This piece leans heavily upon the thoughtful reflection of Dr Brandon Ambrosino in his piece in Christian Century.
