Today, we took a break from Revelation and talked about the Good Shepherd.
Revelation 8:6-9
This week it was my turn to teach.
From Babel to Pentecost:Genesis 11 & Acts 2
Today we took a break from our regular series and talked about the Tower of Babel and Pentecost.
Little Shop of Horrors?
Earlier this week, I drove a busload to a local high school to see a performance of “Little Shop of Horrors.” It was a fun way to spend an afternoon, and it even provoked some thoughts. Disclaimer: my thoughts are not always normal.
The play is set in a failing flower shop on Skid Row. One of the employees, a young man named Seymour, comes into possession of an unusual plant that looks somewhat like a Venus Flytrap. The plant appeared mysteriously after a total eclipse. After the plant is displayed, the shop begins to do a booming business. Seymour soon realizes that keeping the plant alive and growing requires human blood.
As time goes on, the shop begins to prosper more and more, and Seymour himself begins to be famous. He is in high demand, and begins to fall into the “end justifies the means” trap. After a couple people end up dead and eaten, Seymour realizes that things are beginning to get out of control. However, he doesn’t know how to get himself out of this mess that he is in. After losing the woman he loves to the plant, he tries to kill it and ends up being eaten himself. Because of an earlier deal Seymour had made with a grower, the plants are propagated and end up taking over the world.
As I watched the performance, I began to think about the Church, and its relationship to politics. Those of us who claim to follow the King of Kings are subjects of a Kingdom that transcends earthly kingdoms. The problems come when the Church, like Seymour, latch on to things that we think will bring power and prestige and allow us to influence others. We think, like Seymour, “What’s a little blood? It doesn’t take much, and it’s helping the cause so much!” We don’t realize that, like the plant, the systems of this world will not be satisfied with just a little blood. They continually cry, “Feed me!,” and demand greater and greater allegiance.
Look at the times when the Church has mixed with the state, from Constantine through the religious wars of Europe, through Germany in the 1930s and on into today’s struggles in Europe and the United States. The Church (Seymour) has enjoyed some brief periods of power and influence, but ultimately it’s been the state (the plant) that has come out the winner. The lure of using the power of the state to promote the Church is seductive, and it does make things better for some, for awhile. But the cost is far greater than we realize.
We are called to proclaim that Jesus is the True King, that he calls us to follow and obey him, and that he will return some day to consummate his Kingdom and set everything right. As part of that, we are called to speak the truth, whether that is to our neighbors, or to those in positions of power. We cannot speak truth to those in power if we are tangled up with them. As George Bernard Shaw said, “Never wrestle with a pig because you’ll both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”
Since our allegiance is to be given to the King of Kings, we should stay away from entangling ourselves with the powers of this world. It may be satisfying for awhile, but eventually they will eat us.
Good Friday: A Prayer of Intercession Against the Kingdom of Death
This is from the Rabbit Room.
Palm Sunday: The Coming of the King
On Palm Sunday, Christians commemorate Jesus’ entry into the city of Jerusalem. It was just before the Passover celebration and the city was full of pilgrims who had traveled many miles to participate. The city was also full of Roman soldiers who were brought in to keep the peace. Tensions ran high, as many of the Jews were hoping that this year would be the year that the Messiah would come and lift the boot of Rome off their necks.
As Jesus rode into the city on a donkey, the crowd hailed him as the King who was prophesied. They thought he would call all Israel to himself and send the Romans back to where they came from, restoring the glory that Israel had back in the days of David. After all, it was prophesied that a descendant of David would come and take the throne.
The people were correct. Jesus was the King that they had been waiting for. What they didn’t understand was the kind of King he was. They were looking for a King who would drive out the oppressors, who would rule a kingdom where everyone kept Torah, who would make Israel great again. Their focus was on an earthly king and an earthly kingdom. Pilate misunderstood too. He put a notice at the top of the cross proclaiming that this man being crucified was “Jesus, the King of the Jews,” in effect telling all who saw that Rome was powerful enough to do this to any would be king who challenged their authority.
I fear that many Christians in the West suffer from the same misunderstanding of Jesus. Yes, he is King. Yes, he is going to return and set everything right. But, his kingdom is still not a kingdom of this world, and it does not come by earthly means. We can not bring in the kingdom at the ballot box or in the halls of government. No government or nation can lay claim to being a “Christian” government or nation. No matter how good a nation may be, it is still a kingdom of this world. Babylon still exists in different forms around the world, and those who follow the True King are not to put their hopes in, or give their allegiance to Babylon. Our allegiance is only to Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Followers of Jesus realize that when he returns, it will be on his timetable. We can not work to arrange things in order to speed his return. None of that is in our hands. It’s a good thing, because we would royally screw it up.
Involvement in government is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it does not take the place of doing justice, loving mercy, walking humbly with God, loving God with all our being, and loving others as ourselves. These days, that may be the most subversive, revolutionary thing we can do. It may get us in trouble in some circles, but we are called to follow our King wherever he leads, just as the early Christians did.
How many of us are willing to do that?
Blast From the Past: Mary’s Song
This was first posted in 2008. I think the questions are still worth asking.
The other day, I was thinking about the song of Mary in Luke 1. It was actually a pretty subversive thing to say in that day. I was wondering what Mary’s song would sound like in the 21st Century.
Who would be the rulers in today’s world? Who would be the proud? Who are the rich? Who are the humble and the hungry?
What in our consumer driven culture could the song speak to? What would Mary have to say to the Church?
What does it mean today that the King has come and is coming again? What would happen if those of us who say we follow this King lived as if we really did?
Just some questions rolling around in my head.
Any thoughts?
Christian Nationalism?
Back in the early 80s, (yes I am that old) I was what you might call a Reagan Republican. I was a pretty conservative evangelical who believed that it was the Christian’s responsibility to influence government in ways that reflected God’s kingdom. I remember voting pretty much straight ticket Republican, except for the Senate race where the Democrat was more conservative than the liberal Republican. I was a teacher in a small Christian school affiliated with the Accelerated Christian Education folks. The writings of North and Rushdoony came across my desk and I earned a Master’s degree in Public Affairs, with an eye of possibly going into government. Of course, that was the time when the federal government put a freeze on hiring. I spent a summer carrying my resume all around downtown Washington in stifling heat in a futile attempt to convince someone that they should hire me. We moved to another town, and that idea disappeared.
The idea of “Christian Nationalism” was something confined to a few writers who believed that the country should be governed under Old Testament law. Fast forward to today. The words “Christian” and “Nationalism” have been combined to describe a philosphy that believes that the United States is and always has been a Christian nation and Christians should seek to take control and govern the country according to the Bible. Many believe that America is a special nation that has been blessed by God and that we must bring America “back to God.” A few years ago, I might have agreed with at least some of that thinking. Something happened though. I began to read the New Testament, especially the gospels, and in particular the teachings of Jesus.
Now, I still believe that 2 Timothy 3:16-17 is true, that all Scripture is given by God for us, but I have come to believe that the teachings of the apostles found in the New Testament are not simply stand alone writings. They are the teachings telling the early Christians, and us, how to practically live out the teachings of Jesus. The teachings of Jesus in the gospels is where we start. Jesus didn’t come to earth just to die on a cross. He came to teach and to show us who the Father is. He spoke of a Kingdom that is not of this world, of how to enter that Kingdom, and of how to live as a subject of the true King. Not once can you find Jesus telling someone to ask him into their heart, but you can find many times when he told folks to follow him. That meant more than just going around the countryside with him and listening to what he said. To follow a rabbi as disciple meant to become like the rabbi. Jesus even said that those who did not obey his teachings had no place in his Kingdom.
The early Christians got in trouble with the Roman Empire, not because they were preaching that you had to accept Jesus in order to go to heaven when you die, but because they were proclaiming that this man from Galilee that the Romans executed had risen from the dead and was the one True King. That meant that Caesar was not the true king. The early Christians obeyed the laws of the empire, but they refused to pledge allegiance to Caesar. This continued for roughly three hundred years. Then Constantine claimed to have seen a cross in the sky, and made Christianity a legal religion. You could say that he was the first politician to use the Church for his own political ends. The next step was the decree by Theodosius I that Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire. It was downhill from there.
History has shown that combining church and state tends to benefit those in both who are willing to use the other for their own ends, but it has also shown that while the state and the offical church gain, those who follow Jesus are often persecuted like those in the early Church. The state and the church wash each other’s backs and anyone who doesn’t go along with them is out. The founding of the United States was an attempt to end that, with the exception of those that saw this new land as a sort of a “new Israel.” For the most part that separation of church and state was successful for a couple hundred years. Now, that seems to be changing, at least in some circles. There are people who are calling for the Church to lead the state, for the laws of the country to favor one religion (“Christianity”) over all others. Many are using words and phrases that are only properly applied to Jesus Christ. “The best hope for mankind,” “The savior of our country,” among others.
In the first half of the last century, a man sought to gain power by promising the people that he would restore the nation to its formet glory and lead them to even more greatness and power. He promised a regime that would last a thousand years, surpassing even the Roman Empire. That man was Adolf Hitler. One of the groups supporting Hitler was something called the “German Christian Movement”. (sound familiar?) They saw him as someone who would end the decadence in Germany and purify it. A poster from the time features an image of Martin Luther, along with a swastika and the words, “Hitler’s fight and Luther’s teaching are the best defense for the German people.” Of course, we know how that pairing of church and state turned out.
The Kingdom that we belong to as followers of Jesus is a Kingdom that is not from this world. It is a Kingdom that comes through love and service, rather than power and force. It is a Kingdom that works from the inside out, not through law and coercion. It has been said that the Kingdom of God comes, not through a sword, but through a towel. Unfortunately, the Church has forgotten that through the centuries, and has aligned itself with the kingdoms of this world in an attempt to bring God’s Kingdom to this earth. Instead, these unholy unions have only brought war, bloodshed, and oppression. The nations have disappeared or been greatly reduced and the church has suffered. What would lead us to think that the results would be any less disastrous in our day.
Some (many?) of you may disagree with me. That’s your prerogative. I would only ask that you look at the history of the early Church. I would especially ask that you look at what Jesus himself said about his Kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount is a good place to start.
Fruit of the Spirit: Galatians 5:22-26
This morning I had the opportunity to teach on the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5.
Summertime, and the Living is…
I wrote this as part of our church’s monthly newsletter, and thought I’d share it here.
Officially, summer is not here yet, but the temperatures are getting summery, and the tropics are already heating up for a busy storm season. It seems that the weather is not the only thing heating up. All we have to do is read or watch the news, and it becomes obvious that the culture around us is growing hotter as well. The violence in the country is rising at what seems to be a faster pace than ever before. I fear that it may not be long before that spirit of violence spills over into people and groups we would never think would be affected. The rhetoric coming from those who desire to be called our leaders is becoming incendiary, and even some who claim to belong to Christ are joining in.
We however, are called to be different. We are called, as followers of the Prince of Peace, to be peacemakers. We are commanded to be humble, seeking only to glorify our King. We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves, even if those neighbors are our enemies. We are even commanded to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. Talk about counter cultural!
I believe that Christ is beginning to winnow his Church. The time may come quickly when those of us who claim Jesus as our King will have to put up or shut up. The dividing line will become sharper and clearer. If and when that time comes, we will need each other. We will have to show that love for others that we say we have, and trust our Father to take care of us.
Let’s not wait until we are forced to depend on one another. Let’s begin now.