I am going to be more careful in reposting and retweeting what the conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson say.

Why?

Their words aren’t worth repeating.

Why should I post how bad they are when I could just as easily post about how good something else is?

Conservatives will only take the criticism of their words as further evidence of their “persecution.”

These people also say outlandish things for ratings, and we give it to them for free by broadcasting it all over the news and the blogosphere for weeks on end.

The only way to stop the influence of people like Limbaugh is to stop acting like what they say is a big deal.

In the HBO mini-series “Generation Kill,” the RTO of the one of the humvees is talking incessantly to the reporter about his theories of war and Iraq. The team leader says something quite important that we can use in this situation:

“Stop scribbling down what he says. It encourages him.”

With that said, an old man walked quite directly down a country road.  Bearded, but not unkept he dressed in casual clothes, and his unassuming character went unnoticed by others. If one watched him in reverse and really listened, one might hear the strings playing from east to west the song of the unannounced American dream.

He turned a corner to come suddenly upon a small child, and stopped to watch the child play in the dirt.

The child was a female in the male’s domain acting out an usually masculine scene.  She had built out of the dirt a small dirt structure.  It is sometimes hard for adults to see from a child’s perspective.

The man longed to remember so got down to his knees, but it simply wasn’t low enough.

The man longed greatly to remember, so he lay on his belly, holding up his head by his elbows, but it simply wasn’t low enough.

The man longed so greatly to remember the perspective of a child that he put his chin in the dirt to see the structure face to face.

“What have you built?” the man asked.

“It’s my house.” she answered.

“It’s a little small for a house.”

“I am happy with it.” she replied.

“

Glassner takes a swipe at the media, conservatives, and sometimes even liberals.

The one thing that should be taken away from the book is that people seem to like things black and white — issues presented in broad strokes.  The problem, however, lies in the fact that the real problems are rarely black and white.  When speak of road rage one has to take into account the amount of guns available in America, but the media would rather take out anecdotal situations and make them look like the norm.

Driving by a church the other day, I noticed that it must be that time of year again for “Sanctity of Life” Sunday.  I knew this because there are white crosses representing a certain number of children who have been aborted since Roe V. Wade.  But, in the spirit of Glassner’s book, I would like to make an important observation.  In 2005, there were 1.2. million babies who were aborted.  In that same year 12.6 million households who do not have enough to eat (according to the US census).  I don’t mean to sound uncaring, but the 1.2 million babies from 2005 are dead.  There is nothing that conservatives can do to bring them back.  I consider even myself pro-life, but standing in front of abortion clinics waving signs saying that God hates you is not the answer that Jesus Christ would have given to these people.

I fear that Jesus would have gone to the 12.6 million and given them food to eat.  The situation isn’t as black and white as we would sometimes like it to be, and Glassner does a good job of showing that in his book.

Christian Reflection on the Haiti Crisis
When disaster strikes, we often take a hard look at our faith…

To illustrate my point, I would to look at what I refer to the “third unit” of the Hymn:

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.” -Col 1:19-20

Reconciliation in the biblical narrative speaks to a fixing that which is undone (undone relationships, undone social systems, etc).  The thing that needs the most “undoing,” of course, is the curse in Genesis.  Whether one takes a literal view of Genesis or not, the main idea of the story seems to be explaining why the world is so undone.  Men rule over women, women have painful childbirths, etc., but if Christ has “reconciled to himself all things” doesn’t this mean the end of the curse?  Obviously, we must take this with a grain of salt as there still is pain and suffering in the world (a common understanding I hear is the reality of the kingdom is an “already, but not yet” paradox).

But if we are to understand, as Christians, the curse is broken, should we not live in such a way?  I think one of the practical ways to live this out is by stopping to define everyone narrowly according to gender roles.  Why does the man have to be the breadwinner?  If the curse is broken, cannot man and wife work alongside one another in peace and harmony?  There will always be problems, but shouldn’t our “post-curse” mentality be focused on the reconciliation of those problems.  Gender should not be a primary means by which we create an “us and them” mentality in the church.

Supermarket Musical
Six people decided to improv a supermarket musical in front of unsuspecting supermarket crowd

Another dimension of the Eucharist is what it says about time. After serving the bread Jesus said, “…do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). Remembrance is something that takes place not in our minds, as we usually understand it, it is not something I can quite do still and in solitude. This kind of remembrance happens with our hands and with our bodies. It happens in us as the very real bread and the very real drink happen in our very real bodies, brought together as a body. Remembrance happens in your stomach, in your gut, not in your head. We are not just recalling the suffering of Christ but we are calling it out of the past and into the present. We remember as a way of saying, together with those who need bread regardless of who they are, together with the poor and the oppressed, in solidarity with beaten and crucified people, “what has happened to Christ is happening to us.” Just as Israel took the passover meal as a way of entering into solidarity with the liberated slaves of Egypt, the church which is the new Israel takes Christ’s body and blood, consuming and being consumed, as a way of entering into solidarity with the crucified Christ who shared and shares his identity with the “least of these.”

At the same time that we are calling the past out and into the present we also call the future into the present. After serving the cup Jesus said, “I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” As we eat and drink in solidarity with the crucified Christ saying, “what has happened to Christ is happening to us,” we are not only calling the past into the present but we are calling the future into the present–anticipating the day, as though it were now, that Christ drinks with us. We are calling the future into the present, insisting on a future when all will eat, drink, and live while denying a future–the Empire’s future–where death and decay are the inevitable and unavoidable end. We call Christ’s future into our present, with feet grounded in the suffering of Christ, proclaiming and anticipating with our hands the day when Christ will drink again from the fruit of the vine in his father’s kingdom, when “new wine will drip from the mountains” (Amos 9), when all will eat and bread will not be withheld. We become, in our freedom and in our openness in the body of Christ, the future here and now. We become the foretaste of God’s kingdom. in the Eucharist, we are now what we imagine the world can be.

The great and profound claim about time, which the Eucharist makes yet which so many Christian traditions miss, is that waiting is not on the agenda. Time is not governed by what must be but in the Eucharist it is governed by what can be. We do not have to wait for eternal life to happen in the future, giving in to cynicism and despair in our waiting. Instead we can call both future and past into the present, making this place the thin space in which heaven meets earth.

“The only way to live in any true security is to live so close to the bottom that when you fall you do not have far to drop, you do not have much to lose.” -Dorthy Day

This quote is so very pertinent to my life right now…why am I trying to climb? Why am I so concerned with my own security? Simplicity, until recently, has been little more to me than an idea. I have been so concerned with my financial situation that I have placed “being responsible” over following Christ. Though my situation is very different from “climbing the corporate ladder” or trying to “get ahead,” there is a very real sense that I am perusing security and it has taken up residence in my mind and has begun to transform my mind without my permission.

I think I see why so many people go to college and build a very noble value system only to abandon it for the “real world.” I see why people lose sight of the things that are really important to them. It’s as though they learn truth and beauty and then they enter into this strange new world where those things are seen as unrealistic. They don’t really know what they’re doing in this world so they just listen to the people around them who think they’ve got it figured out. They hear the voices that say, “taking care of the poor is ok, but you’ve got to take care of yourself” and since they feel a little lost they readily accept any advice they can get, slowly conforming to the patterns of this world. The voices around them take their minds and their imagination captive and they exchange truth and beauty for cynicism and complacency.

“I just found out there’s no such thing as the real world, Just a lie you’ve got to rise above” -John Mayer from the song No Such Thing

I have only recently entered this world and all the ideas I have about living simply and creatively seeking God’s Kingdom above security, wealth, and comfort have slowly begun to seem impractical and out of reach. Thus Romans 12 has taken on new meaning for me.

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

If we do not seek transformation from Christ, if we do not take Christ as our example and take that example seriously to the most serious level, then we will be transformed by the world with or without our permission. You see, it’s quite impossible to discern God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will if money and comfort take up residence in our minds because God’s will has literally nothing to do with those things. In our confusion and in our vulnerability our love for others dims and our concern for trying to “make it” in this world brightens. Seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness/Justice (Matthew 6:33) means not working for “the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life” (John 6:26-27). Seeking Christ, seeking to be transformed by the renewing of mind means selling all we have, selling out on our concern for self, selling… if only to get them out of our minds… our values for wealth and comfort. Following Christ means giving up on worrying about tomorrow for tomorrow has enough trouble of it’s own (Matthew 6:34). Following Jesus means remembering that “we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it” (1 Timothy 6:7). Is not following Jesus about emptying yourself of selfishness?

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 58:6-7).

Following Jesus and seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness means trusting and praising “God from whom all blessings flow” (this is why we sing the song after we give offerings and tithes) rather than trusting and praising the advise of the world from which only counterfeit blessing flows. Seeking this God’s kingdom means actually taking the imagination of God and the simplicity of Jesus Christ into the strangeness of the “real world” just as folks like Saint Francis, John Wesley, Mother Teresa, and Shane Claiborne have done throughout our family history… and it means creatively doing so in whatever capacity and in whatever setting we may find ourselves.

I feel called today to rediscover the passion I have not yet completely lost and to start again now in seeking first the Kingdom of God in all its simplicity and peace.

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:6-10)

And that’s when I got to thinking…

Why do people believe in the literal “mark of the beast,” not to mention all the other problematic images in Revelation? Is it really because they read scripture and that was the most obvious interpretation (I’ll save questioning their hermeneutics for later)? Is it really only because that’s what’s been passed down to them (I’m sure this is often it!)? Or is it because it makes for very effective scare tactics?

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that dispensationalist literalism makes for very powerful conservative propaganda. I believe that this is part of the reason it is so alive and well in our world. While George W. Bush was in office, dispensationalism was used as propaganda for people to support war in Iraq and to give up on peace making in the middle east. Now that we have Barack Obama in office, it’s the mark of the beast language that scares people into looking negatively upon anything the president does or says. Whatever the situation, dispensationalism is good at twisting current events, no matter how horrific they are or how really good they really may be, and adapting itself so that everything is secret knowledge for the conservative dispensationalist. So the question is, do dispensationalists believe their outlandish interpretations because they’re being honest with the text or is it because it conveniently fits into their conservative bias and fear mongering? Is the literal and future mark of the beast expectation a reasonable interpretation or is it just a convenient scare tactic?

This past Sunday morning our little community of Christ followers prayed that prayer. In some profound way, as I prayed, I felt that I was praying something deeply controversial and subtly subversive of the kind of Christianity we’re often sold in American culture… “Do you know where you’re going when you die? If you were to die today do you know for certain where you would spend eternity?” is their sales pitch and these questions seem to be the mantra of American evangelicalism. Although these questions are almost incoherent to the ears of emerging culture, they are still alive and well in Christianity today because the idea that Christianity is primarily about “where you are going”, about certainty thereof, and about what happens to you when you die, is still alive and well in Christianity today. The shadow of a doubt pertaining to the destination is seen as heresy and a lack of faith. But this is not the attitude of faith, this is the attitude of spiritual arrogance with a hint of ignorance.

In response to a question about destination, a question about entering God’s kingdom, Jesus said, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). There is a beautiful uncertainty about true faith and following Jesus. Christ called his disciples to follow him without revealing any sort of destination but only by promising a sort of becoming, by inviting them on a kind of journey, “Come follow me… I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17). He called them to “ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden and through perils unknown” and spoke much more of the following itself than he ever did about any kind of destination, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Never did he talk of being certain of the destination and yet that has become the center-piece of American Christianity, even to the point where Christians often overlook actually following Jesus and taking up their cross because they’ve come to see everything on Earth as secondary to their heavenly destination. For Christ, the world and the here and now were primary, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son” NOT “for God so loved heaven that made sure that people could know they were going there.”

God calls us to follow him because of what we might become NOT because of where we are headed. The destination may indeed be uncertain, the path may well be “untrodden,” but we go with faith because the way of the cross is ironically the best possible way to live. In this uncertain path we may find life that is truly life. In these “ventures of which we cannot see the ending” where we are called to see all we have and give it to the poor we will discover “in this present age homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions” (Mark 10:30). May we live in uncertainty so that when the path takes the unexpected turn toward the cross of Christ we will not abandon him for another destination but faithfully take up our cross and follow the crucified Jesus to become resurrected people.

As I prayed that prayer I felt indescribably free and I felt a sense of new life, empowered to live today in the uncertainty of tomorrow guiltless and with the hope of God’s leading love here with me now.

Let our faith not be defined by where we are going but let it be defined by the one who is taking us there, that our destination will not become our god but that the tortured and crucified Son of God would be the One God of our wandering hearts. May God lead us on paths of justice and mercy here, now, and always.

Wesley Ellis
from Living in the Kingdom