The Political Nature of the Gospel

            Here we are, one month into 2015.  The pundits are gearing up for the next presidential election next year and the candidates are trying out their voices in various places.  It is sometimes even amusing to see them striving to look “presidential” and to say the right things to attract the people whom they think are their audience.  Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney are even putting their names forward as possible candidates in the election.  We will see what happens in the next year and a half to bring people to the front of the pack so that we can have an election next year. 

            I don’t know why anyone would want to be president in these times.  These are times of power and strife.  There is not much agreement on any of the substantive issues that face this country.  There are those who want to send troops into every country that seems to threaten us.  There are those who think that there is no substance whatsoever to climate change and that we ought to ignore the scientists who warn us about what we are doing to this planet.  There are those who want Wall Street to have its way with anything that it wants to do, and those who are terrified that big money is running the country.  We need heroic leadership to confront all of the things that are going on around us and to corral a reluctant congress that seems to have no desire at all to deal with the issues that many of the people in this country want them to resolve.

            I know that Jesus fought an incredible political battle in his short life on this earth.  What caused the Romans to finally execute him wasn’t his miracles or what he said about God; instead it was his confrontation of the political establishment of his time and the way that they treated the people.  I love the words of the Lord’s Prayer when it says: Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.  Notice that Jesus uses the word Kingdom in a very specific way.  He could have used almost any other word, but he chose Kingdom because it put what he was teaching on a collision course with the dominant Kingdom that his followers were experiencing:  The Kingdom of Rome.  When Jesus was crucified, it was a statement by the Roman authorities that this blasphemy of their power would not be tolerated.  His crucifixion took place in public, outside Jerusalem on a hill called Golgotha.  The public nature of this execution made it certain that the people who witnessed this event would know that Rome would not stand for the things that Jesus said and did that confronted them and their stooges who were the leaders of the Temple who saw that the people obeyed the requirements of the Roman government. 

            Religion needs to be political if it is going to confront the problems of this world and make changes.  I have been heartened by Pope Francis and his willingness to speak to what he sees wrong not only in the world, but in his church.  He is calling for reform and change that has the potential to make the world a better place for many people who struggle with the problems that life puts in their way. 

            We have some remarkable examples of Christians who were not deterred by power from speaking the truth about injustice and intolerance, particularly of people who had no power at all.  Dietrich Bonheoffer was executed by the Nazis because of his outspoken words denouncing what they were doing.  He even participated in the attempt to assassinate Adolph Hitler.  Martin Luther King died for his heroic assault on white supremacy while leading the Civil Rights movement in this country.  King was not only hated by the people who were in the vanguard of segregation and denial of voting rights to people of color, he was also hated by the FBI and accused of being a Communist by them.  It is of little wonder that he finally was killed in Memphis by a man who was acting on behalf of all of those who were threatened by King’s rhetoric and his uncanny ability to mobilize people who were oppressed to his cause. In Memphis at the time of his death, he was working on behalf of the workers who collected the garbage in that town.

        In our time, we have been the witnesses of his remarkable speeches and his great faith that has brought us to this place in our history where we have even elected an African American president and are poised to take great strides forward in terms of racial relations. 

            This won’t happen if we simply believe that what has happened in the past is enough.  It isn’t.  We need more heroism from people of faith who are committed to following Jesus, whose whole message was about the Kingdom of God and the need that we have to establish it on this earth.  That means that we need to find ways to create justice and hope for people who have none.  We need to channel our faith into causes that bring good things to the poor and the people who have no power at all.  This, in this time, needs to be the work of the church and its people.  It won’t be a popular cause.  The people who have the power will work to diminish anything that is done by those who want change.  With the halls of power in the hands of the wealthy, we need to find ways to get the work done anyway.  God bless those who work for God’s Kingdom of justice and peace on this earth.

The Death of Marcus Borg

            A great man died this week.  Marcus Borg was a remarkable theologian, one who taught me theology again.  I had learned about Christianity since I was a kid, growing up in Sunday school and a progression of Episcopal churches around the country, and then going to seminary at Virginia Theological Seminary, where I graduated in 1975 and was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church.  In seminary, I was taught theology by Charles Price, one of the best teachers that I have ever heard.  He gave me inklings into the life of Jesus that I had never thought about.  I remember Charlie speaking about how Jesus was probably born in Nazareth and that the story of the Bethlehem birth came mostly from the predictions of the Old Testament.  He opened my eyes to the possibilities of who Jesus could be for me in not only my ministry but also for my life.

            Marcus Borg came along with his many books and reinforced all of this teaching.  He spoke of the two versions of Jesus as contained in the New Testament: the pre-resurrection Jesus and the post-resurrection Jesus.  The Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke speak mostly about Jesus in his life on this earth, the time before his resurrection.  The Gospel of John is mostly about the Jesus who is the Son of God, shown to us by his resurrection from the dead.  The stories in the Gospels reflect this understanding of our Lord.  When you read Mark, Matthew and Luke, called the Synoptic Gospels, because they mirror each other.  Many stories appear in all three of them.  Mark is mostly also contained in the other two, and both Matthew and Luke add their own stories.  The birth stories are in both Matthew and Luke.  Mark has no birth story, beginning his Gospel with the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by John the baptizer.

       John’s Gospel begins with a remarkable return to Genesis as he cites Jesus as the Light that is the light of men that the darkness cannot overcome.  He even uses Genesis like language:  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was of God, and the Word was God.  There is no question from the first words of John’s Gospel who Jesus is.  This is the incarnate God present on the earth in the person of Jesus who became the Christ. 

            In reading Borg’s books, I became immersed in the life of Jesus and convinced that the role of a Christian is not to have a set of beliefs, but a road to travel.  That road is to follow Jesus and to do what he did.  His commandments are simple and only two:  Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul and mind.  Love your neighbor as a person like yourself.  This is simple to say, but hard to do.  We are loved deeply and completely by our God.  Taking that love and passing it on to our neighbor is our commandment as followers of Jesus. 

            Borg was one of the originators of the Jesus Seminar, a group of theologians who spoke eloquently about the historical Jesus and gave us some crucial insights into the life and history of our Lord.  I will miss Dr. Borg and his always insightful writing.  He gave me a solid foundation for my faith, which had helped me in my preaching, in my prayers and in my life.  May he rest in peace and rise into the arms of the God whom he loved so deeply.

How We Hear The Word of the Lord

            At the beginning of the 3^rd chapter of the First Book of Samuel is the phrase: Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli.  The word of the LORD was rare in those days, visions were not widespread.  That sounds a lot like the world that I understand.  There are those, of course, who shout the Word of the Lord very loudly from their own peculiar places, but these are usually people with a certain ax to grind, conservative Christians who want to denounce abortion, gay rights, gun control, contraception, evolution or the warming of the environment.  They pound their bibles and preach what they believe is God’s eternal word against all of these things.  They are also generally politically conservative; don’t like people of races other than Caucasian and are very forceful in making their voices heard.  People who have more progressive views are heard from less often as the conservative Christians mostly inhabit the radio and television channels where religion is the topic. 

            The result of all of this is that many, many people are turned off by religion and believe it to be at the root of a lot of the trouble in the world.  Church attendance has dropped in many places, except at megachurches that attract thousands on any given Sunday.  This tends to reinforce the conservative belief system that undergirds these places of ministry.  I don’t ever think that I will forget the offensive prayer that The Rev. Franklin Graham offered at the memorial service after the horrible events of September 11, 2001.  He denounced the Muslims and blamed all of them for the demolishing of the World Trade Center.  He made their religion the cause of the disaster, and drove a wedge between Muslims and Christians.  We have been trying to recover from those kind of opinions ever since.

            Christians are not alone in this.  Militant Muslims have wreaked havoc in many places: in the Middle East, and in this country trying to exert maximum pressure on all of us to listen to them and to understand that they are a military force to be reckoned with.

            After the massacre of the staff at Charlie Hebdo in Paris the magazine printed a new issue.  On the cover was a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a tear in his eye.  The words that were on the card that he held were:  Je Suis Charlie, meaning “I am Charlie”; the same statement that was on the cards held by the crowds in Paris lamenting the assassination of the staff of the magazine.  What a wonderful way to respond to terror and hate.  Here was the staff of the affected magazine offering hope, love and forgiveness in the wake of the terrible crime that they had experienced.

            If we are going to find places where “the Word of the LORD” is heard in our time, it is in places like this, when Hope, Love and Forgiveness can follow tragedy.  That is when we can really hear the what our God is trying to tell us. 

            In John’s Gospel, the author writes: For God did not send his Son into the World to condemn the world, but in order that the world would be saved by him.  Notice that the passage says “World,” not Christians.  It was the world that Jesus the Christ came to save.  That is the essence of what we are facing in the turmoil that has been brought upon us by the political nightmare of facing off Muslims and Christians in some kind of contest.  The truth is that God speaks through both groups, as well as many others in this world.  That is a revelation that ought to get our attention.  God’s Word is not ever silent.   Difficult love and forgiveness are what we need in moments like this.  Embracing one another in the name of God is a beautiful act that can been seen by others as reflecting the power of God to enter into our humanity and change us.  We can’t do it by ourselves.

       I am encouraged by the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo who has offered a beautiful response that we all need to see and to hear.  May God bless all of us as we face these difficult times and find ways to love and encourage each other.  This is what our Lord taught us when he was on this earth.  May God help us to love one another as we have been loved.

What John the Baptist Means for Us

             I’ve always been amazed by the stories of John the Baptist baptizing in the Jordan River in the New Testament.  The picture that I have in my mind is of a raving, disheveled preacher yelling at the people on the banks of the river.  He is clothed in radically unflattering clothing:  a leather belt around his waist, a camel hair garment around his shoulders.  The eating of wild honey and locusts further adds to the strangeness of his appearance.  I imagine his hair standing up on his head, his beard uncombed.  He has a look of wildness about him.  I find myself wondering what the crowd thought of this man as he baptized those who came into the Jordan.  I suspect that fear was a part of their thinking.  John called those on the banks of the Jordan to repent and change.  This was in a time in their history when Rome dominated the whole of the land and the Temple officials were the handmaidens of Rome.  That there was a terrible condition in the land almost goes without saying.  Change was needed, and many of the people hoped for change that would be radical politically.  Certainly, according to the history of the Hebrew people, the Jordan River was an excellent place to start.

            John echoed the history of the Hebrew people also.  Isaiah preached much like John:  in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. I have the feeling that Isaiah and the Major Prophets looked a lot like John; dressed in different clothing and saying things that sometimes startled their listeners.   Here is John saying:  prepare for one who comes after me, I am not worthy to untie the thongs of his sandals.

           

             While all of this was going on, Jesus of Nazareth comes into the river and is baptized by John.  When he came out of the water, he saw the heavens open and the Spirit, like a dove descended on him.  A voice from heaven said to him:  You are my son, the beloved: with you, I am well pleased.  Here, at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel is the beginning of the story of Jesus.  Matthew and Luke have elaborate birth stories that we have heard during the Christmas season, and John’s Gospel begins with a reference to the beginning of Genesis, as though the whole world was being remade. But Mark begins with the ministry of Jesus as an adult.  All of the things of his childhood are left behind, and this earliest of the Gospels begins with Jesus baptism and his beginnings.  It is a highly political gospel, hinting at change from the beginning.  It is no wonder that the leaders of the community were wary of Jesus.  Heralded by this strange preacher in the wilderness, they must have thought that something was coming.

            We are at the beginning of the season of Epiphany, which is the time to celebrate the coming of the wise men to the stable and leaving their gifts with the Christ Child.  This is a good time to examine what this marvelous gift from God means to all of us as we look at our world and what it so desperately needs.  The baptism of Jesus and the coming of the Spirit to light on him is a reminder that the Holy Spirit is exactly what this world needs in the face of all that is going on around us.  So let’s think politically for a moment.

            Like all of you, I was horrified by the killing of the people in Paris at the satiric magazine Charlie Hebdo by Islamists upset by what they termed blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.  The whole world was radically disturbed by this act. I found myself wondering what the reaction of radical Christians might be if a cartoonist created what we viewed as blasphemous cartoons of Jesus.  Some radicals of our religion might have been inspired to do the same kind of thing.  I certainly hope not.

   

       The truth of all of this is that violence is never a solution to differences.  God’s love extends to those of all of the faiths of this world.  We might call our God by different names, but God is always God.  His Love is ultimately the salvation of the world and of all of us.  God’s Love is the way that we can put our petty differences aside and live as one people in this world.  Without God’s Love, we are left on our own, with our opinions ruling our lives.  I would hope that the Holy Spirit would descend on this country, particularly on Washington in this time of political change and enable Congress and the Obama Administration to agree on the ways that we can all be helped by our government to live better and more hopeful lives in this land, and to be a beacon to the rest of the world as to how a people can thrive even with difference. 

            Perhaps we can all go into the Jordan as those Hebrew people did, and begin again with a baptism of repentance and change that will bring us together and enable us to love each other in the radical way that God loves each of us.  Our differences need not overwhelm us.  All that we need to do is to try as hard as we can to love one another as our God has loved us.  This was the commandment that Jesus gave to us.  Following it to the best of our ability is the solution to all of the troubles that we have around us.  May the Holy Spirit bless our Love for each other and bless us richly in all that we do in this world.

What Will the New Year Bring?

            The predictions for the New Year are coming in.  The papers are full of pundits who have an outline for us about what 2015 will be all about.  With a congress controlled by the Republicans and a lot of people trying to be the next president in 2016, there ought to be no shortage of fireworks and stupidity.  Not that we haven’t seen this before.  Sometimes I think that people try very hard to get in the other person’s face.  I think of Fox News, who never seems to shut up about the wrong that our President has done and how he ought to be impeached and what a terrible mess he has made of this country.  This, even in the wake of a burgeoning economy, remarkable job growth and the way that the war in Afghanistan has been wound down almost to zero. 

            Certainly, there are problems.  We still have ISIS running amok in Syria and in Iraq, and somehow we seem compelled to do something about this.  There is a constant mess in Africa, with Ebola and uprisings that won’t quit and we are discovering that we don’t really have the resources to combat all of it. 

            There are those in political leadership who fancy the United States of America as the savior of the World.  That is our responsibility to make everything right.  That we ought to be using our oversized military to bring peace and hope to all of the world.  When I look at our record since World War II, it seems to me that we have had only a series of bad wars that probably ought not to have been fought, certainly Korea was a morass, and Viet Nam was a disaster.  We didn’t do very well in Iraq, and it seems to me that Afghanistan has been the graveyard of empires forever.  Alexander didn’t do well there, neither did the British or the Russians.  And in the wake of the tragedy of 9/11, we sent troops into that country to ferret out Al Quida and bring justice to Osama bin Laden, yet we succeeded only in killing bin Laden and the rest of our supposed mission seemed to vanish with the lives of the soldiers who were killed in the process of trying to do the impossible. 

            In this Christmas season, we are again looking forward to a world where justice and peace are the norm, not the exception.  In protection of the baby Jesus, Joseph is warned in a dream to take his family to Egypt because Herod is plotting to kill the baby.  Joseph does so, and later is told in another dream that the man who was plotting the death of the child is dead, and it is safe to return to Israel.  Another dream tells them to go and to make their home in Nazareth, which has been evermore known as Jesus’ home.  It seems to me that God was working things out for Joseph, Mary and Jesus at the birth of our Messiah and was not going to let human frailty enter in to the plans.  I know that God has the best interest of humanity in his constant purview.  That we, who were created by God, have also been restored by our God, as the collect for this day says so eloquently.  I know that in our working in the world, putting our trust in our God to lead us in the way of peace and freedom is the course that we need to set.  Certainly the Israelis and the Palestinians worship the same God, as do the rest of humanity.  We call that God by different names, but we have all been created and restored in the same way.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could simply look humbly at that fact and accept each other the way that our God has accepted us.  I know that sounds a bit naïve, but working toward it seems to me to be the best way to use the resources that we have for the betterment of those around us and for God’s world.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could take the trillions of dollars that has been spent on military adventures and use that money to take care of the people in this world who suffer from poverty and loss.  It really would only take the resolve of some of the people who preach the loudest to make this happen.  God would certainly bless us as we tried.