Outcasts

"Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and report to John what you hear and see: the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM." Matthew 11:4-5. New American Standard.

Over the weekend, I was reading the article that Ted Nugent put out about killing the "grandfather" of Charlie, the lion that was lured away from its protective habitat and slaughtered. And the picture he posted with it showed him and two other men crouching around this lion they had killed. Nugent made it clear that they used every part of this lion, and none of it went to waste. 

I thought the article was very interesting, because I could sort of see what the next big story was going to revolve around. And, shortly after, someone posted a picture of the owner of Jimmy John's crouched next to a rhino that he had killed. 

And, I'm sure new pictures will be posted throughout the week of wealthy individuals who go like to go trophy hunting. Some people are going to condemn these folks, and some people are going to support them. And, it'll be one more chance for people to pick sides, throw stones, and stand up for what they believe in. 

But, as I read this passage this morning, a couple things occurred as I was sitting on the porch. 

For one, I was thinking of what I have to report. Notice that in Jesus's instruction, he doesn't tell the disciples to report what they believe, but to report what they "hear" and "see." Now, if Jesus were here today, and there was some pastor on the other side of the country who was sitting in jail (as John the Baptist apparently was), and hadn't been exposed to what Jesus was up to, would I be able to report to said pastor that the blind can see, the lame can walk, and the dead are being raised from the dead? 

Do I hear about these things happening? Yes. At least once a week, I hear someone either tell a story of some encounter they've had or a story they've heard about one of these things happening. Hearing about these things isn't unusual in the uber-spiritual culture I find myself in. The funny thing is, the people I hear talking about these things speak as if it's a common occurrence, like an everyday event. It's like a news report. All the tarnish has worn off and they talk about it as if it's as common as sitting in traffic during rush hour. Even if it were true, the tone that's usually used in proclaiming this news is monotone at best, boring at worst.

Do I see these things happening? No. I've never seen a blind person receive sight, a paralyzed person walk, a leper be cleansed, a deaf person hear again, or a dead person be resuscitated. 

Hearing is definitely not the same as seeing for me. Yet, there was something going on with Jesus and these disciples that allowed them not only to hear, but to see as well. 

The problem is, until I see what I'm hearing about, my report is very incomplete. And so, as of now, my eyes have nothing to report when it comes to these "miracles." If you or anybody you know would like to invite me to watch one of these things happen, I will drop everything I'm doing and show up. I just haven't seen it yet but it doesn't mean I'm not willing to see it. 

That's the first point. 

The second point that came to me was this: since I haven't literally seen these things happen in my lifetime, is there a chance that what Jesus was telling his disciples had a much deeper meaning than the literal restoration of sight, physical movement, breathing, and hearing? 

I believe so. 

In Jesus's day, you would never see a blind person sharing a sidewalk with someone who could see. You would never see a lame person sharing a table with a wealthy person. You'd never see a deaf person mingling with one who could hear. It was religious taboo. It was believed that physical ailments like blindness were caused by the sinfulness either of the person who suffered, or that person's parents. Sin was considered almost an infectious disease that carried throughout generations, and so if you were born blind, you were considered a byproduct of sinful nature, or, an outcast. 

Whether or not there was literal truth behind Jesus's words in this passage, there was truth nonetheless. Jesus was declaring to his disciples and anyone who'd listen that the outcasts were no longer outcasts. And he wasn't just declaring it for social justice reasons, but he was declaring it for religious reasons. God loves the outcast just as much as God loves you. 

The religious system that Jesus stepped into had boundaries that were too small. And what he did was erase the boundaries. He physically stepped over the dividing lines and made them erroneous. He declared that the God his people thought they knew was much bigger. The God his followers thought they worshiped was much bigger than what their social norms created God to be. This God erased the lines of division and invited everyone to participate in the story of creative restoration. 

So, whether or not the blind were really given their sight back or the deaf could really hear again, there was something even more profound going on here. And it would be sad to miss the point. 

And here it is. 

With religion comes the outcast - the person or persons who are outside the lines, outside of the borders. That's where Ted Nugent comes in. But, that's also where the gay couple next door comes in. And, that's where Joel Osteen comes in. That's where the Mexican immigrant comes in. That's where anti-abortionists come in. That's where anti-vaccers come in. Do you see where I'm going with this? 

Whether we follow Jesus via the Baptist tradition or the Catholic tradition, or we follow Muhammed via the Islamic tradition, we create our own versions of the outcast. There is at least one type of person who is outside of our religious lines. 

And here's what Jesus did. 

He declared that the religious lines weren't broad enough to include all of God's love, all of God's compassion, and all of God's redemption. 

For a lot of you, Ted Nugent and his hunting crew is the outcast of your religious beliefs. And for others, the gay couple down the street is the outcast. And still others, Baptist preachers are the outcasts. And for others, child molesters are the outcasts. Whoever it is, whatever type of person it is . . .

. . . we all have outcasts. 

And Jesus showed up to tell the world that there is a better way, but that way involves allowing our previously conceived pictures and visions and beliefs and tenants of God to expand beyond our mental, cultural, social, and intellectual borders. 

Kingdom - Part 15 - Sparrows

"So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows." Matthew 10:31. New American Standard.

As many of you know, the only thing I hate about my beloved state of Texas is . . . her cockroaches. 

It's the only thing I absolutely hate. They're big, they're ugly, and they have a radar inside their heads that - when it senses there's a human nearby - tells it to fly directly toward the face or upper body of said human. These cockroaches, they appear when you're least expecting it. Like, you're grabbing the sugar for the coffee, and boom! There's a roach, not running away but tauntingly running right towards you almost as if he knows he'll win every time. I hate them with a passion. 

A few years back, I had an unexpected visit from a cockroach. I was just sitting on the floor, playing an Xbox game with a buddy. All of a sudden, in the corner of my eye, I see this humongous black thing land on my arm as I'm playing this video game. My buddy - who happened to not scream - sat there laughing his ass off as I made several sweeping motions with my hand trying to knock the roach into the next galaxy. I shot up, screamed a little, and ran out the front door while my buddy hunted down the nasty creature and flushed it down the toilet. 

I hate roaches. Give me a snake. Give me mosquitos. Just do not put a roach near me.

Today, we're gonna talk about fear. Specifically, we're gonna talk about the kind of fear that looks like running away from something really scary. And the word that Jesus uses hear is phobeo, and it literally means "to put to flight by terrifying." 

Now, Jesus is getting towards the end of his outline of what it looks like to participate in what he calls the kingdom of heaven. And up until this point, he's talked all about social relationships - how to love the people around us in a way that puts God on display in a radical way. 

Now, he's getting to what I believe is the crux of his message to the disciples, and essentially to us. 

A couple verses before, Jesus talks about not fearing the people who are out to do physical harm to the disciples, but to fear "the God who can destroy both body and soul in hell."

And now Jesus is saying do not fear, for you're more valuable than many sparrows. Why the contrast between a loving God and a condemning God? In Jesus's day, it was a very Jewish belief to view God as a giver of both reward and punishment, and for the good Jew, hell was a state of separation from God - right here and right now. Hell wasn't place you went after you die, but a real state of mind you experienced on earth. And it was believed that wherever you stood with this God would determine whether you experienced heaven or hell, on earth. And so, it was very common to have this underlying fear of God, the sort of fear that made you want to run away. And this passage throws hints at the opening poem in Genesis in which Adam and Eve are afraid of what they've done, and they run away and hide from God. The word used here is the same word that describes the emotional responses that Adam and Eve experienced when they took from the tree in the garden. 

So, Jesus is doing something here. Much like in his famous set of teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is sort of saying, "You've heard that it was said," but in this case he's exposing the current way of thinking about fear and God. 

"You've heard it said that you're supposed to fear God, but do not fear. You're way more valuable to God than what you've previously believed." 

Jesus is doing something here that's very important for his disciples. He's telling them that the fear of God is not what's going to drive them to do this kingdom work, but instead the love of God is gonna fuel them to turn the Roman world on its head. 

The love of this God is gonna drive them to carry this message, not the fear of God. Now remember, the audience is a bunch of Jews who are slowly reforming to a message of an inclusive, forgiving God who's concerned about how people experience God here and now. And so, this message would be one that drove the whole point home for the disciples. This message would be the one that put everything else into context. 

You're not gonna be able to do what I've been telling you to do if you don't stop being afraid of your God. You're not gonna be able to stand in solidarity with the powerless if you're afraid of God. You're not gonna be able to heal the sick if you can't believe that God loves you more than you'll ever know. You're not gonna be able to talk with the people you're going to see if you think God is out to get you. 

Soak this message in. Let it be the heartbeat of your every word and thought. Lose the idea that you have to hide and run away from a God who's ready to condemn you to hell. And burn the idea into your consciousness that God is for you, loves you, and places a value on you that you can't even imagine. 

Does that sound like a message that only the disciples needed to hear, or does that sound like a message that could carry on through centuries as a life-giving, hope-filled word of encouragement? 

While there's so many theological aspects of the scriptures that I don't buy into, the aspect of a loving God is the one that I will take to my grave. I can't afford to give up on it. I can't afford to buy back into the idea that God is a trickster, waiting to dispense punishment for every thought, word, or deed that doesn't line up with God's way of doing things. That way is a dead end for me. It's a brick wall that's a mile high. And lately, I've been reflecting on the fact that I've been spending way too much time trying to theologize everything. I've gotten so lost in studying scripture and studying Greek and Hebrew, that I'm a disciple of this man they call Jesus. 

My job is to love the people around me with a radical love - a love that overflows from the inward realization that God loves me and that I have nothing to fear in the way of this God. My job is to let that realization drive me to the point of losing myself in the journey of inviting other people along with me. My job is to get so lost in the love of God that it causes me to get lost in loving other people. 

That is what it means to not fear. With this God, there's nothing to run away from, nothing to hide, nothing to be afraid of.

Kingdom - Part 14 - Minions

"Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Matthew 10:28. The New American Standard.

 Sometimes I wonder if the biggest lesson I'll ever learn in life is how to disagree compassionately. I spend so much time sifting through the messages I hear from outside, and so little sifting through the quiet voice inside. 

For the first century follower of Jesus, there was real physical threat. They had to make make cautious decisions as to where they would preach, where they would meet, and where they would sleep. There were real people with real agendas who wanted nothing more than to see these Jesus followers wiped off the face of the planet. 

And, it was a very Jewish concept to believe there were two distinct parts of life - the body and the soul. For the Jew, the body was the seat of the soul, so it was extremely important to treat the body as a spiritual gift. And the soul was the seat of one's spiritual well-being. No one could alter another's soul except God. 

And Jesus was willing to take this idea all the way to death, because he believed that his body was mortal and prone to attack, whether by natural causes or human causes. Yet, his soul was the thing that put purpose into every thing he did. And to him and his fellow Jews, worth came from God. And the soul was what drove home the idea of self worth. 

Now, I try to stay out of the heaven and hell conversation as much as possible, because I have no proof to go off of. Sure, I can take the author's words literally, and automatically decide to live as if I'm heading to one or the other. But, what happens here on earth in my lifetime is what I find gives me the most fulfillment. And, I think Jesus places a ton of value into what happens on this earth. If he didn't, then the body and soul wouldn't have been so important to the theological aspect to Jesus's Jewishness. 

I'm in the class of people who take heaven and hell to be byproducts of man's search for meaning. Since all we know - if we boil it down to black and white - here on earth is heaven and hell, why not project our experiences on Earth onto the afterlife? It's not wrong as much as it's a human way of dealing with life and death. 

And Jewish tradition dealt with both just as any other tradition did and does. 

So, what was Jesus saying to his disciples, and in turn, what does it mean for today's followers of Jesus? 

Since bodily persecution was a real threat to the early disciples, Jesus wanted them to focus on the mission of restoration - of repairing the broken pieces all around them, and of seeking to devote their lives to take what Jesus taught them and use it to implement a process of what he considered God's mission on earth. Heal the sick. Serve the poor. Help people wake up to the spiritual realities inside and out. 

Here in America, the message just doesn't fit for most of us. We don't wake up every morning wondering if we're gonna live long enough to pray tonight. We don't wake up wondering if we're gonna go to court and be charged with heresy. We don't worry about getting flogged for claiming God is the only King of this nation. But is that the case across the board? 

I guarantee it isn't, but there's probably not many people in China or Africa or Afghanistan who are reading this blog. My audience is made up of people whose list of persecutors can all be found on Facebook friends lists or coworkers who are spiritually prejudiced, or people like me who are having a real tough go at swallowing any of the religious information that's coming at us 24/7. 

And so, to make the above message make sense to me and my audience, I'll have to dumb it down a bit. A whole lot. 

Maybe Jesus's 2015 American message reads something like, "Don't fear that person on Facebook who says something you disagree with. Remember your standing with the only One who matters when it comes to spirituality."

I believe we all have soul in common. We all go to bed at night, and just before the lights in our head turn off, there's that moment that we realize that even though there's another person (for a lot of us) sharing the bed, it all goes back in the box eventually right? In the end, am I gonna be worrying about what that person posted on my timeline? Am I gonna be trembling at the rehashed conversation I had with that coworker? 

I don't think so.

Don't worry about what the bullies say. Don't worry about the fact that everybody says you're wrong. Don't worry about the fact that you keep getting accused of telling other people they're wrong simply by stating your belief systems. 

What matters is much deeper, much quieter, and much more profound than external disagreements and theological debates. What matters is where you find your purpose. Where I find my purpose. Where I find life if I have any to find. 

As I was taking a shower last night, the thought occurred to me that all these years, even through my ups and downs of being uber-religious and anti-religious, the draw of Jesus has been steady and unwavering. Whether it was the draw of his teachings, the draw of his works, or the aura of his theological points, there's always been something that has pulled me in to find out more. 

And the more I line up with what Jesus did and said to do, the less I care about what other humans think about how I'm doing it. 

And maybe it's the same for the avid follower of Mohammed. Maybe it's the same for the passionate follower of the Buddha. Maybe there are similarities there for the followers of Confucianism. 

In Jesus's context, speaking to fellow Jews, his question was, "What's the status with your fear? Are you dreading what other people may do to you, or are you coming face to face with Ultimate Reality? Are you letting all those people steal away your joy, or are you finding joy in coming dangerously close to the God who loves you with terrible compassion?"

I have to admit, most of the time I'm not examining and nurturing my own belief systems, but weighing my beliefs against everybody else's. And that's a byproduct of the kind of fear Jesus was warning his disciples against. But who cares what everybody else believes? Don't they have the same God-given right as I do to believe what I want? 

The question to ponder today I think is, "Where do I stand before the terror, the vastness, and the infinite mass of the universe? Am I falling to my knees or letting all the minions in my head tell me what to do and where to go next?"

Grace and peace.

Kingdom - Part 13 - Progress

"It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household! Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known." Matthew 10:26. The New American Standard.

Today, we're gonna talk about progress. 

It's written in the scriptures that when Jesus started the movement of reforming the old law into a fresh, new way of looking at the world and its people, the leading opponents to Jesus's message were the religious elites. They would tell Jesus he was doing the devil's work, and that all his followers were under the influence of the devil. 

But the thing is, Jesus wasn't unique in this. Many after him would find the same opposition on different grounds. Galileo was opposed by the Church when he submitted his theories about the earth not being the center of the universe, yet we now know it was true all along. Martin Luther King Jr. believed it was wrong to segregate people based on skin color, and thousands of church leaders and government officials disagreed. Yet, we collectively agree now that segregation is always wrong. And now, in 2015, there is a growing consciousness that marriage is a human right, and isn't confined to what the Bible may or may not say it is. We are in the middle of this one though, but I imagine in ten or twenty years, people will collectively agree that it's okay for gay people to marry. 

There's always opposition to progressive thought. There was with Jesus as well as his followers. Their accusers would go to any length to keep them silent, yet the message still lived on, and it still lives on today. 

And I believe that just as living things evolve, so do cultural norms, cultural ideologies, and religious systems. Sacrifices used to be the central component of religious thought, in order to appease the gods. And Jesus was the pioneer who near single-handedly transitioned the cultures he associated with out of that mindset and into a new mindset. 

In the above passage, Jesus was talking to his disciples. He was telling them do not worry about the opponents of progress, because the truth would come out eventually. Evolution would run its course. Progress would continue. There will always be opponents to progress. 

But what were the disciples telling people that received so much opposition? That the kingdom of heaven is here, now, and always present. That there was a way to peace and joy and it looked like helping the powerless, the poor, and the marginalized. It didn't require sacrifices or offerings or channeling through a priest, but was available to anyone who would have it. 

While the world looked different then than it does now, the same message is still progressing and still finding the same opposition that it did then. Jesus helped move forward religious thought, helped to unpack it from the box it'd been stuffed in for thousands of years, and it scared people. It forced people to questions their own belief systems. It forced people to doubt their own ways of doing and believing. And a lot of people got scared. They couldn't imagine life without sacrifices or going to temple. They couldn't imagine a God who loved them without demanding their sacrificial allegiance. They couldn't imagine being on equal terms with the pagans and the misfits of their society.

Yet, it happened and it is happening. 

Thought evolves. Religion evolves. And, Christianity evolves. Why should it be any different from the natural order that surrounds it? From the universe which it relies on for sustenance? Why shouldn't Christian thought have to play by the same rules that everything else plays by? 

That question is really irrelevant though, because all we have to do is take a quick look at the history of Christianity to see where all the evolutionary turns have been made. 

Right now, there are millions of Christians who are being hushed. Their voices aren't being heard. They recognize the evolutionary nature of Christianity and religion, and they're voices are lost in the noise of a Christianity that's marred with political leanings, religious hoopla, and biblical literalism. They're leaving the mainstream church. They're leaving religion. And they're leaving the outdated systems of biblical literalism behind. What they're doing is mixing in with the outcasts and the religious misfits. They're building community with the atheists and the agnostics of our world. They're throwing out the idea that you have to have a pulpit and a preacher, a building and an offering plate, a band and a Sunday service. 

But you can't find them unless you happen to come across them. They're underground. They don't have billboards. They don't have websites. They don't want to have that stuff. They trust in what Jesus said, "What's concealed will be revealed and what's hidden will be known."

There is a growing human consciousness that values the sanctity of human life, and these Christians celebrate that. These Christians also celebrate the Bible, but question its infallibility, its inerrancy, and its literalism. These Christians celebrate evolution and see it as a natural component in the way things are. These Christians are able to celebrate the marriage of faith and science, without feeling like they have to jump through hoops to do so. These Christians celebrate the life and the teachings of Jesus, but at the same time don't believe Jesus was or is literally God, but a God-figure. These Christians seriously question the "rock-solid tenants" of the faith that have stood unquestioned for centuries. These Christians find a way to make the scriptures relevant, since they were spoken and then written over the course of thousands of years. 

And these Christians are dead serious about their faith. They will die for the sake of building upon what Jesus started. They will lay their lives down for the sake of standing in solidarity with the marginalized, and they will not let the voices coming through the bullhorns of the mainstream Church sway them off their path. These Christians realize that they're way outnumbered, yet they don't mind speaking their minds. They understand that they will face opposition, but welcome it because they remember where they came from. It wasn't long ago that they were stuck in the same stagnant waters.

What is Christianity if it isn't progressive? Stagnant? Unchanging? Dying? Losing steam?

If my description comes pretty close to where you stand in your faith, Jesus's words hit close to home: "Don't fear those who are afraid of progress. Nature will reveal her truth."







 

Kingdom - Part 12 - Flee

 

 

"But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes." Matthew 10:23. The New American Standard.

 

I have this book sitting on the shelf right now. It's called "Fox's Book of Martyrs." It's an awesome book. It tells story after gruesome story of men, women, and children all losing their lives because of their unwillingness to give in to their persecutors and deny the name of their God. The book's about four inches thick, so there's gotta be over a thousand people in there who have died in the grips of persecution. 

 

From the first disciples of Jesus to pastors in red China, the book gives grotesquely detailed accounts of what the martyrs did, where they lived, and how they died. Some of the stories are maddening. Most of the stories are heart-wrenching. But all of them share two things in common: an unwillingness to deny anything about their belief in Jesus being God, and a deep-rooted belief that something awaited them after physical death. 

There was one story in which a man's daughter had a gun drawn to her head. 

The persecutor told the man, "Deny your God and your daughter lives." 

And the daughter cried out to her dad, "Don't do it daddy! Don't do it daddy!" 

And the dad, watching as tears rolled down his cheeks, saw his daughter lose her life for the sake of a few words. 

I'm not trying to be morbid this morning. It's way too early for that. But something seems off about this whole martyrdom thing. And please, don't take this as me downplaying all the pioneers of the Christian faith. If it wasn't for every person who devoted their life to building the Christianity we know today, our history would look completely different. Our personal stories would look completely different. Our national stories would look completely different. 

For some of us, we wonder if that would've been a good thing to have a different story. And for others, we can't imagine life without Christianity. And for still others, we can't imagine a life without persecution. 

Now obviously, there was real persecution happening in Jesus's day, and there's real persecution happening in our day. And not just Christian persecution. There's Muslim, Jewish, Christian, atheist, Hindu, and Buddhist persecution. Persecution doesn't discriminate based on religious affiliation. 

But the thing I have a problem with is, why are some people so bent on dying for the faith, when the author of Matthew's gospel has Jesus clearly saying that the disciples are to flee persecution?

This is a hard passage to talk about, because American Christians are so hellbent about the whole persecution thing that it's hard to get past that. I mean, we've even collectively agreed that our country was founded as a result of persecution. But was that really persecution? Or was that a bunch of English people being butt hurt about the government trying to tell them what to believe?

It seems that if the first pilgrims would've learned their lesson about religious tyranny, they wouldn't have used the same tactics when they stepped ashore to the new land for the first time. Yet, religious tyranny begat religious tyranny. I don't think I'm going too far in saying that the American persecution complex started the moment the English felt threatened by a religion that looked looked different than theirs. And so they fled. They got that part right I guess.

I had a guy tell me once to "take that Jesus shit and shove it up your ass." 

Was that persecution or was that someone sick of hearing me talk about Jesus every five seconds? 

If we've studied our religious history well, we know that certain emperors in Jesus's day wanted nothing more than to kill Christians. Nero was known to light the entrance to the cities with flaming corpses of Christians. For the first followers of Jesus, the religious priests wanted nothing more than to see them disappear.  

Am I allowed to say that doesn't happen in America, and it never did? Am I allowed to say that if anyone has done any persecuting in America, we Christians have been the ones with the most blood on our hands? And what about pre-America? What about the Crusades? What about the Inquisition? Were Christians not the persecutors? 

I just don't get it. But maybe it's because I don't believe in the streets of gold that are waiting for me when I die? Maybe it's because I don't believe Jesus is God. Maybe it's because if a gun were drawn to my head, I'd have no problem admitting that Jesus is no more the son of God than I am or we are. 

Is Jesus not asking the question, "What good are you for the kingdom of heaven if you're dead? If someone's trying to kill you because of this message, get the hell out of dodge and go to the next city!" 

There's been this long held view within Christian circles that if you deny God, or deny any of the [man made] tenants of the Christian faith, then God will surely condemn you to hell. And Fox's book sadly shows that people take this cliche literally - even to the point of watching their families get murdered. 

Dying for a good cause is much different than dying for a good belief. Dying because I won't utter a few words is much different than dying in the attempt to save a helpless girl from being trafficked for her body. 

If I had a gun drawn to my head and was asked to deny Jesus, I'd probably say something like, 

Okay?

But I highly doubt that's ever gonna happen. 

But would I be willing to die if it meant putting a stop to sex trafficking, human trafficking, or black churches being burned? 

Absolutely!

So, I don't really think the passage for today applies to the majority of Americans today. But, if you're really convinced that you're being persecuted via the government taking away your religious freedom or allowing too much religious freedom, or the libtards taking over the world, or the Christians denying service, or the Confederate flag being removed from city buildings, or the statue of the Ten Commandments in the middle of town, then take Jesus's advice, and get the hell outta dodge. Go to the next city over. What good are you to the kingdom of heaven if you're angry and disgruntled all the time?

What we really need is people who are willing to die for the sake of equality, peace, and compassion. What we really need is a group of white people who are willing to form rings around America's black churches. What we really need is a group of Christians who are willing to block the entrances of America's brothels. What we really need is a group of Christians who are willing to crowd the doors of America's title loan facilities. What we really need is a group of Christians who are willing to form rings around America's homeless communities. 

And when the heat gets too heavy, and the persecution too great from being an agent of compassion, move on to the next city and repeat. The work you've done will surely go on as others start where you left off. 

Kingdom - Part 11 - Wolves

"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves." Matthew 10:16. New American Standard.

About ten years ago, I was sitting on the porch with a friend of mine, and we came up a really awesome idea. We would make signs, go find a homeless person, and stand with them on a street corner. Just to make it look legit and Christiany, we would hand out Bibles as well. And so, we found some cardboard boxes, made a couple cutouts, and wrote some clever sayings. Mine said, "Jesus was homeless." 

Now, I didn't think there was anything very offensive about writing "Jesus was homeless" on a cardboard sign, while standing on a street corner, handing out Bibles. 

Evidently it was though. The Bibles may have been our saving grace that day because who doesn't like free stuff, huh? 

I'll never forget the one guy who cruised past me with his middle finger flying out the window, yelling, "Man, you be shittin' on Jesus! That ain't right!" It was one of those moments of - wow, Jon, you're fightin' the good fight. You just got persecuted for the first time, and it was awesome! Keep going! Keep your head up! You got this!

Looking back at that moment, I realize now how deluded I was in thinking that I was some sort of martyr. I was some sort of hero for doing something that would blatantly piss some people off. But it wasn't necessarily what I wrote on that sign that day, or the Bibles I was handing out, or even the homeless people I met that day. It was the feeling of being persecuted, the feeling of having just "laid my life down for the cause" when, all I was doing was putting words on a cardboard sign, trying to get a point across. You could say that back in the day, I had an extremely huge persecution ego.

Today, I want to talk about wolves. But not wolves in the literal sense, but wolves in the metaphorical sense. The kind of wolves that Jesus was talking about in the passage above. 

But first, I need to make a confession. I've been running this passage through my brain for about a week and a half. I haven't even attempted to write since I first wrote this passage down, because I realize I have a problem. The remnants of that persecution complex  that I had that day with that sign are still with me today. I still read passages like this one, and automatically start going down my mental list of the "wolves" in my life. I've used this passage for years as a way to justify feeling like a martyr, a saint, and a disciple. And as a result, I've used passages like these to condemn the "wolves," aka, the people who disagree with me. 

But here's the deal. The wolves Jesus was talking about here weren't going after the disciples based on their views of abortion, gay marriage, gun rights, illegal immigration, or climate control. The wolves Jesus was addressing were trying to uphold a theocracy. And Jesus was speaking right into the tension of a two-fold theocracy at the time - the Roman Theocracy with claimed that Caesar was Lord, and the Jewish Theocracy which claimed Religion was Lord. 

And everything that Jesus has outlined thus far in describing the "kingdom of heaven," has been diametrically opposed to both theocracies. 

After thinking about this passage for awhile, and having many conversations about who or what the "wolves" could possibly be today, I've come to my conclusion. The wolves aren't necessarily specific people as they are institutionalized opposition to peace. And in Jesus's case, which he lays out in the next verse, the wolves in his day were the rulers of the courts, and the rulers of the synagogues. 

The government and the temple. The politicians and the priests. 

Now the last time I checked, President Obama wasn't getting coins minted with the saying, "Obama is Lord." And, the last time I checked, pastors weren't stoning women for adultery (here in America). So, for all the literalists out there who like to use this passage as fuel for the next abortion campaign or political rally, you don't have any ammunition here. That's just not how it works. 

Go ahead and say what you're gonna say, but expect that you're gonna provoke some people to anger. It's the same for me. Anytime I'm writing, I know that I'm probably gonna piss some people off due to my whacky belief systems. But that doesn't mean that you're a wolf out to get me. It simply means you disagree with me, I with you, and we can still be friends. We can still make it work. 

Although I do think that America has come pretty darn close to becoming a Christian theocracy, we're nowhere close to what it was like in the first century. People were getting killed for believing the things Jesus was teaching. People were getting slaughtered by a government that demanded complete loyalty. People were getting exiled for promoting peace. Persecution was a real thing. Getting killed for what you believe was a real thing. 

I'm pretty sure Jesus wasn't going around and telling people who to vote for. Jesus didn't see the world through a two party system. He didn't see the world through a religious filter, and he didn't see the world through a government filter. He saw the world through a filter of love. 

And believe it or not, there were people who believed that politics and religion trumped love. 

Politics and religion trumped love. Politics and religion trumped love. 

Are we current now? 

As long as I view the world through the lens of politics and/or religion, those views will trump love. What do I mean by this? It means that there will be instances, maybe many, maybe few, in which my political views or my religious beliefs will determine who or how I love someone. In fact, this is the predominant way in which I love. 

And naturally, love will be exclusive when viewed through either of these lenses. On the political side, whom I love will be guided by whom I side with. On the religious side, whom I love will be guided by what set of beliefs I side with. And the "wolves" will naturally be the people on the other side. 

That's why I can be conservative and call all the liberals wolves. I can be Baptist and call all the Catholics wolves. And I can feel justified because I'm doing it the right way. I'm doing it just like Jesus said to. 

But here's the problem. If you spend as much time as I do trying to figure out who all the wolves are in your life, you're missing the point. 

It's not about looking for the wolves. It's not about saying things or doing things that you know are gonna receive blowback. It's about expecting push back and humbly moving forward without feeling the need to feel persecuted about it. It's about continuing to stand up for what you believe in without needing to attack the next person who disagrees because "they're not doing it right."

Right now in America, we are seeing the biggest case of pussification that I've ever seen in my life. Everybody's getting offended by everybody else. I'm in this. I'm right in the middle of it. And one of the byproducts of this is the phenomenon of feeling persecuted. 

Theological and political disagreement is not persecution. Feeling like your rights are being threatened by different ideologies is not persecution. Taking prayer out of schools isn't persecution. And on the other hand, building a pipeline from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada isn't persecution. Having a coin say "In God We Trust" isn't persecution. Saying a prayer before football games isn't persecution. 

We all feel persecuted at times, whether we're conservative or liberal. But we're missing the point. 

The recent attacks on black churches in the U.S. is persecution. It was unexpected. The people in those churches weren't doing anything to provoke anger, or opposition, or hate. They were simply carrying on with their lives, loving the best they could, believing the best they could. And the wolves were prowling. The wolves were ready to attack. 

If you're gay and living in the Middle East, you're being persecuted. The laws call for you to die. The laws call for you to be treated like an animal. That's persecution. 

If you're a homeless person and getting sent to jail for laying on a park bench or accepting food in a city park, you're being persecuted. 

Jesus isn't asking his disciples to turn on their persecution radars and put themselves in situations where they can stir up the pot and provoke a bunch of people to retaliate. He's telling them to be wise and innocent. Or, be careful who you hang out and don't say anything that's gonna cause someone to take you to court. He's not saying, "If you deny gay people their cake, you'll be persecuted."

When we err on the side of love and grace, we're not gonna be concerned with who disagrees with us or who's out to get us. Those things aren't on our radar. What is on our radar is how we can work together to bring more peace, more love, and more compassion to this planet we share. When love is the guiding force by which we live by, we're not holding up signs that say "persecution here!" but moving behind the scenes, gently, humbly, and quietly. We're seeing the world the way Jesus saw the world - as a collection of people who are seeking freedom and seeking how to make sense of this crazy world we live in. 

Kingdom - Part 6 - Freely

 

"Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give." Matthew 10:8. New American Standard.


Have you ever received something that was so anonymous that it gives you goose bumps when you think about it today?

About ten years ago, I was struggling big time. I probably couldn't tell that I was struggling as much as the people around me could tell that I was struggling. I was a mess. 

My life rhythm looked like drink . . . sleep . . . drink . . . sleep . . . drink . . . work . . . sleep . . . drink.

And while I was at work I was living for the next drink. And while I was drinking I was living for the next sense of peace. And when I was sleeping, I was living for the hope that I wouldn't have to do it all over again. 

I was miserable and I didn't even have a clue how miserable I really was. 

And right in the middle of all this misery, a gift came. It came in the form of a bus ride. 

I remember receiving a phone call from a friend asking me if I'd like to go to Colorado to be a volunteer at this Young Life camp. And my immediate thought was, "How the hell am I gonna pull this one off?"  

And the voice on the other line said, "Don't worry. It's covered. All you've gotta do is show up to the bus station."

And so, after much deliberation (since I had so much to do), I decided to pack a suitcase and go off to Snow Wolf Park for a month. I rounded up as much tobacco as I could possibly afford, said goodbye to my family (and the alcohol), and jumped on a bus a couple mornings later. 

That month in Colorado provided for me what I couldn't manage to provide for myself: a spiritual awakening. It's like my soul had been craving a reprieve from my dead-end life for months and I didn't even know it. And over the course of that month, I gave myself away to the mission at hand. I cleaned dishes, I swept driveways, and I did all sorts of things that took my mind off of myself. I didn't have time to think about drinking or the misery I would essentially walk back into when I got home. 

For that month, someone gave me the gift of living outside of myself.

I still don't know who paid for that trip. But someone knew I needed it. They could read it all over me. They knew that getting me on a bus to Colorado may save my life.

While that trip didn't end up being the final straw for my drinking, it was one of many gifts that were given to me over the course of my drinking career. It was one instance of someone caring enough about the state of my existence to do something about it. It was one stepping stone on a pathway that would take years to find a destination. But it was a move forward in the right direction. 

We're in the sixth part of the series of the "kingdom of heaven." In the intro, I proposed that when Jesus used this phrase, he was talking about experience a state of being that had to be found within. It couldn't be given by religion, the government, or any entity outside of one's self. He was talking about a "realm" of being that one could experience in this life, right here, and right now. 

I also proposed that in chapter ten of Matthew, Jesus lays out to his audience what it looks like to enter into and to maintain this state of being. And in a nutshell, he says that it looks like helping the powerless, helping people to wake up out of spiritual zombie-ness, and breaking down the constraints that religion tends to place on the spiritual life so that others may feel included and invited into the journey.

And today, we're gonna talk about freely giving as we have freely received. 

There's some things that Jesus says that, in my opinion, are black and white. And this is one of them. There's a lot more things that Jesus says that aren't black and white. They require digging. They require placing one's self in the shoes of a first century Jew who lives in the Roman Empire. They require looking up Greek and Hebrew words that have been lost in the English translation. But in today's verse, there's not much research necessary.

You've received freely, so freely give. 

I told you the story earlier because one, it's one I remember, and two, it comes from a long line of stories just like that one. They're all about the anonymous gifts that I've received over the course of my life. 

There's so many more but I would have to sit on this porch for a whole day in order to tell all of them, but I've gotta get to work in a little bit. 

But the point I think Jesus is making is this one. If we are able to remember just one time that somebody gave something to us freely, it should be enough of a reminder that we're to do the same for somebody else. 

And really, none of us are exempt from these free gifts. We've all gotten them. By default, we were born into this world with nothing except a sheer dependence on the mother who ushered us in. We didn't know how to create our own food, dress ourselves, change our own diapers, or get from one place to another. So every life experience that we learned from the get go was a free gift. All we had to do was . . . well . . . be. 

But eventually we all grew out of the little worlds we experienced as babies. Eventually we developed a thing called self conscience. And eventually we started forming ideas in our heads about the way the world works. And we started seeing the world not through a lens of helplessness, but through a lens of self-preservation. We had to figure out how to make it in this world, and we learned that it wasn't easy. 

And so, we jumped into the stream of life head first, knowing that if we didn't do certain things we wouldn't last long. And in some of those cases, we'd have to make hard decisions that affected other people in negative ways. And it was hard, but we knew we had to keep going even if it meant climbing over other people to get there. 

And what I believe Jesus is saying to his audience in this passage is, "I know you've got a destination, but don't overlook the people around you. Freely give along the way because you were freely given in order to get where you are."

I believe Jesus's next proposal in his outline of "the kingdom of heaven" is to let distractions be a normal part of our routine. I know it sounds counterproductive, like we all have our daily planners out and we just know what we're supposed to do today. But look at the planner as just one of many plans. The planner is the plan of action we think we're gonna take, but most of the time does it really pan out the way it looks like on paper?

The "kingdom of heaven" moments happen between the ink. They happen in the white. They're not planned, they're not thought out, and they just happen. 

They happen whether we want them to or not. And these are the moments where the dude comes up to you at work and needs to talk, and you know that you've got a million things to do today. And you have to face the question, Should I turn around and listen, or should I ignore him? 

Or . . . 

Should I roll down my window or should I keep looking straight? Should I answer this phone call or should I screen it? Should I respond to this email or should I delete it? Should I give her this money or should I keep it? Should I buy him some food or should I eat by myself?

Today, we're all gonna have little invitations to take part in things that require getting out of ourselves. And they're most likely gonna be distracting to our busy schedules. But these moments, if we're paying attention, may just be the moments that usher us into the reality that there's something much bigger going on here than what's on my computer screen. 

May we all have our senses heightened today so that we can seize the kingdom distractions around us.