The Gospel and the Kingdom

In the recent past, Brian Maclaran said that he doesn’t think we’ve got the gospel right yet. Though it’s a hard thing to admit, he’s probably right about that. As Christians, we hear the term “gospel” thrown around quite a bit, and we should, as it is central to our identity as Christians. However, it is often used in such a sense that is disconnected from who Jesus is, and what he taught. Generally, Christians use the term to refer to the kernel of their message, the “simple” truth behind the confusing parables and obscure laws. Sometimes this is boiled down to a few bullet-points, printed on a tract, and distributed, often ending up as litter. Why does it end up as litter? Because it is wrong and irrelevant. There is a gospel, but it doesn’t come on tracts; it is lived.

The parodied gospel so-called gospel goes something like this:

1.       God loves you.

2.       However, you are sinful, and, therefore, deserve eternal torture for your sins.

3.       But instead, God killed Jesus in your/our place, and Jesus absorbed all God’s anger against you.

4.       Now, you can go to heaven, and freely receive God’s love.

So convoluted is this system that it led St. Augustine to say that God hated us even while he loved us (On the Trinity). Augustine couldn’t reconcile the internal contradiction of this system. Neither can we. It begs the question: “ Did God love us before Jesus died for our sins, or does God love us because Jesus dies for our sins?” This system, known as the penal theory of atonement, pits Jesus against God, and, ultimately, leads to a view where Jesus actually saves us from God, which means God save us from himself. This sounds like a pretty emotionally unstable God, if you ask me, a God made in the image of an abusive father.  Is this really the gospel? Is this what Jesus preached?

In fact, it is not. According to the synoptic gospels, Jesus preached that “The time has come. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15). In Mark 1, Jesus proclaims that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, not just near. Repent, he says, and believe the good news. What good news? That the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But it’s not . . . Confused? The kingdom of heaven/God is not pie in the sky; it’s now. It’s about repentance. You can’t join without it because repentance is the starting point for living a Godly life. We can’t participate in the liberation of creation if we are still in bondage to our sin, which is our selfishness. We confess to break down barriers. We put aside all pretense of righteousness and admit our brokenness before God and one another. Then, we seek “on earth as it is in heaven.” We share, we feed, we visit, we clothe. We live lives of love, which means patience, grace, charity, forgiveness, peace, truth, justice. This is why Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” We do not wait for what we already have.

This life is active and activist. Throughout history the Church, despite its sins, has been the group creating hospitals, orphanages, and schools. It was Christians like John Wesley who advocated strongly for the abolition of slavery, and like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. who gave his life for equality. These are Christian ends. Mega churches are not.

The Christian life struggles; it bleeds; it weeps; it fights, though without bloodshed because it means harmony, the harmony mentioned in Genesis 1 at the end of the 6^th day, when all creation lived together without violence (all things ate only fruits and herbs). We see this in Mark 1: 13, when Jesus was with the wild animals. It is a reflection of Isaiah 11:6-9, which says:

And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatted domestic animal together; and a little child shall lead them.

                And the cow and the bear shall feed side by side, their young shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
                And the sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
                They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

It is code. Mark is saying. “Here it is! Quit waiting for lighting from heaven. Let’s get going.”

The gospel is about right-wising the world, the whole world. When John the Baptist sent his followers to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah, Jesus responded “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor” (Luke 7:22). And we come back to the good news. What was this good news for them? What was Jesus doing for them, or telling them that was so great? Jesus made a place at the table for them. Rather than seeing life circumstances as some karmic arrangement, Jesus acknowledges the injustice and chaos of the world, and proclaims that love has the final say. No one is without value. There are no Christian death camps, no Christian undesirables. No one is pushed to the fringes of society, at least that how it is supposed to be.

The good news is simple, though multi-faceted: God loves and forgives like a father loves and forgives his children. Status has no place; all are invited to join God without exclusion. Suffering is part of life, but is made more bearable through loving relationships. The seeming finality of death does not have the last word, for the resurrection is God’s promise of commitment to us, a promise that we live out in a community centered in selfless love. The Good News is that our destructive pictures of God are wrong, that our hierarchies of oppression will be undone, that God hears our prayers, and is responding to them. It empowers us to live hopefully in an otherwise hopeless world.

The gospel has roots before Jesus. The promise to the Jewish people was a relational one. God would be their God, and they would be God’s people. God will walk among them (Leviticus 26:12). The Gospel is about the ongoing faithfulness of God. It is God’s proclamation of love. “For God so loved the world that he sent his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have the life of the ages” (John 3:16). This culminates at the cross. “For greater love has no man than this: that he lays down his life for his friend” (John 15:13). This is a response to the condition of the earth, and should be juxtaposed with the Genesis account of the flood. Rather than curse the earth and destroy it in fire or flood, God saves it through blood, God’s own blood. God offers up himself as a sacrifice to the world to atone for the evil, to say “I’m sorry.”

                The Gospel is not all-together complicated, but it means several things. Negatively defined, we might say that the idea that bad things happen to people as a result of God’s curse is wrong. Secondly, the notion that we suffer and wait for better times is wrong. Third, judgment of others is wrong. Fourth, the idea that God is apathetic to our suffering is wrong. Positively defined, we might say that a) shit happens; b) work together to clean that shit up; c) don’t look down on others, because your shit stinks, too; d) God loves us, and cares about us, shit and all.

Can Christians Be Americans?

As today marks the 10-year anniversary of 9-11, it is important that we “never forget.” However, it is equally important that we know what we are not forgetting. It’s easy to put “never forget” on a bumper sticker, or facebook update, but it is much more difficult to think about what we are supposed to remember. Are we just remembering the approximately 2,8000 who died that day? If so, to what end? And if we remember them, what of the more than 1,000,000 Iraqi and Afghan civilians that have died as a result of the American response to this heinous act? Aren’t their lives just as valid? Aren’t they worth just as much? Don’t people love and miss them?

                Some may counter that these people would have died anyway, and certainly some would have. According to a New York Times article by John Burns, in 23 years in power, Sadaam Hussain was responsible for the deaths of around 200,000 Iraqi citizens, not including his military ventures against Iran and Kuwait, but that’s a far cry from 1,000,000. And the fact remains that he did not kill these people, they were killed by military forces in missions led by the U.S. for crimes (real or otherwise) against the U.S. They were killed by our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, and we cheered them on. We sent them off with Toby Keith and freedom fries.

                When we are wronged it is certainly natural to react with vengeance. Sometimes the word “retribution” is thrown around, but the intent is the same. Roughly translated, it means something like “If you fuck with me, I’m going to fuck with you.” I don’t like to throw around f-bombs, but the intent is violence, and this is a violent word. We can cover our mouths and gasp at offensive language, but do we react the same way when we hear that children are picking up cluster bombs they think are toys, and ending up setting off these bombs in their homes? Do we care that since the first Gulf War many children have been born with fatal birth defects because of the use of depleted uranium?

                The world systems may embrace an “us v. them” mentality, but Christians cannot. “There is neither Greek, nor Jew, slave nor free, male or female, for all are one in Christ Jesus” writes the Apostle Paul. All are one. Furthermore, nationality has not place is proper Christian thinking. We are not Mexicans, Americans, Koreans, and so on. If we follow Christ, then that is where our allegiance lies. Any national allegiance that claims to usurp our allegiance to Christ and Christ’s church is idolatrous. It is sin. Patriotism is a sin. American flags (or any flags) in church buildings is sinful. Our commitment is not to any one nation, but the well-being of all, for all are one. All are loved by God, and therefore are worthy of our love as well. We do not disdain the poor, the naked, the oppressed. We clothe, feed, and pray for them, working for peace, not with violence, but with kindness. The world wages war and calls it peace. Christians know this to be a lie.

                Peace is in Christ, the one who died so that we might live, the one who humbled himself on a cross, the one who healed those afflicted by violence, the one who granted personhood to the marginalized. This is what it means to be Christian. To be Christian is to love. And love keeps to record of wrongs. It does not look for opportunities for vengeance, nor does it rejoice in the hardship or misery of others. If we do, then perhaps we need to re-evaluate our commitments. Do we want to be Christian, or just American?

Pacifism as Christian Worship

                Today a Norwegian right-wing Christian (Christian at least according to initial reports) killed nearly 90 people, teenagers, in fact. Some have responded that this is the result of extreme gun control, insisting that if these teens had just been armed, then they could have fended off their attack. Maybe so, though it seems unlikely that teenagers would be carrying guns. However, I think it brings up a greater point. When I tell people that I’m a pacifist, they say things like, “What about Hitler?” What about Hitler? The problem with this reactionary thinking is that it is just that: reactionary. Pacifism's greatest hurdle is not that it would let Hitler take over the world. Rather, pacifism's strength is that Hitler never would have risen to power in the first place.

               How powerful could the church’s witness be if it retained a non-violent position? Instead of having to ask “What about Hitler?” We should ask “How did the most Christianized nation in Europe let Hitler come to power?” The church failed. It was, and still is, filled with members of societies who are more of the world (whatever world they are a part of it), than they are a part of Christ. So-called Christians care little for the actual teachings of Christ. They care about their own petty and simplistic understanding of the world, a sort of cowboy-code, where everything is extremely rigid (men are men, women are women, good is good, and bad is bad), with little explanation of why, other than vague references to "common sense." This world creates people capable of murdering children, and societies where people do nothing while children are murdered, all in the name of some one's good, whether that is ethnic purity, national expansion, stopping terror, etc..

Non-violence is powerful because it resists the power of violence, not through passivity, but through purposeful activity. Jesus laid down his life on the cross in a way that was meaningful. He could have died several times, but those particular times would not have had the impact they did (even apart from the resurrection). Pacifists don’t just die stupidly. Rather, we risk death to stop evil. We act in ways that are “as cunning as snakes, but as innocent as doves.” This means that we act thoughtfully, and without engaging in evil. We “do not overcome evil with evil, but overcome evil with good.” We don’t blow people up, but seek reconciliation in all things. This, however, means that we must be trained and prepared. Those who call themselves Christians should train in the arts of conflict resolution, psychology, and even martial arts, so as to disarm attackers without causing permanent harm.

                Jesus did not live by a sword made from steel, but the double-edge sword that was his tongue. We must destroy the forces of evil through words, through logos, but we must also be willing to engage in acts of non-violent resistance that may cost us our lives. We do not kill for our beliefs, but we are willing to die, if necessary, to stave off evil and proclaim God's good, that is, unconditional love for the world, every little bit of it.

Easton’s Song

Oh, God where is your grace? I don’t feel it right now. How can you sustain me? God, please tell me how.

I’ve always trusted you. My faith has been strong. Look at what you’ve put me through; Oh, what have I done wrong?

*Where is the salvation that you promised? If not from this, what will you save me from? Oh, I prayed for a miracle, but still I am left without a son.

I do not feel your comfort. I feel anger. I feel pain. Some say that this is what you went through, but I don’t think it’s quite the same.

Oh, why’d you make the world this way? I don’t think I can endure it. They say that pain brings compassion, but without pain there’s no need for it.

*chorus

so once again I ask, “Where are you in all of this?”  How can I believe you care when it feels like you’re not there?

And God I’ve never prayed like I prayed for my son. Paul says to pray without ceasing, and I didn’t stop—not once.

*chorus

I laid my hands on his chest and prayed that he would take a breath, that his body would work as it should. You would heal him. I know you would.

Yet, still we’re left here with emptiness in our hearts, pain in our chests

no baby in our arms.

*chorus

What explanation can you give

You can blame adam end eve

but there was no sin in my son

God, you should've saved Easton

Searching for Answers We Already Have

Why do we still read the scriptures? What exactly are we looking for? It's not that we shouldn't read the Bible, but too often we look at the Bible for magical “instant answers,” seeking some greater revelation that will finally help us make sense of the world. Those unfamiliar with the scriptures, or those not properly grounded in them may experience some sort of epiphany, or even various points of epiphany as they come to a fuller knowledge of the Gospel. However, the ultimate theological revelation is simple; it's love. Love is the foundation of all things Christian.

Far too often love is not even a factor in the lives of Christians; it is not even considered. Like many conservative politicians, many Christians see God as someone who takes their side, guarantees their dreams, and protects them from bad things. In other words, God is a magic talisman or a good luck charm, or a genie. There is no sense of knowing God, no sense of relationship. It often boils down to a mathematical equation: if we follow the rules, God will give us good things like a nice house and money. Such people read the scriptures hoping to find the formula that will unlock the magic blessing of God. Is this completely foolish? Absolutely. Is it grounded in scripture? You bet.

While one can make a case for the magical mathematics of YHWH, one cannot make such a case when looking at Jesus. What do we have to do to live a godly life--the "life of the ages"? We must give away all we have to the poor. So much for faithfulness leading to wealth. What happens when we live faithfully? Well, Jesus was executed, and most of his original followers were murdered. What about Paul? Well, he experienced quite a bit of abuse. So much for righteousness guaranteeing our security. Paul's blessings were spiritual. He was at peace; he was content. His peace rested in the fact that he was loved by God, rather than the circumstances in which he found himself, which were not very pleasant. None of these people thought that faithfulness would bring them a hot wife, a nice home, or wealth. Yet they lived faithfully, regardless. But what does living faithfully mean?

Faithfulness is not a complicated subject, at least in a general sense. We are to love God and neighbors. What does it mean to love God? Well, since God is not tangible, the way that we love God is by loving our neighbors. This is a double reinforcement. Those who want to love God but not other people don't have the luxury. Loving God is directly tied to loving our neighbors. This means that faithfulness is relational; it is not a one man play, but something we act out in concert with others. This is why John Wesley believed that Christian Perfection is realized through the practice of perfect love. When we fully love others, we are faithful to the way of Christ and the commands of God. To love others means to take their interests seriously and to work for their good, their benefit. To be righteous is to act in such a way so as to benefit others. This is the entire direction of the Christian life.

It is not single scriptures divorced from history that will save us from the various bits of stress and pain that we experience. Rather, it is a life grounded in the love of God through Christ that empowers us to persevere amidst trials and suffering. No single scripture will save us, but the love of God will.  

Jesus, Capitalism, and Civilization

I read a book not so long ago that lumped Christianity, capitalism, and corporations together. This bugged me since I know that the first has nothing to do with the second or third, but it is understandable given that here and now, the three do often seem to coexist as a sort of unholy triumvirate. This is not unintentional. In 1956, “under God” was added to the pledge of allegiance to set capitalism apart from “godless” socialism. Good god-fearing people were, according to this simplistic worldview, capitalists. And capitalism takes the form of large multi-national corporations, who, following the example of Jesus, take their worthless crap (Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Levi’s, and Nikes) to the “ends of the earth.”
But is capitalism in anyway Christian? The very word means belief/focus in money. Socialism, on the other hand, mean belief/focus in the community. One has the attainment of wealth for the good of the individual in mind; the other has the good of all members of society in mind. Which of these sounds more like the teachings of Jesus? (hint: the latter).

Does this mean we should be Marxists? No, Marxism doesn’t work for one main reason: it neglects the doctrine of sin. People are self-interested. This isn't good, but it's how things are right now, and probably how they've always been. It can work on a small scale among people of a similar worldview, but inevitably the next generation always abandons the goals set forth by the previous generation. Somehow, they weren't inspired by the same ideals as their parents; I can't say why. Perhaps, like so many parents, they simply took their worldview for granted and never directlty taught their children why one way is better or kinder or more just.

Nonetheless, how can we as Christians fit within a capitalist matrix? By subverting it. I don't mean bombing, or open revolt, or even Tea Parties, but working within the system to change it, to make it more communal. The economic system we have come to know has become increasingly individualistic and selfish. Pensions are all but gone, real wages are down, perks are all but eliminated. We work our lives away for nearly nothing, and then spend our "retirement" bagging groceries. Christians need to take their place at the head of businesses, but need to subvert the system by eliminating destructive greed from the equation. (In case it's unclear, all greed is destructive.) Christians in positions of power need to listen to Jesus and not the so-called prophets of capitalism. They need to look out for the well being or workers and the poor; they need to consider the interests of others before their own. In other words, an economics of love has to come before any other economic commitment, if such commitments are even possible.

It seems to be that such things need to be pragmatic, rather than dogmatic. We need to embrace systems that works. But what does it mean for a system to work? It doesn't mean increasing the wealth of stock holders and boards and CEO's. It means looking out for everyone. When Jack Welch made $900 million in a single year, that could have created 9000 jobs at $100,000 each. Which of these would be better for the economy? Which option is more just? We need to move beyond the stupid compartmentalized thinking that is the legacy of modernity and begin to recognize how connected things really are. What's good for Main St. will be what's good for Wall St, but not necessarily vice versa. By this I mean that instead of a trickle down system where wealth never really leaves the portfolios of the rich, a trickle up system will create more stability and stimulate the economy because people will have more real spendable income. (Trickle down theory is part of a brilliant mythology created by the powerful that makes regular working class people actually argue on behalf of those who exploit them. It's akin to a starving person arguing that they should give food to a fat person and hope for scraps. What a great irony!)

Any future shape that the economy takes though will have to have more than the well-bing of the middle class in mind, it must also take the environment into account. Arguments that taking the environment seriously will adversely affect the economy are stupid are short-sighted. It is like saying that a house will cost too much to build to code. It will cost a lot more to rebuild the house once it has collapsed, not to mention that people will be inside when it collapses. In the same way, preventing pollution will be a lot easier than cleaning it up later. Then there is the cost in life, both animal and human. We will soon be seeing victims of rising ocean levels due to global warming, but what about poisoned water and air? What is the legacy that we wish to leave our children? Do we want them to inherit a world devoid of green space, animals, and clean water? Jesus told us to pray "on earth as it is in heaven." I'm sure that when we said this, he did not have in mind that heaven is a toxic trash heap devoid of life.

What is Atonement?

Atonemnet is simply at-one-ment. It is to be at peace, or in harmony. It is friendship. What does it mean for the faith of Jesus? In terms of Jesus’ own teaching, it doesn’t mean much, at least not in the way that we think about it contemporarily. Despite the current majority opinion, Jesus did not come to die on the cross so that God would be capable of forgiving sins. What an uncharitable and irrational idea. The God of the universe—the One who created all things!—who is in essence Love cannot forgive apart from bloodshed? Nonsense! Such a theology hinges on just one verse, a very irrelevant verse at that, which has almost no historical usage and is surely not representative of even an ancient Jewish understanding.

Understood as satisfying God’s divine “need” for vengeance, atonement played no role in Jesus’ mission. In fact, Jesus’ mission undercuts this idea of atonement. Multiple times he forgave people. In none of those instances was blood involved. Prior to his ministry John the Baptist offered a baptism that symbolized repentance—the condition (or appropriation) of forgiveness. Forgiveness was recognized as coming through repenting of one’s sin, not through killing of any kind. Killing animals and offering them to God is nothing more than leftover pagan superstition that infected the Jewish tradition. While those are very harsh words, it is important that they be harsh, that God is not linked to such absurd barbarity.

The Scriptures even point out that such sacrifices are displeasing to God, though not unanimously. For example, Psalm 40:6 tells us: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have opened; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.” God doesn't require rituals-- especially rituals that are harmful to any of God's creatures--but ears that hear and a heart that is open. Likewise, the Psalmist also writes in Psalm 51:16-17 “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” What God truly wants from us is repentance. God wants us to stop doing evil and continually do good. We do not need to shed blood, not now and not then. We do need to make reparations, however. When we have wronged another, we need to try and repair the damage that we have caused. We don't do this because of fear that God will cast us into hell if we don't, but because love reconciles. This reconciliation is what atonement is all about. Harmony is God's plan, is God's desire. Peace is atonement.