God in Sandals

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Jesus was God in Sandals…

 

If he was indeed God in sandals, then that means he cared about what God cared about, hated what God hated, and loved what God loved.  The incarnation gave God a face.  It gave God literal tears, literal laughter, literal hands, literal feet, a literal heart, and a literal mind.

          Rachel Held Evans

 

__________________________________

 

If Jesus were to show up today

He might wear sandals

 

Or perhaps he would wear Hokas.

Maybe even Florsheim wingtips, although I doubt it

 

I have no clue

But I think I know where Jesus would hang out

And it wouldn’t be at the political rally “Rededicate 250.”

 

He wouldn’t be admiring the newly added gold leaf

On the walls of the Oval Office

 

And he wouldn’t smile beneficently as

Pete Hegseth abuses the gospel and talks about a “holy war.”

 

It is more likely that he would be sharing a sandwich with a homeless dude

In a doorway

 

Trying to comfort immigrant children in Dilley Detention Center

And walking in a Pride parade with his queer brothers and sisters

 

He probably would be totally uncomfortable standing behind

The resolute desk, or sitting in the pew of a White Nationalist Church

But totally at home in a homeless shelter, or a soup kitchen

 

If Jesus was God in sandals

And if Jesus, as GodInUs, the Spirit

is with us still

 

then maybe we need to take another look

at what it means to follow

 

Because I don’t think Jesus is looking for us to

Line up behind the church or the state

 

I think he is looking for us to become so permeated

With love, with his presence

That we start to think, feel, and act

More like him

 

I think he wants us to hang around and value

And love, and help

Sick people and people with mental health issues

Homeless people and helpless people

Straight people and queer people

 

Hurt people

Recovering people

Searching people

Doubtful people

Even angry and fearful people

 

I think he wants us to love

Even our enemies

To give, even if we get nothing back

To serve, without recognition

To live simply (and give away what we don’t really need)

 

I think he wants humility, not arrogance

Non-violence, not missiles and bombs

Truth not deceit

Generosity not greed

 

I think Jesus doesn’t want a fortified palace (ballroom)

For a dictator

Nor a 250 ft arch

 

I think he wants universal healthcare

And housing

And food security

 

Jesus was a radical

He loved with radicality

He taught radical things

And he forgave while nailed to a tree

 

And he calls us to be “ordinary radicals” (Thanks Shane Claibourne)

 

Following Jesus is not about intellectual belief

(Christianity is crazy illogical anyway)

But about embracing love

 

It is not about closing ourselves up to

Others (and of course, sin)

As it is to opening ourselves up to God, to love

And to all those we would rather ignore

It is not so much about prayer and praise

As it is about getting into the mix of the worlds

Hate and pain

 

And loving like crazy

 

Faith (and hope) is lived

A performative mess

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Recently, a flock of religious types and political types

gathered to “rededicate” a nation to “God.”

 

Sounds good, right?

Lofty

Pious

 

Who could possibly be against

One nation under God?

 

One nation! Whose nation?

God, which God?

The Jewish God, the Christian God?

The Muslim God?

 

What about the Buddhists and Hindus

Those who participate in the Baha'i faith

Do they get to be a part of this one nation?

 

Or is it just Christians, ala Franklin Graham, and

God help us

Paula White or Robert Jefress

 

And if Christian, which version?

Because only Nationalistic, Dominion-oriented Christianity

Will be on that stage

The kind that drop bombs in the name of Jesus (Hegseth)

And exclude rather than welcome the stranger.

 

I, as a Presbyterian, would not be welcome

Not that I would welcome the chance.

 

I know our money says, “In God we Trust”

But we don’t

We trust strongmen (yes, men, and they are not really strong) and bombs

And the Stock market

 

And that is not the motto under which our country was born.

Try  E Pluribus Unum: “Out of many, one.”

 

We were not a country built for religious exclusivism

But were a country designed to bring diverse people together

Under some unifying values (not Christian BTW).

The values of freedom and justice

FOR ALL

And all should mean all

 

But just for fun, let say we are a nation under God

That means we should reflect God’s intention for a nation,

Right?

 

What does that mean?

That we are the biggest and meanest?

That we destroy civilizations?

Bomb Kids?

That we are ‘”hot”?

 

In my faith system, God has had a long

And contentious with those nations

That claim to be “God’s People.”

 

In fact, once Jesus showed up the idea that God

had a favored earthly nation

disappeared

 

Sure, God still had a people

But those people who those gathered in love

To praise, worship, pray AND SERVE

 

Jesus was pretty blunt.  My Kingdom is not of this world!!!!!!

Hear that Pete?  Hear that Doug Wilson?

 

But still, even if there WERE a country that belonged to God

What would it look like?

 

Not like the United States of America

Especially not MAGA States of America

 

Its complicated, but if I were to summarize what God wanted

From the people of Judah and Israel

Who were, at one point, supposedly dedicated to God

I would do it this way

 

SEEK JUSTICE AND DEFEND THE VULNERABLE:

God’s country would care for the poor, the vulnerable, the immigrant

It would protect women (not subjugate them)

 

In God’s country, justice would be blind

The Supreme Court would work to create equality and equity

(and not erase Voter Rights and not side with the Oligarchs)

 

SHOW COMPASSION AND KINDNESS

It would not spend most of its money on a Department of War

It would not spend more on guns and missiles than on healthcare

and education, and roads, and food support, and housing

 

It would not be racist

It would not be retributive, a global bully

Fund USAID

(Not funding USAID will mean 14.5- 25 million preventable deaths, many of them children, over the next 10 years.  Those deaths are blood on the hands of our country, because we could easily prevent them.  A side note.  A year of USAID funding was equal to a little over a month of the war in Iran)

 

HAVE HUMILITY

An awareness that life is a gift.  This land we live in is a gift.

That we are servants, not masters

Caretakers not owners

 

Most of all a nation that says it belongs to God ought to actually

LOVE GOD

More than a demented narcissist

More than earthly power

More than wealth

More than anything

 

Loving God means loving creation, not plundering it

Drill baby drill is not consistent with love God

Because this planet is another incarnation of God

 

Loving God means loving all those God created

AS GOD CREATED THEM

 

BIPOC people

LGBTQI+ people

Yes, trans people

People on the spectrum

People with other mental health challenges

People with disabilities

Female people

Male people

White people

Poor people

 

People of all faiths

Even arrogant, domineering, cruel Christians

Get to be loved

 

Maybe if they find love, they will be nicer

Maybe if we all understood we are loved

We would all be nicer

 

I just know that a political rally

Does not make for a country that actually loves God

 

It is merely one particular brand of Christianity (a toxic one at that)

Asserting its domination over the nation

under the guise of “rededication.”

 

On this day, 72 years ago, the SCOTUS (a much better one than we have now it seems)

Declared the segregation of schools unconstitutional.

And 72 years ago, we also changed our motto, out of fear of communism

To “One nation under God.”

 

Now our better angels have been silenced, and we are affirming racism

As a nation (not Godly)

And we are doubling down on a motto that has been weaponized

Against immigrants, LGBTQI+ people and so many others

(also not Godly)

 

On this day, we would do well to ignore the

Performative mess in Washington, DC

And remember the words of Amos

 

I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!" -Amos 5:21-25

Enabling the beast

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We all see it

Or rather, we should all see it.

 

That if you enable evil

Even if that enabling is passive, you create a monster.

 

And that monster,

Call it hate, prejudice, greed, racism

A beast,

Often personified in a person, or a movement

 

Becomes uncontrollable

Rending the fabric of morality and decency

Gnawing on the flesh of the vulnerable

Eradicating justice

Gorging itself on precious resources

 

Until the world becomes enmeshed in violence

A place where people are marginalized and minimized

Where cultures are destroyed

Where children lie crushed under the rubble of their school

And Palestinian villages are flattened

And strangers are brutalized, not welcomed

 

And people with empty heads and inflated egos

And no moral compass at all

Plan ballrooms, and dream of arches

And fortified bunkers

 

We reach a point where the cancer

That is killing a culture, a nation

Even a planet

Is beyond cure

 

It will destroy

 

And it will be because

Too many people did not stand up and speak out.

 

This is not new

We have seen many cultures die

Many empires stumble and fall

Crashing to the earth

 

We have seen the world slowly

Practice resurrection

Rebuilding

Restoring

(only to see it happen again)

 

There is a reason Jesus said

Be Yeast.  Be salt.  Be light.

You

Not someone else.  You

 

Be the change you wish to see

Be compassion, welcome, and generosity

Be people who fight for justice

Be love

 

Because if you don’t, who will?

Wise people throughout history have warned us.

 

Albert Einstein famously noted, "The world is not a dangerous place because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."

 

Dante Alighieri expressed a similar sentiment in Inferno: "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality."

 

Edmund Burke concisely warned, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

 

Martin Luther King Jr. stated, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer highlighted the enabler's dilemma:

"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."

 

The monster is awake.

The rough beast slouches toward Bethlehem

Seeking incarnation

 

We dare not be silent.

We cannot stand by and do nothing

(even if it seems as if nothing can be done)

 

We cannot watch as a person who does not care

For anyone but himself, slouches along

Playing King Midas and seeking to turn everything gold

 

While Elon dances like a dervish

And greedy souls destroy the planet for profit.

 

May it never be said that

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst  

Are full of passionate intensity”  (Yeats)

 

We cannot let MAGA win.

We cannot let Putin, Trump, and the oligarchs

Shape the world

 

The stock market is not a measure of wellness

Nor is the wealth of the oligarchs a sign of success

 

For underneath such shallow victories

Racism, hate, and greed grow

Fear too

 

We must be salt and yeast

We must be light

Jesus told us that even small acts are important

 

Yes, it may look as if it is all for nothing

As if we are powerless

The cross looked like a defeat, a failure

But it was magnificent

 

So we must do what small things that we can

We must protect our LGBTQI+ friends

We must stand side by side with those beautiful trans people

In our midst

We must feed the hungry,

Welcome the stranger

 

We must vote

 

Because even if we do not win

This time

Even if evil is not impeached or deposed

Now

 

We will have planted a seed,

Sprinkled a little yeast

 

We will have followed

Jesus