Go, with God.

 

Matthew 9:35 – 10:23

 Under empire, the people were occupied and oppressed.  That is the context of the Gospels.  Rome was especially vicious and brutal in their tactics, relentless in taking all that people had for the sake of their elites and to further their military might and everything was based on one’s status over others.  Nothing was done for another without some quid pro quo arrangement.

 Jesus brought Good News into this dire situation that had already lasted for way too long (from 63 BCE), and would last for another three centuries (to 313 CE).  Under empire, the people were exploited, victimized and de-humanized.  Jesus’ Good News proclaimed their value in the Kingdom of God, called them to resist the ways of empire in how they lived and treated one another, and commanded them to live selfless agaph in order to restore lives that were being destroyed under empire. 

 That Good News of Jesus addresses empire still today.  The Greed, lust for Power over others and desire for Status above others that marked empires in the ancient world, still mark empire in the modern one.  The hatred that comes from dividing people economically, racially, educationally, socially and spiritually is the same. 

 Our own version started long ago, but was intentionally birthed with the Desolating Sacrilege of the Political right-wing getting in bed with the Religious right-wing in America.  In 1981, Reagan and Falwell intentionally launched a period of normalized empire values that have grown and flourished to bring us to a devastating place in our own land.  From that union, the level of political corruption perpetrated by those on the radical political “right” and the level of collusion and cooperation by those on the radical religious “right” have reversed any progress made as a nation toward a better Democracy, a healthier economy for all, a sustainable environment and the possibilities for well-being for large segments of our people, God’s people here.

 American Civil Religion, in which an exclusive love for nation is claimed not only by Christian nationalists, but projected also onto Jesus, was born.  The equation of love for God and THIS country has warped the minds and hearts of many Christians in America.  False Theologies around Prosperity, Church Growth, Personal Salvation and extensions of false beliefs stemming from the Doctrine of Discovery and Manifest Destiny have fueled divisions and the exploitation, abuse and de-humanization of many in our nation and across the world.  Racism, Homophobia and Religious bigotry are expressions natural to that descent into false teachings. 

 In more recent years, the rise in White Christian Nationalism has been an extension of this as well, fueled by the emboldened fascist bigots who have had their false victimization narrative legitimized by politicians on the “right.”  Because of this, civil rights laws, the acceptance of equal rights for minority peoples of color, sexuality, religion and ideology have been wiped out and replaced with intolerant behaviors, words, actions and laws across the country and around the world.

 In order for this to happen, some people have had to re-create Jesus in their own hateful, ignorant image.  The Jesus of the Gospels is hardly recognizable.  Churches and pastors have twisted the Gospel or ignored it all together in order to create this cult of true believers in the idolatry of America.  Much of the Christian church has been assimilated into this idolatry.  They had “itching ears” to hear what they wanted to hear, that their greed, lust for power over others, desire for status above others and hatreds are justified.  They have been “blown about by every wind of doctrine,” except the Good News of Jesus, landing on what has promoted their destruction of others’ lives.  There are some who are faithful to the Way of Jesus, but many who have not been indoctrinated into America’s idolatry have left the church altogether because of the ignorant, hateful things they see and hear coming out of it. 

These are the ones to whom Jesus referred as “sheep without a shepherd.”  Jesus had compassion on them in His time of life under empire, and we who follow Jesus must have compassion on them now.  They are still “harassed and helpless.”   The harvest is plentiful because so many have either wandered to their false gods or have walked away from the real Jesus and His Way for the world.  The laborers are few because people are struggling to even see the real Good News of agaph apart from empire, and when they do, they are harassed and beaten down by the idolators around them for following Jesus’ Way.

 It is this environment that, again like in the First Century CE, we are sent out “as sheep among wolves.”  We who follow the Way of Jesus in the world and resist the ways of empire, are sent to address empire with Jesus’ Good News and restore the lives of those who have been demoralized by empire.  We are called to call out the false teachings and teachers with their embedded theologies of personal salvation, prosperity and church growth and/or American Civil Religion/White Christian Nationalism.  We are called to speak truth to the powers and principalities that again have taken control over God’s children and have destroyed their lives.  We are called out (ekklesia) to live differently from empire, the Way of Jesus’ agaph, and thus transform the world by transforming lives, communities and the church.

 In order to do that, we must “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”  We must understand the dynamics of empire and how it works, resist it in very wise and impactful ways.  We also must make our motives pure, so that we do not do what we do in order to be the ones on top in a system that is corrupt, oppressive and unsustainable for the world, but rather to change the whole system – politically, economically, socially and spiritually in order to be in alignment with God’s Kingdom values as we have those in the Good News of agaph in Jesus.  We must live selflessly, generously, equally with others and create the beloved community in which all are treated with equity and value in love. 

 We will be persecuted, betrayed and hated, but we must persist.  We must endure to the end.  This must be our Way of life, the Way of Jesus.  We must put it out there in the world, in the face of the purveyors of empire and in the lives of those who have suffered under it.  We must be diligent in our resistance to it and continue to live the Good News of agaph until the Son of Humanity comes.

 If we do not do this, then we are among the “sheep without a shepherd,” because we have refused to follow Jesus.  Go, with God.