"Great Commandment Politics" (Mark 12:28-34)

 

Watch it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAViBZ0Kkmg

Sunday, September 27, 2020

 

            Our politics must be tied directly to the great commandment.  The Great Commandment only makes sense if we understand God intends to say everyone.  Jesus went to the cross because “God so love the world;” not part of the world but all of it, everyone. 

            What is the ‘Great Commandment?’  From the mouth of Jesus, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”  He’s quoting Deuteronomy 6:4. This has been God’s top priority for us from the beginning.  Next, quoting Leviticus 19:18, Jesus says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31). 

            Wait, wait!  Time out, Jesus.  We wanted 1 – the greatest commandment.  You gave 2!  He’s allowed to do that. He’s Jesus.  He gives them together, because we can only understand them together.  We can only truly love God when we love our neighbor.  It is impossible to truly love God if we fail to love our neighbor.  So, racism, conscious or unconscious, makes it impossible to love God because it is a failure to love our neighbor.  Holding others in contempt, for whatever reason, makes God-love impossible.  If you hold someone in contempt, you have elevated yourself above him; you have failed to love him.  Loving God means loving people.  The way we approach politics shows whether or not we truly love people. 

            I don’t mean the American political scene.  It is abhorrent when churches and pastors align with one party or the other, or a third party.  Many in our church family and many listening to this have strong political convictions which may lead you to hear this message and conclude I am against your party or for your party.  It’s not so.  I am not advocating for or against any candidate or party. 

Partisan politics have no place in church.  This is God’s time.  We have to contemplate how God calls us, His church, to relate to each other and to the world.  Politics refers to people.  So, as Christ-followers, our politics have to be love-based.  It’s the only way Christ allows.  Of the many significant obstacles to love, I will briefly touch on 3, using as a source chapter 4 of the book Crossing the Lines we Draw by theologian and pastor Matthew Tennant. 

First: fear.  Fear drives us to objectify others.  Fear prevents us from seeing others as people – people God calls us to love.  Fear leads me to hoard resources and prevents me from sharing.  I forget that we all need food, shelter, healthcare, clothing, and community; instead, I make sure I have enough.  I even store extras to make sure I’ll have more than enough in the future.  Fear turns my generosity into greed as I ignore everyone else and look out only for myself. 

Tennant uses the example of terrorism to illustrate the way fear distorts our perspective.  He quotes an American politician who, a few years ago said, “We will … unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth” (p.41).  It’s a patently absurd statement because terrorism is a technique, not an individual or even a group.  Most Muslims are not terrorists.  Many terrorists are not Muslim; some are white American.  But fear leads us to demonize radical Islamic terrorists, whoever they are.  Fear leads us to objectify groups of people or regions of the world. 

In Matthew 5 Jesus says,  “I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. … If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also” (Matthew 5:44, 39).  That’s the Jesus, red letters!  His teaching and his commands get drowned out by the illogical noise our fears produce.  So, who do you fear?  Protestors or looters?  Political liberals or conservatives? Submit your fears to God. Ask Him to give you the courage to love those you fear or hold in contempt.  Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we overcome fear by, loving those we would never love.  The ‘other’ is no longer an object of our judgment, but instead a recipient of our love.

A second obstacle to Great Commandment politics is the sense that life is a zero-sum game.  Tennant points out a zero-sum game requires winners and losers (p.49).  For you and I to be winners, we have to beat others.  We advance at the expense of others.  A zero-sum game favors individual advancement over cooperation and mutual gain. 

Picture it.  Five thousand people on a hillside have listened to Jesus for hours.  His words are so rich, no one will leave.  Practical-minded Philip, one of the 12, wants to know how they’re going to feed this crowd the size of a small town (John 6:5).  Andrew, the matchmaker of the 12, sees a kid munching a loaf of bread. 

“A lot of hungry people here,” he says to the kid.  The kid nods.  “You going to eat all of that?”  Andrew asks. 

The kid nods yes. Then he says to Andrew, “At least I got mine!”

That’s not how the story goes!  The kid offers to share his lunch, and we get to see the way God multiplies our small offerings; Jesus miraculously feeds 5000 people with one boy’s meal.  We give what have to support each other and help those with nothing, and God multiplies it.  This is not socialism; this is Great Commandment politics.  Share.  Give.  Make sure everyone is included, cared for, and empowered.  Guided by love, we reject the zero-sum game approach and instead look for ways we can give of ourselves for the good of others.  Jesus gave his all for us on the cross.  We imitate Him, our savior, by giving of ourselves.

So far, in connecting love with politics, we have seen two movements.  We reject fear by seeing the “other” whomever we mean by “other” as someone to love, not someone to despise.  Second, we reject the competitive idea of a zero-sum game in favor of cooperation and mutual blessing.  We do this by sharing and trusting God to take what we give and bless others with it.  What’s third obstacle to love we need to overcome?  False narratives. 

Tennant refers to a couple TV shows from the 1950’s, Ozzie and Harriet, and Leave it to Beaver.  Both are fine shows that depict an idealized America, if idealized America is a 1950’s white, working class nuclear family: mom, dad, two kids.  Sometimes this era is referred to as The Greatest Generation.  This is the generation of my parents and my grandparents.  However, the picture is of a particular type of family situation; but that’s not the only picture from that time period.

America back then was great, for some people; not for all.  Read the history of how stridently white people all over the country, not just the south, but all over resisted integrating public schools.  If you have a conscience and you’re willing to honestly read the history, you’ll be horrified.  Read about the racism against Asians coming to America during that time.

Tennant also points out that these beloved old shows fail to delve into the depths of Appalachia and the Southern literary tradition, a white cultural heritage that went ignored.  What makes America “great” is in the eye of the beholder.  As followers of Jesus, we have to tell the truth in the face of distorted narratives. 

The 1950’s, the 1980’s, today – none of it is a golden age.  Until Jesus returns, the world is a fallen place where women and men of every nation are lost and dying in sin, cut off from the love of God, cut off by their own choices.  The politics of love drive us to tell the truth about sin.  The politics of love compel us to help people find their way to the Savior, our Lord, Jesus.

We overcome fear by committing to love, even love our enemies.

We reject the zero-sum game in favor of cooperation and mutual blessing.

We expose false narratives by speaking the truth in love, even when the truths we expose are inconvenient and uncomfortable. 

Love of God and love of neighbor comes to full fruition in the most quoted of Bible passages, John 3:16-17.  Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

“The world” means everyone.  That so-called radical Islamic terrorist; Jesus wants to be with him for eternity.  That person in Portland you saw on the news, the one throwing a Molotov cocktail at the police; Jesus loves him.  That Aryan white supremacist advocating for the purity of the white race; he’s shouting, red-faced, at an antifa protestor, who shouts right back, louder.  Jesus died for them both.  Jesus died for George Floyd and Derek Chauvin, for Michael Brown and Darren Wilson, for Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman.  God so loved the world, means everyone.

The cross shows that Jesus is for everyone.  Do you want to stand with Jesus?  You can stand against racism, against terrorism, and against hatred.  We are for people – black people, Arabic people, southern whites, Yankees, Canadians, Republicans and Democrats, everyone. 

Jesus gives the Great Commandment to love God and love people in the midst of a series of contentious public debates.  He debates with Pharisees, Sadducees, and a group called Herodians.  Each group attempts to outsmart Jesus and catch him in some inconsistency.  Like today’s political reporters, they try to trip Jesus up, but they always fail and end up with egg on their own faces. 

One guy though, described as a “scribe” (Mk 12:28), most likely a Sadducee, asks Jesus a legitimate question.  Which is the greatest commandment?  Jesus tells him he must love God and love neighbor.  A light goes on in this Sadducee’s mind.  “You’re right, teacher,” he says.  Jesus can see that unlike the others, his heart is true and Jesus says to the scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

That’s where I want to be, close to the Kingdom.  I want you there with me.  Commitment to the Great Commandment puts us on the path.  Right now, our country is mired in the worst of political seasons.  It’s an opportunity for us to bear witness to the goodness of God by sharing the love of Jesus, in our thoughts, our words, and our actions.  May we do that.  May we obey the command to love, answer the call of love, and win people over to Jesus with hearts, words, and deeds of love. 

  AMEN

Never Again?

            “Never again.”  These solemn words serve as a mantra in remembrances of the Holocaust exacted by Nazis against German Jews in the 1930’s and ‘40’s.  All around the world, including in western powers like America and Britain, it was agreed that genocide is an unspeakable evil.  Mass murder must be stopped dead in its tracks.  The deaths of 6 million Jews, and many millions of others (homosexuals, Gypsies, Nazi-opponents) at the hands of the fascists taught us that mass murder and genocide[i] must be confronted by international coalitions. 

            When I write “us,” I mean humanity.  Human beings generally regard murder as wrong.  When one group intends to exterminate another group, whether it is a religious group, a racial group, or a political group, human beings around the world recognize that intension to genocide as inherently wrong.  Furthermore, “we” not only recognize the wrong, but also our own responsibility to intervene and prevent the genocide. 

            However, despite our recognition that genocide is wrong and our sense that if we can stop it, we have the responsibility to intervene, we haven’t.  We in the west, we in America, we human beings have shirked our responsibility repeatedly.  Thinking of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, we say “Never again.”  Yet it has happened over and over again, and every time “we” turn our heads so as to not be made uncomfortable by the grotesque evil on full display before our eyes.  With eyes averted, clinging to our ignorance and creature comforts, we do nothing as it happens time and time again. 

·         The Mid 1970’s, 1,500,000-3,000,000 Cambodians killed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia

·         April-July 1994, 500,000-1,000,000 Tutsis killed by the Hutu government and the Interahamwe militia in Rwanda.

·         July 1995, 8,000 Bosniak men and boys are slaughtered in a few days’ time in the town of Srebrenica at the hands of Serbian soldiers serving under General Ratko Mladic in what is termed an act of “ethnic cleansing.”

·         2003 – 480,000 Sudanese Muslims in Darfur killed by Janjaweed (an Arab, government funded militia) in Western Sudan

More example are listed at the website “world without genocide” (http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/).  The instances of genocide I have listed here serve to show that instead of “never again” we turn away and ignore that it happens again and again.

Now, in 2018, we have the opportunity to once again turn our heads away or to figure out a way to intervene.  The extremely poor Middle Eastern nation Yemen is on the verge of mass deaths. 

This is what starvation looks like.  

The famine is being caused by war and politics, not weather or food shortages.  The Saudis are bombing the Houthis rebels who control the northern part of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.  As many innocent civilians die in the bombings as do Houthis.  The banks in the south, controlled by the Saudis have devalued the currency.  So goods poor people could not afford previously now cost twice as much even paper currency is nearly worthless.  There’s food and available medical care.  People just cannot pay for it.

And what is the response of the typical American to this horrifying humanitarian crisis?  “Where’s Yemen?”  “Houthis?  Never heard of them”  “We’ve got to make sure those people don’t come here.  They’re terrorists.” 

* Let’s do a little aside regarding terrorists because the ones who have spread terror in America are politicians who say we need to fear terrorists. 

Do you realize how much more likely you are to be hurt or killed by a drunk driver, a careless sober driver, cancer, the flu, a spider bite, or a fall than by a terrorist?  Have we declared a war on drinking?  Well, yes, back in the 1920’s, but we decided we like drinking so much, we’ll take the deaths that come with it.  Have we declared a war on cars?  Hell no!  We worship the metal traps we drive around in at deadly speeds.  Have we declared a war on spiders?  Maybe the arachnophobs have, forgetting that spiders eat mosquitos (which are also responsible for more American deaths than terrorist, by a lot). 

Listen and listen carefully.  You are far more likely to be struck by lightning in your life, than to be attacked by a terrorist.  And no one walks around in fear of lightning strikes.  The data is indisputable.  Any politician that threatens that terrorists are going to enter our county through Mexico or through refugee resettlement and cause all kinds of harm is shamelessly lying through his or her teeth, or is too stupid to qualify for any kind of leadership position.  The notion of “border security” is a political ploy to take your vote, not any kind of plan to protect you. 

OK, the aside intended to counter the false, anti-immigrant narratives about terrorism is over!  Back to the topic: genocide or mass murder in Yemen.  It’s happening.  And we in America, who could stop it, refuse to.  We refuse to even acknowledge it.  We refuse to even care.  Look at the pictures I’ve posted. Go to the New York Times article where I got them (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/26/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-war-yemen.html).  Or Google image search “Yemen mass deaths.” 

Then, start caring.  Pray.  Write your congressman.  Insist that America lead an international coalition to oppose Saudi military engagements in Yemen.  Make the phrase “Never again” actually mean something.

---

[i] I am using ‘genocide’ and ‘mass murder’ somewhat interchangeably knowing that Genocide has a unique definition.  I will refer to various mass murder-level events since WWII in this piece knowing that not all of them fit the technical definition of Genocide.  For a precise definition, see Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century by Alain Destexhe and Anthony Daley.  For my purposes the events I reference all point to the continued reluctance of the international community to get involved in conflicts within sovereign nations even when those conflicts involve mass murder or genocide. 

To Drink with Jesus (Mark 10:32-45)

            Let’s meet for coffee.  I receive or extend this invitation almost every week of my life, often multiple times in a week.  What’s so special about coffee? Nothing!  The phrase ‘let’s meet for coffee’ actually means, ‘I want to sit with you and talk with you and get to know you.’  The translation of ‘let’s meet for coffee’ is ‘I want to get to know you.  You matter so much, I think the best way for me to spend my time is in your presence.’  Let’s meet for coffee.  I say it or hear it from church members; people who are new in our church; new pastors in the area; people outside our church who want to talk with me in my role as pastor; people who want to spend time we me as just “Rob,” not “Pastor Rob.” 

            It’s got nothing to do with coffee.  You could meet over cokes or beers or for lunch.  Let’s meet for coffee is an invitation to relationship. 

            It’s a question Jesus puts to each of us, yet He asks it this way.  “Can you drink the cup that I drink?”  Are we able to drink the cup with Jesus and undergo the baptism Jesus experienced, a baptism that included water and a cross and a burial? 

            Mark’s Gospel, and especially Mark chapter 10, has Jesus on the move. Last week’s passage, 10:17-31, began, “As he was setting out on a journey.”  Today’s reading, 10:32-45 begins, “They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them.”  This is God in human flesh, a man like other human beings, but unlike any other.  The disciples know they’re moving toward the city, but they trail behind in a cluster unsure of where this all is headed.  They are amazed, it says.  And the crowd following is afraid!  Afraid?

            Things around Jesus are intensifying, moving more quickly, becoming more serious.  “See, we are going up to Jerusalem,” he says.  “The son of man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days, he will rise again” (10:33-34).  Jesus has to look back to say this to his closest friends because, as Mark said, he’s walking alone, ahead of them.  They can’t keep up and aren’t sure if they want to.  Sharing coffee with him will lead them down dangerous paths.

            So James and John pretend they only heard the “rise again” part of what Jesus said.  They jog to catch up.  “Teacher,” they say, very respectfully, “We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”  They’re like that rich man we read about last week who bragged that he had kept all the law with perfect obedience.  No, they’re worse than him. At least he knelt before Jesus.  And all he asked was that he promised a place in God’s kingdom.  He just wanted to get in.

            James and John do not kneel before Jesus.  They walk alongside him.  Well, they hang back for the part about being mocked, spat upon, and crucified.  But when he says, “rise again,” they’re ready to listen and even more ready to speak.  “We want to sit at your right and left hand in your glory.”

            Do we do that?  Do we assume that when we take on ourselves the title “Christian,” we are on God’s side; or, more accurately, do we assume, God joins our side?  Thus anyone who opposes us, opposes God, and God joins us in opposing them?  This could be in politics or in interpersonal relationships.  Are we with Jesus when he talks about being crucified, or are we hanging back?  Do we, like James and John, when we hear “rise again” come running with our requests that Jesus give whatever we ask for?

            As he did with the rich man in the previous episode, Jesus joins James and John in their shortsightedness. “What do you want me to do for you?” He asks.  He’s about to go to cross, about to suffer absolute humiliation, torture, and then death; and he’s doing it for all of humanity.  To be with him is to give of yourself as he gave of himself.  They only want to be with him when it’s good for them.  “Allow us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory” (v.37).  They want reward without sacrifice, glory for themselves without regard for anyone else.  Jesus gives of himself for everyone else.

            What do we want when we think of God and faith and life?  Do I live in way that I am all about me, my needs, my wants?  The results I am concerned about the results that affect only me?  Am I am indifferent about the suffering of people around me?  Am I unaffected by the tears other people cry?  If so, then I am not drinking with Jesus.

            That’s what he asks James and John.  They talk about glory, assuming they and Jesus and God are on one side with opponents on the other.  Jesus said, “To sit at my left or right hand is not mine to grant.”  He defers all authority to God, including his own life and death, suffering and happiness.  Jesus puts it all in God’s hands.  James and John want him to guarantee their glory.  He asks, “Can you drink the cup that I drink?”  Ignorantly, arrogantly, they declare, “We are able.”

            It is not for us to stand before Jesus Christ our Lord and declare, “We are able.”  We offer this.  “We are willing.”  He makes us able.  In humble worship, we say, “We are here.”  He tells us where to go and what to do.  He tells us who we are in the world. We do not tell him who he is supposed to be for us. 

            “Can you drink the cup?” 

            “We are able.”

            No you aren’t.  Jesus tells them, “The cup that I drink, you will drink.  And the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized” (v.39).  And he’s already said what that means: mocked; spit upon; flogged; crucified; resurrected.  In order to have the seats in glory requested in verse 37, we have to follow Jesus.  He’s not looking for people to believe in Him.  He’s looking for people who want to follow Him.  Jesus has no interest in admirers.  People will say, “O Jesus, he was a great moral teacher; a wise rabbi; a true prophet.”  He has no time for empty, uninformed flattery like that.  Jesus is Lord and is to be recognized as Lord by people who will commit their lives to following Him.  To sit in glory, as requested in verse 37, one has to follow Jesus even when he walks the road of suffering described in verses 33-34.  He tells them they don’t understand it, but they will walk that road.

            Of course Matthew and Peter and Judas and Nathanial and the other disciples don’t find much to like about James and John’s request.  Who do these brothers, these sons of thunder think they are?  An argument ensues and Jesus will have none of it.  “You know among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants.  … It is not to be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great must become your servant and whoever wishes to be first must be slave of all” (v.42-44). 

            Mark writes that when the other 10 hear James and John’s request they become indignant.  That might be a word that encapsulates our political moment in America: the politics of indignation.  Our president calls someone “horseface” or describes African nations as “-hole” countries or mocks a victim of sexual assault, and we become indignant!   He’s done things like this all his life.  Why would we be surprised?  Senate Democrats do everything they can, not to provide leadership for our country, but to block him.  And the Republicans among us become indignant.  Why?  Politics in America is not about leadership; it’s not about what’s good for our democracy; it’s not about what actually helps people; it’s about winning.  Why would we expect anything else?

            “It is not to be so among you,” Jesus tells us.  The community of His followers, the church, the body of Christ, must be different.  And our loyalty, our calling, our identity, is not primarily as American citizens, but as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, subjects in the Kingdom of God.

Yes, we should vote.  As November approaches, we will pray for our nation, for our elected officials, for all the candidates, and especially for all the voters.  In your heart of hearts, you may pray that one party does very well.  You do so knowing that your brother Christ with whom your worship every week is praying just as earnestly that the other party does well.  That’s OK.  We can pray that entrusting our thoughts, dreams, and hopes to God.  We give it to God and trust God to do something with it. 

But more importantly, we give ourselves to God.  We do what God directs us to do.  We go where God sends us.  We vote as God leads us to vote.  We don’t pray that God would lead other people to see things the way we see things.  We pray that we would see the world as Jesus sees the world.  We renounce the politics of indignations because that is the way the world operates and we are in the world, but we are not of the world.  We are of the Kingdom of God where our Lord came “to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (v.45).  We follow Him in that, giving of ourselves that others may be blessed.  We sacrifice time, money, reputation, glory, power so that others, the undesirables and unwanted around us may know the love of God and the life Jesus gives to all the broken people who come to Him. 

            As we renounce the self-serving, ego-driven politics of indignation and instead live in self-giving love, we come to understand what it is to drink with Jesus.  We drink the cup and even in the parts that are painful, we see Him and walk in His blessing.  

            Keep this in mind as you look around and decide if you want to drink the cup of Jesus or become indignant because the side opposite you is making you mad as you knew they would.  Drinking the cup of Jesus sets one apart.  Remember the sequence at the beginning of the reading.  The crowd is trailing behind, afraid.  Ahead of them, but considerably behind Jesus are the disciples, thinking they knew what’s what, but actually quite confused.  Then, out front, Jesus walks alone to the cross and then to resurrection.

            When, and if, you decide you want to catch up and walk with him, you will be walking toward resurrection and glory.  However, there’s a valley of death between here and there that cannot be avoided.  To walk with him, we have to go there with him.  There is life and love and joy every step of the way, but every step is not easy because death never is.  And to drink His cup and walk with Him, we know we will be set apart from our neighbors, our families, and our culture.  He told the disciples and he tells us, the world is one way; it is not to be so with you.  We are invited to drink Jesus’ cup and walk Jesus’ path. 

            So, ponder that invitation.  Picture your life in the world, but not of it.  Knowing what it means, decide if you want to drink with Jesus.

AMEN

Review of "Super Forecasting" (Philip Tetlock, Dan Gardner)

In ‘Super Forecasting,’ the attentive reader is required to look at how he or she thinks, and this a credit to the authors.  I might have appreciated the book much more if I had a better understanding of probability.  Even with my limited knowledge, I could see the wisdom as well as the intriguing possibilities of how the teams of forecasters worked.

            I also developed a new appreciation for probability.  Previously, I would scoff at someone who said something was 70% likely to happen.  Either it, whatever “it” refers to, happens or it doesn’t happen.  The authors call this the “wrong-side-of-maybe” thinking and they lay out the dangerous implications of falling for such a binary worldview as this. 

            For this lesson and many others, I highly recommend this book.  It forces me to examine how I think.  Along with “Leaders Always Eat Last” (Sinek), “The Whole Brained Child” (Siegel), and “Finding God in the Waves” (McArgue), this books forces me to reconsider my approach to problems and my overall worldview.  I am going to follow up by registering with the good judgment project website and see if I can learn how to be a good forecaster.

Disclaimer - I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Responses to the Election of Donald Trump

Responses to the Election of Donald Trump

I have been tracking blogs, articles, and Facebook posts that are in response to the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States.  These come from a variety of sources, people of different backgrounds.  Some of the ideas in an article may contradict others ideas in other article that are the same list.  Polarization is happening.  How do we sift through the noise and love our fellow Americans? I hope these articles bring needed perspective.

From an African American minister who works for the New Baptist Covenant

https://baptistnews.com/article/for-the-church-a-call-to-be-bold/#.WCs64_krK01

From a Caucasian pastor (MDiv, Truett Theological Seminary)

https://welcomethekingdom.wordpress.com/2016/11/14/donald-trump-does-not-speak-for-christians/

https://welcomethekingdom.wordpress.com/2016/11/05/the-messiah-complex/

From a pastor’s wife, an African American woman, an author, and a blogger.

http://www.deidrariggs.com/2016/11/11/i-almost-voted-for-trump-and-i-almost-didnt-tell-you-about-it-yep-true-story/

http://www.deidrariggs.com/2016/11/15/living-after-in-and-for-a-repost/

From a Virginia Caucasian Pastor (Rappahannock River), Oxford trained theologian, and sailor.

http://www.matthewtennant.org/2016/11/what-next.html

http://www.matthewtennant.org/2016/11/despite-election-all-is-well.html

From a Caucasian historian (PhD, Columbia)

http://religiondispatches.org/white-evangelicals-win-white-house-for-trump-but-lose-big/?utm_content=buffere62d9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

From a Mexican, a seminary professor (social ethics).

https://baptistnews.com/article/the-great-white-backlash/?utm_content=buffer80ca0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#.WCp1m_krK02

From a Caucasian NYC drummer and a Christian.  He tours with a pretty popular band.

There is a lot to sift through when it comes to what happened last night.

For those that don't know the most basic information about me, I am a white straight male and I am grateful that I was born into a loving family. In the same way that being homosexual, of another race or born into a Muslim home isn't a choice, being in my demographic wasn't a choice. I have felt the weight of my privilege in the past but it took a Trump presidency for me to be more vocal about these feelings.

I am feeling let down and depressed, but what brings the greatest wave of sadness is the knowledge that my brothers and sisters who are part of the LGBT community, my friends and family who are of a different ethnicity or gender then myself, and those who are part of a religion that isn't Christianity are living in a country that is now lead by someone who doesn't see beauty, wisdom and truth in diversity.

We all need to listen more thoroughly and seek out as many opportunities as possible to put others before ourselves. We need to engage in love-centered conversations and through these see that we are all truly the same.

In the end, #LoveWins.

(Co-written) From an African American Doctoral Candidate/Professor of Homiletics & From a Caucasian Pastor and Board member (Baptist Joint Committee board of Directors)

https://baptistnews.com/article/the-black-male-the-white-house-and-the-white-knight/?utm_content=bufferdd52a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#.WCs9N_krK02 

From a Caucasian guy with a theological education (MDiv, Duke Divinity School, and who currently works in IT).

I have been on a Facebook sabbatical for the last 5 days while going through the stages of grief. I have never felt as devastated by an election, or as sad for my country. I honestly believe that during the modern era we have never had someone so unfit, and with such base character, be the President of this country (I have read that Ulysses Grant was a falling down drunk every night, so who knows the depths of previous “unfitness”). I also believe history will undoubtedly shine a very negative light on Trump’s invigoration of White supremacy hate groups, which is a legacy he has created and will have to own up in the end, and for which he needs to be held accountable. There is no place for hate in the future of our country, and I trust that the rest of the country will keep us from regressing too much, especially around race and LGBTQ. The immediate uptick in hate crimes is very disturbing, but hopefully will subside in a couple months (I dream it would stop right now).

But, I also know that a majority of Trump supporters are decent human beings, regular neighbors, relatives, and colleagues (although I may have none at my nonprofit job in DC), trying to raise their kids to be decent, nonviolent citizens. They may be blind to their white privilege (some are too poor to get any financial benefit out of it, although they still get a few social benefits), but for the most part, they don’t get up in the morning thinking of ways to persecute others. They just want to have a decent chance at life, and to not feel like the country has left them behind to live in poverty.

So, on the positive side, a group of people that have been forgotten by our country's political class (both Republican and Democrat), are now being heard more clearly. For too long they have been ignored. Although I fear they will be greatly disappointed because there are many deeply entrenched factors in global economies and political systems, and Trump’s administration already seems incoherent, if Trump and the Republican congress can help re-invigorate the Rust Belt, Appalachian country, and vast patches of rural USA, it will be a positive development. But, they won’t do it by becoming isolationists and protectionists -- just review history. 100% of the time, it leads to retrogression (e.g., European Dark Ages, Islamic isolationism, Chinese, Japanese, etc. They all went backwards and woke up to a world that had passed them by).

But, any improvement will also require them to look inward at themselves and make some self-improvements, especially around valuing education, creating stable and loving families, disavowal of addiction and violence, rejection of xenophobia and racism, and re-connecting to society at large by abandoning crazy conspiracies and unhealthy fixation on “Washington elites”. For those devastated communities, like the worst of our inner cities, they need self-empowerment, and outside help where necessary, to develop good social capital that builds decent communities.

Anyway, enough for now. And anarchists, stop rioting in my home state of Oregon - you only make things worse - and don’t represent our best values. Rioting will not solve anything.
Peace everyone.

From a Caucasian Research Assistant at Candler Divinity School

https://baptistnews.com/article/the-walking-dead-aka-night-of-the-living-evangelicals/?utm_content=buffer71b7e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#.WCs-WPkrK03

From an African American female author and Southern Baptist Church member

http://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/praying-for-our-president-elect

From a Caucasian Southern Baptist, the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission

http://www.russellmoore.com/2016/11/09/president-trump-now-church/

From an African American Woman, Christian, blogger, author (Master of Arts in global studies)

https://ebonyjohanna.com/2016/11/13/lament-song/

The God Jonah Thought he Knew (Jonah 3:1-10)

This morning, we look at God – God’s character. 

Our presidential election ended in a result that shocked a lot of people.  Donald Trump had less total votes than Hillary Clinton, but he got the needed number of electoral votes.  By the standards of our system, he is our next president.  Some voters are very happy, others are quite upset.  Many didn’t like either candidate, would have been unsatisfied either way, and are kind of glad the whole thing is over.

All three types of voters are among us.   If you find yourself elated because your candidate won, please be humble, and sensitive with your brothers and sisters in Christ who feel differently than you.  They are hurting and this is church.  Here, our unity is in our identity in Christ.  We build one another up and bear with one another in love.  If your candidate lost and you feel angry, express it, but with dignity.  Respect those voted against your candidate because they are your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Again, we are the church, the body of Christ.  There is a place for thoughtful criticism and for expressing frustration.  We do all of it in love and work through our feelings in prayer, together.

As a church body and as individual Christ followers, we turn to 1 Timothy 2:1 which says,

“I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, ² for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. ³ This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 

            The word of God insists that we pray for “all in high positons.”  We will pray for the well-being and effective governance of President-Elect Donald Trump.  We will, out of our reverence for Christ, respect the office.  I have been voting in presidential elections since 1988.  In my voting life, I have voted Democrat, Republican, third party, and write-in.  At times I have deeply admired the occupant of the oval office.  At other times, I have harbored disdain for the person with the title President of the United States.  As Christians, we will respect the office.  As a people obedient to the dictates of scripture, we will pray for President Trump.  As followers of Jesus who turn the other cheek and pray for those who persecute us – we are called to love all people. 

It is our responsibility as citizens in a democracy to use our voice to advocate for justice, equal opportunity, and compassion for the least of these.  We can, and at time must, oppose the very government we respect and uphold in prayer.  But our opposition is to be peaceful, modeled after the example of our Master, Jesus.  We speak truth to power and we know our purpose is to be witnesses who point the world to the salvation we have in Jesus. 

Note that at the end of the 1 Timothy reading it says, “God desires everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”  See the relevance of this idea – that God wants everyone to know the truth – to Jonah’s experience in Nineveh in Jonah chapter 3.  I pray that we can take this verse, 1 Timothy 2:4 (God’s desire for all to be saved), and we can hold that up to Jonah and God in Nineveh, and in doing this we will see God’s character.   We see who God is. I pray that focusing on God’s character will relieve us of any painful post-election hangover.  Keeping our minds on God’s identity and God’s character, we remember who we are in Christ.  The Kingdom of God is bigger than the United States, and the advance of the Kingdom of God is unthreatened by American presidential elections.

            Jonah chapter 3 begins the same way chapter 1 began.  God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh with a prophecy of doom.  We remember that Jonah at first ran away, was swallowed by a whale, prayed from the whale’s belly, and was then upchucked up onto the shore by the whale.  We previously mentioned that it is not completely clear why Jonah fled God at first.  Jeremiah also prophesied God’s wrath and hated doing so and suffered for it.  No one wants to be the bearer of bad news.

            When the call comes in chapter 3, Jonah goes as God instructs him.  He thinks he is going to see the city destroyed.  He will later claim that he knew all along that God would spare Nineveh, but I don’t buy it.  In chapter 4:5, we find Jonah sitting and waiting to see what will happen.    He said, “40 days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown.’  Jonah sits on the outskirts of the city, watching, waiting for the violent overthrow he’s predicted based on what God told him.

            Jonah believes he is like the prophet Nahum.  Listen to what God had Nahum say when he was called to prophesy against Nineveh.

“An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh. 

² A jealous and avenging God is the Lord, the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and rages against his enemies” (1:1b-2).

“Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away.  ‘Halt!  Halt! But no one turns back’” (2:8).

“I am against you, says the Lord of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will let nations look on your nakedness and kingdoms on your shame” (3:5).

            Nahum didn’t just preach wrath.  He preached humiliation.  On another Sunday, we might even call into question’s God’s ethics – at the least the ethics of the God we meet in Nahum.  Today Jonah is our focus.  He thought he was like Nahum, a preacher of a wrath that was inevitable.   He told Nineveh she was going to burn, and then sat on a hill to watch it happen. 

We can’t see what all of Jonah’s thoughts were, but he was unhappy with God’s show of compassion.  He wanted the prophecy he delivered to come true.  He had benefited from God’s compassion and forgiveness when he was rescued from the stomach of the whale.  He did not think that compassion would extend to the Ninevites. 

            As I imagined Jonah and God in Nineveh and things not going as Jonah thought they would, the story of Abraham and Sodom and Gomorra came to mind.  That is found in Genesis 18.

            There God, appearing as three men, promises Abraham and barren, post-menopausal Sarah they would have a son.  Sarah laughs off such a promise but God is committed to it and acknowledges but does not punish her laughter.   After Sarah laughs, God appears to have an interior conversation.  It is clear there is one God, but somehow this one God, appearing as trinity, is able to converse within God’s own self.  Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?  No, for I have chosen him” (18:18-19a).

            That thing that God is about to do is inspect two cities – Sodom and Gomorrah.  God will assess just how wicked those cities are.  Abraham already knows it is not good.  Destruction is inevitable, as Jonah said it would be centuries later for another wicked city, Nineveh.  So Abraham does what the great people of faith have done from time immemorial.  He challenges God.

            He asks God, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked” (Genesis 18:23)?  Abraham suggests that if 50 righteous people were found in the wicked cities, God’s own character would not allow such a thing. It is a stroke of boldness, to tell God almighty that He is bound by his own character.  “Far be that from you!”  Declares Abraham (18:25).  God does not chide his chosen one.  Rather, he agrees to Abraham’s terms.  If 50 righteous people are found, God will not overturn Sodom and Gomorrah. 

            Abraham is just getting started.  He asks, would God spare the city if 45 righteous are found?  Yes, for 45 righteous people, Sodom and Gomorrah will stand.  Abraham continues, whittling away at God’s resolve.  Forty, O Lordy, would you spare it for 40?  It reads like a Dr. Suess book.  For 30?  Yes, for 30, the cities will be spared.  Abraham take the number all the way down to 10.  God meets Abraham right where he is in his anxiety over the annihilation of two cities.  God accepts Abraham’s logic, tenacity, and confrontation. 

            The stories are eerily similar.  A man of God stands outside a city about to be razed to the ground by divine fire.  Abraham begs for the city to be spared if there is any way to spare.  God agrees.  But there is no way, and Sodom and Gomorrah are not spared.  They are eliminated by fire and sulfur that rain from heaven. 

            Jonah, like Abraham, stands outside a city.  Unlike Abraham, Jonah does not ask for mercy for the Ninevites.  Maybe he remembered the Sodom and Gomorrah story and thought he was going to see a repeat performance.  Instead the opposite happens.  God had promised Abraham he would spare Sodom and Gomorrah if even 10 righteous people were found there.  No righteous people are found in Nineveh.  But the wicked hear the message of the prophet and repent.

            First, the people hear Jonah, and they believe that he does represent God and is speaking truth.  God is going to destroy them (Jonah 3:4).  Upon hearing this, the people lead the way by putting on sackcloth.  The businessmen and shop owners going into a time of mourning and grief – grief over their own wickedness.  The farmers and the peasants and the homemakers.  Everyone all over Nineveh.  It is a movement – a movement of shame and sorrow. 

            Next, word of what’s happening makes its way to the palace.  The King gets off his throne and acknowledge that while he may indeed be king of Nineveh, he is not the all-powerful one.  He removes his royal robes and follows the lead of his subjects.  He repents of his sins.  He puts on sack cloth and pours ashes on his head. 

            Finally, that king makes a proclamation.  The nation will add fasting to their mourning in ashes.  He even takes the risky move of imposing the fast upon the livestock and children.  Everyone is to go without eating in a period of fasting.  Everyone is acknowledge and to grieve sin.  Everyone is to pray.  In a time of national crisis when the survival of the kingdom is at stake, the Ninevites believe the reluctant Jewish prophet Jonah and beg for mercy from God.  They accept that they are deserving of death.  They never doubt the authority or truth of Jonah.  They simply say, “Who knows?  God may relent and change his mind” (3:9).

            In that most curious of verses, Jonah 3:10, we see the character of God.  “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.”

            The book of Jonah is in our Bible to show us a different side of the God Jonah thought he knew.  A lot of people felt as Jonah did that a prophecy of doom would be followed by a fulfillment – Sodom and Gomorrah style.  Many ancient readers of Jonah who anticipated wrath forgot something God said to Abraham so many years earlier.  God told Abraham his descendants would “become a great and mighty nation, and all nations of the earth would be blessed by him” (Genesis 18:18).  Here Nineveh, deserving of wrath, is blessed by that God of Abraham.  Instead of wrath, Nineveh gets mercy and a second chance to live faithful, decent lives of justice and compassion. 

            Instead of seeing the God he expected, Jonah found a very different God.  First, he was rescued from a death in the seas; rescued in spite of his disobedience.  Then, Nineveh received mercy instead of punishment.  What will our country see in the God we actually meet in Jonah?

            If we are scared or at least unsteady based on what happened this week, we see that God is the one with the power to destroy nations, but also the one with the heart to forgive repentant sinners.  We can as a body and as individuals repent of sin.  Knowing God through the crucified, resurrected Christ, we know we will be forgiven.  We know we have new life and hope – hope for today.

            If we are confident in our own identity in Christ, then we are the messengers of today who, like Abraham, can appeal to God on behalf of others, and like Jesus can invite people to repentance and to the heart of the God who will welcome them into His Kingdom.   Abraham was the patriarch and Jonah was a prophet.  We are witness who inherit the testimonies of both men and the Gospel from Jesus.  We share that Gospel by creating space in which we welcome, shelter, and encourage scared people. 

            Either scared or confident, you can put your trust in God this morning.  Things may seem chaotic, but he is with us, always.  He is with us, we are his, and we can be agents of positive change.  Giving mercy, speaking real hope, and helping people meet Jesus is a good place to start.

AMEN