Get Up, Get Out, and Live!

"We are not a Christian nation."

This has been a refrain for the last several years.  It is the reason why we must be tolerant of people of all faiths, accept people of all lifestyles, and respectful of people's choices of values and morality.  And I will say that I agree, for the most part.  While our nation's values are rooted in Judeo-Christianity, the point was never to have us all be under one faith, but to allow people of all walks of life the space to live as they so choose.

I find it highly ironic, however, that the same people who emphasize our diversity point to Jesus as to why our nation must be run with Judeo-Christian values.  It is the rationale for extended unemployment, income redistribution, immigration amnesty, universal health care, the end of our multiple wars, and the increasing entitlements under our welfare system.

This morning in church, the text of Jesus chasing the money changers out of the temple was used as part of the sermon.  The point made was that Jesus spoke out against evil, and in the same way, the church should speak out against evil.  What if the church had spoken out against going in to Iraq and Afghanistan?  What if the church had spoken up more in defense of the undocumented immigrants among us? What if the church were more active in the Occupy movements?

What struck me as odd in the conversation this morning is this: Jesus never once spoke to the politics of the day.  Not once.

When Jesus decried evil, it was not to the political sphere, but to the religious.  It was directed towards the temple, which was corrupt, dead to compassion, and too cozy with the secular political structure of the day.   

Did Jesus condemn the Roman centurion, who came to him in faith?  Did he ever speak about the depravity of the Roman culture, or the oppressiveness of the emperor?  Did he ever once urge his followers to get involved and change the system?

It was the priests, the teachers, and the religious thinkers against whom he lodged his complaints.  The only politics he criticized were temple politics.

And so I wondered: If Jesus were here, walking around 21st century America, to whom would he turn his attention?  Would he go to Washington, DC and chide the politicians for corruption and greed and moral failure?  Would he go to Wall Street and protest outside the banks, decrying the outrageous wealth represented therein?  Would he join Code Pink or La Raza and crusade for peace and open borders?

Somehow, I don't think so. 

Here's what I think would happen instead.

I think Jesus would spend time feeding the homeless.  I think Jesus would spend time among the Occupy encampments, getting to know the people there.  I think Jesus would have a nice lunch with some corporate bigwigs.  I think Jesus would accept invitations to dinners with politicians.  I think Jesus would talk to women in crisis pregnancies.

And then, I think he would come to our churches and knock a few heads together.  I think Jesus would call his churches "broods of vipers", making it difficult for people to enter the kingdom and chasing away those who have tried to speak truth to them.  I think Jesus would call his churches "whitewashed tombs", clean and shiny on the outside, but filled with double-talk, gossip, greed, and chronic sin.  I think he would call his churches "hypocrites", careful to follow the rules and demanding that everyone do the work of Christ, yet devoid of mercy, refusing to get out and do anything ourselves.

Brothers and sisters, we are called to be "doers of the Word".  Going to church every week, tithing, charitable giving, letters to the editor, protest marches... These are not enough if we are not also living the Word of God in every thing that we do.  Jesus gave his disciples two simple commandments to follow: Love God faithfully and completely, and treat your neighbors (that being, every single human being with whom you come into contact) with love.  Get up, get out, and live the Kingdom.  That is the example set by Jesus.