Notes From A Sermon: Responding To The Current Culture

Notes from a sermon: Responding to the Current Culture

responding to the current culture

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“. . . He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Today we ask the question, “What’s the Christian Response to the Current Culture?”

A timeless question asked by followers of Jesus for 2,000 years.

And what is the current culture? A solid 30 percent of the United States supports the illegal actions of a convicted felon.

The entire United States government is controlled by people who don’t want to feed the hungry, who don’t want to clothe the naked, and don’t want to welcome strangers.

Mainstream Christianity in the U.S. has seemingly morphed into the same thing – people more concerned about their own luxuries than the basic necessities of others.

This shouldn’t be a surprise.

From Roman dictator Constantine, to American dictator Donald Trump, too much of mainstream Christianity has always been a mixture of militarism and control of the government and control of people.

The vast majority of Christians remain more committed to the nation controlling the land they live on, than the God who created it.

Christians have killed Christians for the sake of nations with nearly the murderous enthusiasm Christians displayed killing savages in the name of God in every land they explored.

Jesus lived on the fringes of the mainstream, militarized culture. In a world filled with Romans, pagans, Samaritans, Jews – and the countless religions from Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, the message of Jesus was a small, small segment of the world.

The authentic message of Jesus has existed on the fringe of the mainstream culture for nearly 2,000 years, and that’s where it remains, today.

Quiet voices repeating the message of Jesus and gentle, grace-filled souls attempting to live the life of Jesus stand no chance of breaking through the walls of noise and tribalism that have swarmed around the cross since 313, when Constantine co-opted Christianity to control the Roman Empire.

Too many Christian voices in the U.S. are Constantine Christians who look at a flaming sword and think, “By this, conquer,” which were the words Constantine said, upon his “conversion” to Christianity.

“Conquer with the sword” has been the theme of much of Christianity for much of the time, since.

It was wrong with Constantine, it was wrong during the inquisition and the crusades, and it is wrong today. It’s always wrong when Christian soldiers go marching as to war.

Constantinian Christians. In other words, today’s Christian Nationalists.

Christians today who believe the country should be driven by “Christian” principles to control how people dress, how they reproduce, how they worship, and what they read or think. But these same “Christians” don’t believe a so-called “Christian” nation should feed the hungry, clothe the naked and welcome the stranger.

They reject the words of Jesus – Feed the hungry, help the stranger, love others – and instead claim the name of Christian to discriminate, humiliate, isolate, segregate, and hate everyone who isn’t exactly like them.

Pope Francis said, “The sickness or, you can say the sin, that Jesus condemns most is hypocrisy. You cannot be a Christian without living like a Christian. You cannot be a Christian without practicing the Beatitudes. You cannot be a Christian without doing what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 25.”

Pope Francis continued, “It’s hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian and chase away a refugee or someone seeking help, someone who is hungry or thirsty, toss out someone who is in need of my help. If I say I am Christian, but do these things, I’m a hypocrite.”

Are you a hypocritical Christian, if you don’t do what Jesus tells us to do? Or are you even a Christian at all? You may wear a gold cross around your neck, or you may have said the sinner’s prayer or you may have even been baptized by full immersion, but are you really a Christian if you don’t do the basic, simple things Jesus says to do? Love others? Feed the hungry? Help the poor?

You’re a hypocrite, at best. But you’re little more than a cosplay Christian in a costume and pretending . . . blissfully, willfully ignorant of the beliefs and responsibilities of actually being a Christian and doing the things Jesus calls us to do – to do what the Bible tells us to do – to do what God wants us to do.

God wants us to feed the poor, not give tax cuts to the wealthy.

God does not call us to protest in front of women’s health clinics, or pass legislation controlling what people do with their bodies, or the books they read, or the public restrooms they use.

What do Christians do? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked and welcome the stranger. Love God, Jesus says, and love others.

What hypocritical Christians are doing is ungodly. Unchristian. Immoral. These cosplay Christians aren’t Christian.

If you eat hamburgers and hotdogs and pork barbecue, you’re not vegetarian.

Even if you claim to be. Even if you say you are.

If you ignore “the least of these,” if you don’t do the things Jesus says to do, you’re not Christian.

They may self-identify as Christians, but they aren’t.

Christians who love have allowed Christianity to be defined by Christians who hate – cosplay Christians who aren’t doing what Jesus says to do.

Trump Christians, Constantinian Christians, Christian Nationalists, are comfortable in their persecution of others, comfortable living their lives of lies, ignoring the teaching of Jesus to follow some fantasy Jesus, a mascot, not a messiah.

It’s up to us to hold them to the standard they claim – the standard Jesus asks of all of us.

So, what is to be done?

First, Reclaim the Bible.

True Christians must be more comfortable quoting the Bible in conversation with Trump Christians and in public. We must tell the world that Christianity is more than the hypocrisy demonstrated daily by Trump supporters claiming to be Christian. We do that by quoting the Bible to those who ignore it.

The Bible is as clear as double paned window glass: to follow Jesus we must help the widows, the orphans, the poor, the sick, and the foreigners living among us.

Trump Christians aren’t Christian if they abuse others or allow others to be abused. The abusers may claim to be Christian, and may be sitting a pew this very moment. But they aren’t Christian.

What is Jesus’ message to these people, today:

“‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’”

“Depart from me, you who are cursed.”

People can’t follow Trump and Jesus – Scripture says they lead in different, opposite directions. Trump represents and reflects the evils of the world while Jesus teaches us the heart of God.

Those of us who try to follow Jesus should strive to be Matthew 25 Christians and help the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the needy and the sick, because, as Jesus says, when we help them, we help him.

What else can we, as Christians do, to respond to our current culture?

Grow closer to God.

“We pray to God,” C.S. Lewis said, “not to change God, but to change us.” And the only thing we can change in our lives is ourselves. No matter our situation, be it a prison cell or the gilded halls of the world’s richest, ultimately, we only have control over our response.

Spend moments in silence listening to the still, small voice of the Lord moving in your heart. Seek the “thin places,” where the barrier between this world and the spirit world is the thinnest. This can be a church, nature, a cemetery, or any location where we feel most connected to creation and the Creator.

When you work on your relationship with God, you will better see the Divine in others, and you will be able to respond in more positive ways not only to Trump but to other issues, as well.

Trump is chaotic, ungodly, and the opposite of the Grace of God. Always remember that everything associated with Trump is pulling you away from God, and act accordingly.

When the Lord speaks to us in silence, we raise our voices against injustice.

Which gives us another way of responding to the current culture: Proclaim Christ.

We follow a risen savior. Admit it publicly. Proclaim it loudly. Don’t be ashamed of following Christ and feel comfortable and empowered by the Lord to call out, confront and shame those who claim Christ but don’t do what Jesus says to do.

Just as you can’t eat hotdogs and claim you’re vegetarian, you can’t allow the abuse of “the least of these” and claim you’re Christian.

Speak up.

The message of Jesus is simple and clear: love God and love others. We respond to the love of God by loving others.

We can’t just live like Christians, we must stop hiding our light under baskets, and explain to others why we are Christians. If we remain silent, we let other voices dominate. And many of those dominant voices claiming to be Christian, aren’t Christian.

Trump Christians will offer misquotes, half-quotes, and distortions to defend the indefensible policies of Trump.

It’s important that we raise our voices. It’s also important sometimes for us to remain silent.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,” Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12, “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

We must not only speak up more often, we must also remain silent when our neighbors are threatened.

When government authorities demand information, remain silent. When questioned about the nationality, sexuality or other particulars about coworkers, friends, or neighbors, don’t participate in the persecution or gossip. Just because a question is asked, we aren’t required to answer.

Variations of “I don’t know,” or “I’m sure that’s none of my business,” are always good responses to bad questions.

What else can we do to respond to the current culture? Contact elected officials.

If Jesus wanted Christians to control governments, then he would have controlled the government. He would have appeared on the steps of the Roman Forum, declared himself King of the world, and then called down a heavenly band of angels to enforce his reign. But he didn’t.

And Jesus doesn’t want his followers to do that, either.

Christian Nationalists craving political power reject the lesson of Jesus and instead focus on the power of Rome. They aren’t Christian. For them Jesus is a mascot, not a messiah.

But as Christians who pay taxes, we have every right to demand public polices reflect our faith and a Christian commitment to helping others, rather than have our tax dollars spent on death or weapons of war.

Contact elected officials, in the name of Christ, and demand that public policy reflect your morality, and not the amorality of Trump and his sycophants.

None of this is easy. Some of this may be well outside your comfort zone. In the name of Christ, do it anyway.

Ultimately, Trump is the symptom, not the disease.

Trump Christians have been manipulated for decades into believing they can’t be Christian and Democrat, so the default response for many American Christians is to support a Republican, even when the Republicans are profane liars and the opposite of Jesus in every way.

“At least he’s not a Democrat,” isn’t a Biblically-based justification to support policies that harm the weakest, and are the exact opposite of what Jesus says.

“My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus says. So of course, Christian nationalists nearly never quote Jesus.

Many Christians claiming to be Christian, aren’t Christian. I’m not passing judgement or claiming any sort of superiority. I’m simply saying, that if you don’t do what Christ says, if you do the exact opposite of what Christ said, you’re not a Christian.

Don’t blame me, blame Jesus. Because Jesus makes it plain: “Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Faith on the Fringe