Be Mustard- part 2

This is just a continuation of my thoughts from the last post. . . they technically together…

“The history of the church has been largely a history of ‘believers’ refusing to believe in the way of the crucified Nazarene and instead giving in to the very temptations he resisted—power, relevancy, spectacle.”

So these days we can support a president and we can worship Jesus at the same time right? I mean, I think so. But I’ve been challenged with that idea. I just don’t know what to do with the fact that one says we must love our enemies and the other says we must kill our enemies (before they kill us or just simply because they are our enemies); one is all about the economics of competition while the other is all about forgiveness of debts. And there are definitely other contradictions such as these.

How can we serve two masters???

This is very perplexing to me and I could surely use some of your thoughts on this.

How do we support this who idea of “ridding the world of evil” by killing our enemies?

What does Jesus think about that?

The way our world is trying to "rid the world of evil" just seems evil to me.

Is Jesus just out of date? Is his world-view and kingdom ideas just out of date?? Does he just not know how the real world works today? I mean, the real world is pretty messed up and evil and the only way it seems like we can fight the horrible, evil things we see around the world is through more evil…but we would never call it evil, because we’re fighting evil....right?

But it seems like Jesus’ first followers knew the same kind of evil—horrible, real world evil. They were burned alive, beheaded, fed to lions, and persecuted in verbal, physical and economic ways. They met evil-doers and terrorists face to face. Yet they did not try to rid the world of evil with more power they way we do, did they?

For Jesus and his followers the question was, ‘how do we live faithfully to God?’

But then..... the church got hold of the kingdom whenever the Roman Empire became ‘Christian.’

And it wasn’t the servant kingdom Jesus talked about—it became about dominance, coercive force, to take charge of the world in the name of ‘justice for all.’

The question for Christians then became, ‘how do we run the world as Christians?’

And we still hear the question today in all spheres of life. How do we make it to ‘the top’ as a Christian and then try to run things?

But this raises another question for me. If Jesus wanted to run the world, couldn’t he have done that? He’s stinkin God. Couldn’t he have taken over this horrible world, taken Caesar’s place, sat on the throne of the Empire of the World, and make everything wonderful?? Couldn’t he have done that? Or even, couldn’t he have put his disciples in positions to do that???
Even Satan offered to make him the ruler of the entire world when he was tempted in the desert. Satan knew how much that would "make sense." He knew how much of a temptation that would be.

So it seems to me that Jesus was not supportive of his followers attempting to “run the world.” Which could also mean, not “ridding the world of evil” like some are trying.

But what IF there happened to be a ‘Christian’ nation that really could “run the world?” Like some are trying....

Nah, still not convinced He would like that.

Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. "The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?"
'An enemy did this,' he replied.
"The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "
(mat.13:24)

Do not pull out the weeds. Wait for the harvest. Do not try to rid the world of the weeds/evil through your own ways.
We were never commanded to rid the world of evil.
But we were commanded to love. To make peace. To love our enemies. To be servants. To be apart of an upside-down kingdom.
Do what God commands. Leave the rest to God.
The destruction of evil is not in our hands. It's in Gods.

When you look at the history of Christianity and empires….“it’s hard to walk away with any other conclusion but that the best way to defeat the kingdom of God is to empower the church to rule the world with the sword, for then it becomes the beast it wishes to destroy.

Caesar seemed to be able to do anything in the world. But Caesar could not wash feet.”

We talk about how we go to war to bring peace, right? I mean most people who are in support of a war aren’t saying, ‘War is good cause killing is fun! And it will bring more harm than good! Yay we like harm and bad things!’

People really believe it will bring peace, or, a better good.
And that’s what Rome, the greatest empire (before US???) believed.

Pax Romana! Peace of Rome!

War for peace!

Violence for peace!

Yet, a historian writes, “people feared the peace of Rome because streams of blood and tears of unimaginable proportions followed in the ‘peace.’”

I’m sorry, but that just does not compute in my head.

That just does not sound like the Jesus I follow.

That makes me want to bless some true peacemakers like Jesus talked about.

And when you compare the way the “greatest” empires or nations in the world have and do govern, and then you compare that to Jesus’ Kingdom, you have to look at the cross because that is central to Jesus’ governing tactics and power. I think we could hardly say that the cross looked like some grand political power “reclaiming Israel for God.” It really didn’t seem to do much to claim Israel’s (God’s people) power in the world.

The cross was a humble assertion of power.

It was an upside-down assertion of power.

Instead of ruling through the sword, which most “great” nations and empires seem to do/did, God washed feet to assert and subvert power. He went out non-violently. He took power through having compassion on the worst of the worst. He took power by loving the unlovable. He did not conquer the authorities and government of his time --and they surely were not good and could have used some Jesus authority. He did not make and lead a kingdom they way we know how and they way we truly think is best. Through charisma, power, military, making himself look good, pleasing the crowds.

Upside down.

Take everything you know about how the world works; about how you live your life; about who deserves what; about what makes life good; about how we should treat and love people; about who should be in power; about how we should follow authorities; about how we become whole and complete—

And turn it upside down.

That’s how we follow our Leader’s example.
We start small. Like a mustard seed.

When we are persecuted, ridiculed, and told that we don’t make sense—the kingdom becomes more potent and grows more.

When we love and love is not fulfilled and we are broken—the kingdom grows more.

We do not seek success and power and leadership the way the world does. In fact, you can start by taking the way the world does it, find the opposite of that, and start shooting for that. (it will be hard and it takes a while, so don’t worry—baby steps…at least that’s what I tell myself)

We do not try to redeem people and situations and violence and anger through more violence. (and when you think about it—that’s just really crazy) We turn it around and try another way and follow our leader’s pro-active and very creative examples when it comes to peace.

We take everything we know and we re-examine it. Take all the ways we think about things and re-examine it.

And after examining it.....most of it will probably need to be turned upside down.

(and feel free to have a new found appreciation for Jack johnson's song 'Upside down')