Will It All Be Ok?

Dear First Pres SLO Family,

Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus the Messiah, who lives and saves and restores, even when his name is abused and misused.

How’s that for a start?

Some of you have asked for a copy of Sunday’s message. I don’t usually do that, but I think that there’s a part of the sermon that I want everyone to be able to read and wrestle with. You can find that section below.

Blessings to you,

Pastor John

Will all be well? Will things really be OK?

I can’t stand up here and lie to you.

The only honest thing I can say is: I don’t know.

But it doesn’t end there. Just because I don’t know how this story ends, doesn’t keep me from having a lot to say about how the middle of it goes.

People who follow the teachings of Jesus still have a lot to do in this world, and in this nation. And that job just got harder.

It got harder because people are using words about Jesus and the Christian faith to defend their hatreds and fears and lust for power.  Let’s be 100% clear: There is none of that in the teachings of Jesus.

Again, none of this is about party politics.

This is about the expressions of hatred, the promises of retribution, and the blaming of immigrants for the economic problems we caused for ourselves.

Here’s the problem with all of that.

Here’s what pokes at my trust issues.

What we’ve seen in this past year, maybe for the first time in this nation’s history,

is a party that ran a hate-your-neighbor campaign, and won a convincing victory.

Ponder that for a moment.

An American party ran a hate-your-neighbor campaign, and won a convincing victory.

One thing is certain: Don’t ever again think this is a nation built on a foundation of Christian principles. The party coming into power has clearly and explicitly both denounced and renounced the way of Jesus.

That’s the bad news. Here’s the good.

I mean it. In all of my study and prayer and reflection this week,

I managed to find some good news, and here it is:

We followers of Jesus find ourselves planted in the middle of a mission field.

There are truths about Jesus that this nation needs to hear.

There are lessons about life and sacrifice from Jesus that this nation needs to hear.

There are expressions of love from Jesus that this would needs to experience.

All of that is meant to come from us, from Christ’s church.

And it’s a message that is aimed at both sides.

The white supremacy of the American church we all inherited isn’t going to cut it. The close identification between white America and the gospel of Jesus just isn’t going to fly anymore.

Neither is the smug and contented liberalism that denies the miraculous life and death and resurrection of Jesus. Taking the supernatural message out of the gospel isn’t streamlining it for a modern audience, it’s creating completely different religion altogether.

Only a faith that believes that Jesus is who he says he is can help this nation.

Only a faith that is willing to do what Jesus asked us to do, can be an agent of healing in this land.

Anything else is a colossal waste of time.

The Christian faith in its American form has had 300 years to get this right, and it has failed miserably. Sure, there have been bright spots, but if 300 years of claiming to be built on Christian principles led us to people slapping Jesus’ name on hatred and cruelty, then we have to say it’s been a failure.

It is the call on each one of us to try and do it better, more faithfully, more closely aligned with the Jesus we read about in the gospels.

Be a Republican. Be a Democrat. I don’t care.

But if we’re going to call ourselves Christians—followers of Jesus the Messiah—then how about we try it his way just once?

How do we do that?

First. We have to see ourselves and our society with new eyes.

There weren’t many Christians at the founding, but America in the 1800s was overwhelmingly a Christian nation, both by faith and in its culture. Even after that wasn’t true anymore, we kept it as a part of our identity—and we assumed everyone meant the same thing when they used the word Christian. They didn’t and they don’t.

If we assume that our society is in need of hearing the gospel message as Jesus taught it, then we need to learn to see our society as a mission field. Not to go back to some great time in the past—the past wasn’t that great.

Not to return to the past, but to see a new future where the teachings of Jesus are the definition of Christian faith. Not our race. Not our nationality. Not our politics. Not anything that isn’t rooted in what Jesus actually said.

Second. Embrace being in opposition, not to a particular party or person, but to secular power in general. This may be the hardest part. Christians in America—mainliners like us and evangelicals too—Christians in America have always thought of themselves as part of the structure—part of the foundation—part of the furniture of what it means to be an American.

That was never really true, and now we have to start living like it.

That means learning to live in the role of the opposition.

Folks, this part is long overdue, no matter who won the election.

Even when we agree with what happens in Washington, that doesn’t mean we fall lockstep behind them.

I’ll freely say here that I liked President Obama a lot. I loved his intellect and his compassion—I loved the way he adored his wife and kids—I appreciated that he genuinely cared for all Americans, even when it made them angry at him.

But I still spoke out publicly against his actions in his last year of office, after more than 26000 American bombs had been dropped on 7 different countries on his orders.

As Christians, our natural place is in opposition, anytime anyone fails to love their neighbors—even when those neighbors might be enemies. That’s not the American way, it’s the Christian way, and it’s how we’re meant to see and engage the world.

Finally. Make sure your words and actions and faith and service are always and only rooted in the teachings of Jesus. This one thing is entirely within your control. Politics is one thing, and there’s a place for politics—it’s how we govern ourselves.

Politics is one thing, but following Jesus is another thing entirely.

Whatever we do as Christians, it has to match up with the things Jesus actually said, with the life Jesus actually modeled for us to live.

And so I don’t know if it’s all going to be OK anytime soon.

What we’ve heard about the plans for the next government here are pretty dire.

I don’t know if all will be well.

Here’s what I do know from our text today.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.”

We are the ones who’ve been called according to his purpose.

Never, ever forget that.

I don’t know if all will be well. But here’s what I do know.

I know what we’re called to do in the meantime.

I know who we’re called to be in the meantime.

I know that because of what God has done in Jesus the Messiah, that we are going to love God and worship God for what he’s done. And we’re going to love our neighbors and demand that anyone else who calls themselves Christians will do the same.

Anything else is a waste of time.

It’s the call on each one of us to try and do it better, more faithfully, more closely aligned with the Jesus we read about in the gospels.

Be a Republican. Be a Democrat. I don’t care.

But if we’re going to call ourselves Christians—followers of Jesus the Messiah—then we’re going to try it his way this time.

In or out. Here we go.

Let’s pray together.