The "Conservative" Lament

Speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:15

I do not like the terms “conservative” and “liberal.”

They are at times a necessary shorthand, but they are labels. And even the best labels tend to tell less than the whole story.

That is true when we talk about someone else’s politics and particularly true when those who claim to follow Jesus use those labels to describe the politics of other Christians.

The Bible is an intensely political book. Hebrew Scripture is focused on the life of the people of Israel. The prophets proclaim God’s expectations of the nation and they are not shy in describing the consequences of injustice and oppression. Jesus’ message was about the good news of the Kingdom of God; an alternative to the violent injustice of the Empire.

But when we try to translate biblical ethics into current social and political context, we need to be clear that the Kingdom of God is a concept that transcends our current political parties.

With that disclaimer, I will venture into these troubled waters with the hope of making a useful observation.

A colleague, who describes himself as a conservative, recently posted a commentary on Facebook that has much in common with many others I have seen, and it illustrates a trend in both politics and religion.

He writes:

“It makes me sad (kind of) to realize I was a happy well adjusted person who accepted people just because.... but now
If I use a gender specific pronoun I offend people
If I talk about working in law enforcement I offend people
If I talk about my deep faith or even mention Jesus I offend people
If I dare have a conservative political opinion I offend people
I even offend by things I have no control over. I am male, I am straight, I am white, or I am older
If I laugh because I think it is crazy kids need a label not to eat Tide Pods or that changing the color will change that.
Being patriotic offends
Owning guns offends
Eating meat offends
Having pets offends
If this post offends you I need to speak truth in love to you. The problem is not me or the millions like me. The problem is that you might have been lied to that in the real world nobody will ever offend you. You have not been given the tools to survive and when the SHTF you will be in trouble. In fact you may be in trouble right now. This is not a joke post. This doesn’t dismiss that we all need to respect diversity and various opinions. In fact it is just the opposite. I am not putting you down I am lifting you up. There is no disclaimer at the end of this post. Suck it up and let’s get to work on the real issues that matter.”

In truth, if you think of yourself as a liberal (or if others label you that way), you could post your own list of things that others say offends them. But this seems to be almost entirely a conservative phenomenon.

So let’s just stick with the conservative lament.

Conservatives currently control:
The White House.
The House of Representatives.
The Senate.
And the Supreme Court.

They control both chambers in thirty-two states.
And they have thirty-four Governorships.

That last one could be argued. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker is a Republican although he is not in the mold of current conservatives. But thirty-three is still a huge majority.

So the question is, how is it possible that the people who control pretty much everything in this country still see themselves as victims. In the words of my conservative colleague, “suck it up.” If you are that easily offended maybe the problem is you.

What Jesus Actually Taught

The poor are invited to the feast. Luke 14:15-24

Once Jesus was asked when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”
Luke 17:20-21

It is time for my annual reflection on Kingdomtide and why it matters.

Yesterday was the First Sunday in Kingdomtide.

At least that’s what it was when I was growing up. In the old United Methodist liturgical calendar the Sundays from the end of August to the beginning of Advent were known as the season of “Kingdomtide.”

It was a time to reflect on the biblical promise of the Kingdom of God and to ask ourselves what the world would look like if we were serious about building the Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus preached the “good news of the Kingdom of God.”

For Jesus, the Kingdom of God was the Gospel. He announced that God was already at work in the world, and we were invited to live in the new reality that God was creating.

The idea of Kingdomtide as a liturgical season began in 1937 and lasted for barely half a century. Kingdomtide just never caught on. Initially, it seemed to have a lot going for it, not the least of which is that stretching out Pentecost, and counting the Sundays after Pentecost, is pretty boring. It also made sense because the fall lectionary texts emphasize building up the Kingdom of God.

And after all, Jesus’ whole message was about the Kingdom of God. That was what he called “the good news.”

But the season of Kingdomtide was doomed by the combined weight of liturgical purity and the concern (which I share) for looking beyond exclusively masculine terms for God.

God is not a King.

When the “new” United Methodist Hymnal was published in 1989, Kingdomtide was gone. I didn’t notice the change for several years. When I saw my error, I briefly surrendered to liturgical conformity and abandoned the season. But it was not long before I changed my mind.

How can we abandon the only liturgical season that is focused on what Jesus actually taught?

Whatever we call it, we need to do it.

Some time in the middle of the last century one of the great preachers said that our most important task is keeping the idea of the Kingdom of God alive in the human spirit. 

In the hyper-competitive winner-take-all culture of the twenty-first century, that task is even more urgent. Notions of economic justice, concern for the poor, non-violence, and simplicity are often seen as naïve or un-American. 

We need to reclaim the language of Jesus.

The Kingdom of God is a profoundly political idea. But it does not translate directly into what we popularly associate with “politics.” It is not about political parties or political labels.

As Robert Bellah wrote, "Politics are never ultimate, never absolute. We can and must fight the good fight for a better republic and a better world. But our hope does not depend on any political outcome. Our faith and our hope derive from Jesus Christ, who survives all nations and all politics."

In these deeply troubled times, it is easy to feel hopeless, but it is precisely in times such as these that we need to be grounded in Jesus’ message.

When his disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, he told them to pray first for the Kingdom of God to come on earth. Two thousand years later, that should still be our first concern.

Thank you for reading. Your thoughts and comments are always welcome. Please feel free to share on social media as you wish. 

*A version of this post was first published on September 1, 2011.

Thanksgiving and the Kingdom of God in America

The First Thanksgiving by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1899)

"Politics are never ultimate, never absolute. We can and must fight the good fight for a better republic and a better world. But our hope does not depend on any political outcome. Our faith and our hope derive from Jesus Christ, who survives all nations and all politics."

Robert N. Bellah

I have a special fondness the notion of the Kingdom of God in America. 

First, and in a serious way, because it was (and is) the agenda of Jesus to build the Kingdom of God on earth, and since I am an American Christian, my first responsibility is to build it here. 

But I also enjoy talking about the Kingdom of God because it makes everyone uncomfortable (including me). 

The secular left gets nervous about a theocracy and a religious vision, and the religious left is uncomfortable with the King imagery (I share the discomfort with “King” and I agree that in many ways it would be better to get the King imagery out of it and speak about the Reign of God, but I still think that falls short of the original.). 

The religious right wants religion to be personal rather than social, and they are nervous about the “politicization” of the Gospel, and the political right gets nervous about the Social Gospel and Social Justice.

That’s all good, because we are supposed to be uncomfortable with the Kingdom of God.

We should not look for ways to escape that discomfort. Jesus’ vision calls us into the future. We pray for the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth, and that must mean change. As soon as we are comfortable with the present, we remember again that we are called into the future. We are called to be a pilgrim people.

In a special way, Thanksgiving is central to understanding the Kingdom of God in America.

Robert Bellah was one of the greatest American Sociologists. He rose to national prominence when he wrote an essay on Civil Religion in America. (If you have never read the essay, you can get it on line by clicking here.) 

Bellah explained how Americans had developed a religious sensibility which was rooted in our Judeo-Christian heritage, but also uniquely American. We began with a covenant and a mission. Slavery was our original sin. Lincoln was our central prophet. And though we had a high view of our calling in the world, we were clear that America always stood under the judgment of God.

Thanksgiving is the most important holiday in our American Civil Religion. It was first instituted by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, as a time of national Repentance and Thanksgiving. A national day of repentance would be a tough sell in today’s political climate. 

As Christians, how do we relate to the uncivil tone of our political debate today?

It is a difficult question and there are no easy answers. It is particularly problematic today after a long season political campaigning in which the president-elect distinguished himself by shattering almost every norm of civilized discourse. One of his Republican challengers declared dramatically that “you can’t insult your way to the presidency.” But apparently you can.

We are in uncharted waters.

But as Christians, it is important that we keep perspective and that we focus on long term goals.

The Gospel is intensely political and we cannot read it with any measure of intellectual honestly and pretend otherwise. It is about proclaiming a vision of the Kingdom of God. It is about social and economic justice. But we must also remember, as Bellah points out, that the Kingdom of God can never be identified with any single political group or cause, or country. Instead, it is always the standard by which every political plan is judged.

As Bellah notes, “We can and must fight the good fight for a better republic and a better world.” But we need to be clear that there is a gap between our vision and God’s vision. This does not mean that one idea is as good as another, or that political issues do not matter. It does mean that we should approach political issues with Lincoln’s repentance and humility. 



Thank you for reading. Your thoughts and comments are always welcome. Please feel free to share on social media as you wish. 

A previous version of this blogpost was originally published on November 23, 2016.

"Thank God for Something that Moves Up!"

The United Methodist Church of Red Bank Celebrates Becoming a Reconciling Congregation

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” Jesus answered, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”
Luke 17:5-10

In the opening paragraph of his wonderful little book about the history of the Methodist Church (it was written before we became the United Methodist Church), the great preacher and teacher Halford Luccock tells the story of a bishop standing behind a railing overlooking the American side of Niagara Falls. 

He was watching the mountains of water cascading over the falls when his eye caught sight of a little steamboat, The Maid of the Mist, in the water below the falls pushing upstream against the current swirling down the river. 

In Luccock’s words, “his imagination took fire,” and he shouted out, “Thank God for something that moves up!”

The book is called, “Endless Line of Splendor,” and it was written in 1950, a time of irrepressible optimism in the Methodist Church and across Protestantism generally. Luccock told the grand story of Methodism, from the genius of John and Charles Wesley, through the expansion in America toward a world mission, to the struggle against slavery and the prophetic witness of the Social Gospel. The Methodist Church really did look like an endless line of splendor.

Looking back over the past half century, Luccock’s vision seems hopelessly naïve. And in many ways it was a reflection of the same optimism that colored all of America in the 1950’s. Although in the aftermath of World War II it is hard to call that vision naïve. In spite of, or possible because of, the trials we had been through, it was easy to believe that anything was possible. It was a time of great dreams. 

We had conquered evil on opposite sides of the globe, now we would implement a vision of lasting hope and goodness.

But today that Endless Line of Splendor seems long ago and far away.

Now, more than ever, we need “something that moves up!”

Just before Christmas, the Reconciling Ministries Network announced that the United Methodist Church of Red Bank, New Jersey, was the newest Reconciling Congregation. The Red Bank church declared their intention to  include all persons, regardless of "sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, race, ethnicity, age, faith, history, economic status, marital status, physical and mental abilities, and education."

In their statement of inclusion, they declare that their goal as a Reconciling Congregation is to “transform our church and world into the full expression of Christ’s inclusive love.”

Think about that.

It is a big goal. An apparently unrealistic goal. It would be an unrealistic goal for a megachurch, and Red Bank is several lightyears away from megachurch status.

But when I looked at the picture of their congregation, I could not help but smile. Isn’t this what the Kingdom of God looks like? They are young and old. There’s an older man with a cane. There’s a young person exuberantly picking up another young person. There are black people and white people. There are fists pumped in the air. 

This is exactly what the church is supposed to be!

And when I saw that picture, I thought, “Thank God for something that moves up!”



The Reconciling Statement of The United Methodist Church of Red Bank:

“The United Methodist Church of Red Bank, as a Reconciling Congregation, seeks to transform our Church and world into the full expression of Christ’s inclusive love. We celebrate our human family’s diversity of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, race, ethnicity, age, faith, history, economic status, marital status, physical and mental abilities, and education.

We affirm that all people are created in the image of God and as beloved children of God, all are worthy of God’s love and grace.

We welcome the full equality and full inclusion of all people in the life and ministries of The United Methodist Church of Red Bank as we journey toward reconciliation through Christ.
We recognize that there are differences among us, but we believe that we can love alike even though we may not think alike.

We work diligently to make the larger United Methodist Church inclusive and welcoming of all. This includes affirming the same rights and privileges of marriage equality and the right to be ordained.

We proclaim this statement of welcome to all who have known the pain of exclusion or discrimination in church and society. We invite all people to join us in our faith journey toward greater love, understanding, and mutual respect.”