What we are called to…

Oh, there are so many things that could be said in response to this. Most of them are just frustrating in their hypocrisy and have nothing to do with actually following Jesus – rather just using Jesus for one’s own purpose. It’s amazing how we humans can twist Jesus any way we want to meet our needs.

Prepare yourself for this one – Starting Jan. 20 at noon, there will be some who will shout from the roof tops that we are to follow the lead of Romans 13 and submit to government. Funny how those same people seem to have conveniently forgotten that passage these last four years.

There are those who will say that we fight cruelty and violence with cruelty and violence, that the only way some people will listen is if they are forced to. Yikes! Where to even begin with that? Cruelty and violence are not the way of Jesus. And imposing belief and action on others through the use of force doesn’t end well for anyone.

There are those who will say that you just remain silent, turn away from what is going on, turn inward, do what you have to survive, etc. Nope. Sorry. That doesn’t sound like Jesus either. And again, it doesn’t ultimately work.

There are some who will say that we need to fight. Or that we need to be faithful. Or that we need this or that. My response is this – how are you defining these terms? Just like freedom, liberty, Christianity, and Jesus, I’m not convinced that we are all defining these things the same way.

There’s probably a million other things that I could put in this post. But you get the idea. The reality is that so much of what will be said is based not on Jesus and his way, but rather on a firm foundational belief in the ends justifying the means. There are plenty of people who will do whatever is necessary to get you to do what they want. And they won’t be happy when you refuse. And they will let you know.

So what are we called to?

In times like this, we aren’t called to be nice, or kind. We aren’t called to be passive or ignorant. We certainly aren’t called to cruelty and violence. We aren’t called to so much of what the world is about.

We are called to one thing, dear follower of Jesus – life, death, and resurrection. This call is radical as it gets. There is so much of Scripture that shows this radicalness. It’s been there the whole time, but we water down. We say, oh, this is just a metaphor, so that we can wave it away – as if God didn’t really mean it.

Read Isaiah 61. Seriously. Read it:

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
   because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
   to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
   and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,
   and the day of vengeance of our God;
   to comfort all who mourn;
to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
   to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
   the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
   the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.
They shall build up the ancient ruins,
   they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
   the devastations of many generations. 

Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks,
   foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines;
but you shall be called priests of the Lord,
   you shall be named ministers of our God;
you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations,
   and in their riches you shall glory.
Because their shame was double,
   and dishonour was proclaimed as their lot,
therefore they shall possess a double portion;
   everlasting joy shall be theirs. 

For I the Lord love justice,
   I hate robbery and wrongdoing;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
   and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants shall be known among the nations,
   and their offspring among the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge
   that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
   my whole being shall exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
   he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
   and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its shoots,
   and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
   to spring up before all the nations.

Imagine actually living into this. Just take the first few lines. Think of how upending this would be if it was carried out. In the last paragraph he hear how the Lord loves justice. Yet why is it that there are Christians who despise this word?

God intends to do these things. It’s not just in Isaiah 61. It’s all throughout Scripture.

This is life, death, resurrection. It’s what we are called to. Regardless of what opposition comes, and it will. When Jesus preached on Isaiah 61, the people tried to throw him off a cliff it upset them so much.

That’s our call in this time. Back when I did political campaigns, I remember telling a candidate that if we’re doing the campaign right, we’ll get a response. And there is usually some kind of violence – not always physical in nature. That campaign was notable because people supporting the opposing candidate took our yard signs, tore them up, and stuffed them in people’s mail slots. When my candidate told me about it, I laughed. The candidate was concerned. I told them that we should be grateful that these people did this – it means they are frustrated that they are not controlling the message, that we aren’t just rolling over and doing the typical campaign, and they are doing something destructive rather than productive, which never actually helps. We ended up winning that race, which was unexpected for many. But I knew we would win when people were willing to violate federal mail law out of anger of not being in control of the campaign.

We’re called to live in a Christ-like manner. That means seeking and working towards Shalom. It means seeing the image of God in all people, especially in those that we would rather not. It means seeking justice and wholeness. It means saying no to oppression and oppressors so that they can also be set free. It means not using violence or imposing a way. It means inviting people into a different way of living. It means caring for the outcast of society and those on the margins.

We are called to death. Jesus said that if any would follow him, they must pick up their cross, die to self, and follow him. I have written this before – death serves a very important purpose, which is to remind us, to get in our faces so we have no excuses, and tells us point blank that we are not in control. Our addiction for control has to die. Because when it does, only then do we embrace that we are not God.

We are called to resurrection. Resurrection only happens after you have gone through death. Resurrection isn’t a rewind to some time in the past. It’s not nostalgia for some imagined past. Nope. It’s far better than anything that happened in the past. We are people of hope. That means that we believe that the best is yet to come, not that the best already happened and we need to go back to it. Nope. It is coming. It looks different than anything we have experienced. It might even be unrecognizable. But that’s only because this world is so broken that we can’t imagine what a non-broken world, a whole world, could possibly look like.

We are called to life, death, resurrection. You are not alone in this. No matter the odds. Stick to life, death, and resurrection.