Reflections from your Pastor……

          Theologian Walter Brueggemann is a lot like Jesus in the fact that neither is afraid to “tell it like it is”.  Brueggemann writes that the crisis in the U.S. church is not because of our political leanings one way or another, but rather it is due to “giving up on the faith and discipline of our Christian baptism and settling for a common, generic U.S. identity that is part patriotism, part consumerism, part violence and part affluence.”  I’m guessing that at least part of this quote might cause you some irritation. I wonder if it is the part where the author states that we have “settled” for something? In this context, settled seems to me to stand for a sense of either compromise or surrender. It speaks of giving in when the outcome is not really what was desired, but we are willing to accept perhaps less than we should have, in order to be done with the matter. However, my understanding of the USA is that we don’t settle for anything other than exactly what we want. So, tell me, why do you think we have settled for a watered-down version of Christianity when the message of Jesus is so often about a radical change from the status quo? Jesus came with the proclamation that the kingdom of God was not like the kingdoms of the world. Rather that God’s way would give power to the powerless, strength to the weak and food to the hungry. So why does it seem that so much of our Christian journey is about “which side of this issue are you on?”  Are we not all supposed to be on Jesus side? Was Jesus unclear when he lifted up love for enemies, the least of these and others that society discards? Perhaps we have evolved into this milk-toast style of faith because it allows us to blend in or it permits us to pursue our own desires. Whatever the reasons, it does not seem that this style of living out our faith follows the example that Jesus gave us. Perhaps a few tables need to be overturned; maybe it is time for the church to rise and proclaim that the Jesus we follow is nothing like what many claim to be today’s Christianity. It will take some courage, some chutzpah, and there is a good chance that we will ruffle feathers, but following Jesus was never meant to be easy or even popular. It is something that as his disciples, we have been called to.