Lafayette Ave. Presbyterian Church

For those of you just tuning in, I am blogging from a conference here in Princeton, NJ.  If this feels disjointed, please forgive me.  My brain and my fingers are both getting tired, and there is more going on than I can report.

How’s this for irony?  As soon as I finished typing this, we heard that the opening speaker, Obi Hendricks (I probably spelled that wrong) is delayed.  So now we are now reviewing announcements and pitching books.  Maybe a better choice would be more of the good music and worship that we have shared together.

John Perkins in the room, but I think he is speaking later in the day.  Maybe they could put him on stage for “bonus time.”

That being said, one of the books that she is pitching is Richard Twist’s “One God, many nations.”  He spoke last night and was dead on–the book is about ethnicity and reconciliation.

There’s another guy here who looks like Cal Thomas, but I don’t think its him.  That would be interesting, though.

Obi Hendricks is being introduced now.  He is professor of Biblical exegesis at New York Theological Seminary.

What follows are his ideas, not necessarily mine or Lafayette Church.

We need a shift of direction.

Things are not going so well these days.

Despite weekly preaching, and resources of the church, rich and poor are still divided.  We are still at war.

But Hendricks is going to be more specific.  He wants to tell us about Jesus as a political figure.

Jesus was a political radical, maybe even a revolutionary.  Reading the gospel makes this plain.  His message was inherently political–not only political, but at least.

That doesn’t mean he was involved in politics as we know it today.

What he means is that not only hearts were changed, he changed society, too.

An important goal of his ministry was to radically change the distribution of power and resources so that the least of these were cared for.

This doesn’t square with what many Christians and Evangelicals believe.

Many of us say that Jesus is “spiritual,” and maybe “social.”

But the Gospels give little attention to individuals.  The chief interest is the entire community.  Zechariah wasn’t waiting for somebody to save HIMSELF.  He was waiting for Israel to be saved.

Jesus cannot be claimed by political conservatism (moral conservatism, absolutely–political, no.  Because it wants to keep power where it is).

Too often, people of faith are led to believe that the Christianity and political conservatism, go hand in glove.  That could not be further from the truth.

Jesus said himself that he was politically radical.  He came, according to his words in Luke 4, “to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives . . .etc.”

There is no doubt that this is radical.

Only radical change would be real good news for the poor.  The systems that kept them poor could no longer exist.

The forces that make people poor will be brought low.

There is enough today in the world that nobody needs to be poor.  Things are the way they are because other keep things that way.

Some of those people are in government today.

No, I did not mention Dick Cheney.

(Now he is going into Cheney’s voting record–which includes apartheid and calling Mandela a terrorist)

Jesus also announced release to the captives.  Roman jails were full of political prisoners and debtors.

He announced liberation to the oppressed–not “those who are bruised, as it is in KJV)

He ended by proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor–Jubilee, which was radical redistribution of wealth.

This is a manifesto!  It’s hard to be more radical than Jesus here.

The Lord’s prayer, likewise, is deeply political and radical.  It was seditious, according to imperial law.

“Our Father”  –this is not a personal prayer.

He also did not use a Jewish way of addressing God.  “Our” is about ALL people.

“Hallowed be thy name.”  Under Roman law, only Caesar’s name was to be hallowed.  It is a rejection of empire.

But how can we hallow the name of God?  It’s already holy!

He’s probably asking God to manifest the holiness of God’s name,  In Lev 22, we see that holiness and justice go together.  Maybe it’s asking God to demonstrate his justice.

Then he prays “thy Kingdom come,” while Caesar’s is already there.  The Kingdom of God isn’t a place.  It’s more about the sole sovereignty of God.  Only God was supposed to be Israel’s king.  No human has the right to dominate anybody else.

Then he prays about bread.  He wants to make sure everybody has enough to eat.

Forgive our debts, could also be translated as “release our debts.”  The greek word refers to financial debts.  And we forgive ours debtors because we are opting out of this system, rather than continuing to benefit from us.

And deliver us from evil–’cause temptation will always be there.

Could you imagine if we knew what we were praying?  This is a wholistic spirituality.  It’s me and my God AND me and my neighbor.

If you are not struggling to create a healthy order, or at least supporting those who are, you are not truly spiritual, in a Biblical sense.

In acts 2, we see that when the Spirit comes upon people, people get up and connect with the people around them.

If you really have the holy spirit, you are animated to go out into the world.

Matthew 25 tells us what God will use to judge us.

Jesus’ politics are wholistic spirituality in action.  These principals come from Judaism.

He announces three.

Mishpa: Justice.  Judgment in the terms of bringing just balance to the world.

Tsadika:  Righteousness: Fulfilled relationships with God and neighbor.  Responsibility to others is the same as our responsibility to God.

Both of these are based on social relationships, not individual piety, or ritual purity.  The Hebrew scriptures don’t even have a word that means individual.  Only “people.”

Hesed: Loving kindness, or steadfast love.  This is more than sentiment.  For instance, God defines himself as hesed, and says this is why he intervenes in history.

God says, “I desire hesed, and not sacrifice.”

Justice and love always have to go together.

Treat the people’s needs as holy–this is the politics of Jesus in a phrase.

Can we evaluate our politicians this way?

What are the implications of the politics of Jesus for us as evangelicals?

As he understands us, evangelicalism is rooted in the great commission.

This is a command to make the entire world Christian.  That is what we understand, traditionally.

But what we translate as “make disciples” is about STUDENTS, not converts.  He asked his disciples to “follow him,” but not worship him.

Jesus didn’t offer doctrines.  He taught them a practice of justice, righteousness, and love.  And he told them to make others students of his teachings.

Teaching the world, not converting it.

This is different, than the measuring stick that the world uses.

What the church teaches came more from Paul–who didn’t spend any time at all with the earthly Christ–and little with the disciples.

The consequences of the way that we have done this has devalued other cultures/faiths, and the humans that are part of them.  Imperials, torture, murder, racism, and genocide all flow from this.

But didn’t Jesus say “no one gets to the father but through me?”  Yes, but Jesus was speaking to his followers.  He also said “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.”

In too many ways, evangelicals are part of the problem.  But we can change our approach from conversion,  teaching.  We can teach wholistic spirituality.  We can go back to the greatest commandments.

And what does the Lord require of you?  (Micah 6:8Micah 6:8
English: World English Bible - WEB
8 He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, To love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?