Way back in lockdown days of 2020 when we were doing multiple videos for Church and Children’s Church, Marc was filming me explaining something and he suddenly smiled and he stopped filming. Obviously I was curious. “What’s so funny?” I asked. “Do you know what you just said?” He asked. “No, what?” was my response. You said continulilly and not continually!! Ha! Ha! big funny moment.
But it sent me on a journey of awareness and change. I never noticed it before. That’s why it is called a blind spot. Somewhere along the way I had become lazy and just gone an easier way for my tongue and brain. It’s 5 years later and it is still a very cognitive experience. I still say the word slowly so I can get it correct. It was brought to my attention, it was a funny moment, but I had a choice. I could stick with what I had gotten used to, or I could correct it. I chose correction, but who knows how long that brain pathway had been set in that way, and it takes time to unlearn and relearn. It hasn’t quite dropped down into my sub conscious where I don’t have to be cognitively aware of it when I say it. It’s because it takes a lot of repetition and saying the new thing, and I really don’t go around saying ‘continually’ continually!!
Recently I have had some engagement with some people on social media about love and mercy. It came off the back of seeing some comments by people, who identify as Christians, speaking about decimating some people they clearly see as enemies or calling for their slaughter. The church I attend is busy going through a series on the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes, so mercy and love were certainly part of multiple conversations. My post had said the following, “Teach us to love mercy for each and every person made in the image of God. This includes those we see as enemies. God calls us to love, not to decimate people made in his image. We will be known by our love, not by our calling for the slaughter of other people. Love mercy. Extend mercy. It’s the way of Jesus who loved us first.”
I then added this further down in the comments, “Adding to my status and the absolute instability in our world right now – I just saw a comment on Instagram – “Christians want us all to be Christians, but themselves can’t agree on what that is and what that means, especially the part about loving your neighbour or even who that is.” These are basic parts of our faith that we should not be confused about, and yet there seems to be so much confusion. And who is our neighbour? Oh, my goodness, the exclusions seem to be endless. And the justifications for the exclusions too. I’m not sure how Jesus could have been clearer when he was on earth with his teaching us about love that is inclusive of every living person. There is no extra information in that line – love your neighbour as yourself.”
And yet here we are, still asking that question. Still not getting to an answer.
Someone posed the question as to how we are to do this. It got me thinking as to what I would answer.
My first response was to ‘be transformed by the renewing of our minds.’ That’s where the first part of this blog comes in. When we unlearn something, we must fill it with new learning otherwise nothing will change. It does not change overnight either. I am 5 years in on correcting the word continually. I find it quite uncanny that continually is so close to the word repetition. Brain pathways are formed through repetition. Changing brain pathways also happens through repetition and consistency. If we are seeing ourselves not loving in the ways of Jesus, then we can stop and think and make a choice to remind ourselves and then get to transforming our minds towards the ways of Jesus.
Maybe it will take someone pointing something out to you that you haven’t seen before. We need each other to see all there is to see. We cannot possibly see everything. But then we have a choice. Defensiveness and justification often rise to the fore because we don’t like being wrong or having a fault pointed out.
Maybe we could get really brave and ask someone where they see us lacking in love. We need to get ready to respond in humility and be vulnerable in that moment.
The second thing I would say is to get close to those people who Jesus highlighted we should be looking out for. Who are those people? Throughout the Old and New Testament we hear God and Jesus talk about looking after the vulnerable, the poor and needy, the sick, weak or differently abled, the fatherless or orphan, children, the widow, the sojourner, foreigners, strangers, the hurt, lonely and grieving, those in prison, those being oppressed, those in marginalized groups, those suffering injustice and Jesus adds our enemies too. We cannot possibly get to being okay with supporting the harm of other people or being harmful to other people after you look through this list. We should stand up and come to the defense of all people, but especially those people mentioned above who are more vulnerable.
Sometimes I find when this list is presented as is, or straight from Scripture, most people would nod and be in agreement with it because we have heard this before and we know these are the words of Jesus.
But it still seems to be certain people, certain groups of people, certain choices people make in those groups, certain actions people have displayed, certain appearances and class differences that really get us tripped up. Then we have excuses as to why they are not the same and so we give the green card for harmful treatment of them. We turn away and choose to ignore the words of Jesus and we justify our thinking in multiple ways.
It might not come naturally to us, that’s why we ask to be filled with God’s Spirit on a daily basis, so that we have a never-ending flow of God’s love and mercy flowing from him to us and out of us to others. Can we possibly ask God on a daily basis to fill us to overflowing and go out and love in his strength?
It also seems that some people have done a very good job of putting conservative choices on the top of the pile that does not allow certain people the same treatment as other people. When someone looks and sees this and notices that something is not adding up to what Scripture says, they are then attacked because they are going against the flow. They are apparently asking the impossible in caring for people we are called to care for. To stand in the way of harm being exacted on this group. They are shouted down as being anti mainstream and anti good and pious choices! Even if they are standing for kingdom principles they are being shouted down and silenced. Something has gone horribly wrong.
We need to remember that it’s always been and always will be a case of empire versus the kingdom of God. They are like oil and water, they don’t and can’t mix.
Empire is all about power, pride, control of land, people and resources, greed, violence, destruction, killing, stealing, lying, hate and lack of empathy. Empire can never be seen as harmless entertainment. A mission of steal, kill and destroy can never be harmless!
The Kingdom of God, on the other hand, is all about love of God and neighbour, love of enemy, righteousness/justice, redemption, peace, Shalom, forgiveness, sacrifice, servant hood, self control, generosity, empathy, compassion, humility, mercy and grace. There are so many more things I could add to this list.
I see nothing of the kingdom of God when people are ‘othered’, hated, demeaned and dehumanized. That is harm being enacted on the people we are called to care for most.
Whose narrative is being loudly portrayed? Which one is more visible? Is it Empire or Kingdom at the moment? Fear keeps people silenced because they see how others are treated when they speak up. Evil continues to rise all the time. Empire is on full display at the moment. It’s loud and proud. And loud does not equal legitimate behaviour and actions. Sometimes it’s so toxic and filled with hate, division, harm and dishonesty. We need to be careful when listening to the loud, popular and mainstream media. We can’t let that become the normalised narrative of the world.
And we need to be careful if we are silencing voices that are trying desperately to sound the alarm on greedy, cruel and ruthless empire behaviour. Do we really want hateful ideologies to grow, go unchecked and be normalized? Silence and indifference allows these things to thrive and dominate, because they just get louder and louder if they go unchecked.
Sounds like a wide path/narrow path checkpoint at the moment. And we, as followers of Jesus, are most definitely called to follow him on the narrow path.
Ask questions, dig deeper. Find the kingdom response in the midst of all the noise, hate and harm.
God is certainly not okay with the most vulnerable in our world being cast aside and being put more at risk. Even more so when it’s covered up with stories that justify the cruel and hateful actions.
When did Jesus ever say we should be concerned with protecting our faith more then protecting and loving people? Have we just released Barabbas again and called for the silence and death of Jesus? Thank God there’s light, hope and eternal life in that story, but really if feels like we are silencing God’s kingdom by allowing empire to shout way louder. And it’s being supported, applauded and cheered on by Christian people.
And the fruit of the many prophecies that seem to abound - do they line up with kingdom or empire? Do they promote life or death? Harm or healing? Stealing from or generosity? Destruction or building?
When we see division, mistruth and fear being sown, it’s not kingdom.
Where you see hate, selfish and cruel decisions, withdrawal of funds from the most poor and vulnerable in our world, harmful actions, killing others, no empathy, no compassion, it’s not the kingdom of God. Getting rid of teaching on diversity, equity and inclusion is anti kingdom of God and pro empire. Worrying about and trying to control or demonise other people’s beliefs and choices is anti kingdom and pro empire. Maybe we need to stop our focus on the beliefs and choices of others and make sure we are being consistent with our beliefs and choices. What are we promoting with our silence and indifference to the pain and suffering being purposefully inflicted on others? Do we really want to create such confusion as to whether we are promoting empire or the kingdom of God? Being pro empire is not drawing people into the kingdom. It’s pushing them away with force.
Should we not be promoting love? Including others? Protecting others from harm? Showing care, compassion and empathy, even if they are not followers of Jesus. I almost want to say, 'specifically if they are not followers of Jesus.' I am reminded of something from the Bible that says we will be known by our love and that it’s God’s kindness that leads people towards him and repentance. And yet another great confusion right now is empathy being questioned, invalidated, nullified and called a sin!! That lines up with empire completely.
I sometimes feel physical pain in my body and spirit when I see more and more harm being perpetrated. And it pains and hurts me somewhere deep inside when I see people of God, having lost all signs of empathy, not seeing the slow creep of deception or the danger at play and being flippant about it too.
There seems to be a nonchalant view that it’s all okay. Let’s just get the popcorn and watch it play out!
We seem to be celebrating people who go against the values and character we want to instil in our children to become good and healthy citizens in any country.
We desperately need to shift things.
We need the Sermon on the Mount to add up to our political conversations, to our comments about the world and about the vulnerable. It needs to be seen and not hidden. Showing meekness, humility and servant behaviour, loving our neighbour, caring for the needy, being hungry for justice, being peacemakers, practicing forgiveness, not worrying or being fearful, loving our enemies, standing for life (not calling for the death of people), being persecuted because of standing for the kingdom, poor in spirit, being mourners and merciful and pure in heart.
Jesus called us to sacrifice, to stand against and resist injustice and to do justice. To stand up for the poor and the needy.
Do we have eyes to see? Ears to hear? Spirits to receive? Or are we in retreat and accepting defeat. Maybe we need to change our focus from what we fear the most onto the one who says ‘fear not for I am with you.’
Christians were fearing of many things and although laws have changed in some countries to be more conservative, the issues they were afraid of have not gone away. Controlling people was never the answer. And when you further marginalize people, you gain other problems. It’s like there was some kind of sigh of relief when the next empire stepped onto the scene. Now the stuff people were afraid of is still around and there is now a bigger job to care for those being crushed by empire.
Jesus gives us free choice. He expects us to give others free choice too, even if it doesn’t align with our religious views/values. Jesus never made a fuss about protecting Biblical truth like the Pharisees. He says very clearly that he had not come to abolish the law, but fulfill the law. He came to establish the New Covenant, which changed everything. He was always way more concerned with loving and protecting people and leading them to freedom with the truth he spoke. Are we possibly acting like the Pharisees when we try and control others? It certainly sounds toxic.
We need the expansive, relational love of Jesus, not rigid religion.
I am seeing the kingdom and all it stands for being silenced by those who say they have chosen to live the kingdom way!! Huh??? Does that not sound outrageous and very confusing? But it’s what is happening all around us.
We need to resist empire with everything in us. It’s oil and water - empire and kingdom do not go together. We live in this world, but not of this world. We cannot be idle and just let it topple our world with greed, power, control, harm and hate.
Resist is a very powerful and active word, and possibly not quiet either. In the Oxford it says it is the refusal to accept or comply with something, or the ability not to be affected by something, especially adversely. We are told to stand firm in our faith and not to let our faith waiver. We are also told to resist the devil and he will flee from us, but Jesus never told us to resist people.
The kingdom of God needs to step up, become vocal and visible with loving God and loving others. Not vocal, visible and loud about their rights! We have had enough of that. It’s just made us weak, mean and apathetic.
We can’t hide our light under a bowl or keep the salt in the container because it’s safer and looks nice. It’s useless if light is hidden and salt is not poured out. It’s always a risk, but a good one. If Christ is the light, then everything we see should be illuminated by Christ and everything others see in us should emanate Christ. Christians especially seem to be tiring and fearful of the political landscape and topics to be discussed. We are told not to fear and it takes effort to resist Empire. It’s way easier to go with the flow and ignore. But it doesn’t just go away. It gets stronger and gains momentum. It changes direction and what it looks like - anything to survive and stay in control.
We have an Empire functioning as an empire and we shouldn’t be surprised. It’s going to want to expand, grab, steal, grow, lie, control and bash everything out of the way that messes with its mission. It perpetrates and excuses harm. Does that sound like the kingdom of God? Are we going to be the body of Christ and just silently watch it all happen?
We cannot possibly talk and sing kingdom in church and not go and practice it when we walk out of church, or worse celebrate empire! What a dichotomy.
Jesus resisted empire and spoke against it.
He showed a different way and he was killed for it. He wants us to follow in his footsteps as difficult as it might be. That sounds like ‘persecuted for righteousness sake.’ We seem to be hiding because we know we will be persecuted when we speak up. And by who? Possibly by those who say they follow Jesus and then shout for Barabbas to be released and by those in empire who want us silenced.
We certainly will not be persecuted by the poor and vulnerable. They will not shout us down. They will celebrate that we finally woke up.
It’s the lie of empire versus the truth of the kingdom of God. There’s a choice to be made.
Bottom photo by Midge
