There are a few things that most Christians will agree on:
1) Jesus said we are to love God, with our whole heart
and to love our self, and to love others, and to love our enemies.
2 Jesus said: Do onto others as you want them to do onto you
3) Jesus admonishes us:
Whatsoever you do onto the least person
you do onto me.
4) in the Our Father prayer we are also admonished
when we pray: Forgive us our trespasses
AS WE FORGIVE those trespass against us.
For some reason, If and
How to practice these basic tenants of our faith, vary widely.
A few years ago, KPBS had a program re: Nationalism (aka Patriotism)
“Nationalism – a noun;
a sense of national consciousness
exalting one nation above all others
esp. group hysteria, leading inevitably to
robbery, kidnapping, rape, mutilation,
starvation, murder and/or exile of
those not regarded as part of the nation.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a dissident Lutheran minister
in Nazi Germany, called nationalism/patriotism
“idolatry of the nation”
Someone sent me the following comparison
between Works of Mercy and Works of War.
Works of Mercy:
Feed the hungry
Clothe the naked
Give drink to the thirsty
Visit the imprisoned
Care for the sick
Bury the dead
Works of War:
Destroy crops and land
Seize food supplies
Destroy homes
Scatter families
Contaminate water
Imprison Dissenters
Inflict wounds/burns
Kill the living
These actions are clearly polar opposites of each other
Deadly deeds vs Life-affirming deeds.
And are polar opposites of the 4 commandments Christ gave us.
Nationalism/patriotism are incompatible with Christianity.
Our God/Christ is Lord over the whole earth
and the endless universe.
He created Everyone and Everything.
Furthermore,
Christians cannot use Un-Holy means
to attain ANY goal
(no matter how lofty it sounds, “freedom”, “democracy”)
The world tells us that the ends justify the means,
but we know better.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that “when Christ calls you
He bids you to come and die”
and you will find yourself in the Garden of Gethsemane.
We must choose, whom we will worship and follow,
Caesar or God/Christ?
Are we pre-resurrection people of the Old Testament
or post-resurrection people of the New Testament?
We are called Christians because of the latter.
Whatever choice we make, we will pay a price either way.
Our biggest enemy is conformity, and fear of ostracism.
We will do most anything to fit in.
But Christ didn’t.
Christ, with God’s power, transcended and overcame
all limitations and divisions of race, class, religion, economics, gender,
society, culture, tradition.
Christ calls us to do likewise –
to be a light on a hill,
the salt of the earth,
a peculiar people,
called to sanctification and holiness,
set apart
temporary soujourners,
on our way to our permanent home.
By their love you will know them.
At what cost do we try to fit in?
John Howard Yoder, in his book, “The Politics of Jesus”
put it this way:
“the cross of every Christian (in every generation)
is social non-conformity”
(to the customs, standards, values, traditions, beliefs of the world
that contradict Christ, most especially in the areas of life and death)
Bonhoeffer said that the church stands for peace among all people,
nations, classes and races.
War annihilates the creation of God.
Bonhoeffer goes on to talk about Cheap Grace vs. Costly Grace
Cheap grace is
forgiveness without repentance
baptism without church discipline
communion without confession
absolution without personal confession
Grace without discipleship
without price
without cost
without the cross
without Christ.
There is no burden of sin/repentance/renewal.
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of the church
and a perversion of our faith
that leads to soft, anemic christianity.
Cheap grace leads to capitulation to the nation/world
and spiritual decay and pollution.
(with monumental consequences to the world
in that we not only stand by at the horrors the world inflicts
upon others, but we openly participate in these horrors).
Costly Grace
Cost God the life of His Son
It costs our life too
and
it gives the only true life
It is the incarnation of God
the Living word
It compels us to submit to the yoke of God
and
Follow Him
It costs the pain, humiliation, scandal, persecution,
suffering, rejection and martyrdom of the Cross
The Christian life is a life of crucifixion
Costly Grace
calls us to the stark, unbending commands of Christ.
We have lost our way –
we practice Christianity by the following precepts:
Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t swear
Don’t have sex outside of marriage
But its OK to Kill!
So, our young people, with the blessings of
family and church, join the military and
learn the art of killing other human beings
created by God
(totally contrary to the four commandments of Christ)
and participate in crimes against humanity.
They come back, often maimed in body, mind, soul, and spirit.
with blood on their hands –
yet, they are called “heroes”, “warriors”, “patriots”
or, “just doing their job”.
The Nurenberg trials, established that killing people
is Not “just a job”
And creating weapons that maximize
the number of human beings that can be killed,
is not work that Christians can participate in.
These acts, shame and soil the name of Christ,
and are in fact acts of theological heresy.
And even if these persons are in touch with their own guilt
they can’t confess and repent of their sins
in most churches because the churches are blind to their own
hypocrisy, collusion and guilt
in the torture, maiming and murder of other human beings.
We are called to remember that
We are all accountable to God
and at the end of our days
we will have to face God
both for our acts of commission
and our acts of ommision.
We are also told, that if someone is going astray
and we do not warn them,
their sins will be on our head.
But we must also remember
that there is NOTHING that God can’t forgive
IF we confess, repent and with God’s help,
commit no further injury or evil.
God does not change is in order to love us
Rather, God loves us, in order to change us
(into His likeness).
I would like to end this blog, Part 1 of 2
with my favorite song, by Lloyd Stone in 1934
called: This is my Song
(sung to the tune of Finlandia)
This is my song, O God of all the nations
A song of Peace for lands afar and mine
This is my home, the country where my heart is
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine,
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover
and skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations
A song of peace for their land and for mine.
This is my song, O Lord of all earth’s kingdoms
Thy kingdom come, on earth thy will be done
Let Christ be lifted up till all shall serve Him
And hearts united learn to live as one
O hear my prayer, thou God of all the nations
Myself I give Thee, let thy will be done.
May we go back and re-read what we have a common
knowledge/understanding/agreement about –
Love the Lord God, with all your heart and mind and soul
Love your neighbor as yourself
Love your enemy
Do onto others as you want them to do onto you.
Whatsover you do to the least person
you do onto Christ
Forgive us
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
What would happen if we practiced these things?
Blessings –
Anita Wucinic-Turner
