This is a short, 12 minute, homily by my long-time friend, Bryne. I think you will find her intellectually engaging and spiritually challenging. But most of all, I think you will be moved by her passion for justice.
Category Archives: Justice
Our Old Friend Fear and You and Me
I thought I would offer a little Election Day advice: No matter who you vote for, if you’re a Christian, your voting is not to be compelled by fear. Fear is a motivating factor for many self-interested, self-centered, and self-protective things in the political sphere. And it has been used by politicians as a tool to motivate religious people for centuries. The fear-tactic is nothing new.
The biblical writers knew all too well that fear drives us to do crazy things that go against our otherwise firm beliefs. For this reason, the scriptural command that occurs more than any other in the Bible is, “Do not be afraid.”
Fear is the definition of insanity for Christians.
When we act in fear, we act to protect our own self-interest instead of the interests of others who are less fortunate than us.
When we act in fear, we act in a way that protects ourselves and our rights instead of seeking rights for people on the margins or people who are forgotten.
When we act in fear, we confuse this-worldly political agendas with the eternal kingdom of God.
When we act in fear, our world falls apart when elections don’t go our way.
When we act in fear, we degrade and dehumanize people who don’t vote the same way we do.
I don’t know who you’re voting for today. And I don’t think it’s my place to tell you how to vote. But I will say this; we are allowed to make mistakes in the voting booth (Lord knows, I’ve made some of my own) if we make those mistakes with good intentions. But we’re not ever allowed to act out of fear, for fear should never be a motivating factor for people who rightly understand the kingdom of God.
Our kingdom is not ultimately of this world. As great as Democracy is, it is Jesus Christ, not the next president or governor, who is the savior of the world. When you vote then, vote not with the rhetoric of fear and hatred in your mind from the political ads, but vote with the hope of a crucified savior who died for Republicans and Democrats alike.
Do I Even Want the Gospel for Timothy McVeigh?
Here’s the latest sermon I preached on the myth “All Good People Go to Heaven and All Bad People Go to Hell.” Timothy McVeigh is my case study for whether or not I would rather believe this myth or the true gospel. Let me know what you think.
Do you REALLY believe this is redeemable?
I’m preparing for my sermon on Sunday where I’m going to posit that the most heinous of criminals can receive the grace of God. While studying for it and trying to take it out of the realm of logical abstractions and into the world of real life, I came across this famous photo from the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19th, 1995.
Maybe it’s because I have a daughter now about this girl’s age, but I have to tearfully admit that this question really forces me to consider whether I really believe the gospel can redeem such evil. That I know, logically, that it does and can redeem such evil, forces me to bask in the greatness of God’s grace. But my heart still doubts and fears, not only for Timothy McVeigh, but for myself. – Matthew 5:21-22
I Just Killed a Mockingbird
I’m just finishing up To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time since 9th grade. I can appreciate the story much more now than I could as a freshman in high school – the exceptional literary skill and the narrative’s fantastic subversion of prejudice of all kinds. And my favorite part, Harper Lee’s cynicism about all things church is both humorous and sad at the same time – not to mention, something probably completely justified.
In this story, the Christians are cultural Christianity Christians. They attend church because that’s what you do, but see no conflicts between the cultural Christian life and donning KKK garb, siding with racial prejudice, or incessant gossip and fear. In fact, the functional reason the cultural Christians meet together in this story is to condone and participate in such activities – in other words, Lee is pointing out the corruption of the church.
In Lee’s story arise the great themes of injustice, prejudice, compassion, fear, hatred, life and death, growing up, misunderstanding, gender roles, racial superiority, and friendship across cultural boundaries, but the church has nothing valuable to contribute to any of these themes. Preachers are the mouthpieces, not of God, but of their congregation’s prejudices. They are content with their 30 minute speeches each week, content with the cultural Christianity of their congregants, and content with the world as it is. Never do they feel compelled to question racial prejudice or hierarchy – even when it leads to the death of an innocent man!
No, their sermons are dry and dusty, communicating nothing of significance to the everyday life of the early 20th cent. American South. Preaching has become, not a prophetic witness against the assumptions of cultural Christianity, but a burdensome Sunday activity that all good Christians must endure because, again, that’s what civilized people do.
Harper Lee thus points out something inherent in cultural Christianity wherever it may be found. Once Christ has been tamed by a culture to the point where the community can no longer tell the differences between their thoughts and His, anything goes! Once a people forget to distinguish between the ways of Christ and the ways of their culture, all prejudice and hatred becomes religiously justified as the way things have been ordained by God. Once the radical Jesus is replaced by a Christ that looks like me, talks like me, votes like me, and fights like me, there can be no pursuit of justice.
In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird justice is an impossibility, not merely because lacks community of champions for the cause of social justice, but because racial prejudice, hatred, and fear are never challenged by the would-be-prophets of the pulpit and missions group. Justice is on the backburner, taking second seat to more “important” issues like moralizing sermonettes, flower gardens, and gossip. God is nothing more than the cultural projection of a prejudiced people. There can be no justice with such a God.
Thank you, Harper Lee, for doing what the preachers of all ages tend to forget. Thank you for being a prophetic voice in a world that believed (believes?) God is indistinguishable from white, middle-class preferences and prejudices. I am grateful for your crtiticism.
