March 27, 2010

2 Peter 3

It's not an entirely inappropriate day to focus on preparing for the end of the world and the Second Coming, but what I find myself revving up to talk to feels much more like an Old Testament prophet's rhetoric, although I'm going to aim for the gentler and more loving tone of the Epistles - dare I presume to imitate any of it.

"Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures."

Brother and sisters, why do we go unchallenged those who would lead others so far astray? Why do we let go unchallenged those who are too ignorant and unstable to understand the truth of grace? Who twist the words of God into pretzels in order to justify their bigoted opinions and paint themselves as the mouthpiece of God? Why do we allow our faith to be painted in this way? Why do we watch as our brothers and sisters turn to the rhetoric of violence over issues upon which they have been tricked to siding against serving their fellow man and helping all to have care?

Why do we let this stand? Why do we allow our precious Scripture to be pillaged for phrases that feed a political agenda? Why do we allow the world to see us so differently than what we could be? Or have we strayed that far from the path? So far from the path of the radicals who endorse a love of all our fellow men and women.

Do we imagine that God is a Capitalist? Perhaps that explains our efforts to accumulate "points" with him. Do we imagine that God cares about money and taxes at all? The only statement He ever made on them was to advise us to pay them freely, without complaint. Give to Caesar what is Caesar's (what was never really ours), and give to God what is God's.

Do we imagine that He wants us to spit upon the Gay Community and bar them from full membership in Society? How many times did He tell us, Judge not lest ye be judged. Do not go to remove the splinter from your neighbor's eye until you have removed the log from your own. Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her. And the Good Samaritan is the most appropriate example of all, because the Good Samaritan, like the Samaritan Woman at the Well, was a symbol of all the people against whom we have prejudice over the years: the Jews (a particularly ironic reversal there) and the Muslims in the Middle Ages (and to one degree or another now), African Americans before the days of the Civil War (through to now), women (still going on), "illegal" immigrants (because we're only kidding ourselves pretending that we make the distinction), and the non-heterosexual (who, ironically, we used to tolerate a good deal more - in fact, the fact that Jesus never addressed this issue when it would have been present and possibly even rampant around Him might say something - although that's my own bias going a bit too far more likely than not).

We let the Light of God be twisted about, by those who would lead us astray. And not just Palin and the Tea Party people declaring war on sanity itself suggesting that ordinary citizens take up arms against their representatives who voted for the Health Care Plan (again, Christians are called to oppose a measure that would reach out to the sick and dying?) or Glen Beck tossing hate at anyone who doesn't agree with him and calling for revolution - it's that turn away from the true principles of God. At some point we decided it was easier to be conservative, to stop changing, to take what was radical beyond belief two thousand years ago and stick to that still strict code in our society that has drastically changed rather than applying the spirit of Jesus's message to our ever adapting world. And, yes, that certainly sounds like less work.

There are things in His words that are hard to understand. If we return to those words, we stand a better chance. If we remember how wildly radical He was, how frightening to those who would maintain the status quo, who would have us cling to hate rather than embrace love. Because hate and fear of the unknown feels easier than loving and embracing it as well.

But it is not the Christian way. And that the Christian right would think so for a moment shows how very far it has been led astray. And the saddest thing is - has it even been led astray? Or have the very institutions try to lead that charge simply painted it as such? And no one can contradict, and no one says anything as we are led further down the rabbit hole.

That is not the way of God. You will find that written out for you in His Word.