Failed Christianity and Trees

Some thoughts for Sunday's sermon ...

The church turned Christianity into a "God will help you all the time; just call on him" … we carry god around with us like a superstitious person carries a rabbit's foot or a lucky pebble in the pocket … with the bible nothing more than a cereal box of Lucky Charms into which we dip for some lucky bible verse to see us through, empower us, or make us superior to others … sadly, this kind of Christianity hasn't made us stronger or better in the LORD, but weaker, teaching us that it's our fault if the lucky charm doesn't work.

Rather than giving us the courage to live, and to live well, it's made us frightened and self-condemning, and condemning of others, too.

We do well to remember the little remembered book of Esther - there isn't one mention of god in it … because the writer knows that we already know enough of God and Self to do what's needed, and that's to protect one another against the evil that exists in our world …

Knowing that evil can be defeated when we stand with one another … and stand with the trees and the wolves and the whales and the oceans, too, to protect all of it from evil, which is sometimes ourselves, the greed of our soul, which is all too ready to sacrifice others, even the world, to satisfy whatever our need might be.

The church would rather keep us dependent and confused rather than visionary and loving. Has Christianity failed the world? Clearly. Does this render it meaningless?

I don't think so ... but it calls into question what the church has done with it - from fiery pentecostals and their fumings or polite pulpit pundits who soothe souls wearied, not by good works, but from the failure to grasp life's purpose, so they can gain a few moments of rest and return the world on Monday, not with a changed mind and heart, but a stubborn determination to keep on trying to make greed work.

Perhaps like John Muir, we would do well to contemplate a tree - "I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do."

Church and State and Poverty

The number of impoverished families and hungry children was waning when Johnson and this nation envisioned a Great Society and put up the money to make a difference. 

Starting with Reagan, this system has slowly been dismantled (ripping out Carter's solar panels on the white house was only the beginning), with billions flowing from the public sector into defense (talk about a welfare program), war (to satisfy the NeoCon lust for oil and Empire) and tax breaks for the wealthy. 

We've witnessed one of the largest transfers of wealth in the world - from the many to the few. Conservatives have gutted the government, hiding behind a romantic notion of local churches providing assistance. 

In reality, the churches have never done this in totality, but always in conjunction with government. It isn't that the government has failed, but rather that conservative forces in this nation have gutted the government when it comes to children and families, not to mention our nation's infrastructure, water and air, and our food supplies. 

Meanwhile painting the poor as lazy and dependent, wanting to be cared for; if anything, it's the rich who expect to be cared for, because of their social status. 

Check the history of British Aristocracy, the model for America's wealthy - they all expect plenty of free stuff - I think Jesus said something about the best seat in the synagogue. 

God has ordained in this world human and spiritual structures - to work together for the common good. What's needed is a partnership of the various spheres - Cain's line and Seth's line - government, church, mosque, synagogue, board room, Wall Street, and it's the government that can and should set the pace and lift up the Constitutional vision of a free and democratic nation, wherein the church is one of the players, but not the only player when it comes to the Good Society.

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Abraham Kuyper

Abraham Kuyper's Sphere Sovereignty has some merit in this discussion.

AIG - America's Self-Appointed Royalty

What does AIG stand for?

Apparently it stands for anything that furthers its self-interest.

Someone said to me, "I don't get it. How can they behave this way."

I replied, "It's simple. This is how royalty behaves."

The kings and queens of old Europe were amazed that anyone might question their "divine right" to rule. Even as they were led off to the guillotine or run out of the country, they could only shake their heads in disbelief that "their people" couldn't see it their way.

Beginning with the Great Liar (Reagan), this nation began to create a self-appointed royalty accountable to only themselves. We've always them, of course, but in the last 40 years, we've seen an explosion of wealth - not real wealth at all, but a credit-wealth boosted by government policy and a growing infatuation with wealth.

It's an entitlement identity, and, thus, it's no wonder that Jesus observed, "It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven."

This is not difficult to understand when we understand what wealth does to the mind and to the soul - it creates multiple illusions: "I'm right, I'm powerful, I'm self-made, I deserve this and I'm wonderful." And if one is religious, the added illusion: "God must want all of this for me."

Nor is it surprising, then, that Jesus said, "To whom much has been, much is required."

It takes enormous spiritual counterweight to bring balance to the lives of the wealthy, but it's not impossible.

I have been blessed to know people of wealth who live lives of moderation, restraint, compassion, humility and mercy - though such virtues were increasingly more elusive as our nation imbibed the liquor of self-indulgence. Our current crash and burn might help, but time will tell if we can see this as a means to improvement of character, or simply a nasty bump in the road to self-aggrandizement.

Sadly, many of our churches have failed to preach the whole gospel when it comes to wealth, and I understand why. One of the tactics of wealth is to threaten early withdrawal should the preacher offend with the truth, and most preachers, including this one, have a family to support.

Beginning with elements of an older Calvinism, wealth was seen as proof of God's election, and so the elect, or those who thought they were, worked all the harder, amassing wealth, and then seeing their wealth as proof of their spiritual status. And if so blessed, they had to be right about many other things.

In the last 40 years, we've witnessed the emergence of a "name it, claim it" Christianity that saw wealth as a divine blessing, and since "we're all children of the king, we ought to live as royalty," and it wouldn't hurt, by the way, to send in some money to the TV preacher, because it costs a lot to fly a jet and live in Palm Beach.

Wealthy congregations face enormous temptations to "spiritualize" the gospel and gut the message of its meaning, congratulating the wealthy for their intelligence, hard work and their place in life, turning the gospel into "five steps to wealth, health and happiness." Too bad Jesus wasn't around to hear this kind of preaching; he might have been able to avoid that messy things called "the cross."

Wealth is a gift from God - it's not a blessing to confirm one's spiritual status; it is test of our character, and when given by God, it's given for the sake of others!

Great wealth, when properly understood, produces great humility and great compassion.

But such things are not required of self-appointed royalty.

Brazil - Embryonic Stem Cell Research

In the world's largest Roman Catholic country, the high court has ruled in favor of legislation allowing embryonic stem cell research. Though opposed by church groups, Brazil makes a stand for research.

For me, it's always helpful when a state frees itself from the Church (I use a capital C to reference the Roman Church as a political entity), freeing not only itself, but the Church as well from the shackles of its own traditions.

The modest metaphors of salt, light and yeast used by Jesus are a far cry from the pomp and power of the Church.

Jesus never intended the church, the movement He founded, to be an Empire. He knew full well from the example of Rome the sadness and tragedy of empire.