Tag Archives: god

December 4, 2025 · 11:51 am

The patriarchy ends at Christmas

Anyone who has read through or has tried to read through the Old Testament has run into the genealogies. You know, the “He beget so and so-s” that seems to go on interminably.

But there is a reason for them. God promised that he would send a redeemer. Through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, through David, Solomon and so forth.

He promised that through the nation of Israel, he would redeem every nation on earth. Israel was his “firstborn son” and would inherit everything in the heavens and the earth if they were obedient and faithful. And so fathers beget sons, the Lord “seeking the godly seed”.

Originally, the patriarch of the family served as the priest for the family, but this went away when Aaron and his sons were appointed. It wasn’t “fatherhood” that made men priests. It was the promise of God pointing to his “godly seed”.

For even the sons of Levi needed purifying. Even Israel needed redeeming.

Throughout the Old Testament, you read about slaughters, murders, destruction, executions, rapes, slavery, idolatry, sacrificing children to Molech. God eventually cast Israel away. They would not be the firstborn son that God was seeking.

Jeremiah 15:3–6 (RSV)
3 “I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, says the LORD: the sword to slay, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.
      5 “Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
      or who will bemoan you?
      Who will turn aside
      to ask about your welfare?
      6 You have rejected me, says the LORD,
      you keep going backward;
      so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you;—
      I am weary of relenting.

In case you were wondering how a God of love could do this, remember what Manasseh did. He burned children alive as sacrifices to Molech. The air of Jerusalem was filled with the screams of children and the weeping of mothers.

But the God of Love redeemed even Manasseh eventually. (But that is another story).

For our story, God had cut Israel off. This is Satan’s great work. He is the accuser. He says, “God, how can you be just? Look at the atrocities that your people are committing? And yet you continue to permit them to live. How can you be just? If you declare them righteous, you are the worst judge ever. If you declare them guilty, then how can they be saved? It looks like you are stuck to me.”

The scary part is that Satan was right. How can a judge be just and allow the atrocities that God allows? And if God’s justice responds to rape and murder and hate and theft and war and greed and the slaughter and starvation of children then how can he be Love?

But the genealogies continued. It is almost as if God wasn’t listening. Everyone is waiting. What will he do?

And while the world waits for God’s response, like Habakkuk on the tower, the genealogies continue.

1 Chronicles 3:16–24 (RSV)
16 The descendants of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son; 17 and the sons of Jeconiah, the captive: Shealtiel his son, 18 Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah; 19 and the sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shime-i; and the sons of Zerubbabel: Meshullam and Hananiah, and Shelomith was their sister; 20 and Hashubah, Ohel, Berechiah, Hasadiah, and Jushab-hesed, five. 21 The sons of Hananiah: Pelatiah and Jeshaiah, his son Rephaiah, his son Arnan, his son Obadiah, his son Shecaniah. 22 The sons of Shecaniah: Shemaiah. And the sons of Shemaiah: Hattush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah, and Shaphat, six. 23 The sons of Neariah: Eli-o-enai, Hizkiah, and Azrikam, three. 24 The sons of Eli-o-enai: Hodaviah, Eliashib, Pelaiah, Akkub, Johanan, Delaiah, and Anani, seven.

I know… long and dull. But in the midst of all of these names, there was still hope. Fathers beget sons and the world waited for the Son of David.

There is even a hint of what is to come – Shelomith, his sister… Is this about patriarchy, rule, power, strength and control? That way already came to a bloody end when Jehoiakim was taken captive. What does Shelomith the daughter of Zerubbabel have to do with the promise of the coming Son of David? (Hebrew: Messhiach- the anointed)

C.S. Lewis said through the mouth of Aslan “there is a deeper magic that the witch doesn’t know” (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe).

She knows about the magic of the natural order. She knows about the “soul that sins shall die.” She knows about law and order, about justice, and all of the “begets”. And she knows how to wage war and pit God’s justice against God’s love, which is really all that patriarchy has to offer.

But there was a “deeper magic” that she didn’t understand, written before the foundation of the world.

The “seed of the woman” would crush the head of the serpent.

Through all of the begets, one right after another, the deeper magic seemed forgotten. Perhaps God is reminding us by mentioning a daughter that he hadn’t forgotten the deeper magic

How can a woman has a seed? Men have seed (Latin: semen). There is something outside of and beyond the natural order that will come through and redeem the world of murder and hatred and racism and genocide and death.

The New Testament starts with…a genealogy. The very first words of the good news: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ…”

You have probably skipped it every time you read the Christmas Story. I do too.

But this year, take a minute and go through it. Each name – the heartache, the loss, the fear of death, the judgment, the destruction, the wars, the earthquakes, the crucifixions and impalings and slow tortures. The harems of the rich, the abandonment of the daughters, the harsh rule of cruel men and the viciousness of cruel women.

And the brokenness and loneliness and hunger and want and nakedness and terror. The slaves without hope, the widows starving at the gates, the orphans, the desperate, the prisoners, those condemned to death.

And another “beget” and another. Another. Another.

And then – Jesus Christ.

And please hear me now. This is crucial:

This is the last genealogy in the Bible.

(Yes, I know about Luke. That is parallel, it doesn’t come after Matthew).

All of the genealogies from Adam through the centuries of pain and promise end with Jesus, the deeper magic.

He has no wife and no son. And he was the “seed of the woman”. Mary, the virgin, gives birth without a man at all.

The deeper magic – where God’s love and God’s justice meet in one Human, the True Israel of God, the second Adam, the godly seed, the righteous Son of David, and the heir of all things. He is the perfect, obedient, loving Son of God who inherits where Adam failed and Israel failed.

And because he was the “seed of the woman” he begins a new humanity out of the ruins of the old. Where love and inclusion and peace and justice all kiss each other perfectly. He doesn’t do away with the human race, he delivers it. All of the rot and fear and shame and guilt he nails to the cross as the representative of the Human Race, the second Adam, and lifts it all out of the dust of death at his resurrection.

And the power of the Accuser is taken away. And yes, his voice is very powerful. He alternates between calling for the destruction of the wicked to the destruction of your own heart. Look at that filth. Look at it! How can God love someone like you?

And we reply – look at the cross. Better, look at the resurrection! Look at the one who created the universe laying in a manger. The power of mankind doesn’t save anyone, and ends up the same way every time. Death, slaughter of innocents, rape, abuse and greed.  A different order is needed, where weakness crushes the serpent. Where bruised heels disarm and destroy.

The era of patriarchy ended on Christmas. Paul tells us that the seed of the woman, born under the law, redeems us from the curse of the law.

And now, the blessing of Abraham (that we will become the heirs of the world) is fulfilled in us. The curse of the old magic is taken away; the blessing of Abraham is freely given in Christ.

Whether you are male or female, slave or free, rich or poor, you are a firstborn son because Jesus is the firstborn son, and everything he has he gives to you.

Galatians 4:4–7 (RSV)
4 But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.

And Paul’s whole point in the book of Galatians is this:

Why on earth would anyone want to return to the law? The “magic” of the natural order? It only leaves us condemned. The rule of hierarchy, of supremacy, of patriarchy, of might makes right, destroys humankind! Why would anyone want to return?

The modern lust for patriarchy only brings ruin and death. It is disguised as Christianity, but it is the religion of Manasseh – we appease the stingy gods with the sacrifices of our wives and our children and maybe if we are hard enough on sinners God will be merciful to us.

Thus the lust to crush and destroy those that the powerful deem as “sinners”.

Our president vowed to crush Somalis. We won’t be great until we rid the world of “garbage”. This isn’t Christianity. This is Baal.

This is why the modern evangelical church wages war against LGBTQA+. “God can’t bless America with this filth!”

And on and on it goes. Rid the world of sinners so God can bless us again!

And they will erect the nativity scenes and miss the point entirely.

It isn’t the firstborn seed of the virile man that will change the world.

It is the seed of the woman. In ways you won’t ever expect.

A glass of water. A bit of food. A place to sleep. A kind word. And a willingness to endure reproach for being a “friend of sinners”, just as Jesus was.

This is Christmas. And you can celebrate it aright by ridding yourselves of the remnants of the old magic, and embrace the new humanity, where all are firstborn sons in Jesus Christ.

One-Time
Monthly
Yearly

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00

Or enter a custom amount

$

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

December 1, 2025 · 6:09 pm

Does God Like Me?

You’re fat.

You’re stupid.

No one even likes you.

You are worthless.

If it wasn’t for me, no one would even tolerate you.

There are millions who were raised by cruel and harsh men and women who have never known a kind word; who have never known what it is to be accepted or loved.

We learn our place in the world from those around us when we are little. Every child is born looking for someone looking for them. Does anyone delight in me? Do I have a place in this world?

Children can’t talk all the way through this or make sense of this. But they pick up the clues.

“Am I safe?”

“Am I loved?”

“Am I acceptable?”

In my family, I was the weird one. I thought that if I could be more like the acceptable people, perhaps my mother would love me. So I put on so many different types and personalities. I learned that I was on my own. I didn’t have a support group.

But I also learned that God was like this as well. If I could find the formula, if I could do everything just right, if I could say my prayers right, and find out whatever it was I was missing, perhaps God would accept me as well.

And yes, I know that “Jesus paid it all” and that God loves me because, well, he has too, doesn’t he?

But does God actually like me?

Have you heard parents that say, “I love you, but I sure don’t like you right now”?

I think sometimes that God thinks like this as well. Maybe he is on his throne saying, “Sam is sure a weirdo. No wonder he has problems.”

It’s hard to get that voice out of your head, especially when it has been engrained in you from infancy.

And unfortunately, we grow and often surround ourselves with the voices we are familiar with:

You are fat. You are lazy. You are weird. Nobody likes you. Everything you think about yourself is true.

You are a loser. You are weak. You are dumb.

These words surround us continually. They eat at the soul.

These are not the words that we have learned from Christ Jesus. He taught us to use words of truth and grace, seasoned with salt, edifying to the hearer.

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. (Eph 4:29)

There are so many ways to tear people down with words. One of the most insidious is to never revile out loud, but just simply let your victim know that they really aren’t very likeable. Perhaps they are weird. Perhaps they do things differently. Perhaps they think a little…not like you. This is the classic passive-aggressive bully. God hates it.

This one is close to my heart, because I am…let’s face it…weird. I cannot small talk for anything. I have no idea what is going on in any sporting event. I say weird things at weird times. I don’t have a clue what “guys do”.  At my bachelor party, two of my friends picked me up from work and said, “This is YOUR NIGHT. You can do whatever you want!” I sat on their couch and stared at them for two hours until they let me go home.

I’m weird. There is no situation where I am not awkward, no conversation that I can’t stop by saying something very weird.

And most of my life, I was absolutely convinced that most people would be far happier if I just went home. So I usually did.

It occurred to me the other day that I have a hard time believing that anyone likes me. And then it occurred to me that I carry this belief to God himself. Does God actually like me?

It is an interesting question. I think that question is particularly difficult for those who have been attacked with the tongue. How can anyone like me? Does God like me? Does it matter?

It isn’t the same as “Does God love me”. We know that God does love us. He loves us with perfect, infinite, unchanging love in Jesus Christ, his beloved Son. We also know that nothing separates us from his love.

But does he like me?

Our greatest fear is that God just barely tolerates us. He loves us in Christ, but really just wishes we would go away. Can you think of anything more shameful than hearing God say, “I love you, but I sure don’t like you much.”

Do you see what I am getting at? I’m trying to make the doctrine of God’s love practical, and looking at what it actually means. What does it mean to love someone that you don’t really like? I guess I just don’t get that.

Does God think I’m weird? Does he think that church would be better if I didn’t show up? Does he roll his eyes and sigh when I cry out to him yet again?

Yes,  I know that God hates sin and calls me to repent. I also know that he has cleansed me from sin. I know that he does not tolerate sin. I’m not talking about sin. I’m talking about the fact that I really like colored socks and don’t know what to say to strangers I’ve just met. I’m talking about the kind of clothes that I wear and the kind of music I like. I wear waistcoats and hats and say weird things.

Does God like me? I am not speaking about the independence of God. I know that God does not need his creatures, including me, for anything. I do not add to his blessedness, for in him are all the perfections of holiness. I add nothing to God. I get that.

But does God like me?

Here’s why I believe this question is important. We were created to be social, in fellowship. We were created to be loved and have friends, to walk with God, to speak with him in the cool of the day. We were created to live in harmony with one another. We were created to be accepted and to love and be loved and to belong. To know and to be known.

And we still have that memory of Eden. We still have the need to belong. My heart still cries out to belong, to fit in, to be acceptable. The human heart cannot abide being outcast. No one can live thinking that everyone wishes they would go away, that everyone just thinks they are stupid, fat, smelly, ugly and weird. We cannot live thinking that we are totally unacceptable. This is the insidious nature of abuse. It tears down and destroys what the heart longs for the most. The words of a spouse can hurt and destroy and kill far more than any weapon imaginable. To be unacceptable, banished from love, and undesirable is intolerable to an image-bearer of God.

So the question is very important. Does God like me?

If God does not like me, then I must seek acceptance elsewhere. The stupidest, most shameful things I have ever done I did to try to be accepted. I sought the approval of men, and failed all the way around. I still blush when I think of it.

But if I do not seek the approval of men, whose approval do I seek, if God does not like me?

Do you see what I am getting at?

What do I do to be accepted? I am loved because of Jesus Christ, but does God accept me? Does God like me? Do I need to wear more acceptable, “god-like” clothing? Use more Christian-like phrases? Do I need to change my personality to something more acceptable to God?

Once again, I am not talking about sin. I know I need to confess and flee from sin. I am asking what I need to do for God to like me. Does God like me? Am I likeable?

And when I asked that question, scripture after scripture after scripture came to my mind and I felt free at last.

Ephesians 1:5–6 (NRSV)
5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

God chose ME because he wanted to, and he made me accepted in the beloved. God DOES like me, and I am accepted by him!

He made me the way that I am because it delighted him to do so.

Psalm 139:13–14 (NRSV)
13 For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.

He put together my frame, my form, my face. He gave me my hair and my eyes. he gave me this belly and these feet. He doesn’t think of me as defiled, ugly, unclean, untouchable, for he made me. He gave me these parts, and behold they are very good.

Get thee behind me, Satan! God gave me this face and said it was very good! How dare you insult the frame that God gave to me! I’m not dirty and untouchable and unlovable!

As for my gifts and personalities,

18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 1 Cor. 12:18–20.

(Read the whole chapter!) See how God has chosen ME and has given me the gifts that he gave me. He gave me those gifts on purpose. He knew what he was doing. He gave me my weird personality, he gave me my strange quirks. In fact, it is because I am different that I am valuable to the body of Christ, according to this text. If we were all an eye, who would do the hearing?

Look around your church, look at your fellow believers. God gave each of them their gifts, their looks, their abilities, their perspectives, their cultural and social background. And he did it ON PURPOSE.

It is his good pleasure to give you all the kingdom.

Does God like us?

Zephaniah 3:17–18 (NRSV)
17 The LORD, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
18 as on a day of festival.
I will remove disaster from you,
so that you will not bear reproach for it.

And here,

Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. (Psa 100:3)

Our God, thrice holy, infinite and almighty, the creator and sustainer of the earth made ME, and made me on purpose. He gave me my personality, my background, my gifts. he gave me the body that I have, and even the flaws are counted – like how many hairs fall.

And he said it was very good. He redeemed me in Christ, and calls me to put off the old man with the fears and the doubts. He told me not to be a man-pleaser, but to seek to please him.

Because of the work of the Lord Jesus, and because I belong to him by faith, I am accepted by God. And because I am loved, God has given me his spirit, and given me gifts.

Because he delights in me I am free to rest in his love. Because he sings over me, I can be at peace with everyone around me, for who can take me from his love? I can walk in kindness; I can use my gifts for his glory. I don’t need to hide them under a bushel. I don’t need to be ashamed of who I am. Because God delights in me.

ME!

I am not just barely tolerated by God, but accepted in the beloved. He loves ME, and, yes, if I may say so, he likes me.

And so let’s all put aside our doubts and our fears and run this race together, shall we? Let’s quit trying to lift ourselves up by tearing one another down. Let’s quit trying to one-up each other, bragging and boasting about our accomplishments. Let’s quit worrying about whether anyone else likes us or not. If God is for us, who can possibly be against us?

Be kind, courageous and faithful, for your God is with you!

“I am my beloved’s, and he is mine.”

In fact, he says this of us:

Song of Solomon 1:15–17 (NRSV)
15 Ah, you are beautiful, my love;
ah, you are beautiful;
your eyes are doves.
16 Ah, you are beautiful, my beloved,
truly lovely.
Our couch is green;
17 the beams of our house are cedar,
our rafters are pine.

One-Time
Monthly
Yearly

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00

Or enter a custom amount

$

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

November 17, 2025 · 6:10 pm

Apologetics and Trauma

My seminary education was pretty standard for a Presbyterian/Reformed student.
It was Master’s Level work. Intense on Systematics, Greek, Hebrew, Exegesis, History and so on, and I am truly thankful for the grounding I received in classical theology.

One area that was a deficit, in my opinion, which is pretty typical in Reformed Presbyterians: I had 5 (!) semesters of Apologetic classes. FIVE. Apologetics, for those who are not Christians or otherwise not familiar with the term, is the study of the defense of Christianity. Originally, it was a study of the arguments of the ancient Martyrs in response to the powerful state which had outlawed Christianity. You can find examples of Paul defending his faith in the book of Acts.

Now, though, it is a bit different. Now, apologetics studies the ancient apologists, but it is mostly a study on how to argue with an educated atheist at a Starbucks and win the argument.

Part of the problem was an obsession with Van Til (iykyk) and “presuppositionalism”, and part of it is the absolute refusal of Reformed and Presbyterian churches to engage with the actual culture of the day. They tend to not understand or not care, what makes people tick.

So I had five semesters on how to argue with people, and how all of the classical theologians were wrong until Van Til came along and sorted them all out.

But could you guess how many classes I had on the effect of trauma in the body and the mind?
zero. Not one. Not even mentioned. Never came up, even once.

My professors still thought that most people had these carefully crafted arguments against Christianity that we could dismantle with skill and learned responses. But in the 20 years since I completed seminary, I never once met a person who carefully crafted intellectual arguments against Christianity, who was just waiting for me to come along and set them straight.

Most of the defense of the faith that I was doing was defending the faith against the religious right who thought that their worship of power and money was Christianity.
They didn’t listen any more than the guy at Starbucks listened. It was simply an intellectual exercise, and not worth the price of the coffee.

Because most people are just trying to survive. The religious right is trying to protect the world from perceived enemies, being afraid of everything.

And everyone else is just trying to make it through another day.

They are trying to deal with a husband who beats them, or rapes them every night.
They are trying to deal with the flashbacks of what their Sunday School teacher did to them, and how no one believed them.
Or trying to deal with the fact that they are attracted solely to the same sex and can’t change no matter what they do and are convinced that God hates them
Or trying to deal with the time their dad beat their dog to death when he had too much to drink.
Or trying to get through the day when they can’t find one reason to hope or stay alive and they just want the pain to stop.
Or trying to bury the shame of losing their virginity to the smelly guy with zits who promised he would love you forever.

Or trying to drown out the voices that continually say that they are no good, worthless, hopeless and will never be worthy of love.

And the downfall of Reformed thinking is this:
Mankind only has two problems:
One is sin, and if they just repent everything will be fine.
Two is bad presuppositions about life. And if I just explain the Christian world and life view, you will be able to make the right choices and everything will be just fine.

Anything beyond that doesn’t fit into the world-view. And therefore cannot be seen.

When they see the homeless girl, or the drug addict – they are only capable of seeing someone who made bad choices. They cannot see and will not see trauma, hopelessness, mental illness…These are things they can’t control, and Reformed theology is all about control. If I do the right things, bad things can’t happen.

And they have no room for anyone who challenges that viewpoint.

What I was taught was to listen to someone carefully in order to discern what choices they made that led them to where they are now, so I could call them to repentance, and excommunicate them if they didn’t repent…

OR – find out where their presuppositions were in error so I could correct them and change their thinking. Trauma, isolation, loneliness, hopelessness, the human condition, never entered into it.

And very soon in my professional ministry I saw the worthlessness of that approach. I didn’t know what else to do then, so I just listened.

And when I listened, I learned. And I learned about trauma and so much else.

I learned that stories told in safe places led to healing.

So my goal in ministry was not to fix people. But to provide a safe place for stories to be told. and encourage professional therapy. And to give room and patience and hope to the dying soul before me.


My two bits.

3 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

November 12, 2025 · 9:59 am

Epstein files: Will it matter?

With all the anticipation for the release of the “Epstein files”, I don’t think it will really make any difference.

First, even if congress votes to compel the release, the files are most likely destroyed, in a closet at Mar-a-lago, or who knows where. You cannot depend on anyone in this administration to be ethical in anything they do. It will take us years to undo the damage.

Second, even if those files were released and everything we already know is there is proven to be there, Trump will not lose one vote from his base. Hatred is too powerful and has been inculcated in MAGA from pulpits, talk radio, FOX news and church basements for decades now. They will simply listen to Fox, determine that it is a hoax by Biden, or happened a long time ago, or “Hilary was worse”, or any of the other excuses that they will come up with.

Third, the only thing that will remove Trump before he does even more damage is if the Supreme Court, Congress and the Senate actually grow a pair and do something. But my guess is that they are all mostly in the files themselves, or Trump has something over them. It isn’t like his character is waiting for a surprise revelation. It isn’t like Perry Mason is going to swoop in with an envelope that changes everything.

So, no. I’m not optimistic that the files will change anything.

But I do have hope. This is why I was so happy with the election of Zohran. The voters can actually wake up, hit the polls and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD stop electing the same white trash over and over and over again, no matter which party.

If they were in office when Carter was president, STOP VOTING FOR THEM.

And stop watching the news. Stop filling your head with the garbage that pours out for 24 hours. If you are old and sick and can’t get out of your chair, watch animal documentaries. Discover a Mahler symphony. ANYTHING other than the same fear mongering over and over again.

Old White straight cis Guys have been running this country into the ground for 300 years, and this is where we are. Let’s elect someone else.

By the way, in ancient Israel, Baal was a worship of power and an attempt to manipulate God into opening his stingy, angry hands and pouring out a blessing. Many of them in Israel called this god Yahweh – 2 Kings 17 describes it perfectly.

Modern evangelicalism is simply revamped Baal worship. Those who are “deconstructing” are not generally rejecting Jesus. They are rejecting the priests of Baal using the name of Jesus.

Their worship has far more in common with Mount Carmel than it does Mt. Zion. It is simply a method to manipulate a blessing out of God by doing all the right things, hating the right people, dancing the right dance, having the right worship band, and a speaker with the ability to stir up great emotion…

When we come to Mt Zion (a figurative expression for the reign of Jesus) – we simply wait and trust. It makes all the difference.

So even though I am skeptical about the victims receiving justice on this earth, I am not skeptical about the victims receiving justice from Jesus Christ. He will certainly hear them and come in judgment when the iniquity of MAGA is complete. But first he gives ample opportunity to repent and make it right.

So far, MAGA has resisted every effort to act morally and ethically. Their judgment will be not long delayed. Wait and hope.

One-Time
Monthly
Yearly

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00

Or enter a custom amount

$

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

November 4, 2025 · 2:53 pm

SNAP, Poverty and Jesus

What the religious right gets so wrong

Nov 04, 2025

I did not do a poll of every single person who identifies as the religious right, but I grew up with it. I can read blogs. I see the comment section.

And this is what we hear from people who have “I love Jesus” in the biographies. I’ve heard this in countless fellowship meals in countless conservative churches.

“If they don’t work, they shouldn’t eat.”

“They can lift themselves up by their bootstraps like everyone else”

“I work hard for my money, and I’m not paying for junk food for some single mom”

“Immigrants shouldn’t be coming to take welfare from us, anyway…”

And they get the heart of Christianity so damnably wrong.

First, Jesus himself said that feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty was an activity that separated his sheep from the goats of the world. Because he is speaking of the entire human race, his precepts here are universally binding.

Paul, however, who was writing to the Thessalonians stated that if one doesn’t work, he shouldn’t eat. Is he contradicting Jesus? Of course not. He is speaking of a specific situation in a specific time in a specific place. We don’t know the exact situation here, but he certainly isn’t talking about feeding the poor. Perhaps he is speaking of the idle rich class who were using the charities of the church to fill their bellies while contributing nothing. Every age has seen that type, and it seems to fit the context.

Whatever the specifics were, he doesn’t contradict the universal precept that if we wish to follow Jesus, we give our food to the hungry, clean water to the thirsty, help to the sick, and companionship and connection to the prisoner.

It isn’t an option.

So the next argument would be “Yes. But it is private charity. Not the government’s job to take from the rich to give to the poor.”

I used to buy that argument as well. We perhaps might see if they actually mean it this month, but I believe that they do not. I don’t see the rich giving food to the hungry without a lot of strings attached. Jesus himself said, “How hard it is for a rich man to enter heaven!” And we want to entrust the care of the poor to the rich and their goodwill?

It is the government’s duty to promote the good and punish evil. If the rich do not volunteer to open their wallets to care for the poor, then I have no problem with the government coercing them to do so with taxes. I also believe that the government should prevent every sort of theft and every sort of violence and every sort of covenant breaking as well. It is, actually, their job.

The righteous king in Psalm 72 cares for the needy.

Let’s take another one: I work hard for my money and don’t want to give it to deadbeats.

This one I am writing to a specific audience – those who believe, as I do, that the bible is God’s word and authoritative.

The Bible says, “What do you have that you did not receive?” Didn’t we used to believe that? We give thanks before our meal, and then give ourselves credit for having enough to eat? Do you see the contradiction?

Did you receive it from the hand of God? Or did you not?

Who was it that gave you the ability to do your job well enough that you can live on your salary?

Who gave you your health?

Who gave you your privilege to attend school? To own a bank account?

Who caused the crops to grow and who brought the workers to the field and harvested those crops? Who gave the truck driver his eyes and ears to bring the food to the grocery? Who gave the dock worker his hands to unload that truck?

And who can take all of it away in a moment?

How many have had to flee from an abusive spouse? How many have children by a man who promised the moon and then fled? How many lost their health and then their jobs?

How many lost their job because they had a heart attack?

How many have had to flee with their children to get to somewhere safe?

How many are working the fields every day to bring in the food that you take credit for?

Do you see my point? If you claim to belong to Jesus, you used to confess this.

You might work hard, but it has nothing to do with whether you are rich or poor. Your riches and your poverty don’t come by your efforts. They come from the hand of God.

Ecclesiastes 9:11

11 I have seen something else under the sun:

The race is not to the swift

or the battle to the strong,

nor does food come to the wise

or wealth to the brilliant

or favor to the learned;

but time and chance happen to them all.

And here is the thing that will make you really uncomfortable.

If God has made you poor, he will exalt you and give you riches you cannot imagine.

If God has made you rich, he will hold you accountable for how you use those riches.

1 Timothy 6:17–18 (NIV)

17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.

He expects wide open hands and wide open pocketbooks. Give, with the measure tamped down and overflowing, because it isn’t yours. He has just made you the caretaker for a little while, and he will check over the accounts when he comes for his vineyard.

That is the theology of scripture. You don’t have a choice and as a community we don’t have a choice. We must feed the hungry because what we have is loaned to us for a small time.

The single mom with kids? You have no idea what her story is. It doesn’t matter.

The man in line at the grocery using SNAP? You have no idea what his story is. He might be a slacker. He might be the hardest worker you have ever met. It doesn’t matter.

Muslem, Hindu, Jew, Palestinian, Christian, Atheist – makes no difference. No one should go hungry.

“What if their choices led to their poverty?” So what? Can you honestly say that your virtue has been so impeccable that you deserve every good thing you have? We all have fallen short in so many ways. That shouldn’t make us morose. It should make us laugh and sing and rejoice!

And it should make us generous. We should strive for policies that leave no one hungry or without healthcare, or without clean water. We might disagree on which policies work the best, but doing it isn’t an option. It MUST be done, Jesus requires it.

If you say, “Jesus is lord” you MUST strive to find a way to ensure that no one is hungry.

Jesus said, “What measure you use will be measured back to you.”

He is speaking in the context of judgment. If you are judging someone for being an evildoer, God will use that same judgment on you. This is what “judge not” means. If you are quick to point out flaws, God will be quick to point out yours.

To the subject at hand – if you are looking in the cart of that single mom with three crying kids and sneering at her cake mix, cookies and chips, think about God also looking at YOUR cart and using that same judgment…that’s the point.

It should make us thankful and filled with peace. It’s the path to loving your neighbor as yourself.

I want to be seen as someone with inherent dignity and honor; so I will choose to see my neighbor that way.

I want to have healthcare when I or my family are sick. I want to have enough to eat. I don’t want my neighbors judging me for what I choose to eat or not eat. I want to be seen and accepted.

The measure you use will be measured back to you. Do you want those things? Then also strive for them for your neighbor.

You should be happy that you have enough wealth to pay your taxes, so that your neighbor can also go to the doctor when they are sick. So that they can also eat when they are hungry and have clean water when they are thirsty.

And they should be able to have those things without judgment, without criticism, while being accepted as worthy of honor and dignity.

Why?

Because that is exactly what Jesus has done for you, when you didn’t deserve it. And he expects you to shine that same light on the world.

And just to clarify one of my pet peeves:

When you say, “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps” you are using a proverb that has the opposite meaning than what you intend. It is usually used to promote “rugged individualism”, but it actually means that we all need help and community.

Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is actually impossible, which thinking people get. You don’t have the leverage, no matter how strong you are or how clever. It is against the laws of physics.

So also is the fiction that we can do it alone and don’t need any “charity”. Our next breath is because of the goodness of God. We all need community or we will all perish.

One-Time
Monthly
Yearly

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00

Or enter a custom amount

$

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

October 1, 2025 · 12:45 pm

The white light and a STEMI

I finally pieced together what happened to me.
My office is secure, so I was in there alone and the door was locked. I had just picked up a sandwich from Jimmy Johns and it was on my desk. I hadn’t even opened it.

I remember an immense pain in my chest and an inability to get off the floor. I remember dreaming that I was home in bed with my wife, and then I woke up again. I couldn’t get my breath. The pain was unimaginable. I couldn’t get up, so I started kicking my door from the floor. A co-worker heard me. I passed out again.

When I came to again, the school nursing staff was there with me and the ambulance was on the way. At this point I was in and out of it. I remember unlocking my phone so the nurse could call Susan.

Susan met us at the ER in Faribault. I was in and out, but I woke up for a second and told her that she could have my sandwich. I didn’t get around to it.

They needed to get me to Abbot Northwestern – which is one of the top four heart hospitals in the country. But the storm coming in was too dangerous for the helicopters. So they loaded me into another ambulance. I remember the drivers being very kind but somewhere along the way, I lost consciousness and didn’t regain it again for over 24 hours. I woke with a tube in my throat, and Susan telling me I was going to be OK.

Very soon after that, my pastor came in and read Psalm 27 and prayed with me.

Much later, I found out what had happened. I had a STEMI, (Acute ST elevation myocardial infarction of the inferior wall) which is nicknamed the widow-maker because of the horrible mortality rate. This kind doesn’t sneak up and take you from behind, It is a full assault. When I was 8, my grandpa died of this kind of heart attack. He was only 55.

The doctor told me that often the first symptom is death.

While I was under, I was told that I flat-lined and had to be put on life support. I was on two machines – an ecmo and an impella for something less than 24 hours keeping me alive and the blood oxygenated and flowing. At this point, the doctor told Susan to be prepared for palliative care.

Technically, it is called cardiogenic shock. When they heart goes into cardiogenic shock because of a STEMI, the mortality rate is around 80 percent.

But God had other plans. Because there were so many hundreds of you praying, my heart was ready to go on its own. Yes, I believe that God used the skill of the surgeons and the EMTs and the nursing staff and so many other things to spare my life. God wasn’t ready for me to go yet. The surgeon was pretty astounded and took me off the machines.

I have no memory of any of that.

I have had questions about what I saw. The simple answer is nothing. I have no memories of that whole time.

After I woke, I had hallucinations behind by eyelids whenever I closed my eyes, but for the most part they were ugly and hateful.

I had one horribly ugly nightmare, so bad I talked to several doctors about it. The psychiatrist admits there is mystery, but told me it is most likely the mind trying to formulate and make sense of what the body has been through. That sounds good to me.

As for my view of the afterlife, yes, I believe that when I die I will see Jesus and be with him. But I don’t get my faith from dreams and visions, but from faith in his promises.

My dreams and visions during that time were mostly ugly and frightening.
My moments of calm and peace were from holding my wife’s hand; listening to my pastor read and pray, reading the notes from all of you

I will have some PTSD to work through. I’ll have some PT to do and heart rehab to do.

For those who believe they saw something of the afterlife having the same experience, I don’t judge. People are different. I can only say what my experience was.

I don’t find peace and joy through dreams, but through sitting with the ones who love me and whom I love, reminding each other of God’s promises and resting in our Savior, who promised to never let go of our hands, even in the valley of the shadow of death.

I don’t know what happened to my sandwich. Susan tells me I might have to eventually let it go.

5 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

August 25, 2025 · 8:14 pm

When it bursts, then what?

I have to admit something. I struggle, as you have probably guessed. The Angry Orange Lunatic and his sycophants have cost me tremendously over the years in real life. And he hasn’t cost me near as much as he has cost our brown brothers and sisters, our trans friends, our gay friends – those who live in fear every day.

I watch men dragged away from their wives in tears. I hear the unfounded accusations, the blatant lies and false witness. I weep with all of the young women who have been raped by white men in power without any recourse, crying out for justice on this earth and seeing none.

I see beautiful cities run over by humvees and SS troops dragging homeless men and women out to die.

And worst of all, I see the evangelical and Reformed churches cheering and celebrating cruelty, lies, assault, groping, concentration camps…

And honestly, I struggle with hatred. I pray for the destruction of the enemies of humanity.

And it bothers me, because I really don’t want to become like them. I want beauty and harmony and peace. I want love and gentleness and safety – not just for me, but for all of God’s creatures.

Even the mouse that I told you about yesterday broke my heart and I couldn’t put out another glue strip since.

And I think of humans in God’s image locked in cages, fed almost nothing, no privacy, no dignity, no safety – and I see former friends and family that cheer on this administration, not in spite of the atrocities, but BECAUSE of the atrocities.

See. My blood starts to boil again. What do I do? I don’t want to live with rage. But I don’t want what is happening in the country to keep happening.

But what is even worse is this – it isn’t one man. It isn’t one group of men. It is the whole history of this country that this country is trying so desperately to whitewash.
It is the millions of Africans that we enslaved without hope, picking cotton year after year, generation after generation, without any agency, free will, value, dignity – and still lifting their heads up through it all and crying out for freedom. The image of God in them still bursting through the hell that the white church put them through.

It is millions of natives slaughtered, lands stolen, massacred – men, women and children. All of them living through trauma I will never know.

It millions of Latinos and Latinas fleeing death sentences working hunched over melon fields and lettuce fields to scrape a living, and now fleeing for their lives, hated and pursued like animals.

And it is knowing that I will be crucified online for being “woke” for saying it.

Fred Rogers was too soft for the adults in my childhood. They hated him, Bob Ross and men like him for being weak, and called out for “men to rise up and lead!!” The fruits of the spirit were never seen. Only strength, domination, control. Anything else was giving in to the hippies.

Orange Taco isn’t an anomaly. He’s the pustulous cancer that the rot of white supremacy pushed to a head. The pus started about the time of the first slave ship was brought over by the puritan and congregational landowners who couldn’t be assed to pick their own damn cotton. That pus has grown and grown, and now he’s about to burst, and then what? His followers will crawl into obscurity like every single other one of his sycophants, dressing like a chicken and singing for a few bucks like Rudy Giuliani. Selling one’s soul is never cheap, but there are still takers.
And when that pustule has burst, then what?

Will we see national repentance? Will we finally admit that people with melanin, and non-hetero or non-cis people, or people from other nations or other genders or other histories or other cultures or other religions are human beings in God’s image, loved as his creatures, redeemed as his creation and worthy of dignity, honor, freedom and love as much as we are?

Will we finally embrace the catholicity of God? Beyond race, beyond color, beyond culture, the creator and sustainer of all life, not just white males?

Or will we continue to shrivel up into ourselves like C S Lewis’s dwarves – “The Dwarves are for the Dwarves!” – refusing redemption, refusing beauty, refusing love and holding our damnable pride. Mowing over roses of hope and joy to erect concrete structures to beat the wicked heads against? Softness and beauty and subtlety gives way to power, and the rot that is left continues to destroy the soul.

I can’t make that choice for you. I know what I will do. I will take the rose that God gives as his gift to men. I will take beauty and gentleness. I will take courage and color and truth – and I will humbly leave God to judge the world, for he knows far better than I do how to go about it without destroying it.

I will try to deal with my anger the best I know how, and long for a better day when love prevails and I no longer have to watch such gleeful cruelty on my screen every day.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. How we need you.

One-Time
Monthly
Yearly

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00

Or enter a custom amount

$

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

May 18, 2025 · 5:17 pm

Profit and loss

Last summer I was walking through a grocery store and overheard two elderly gentlemen in a discussion. They were talking about the felony convictions of 47. They didn’t doubt he was a criminal felon. They talked about his rapes and they didn’t doubt them. They talked about his narcissism and psychotic tendencies.

And then I overheard one of them saying something I won’t forget.

“Well,” he said, “I’ll probably still vote for him. In the end I reckon he’ll put more money in my pocket than the other guy.”

That made me sad, and I thought about it.

The argument resonated with me because I was born and raised in those circles, so I’ve heard it before.

Cut taxes. Lower prices. Leave more money for all of us.

We were eventually tricked into thinking that this was the whole of the human experience.

I’m all for cutting waste and spending money wisely, but I think we need to remember what Jesus said over and over again.

What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?

I don’t think he was thinking about Grecian metaphysics, with a dichotomy between spirit and body. That was a bit of a foreign concept to Jewish thinking.

Soul meant something more profound. It could be translated “life”, or “breath”. Jesus could have been talking about death. What will it profit a man to gain everything this world has to offer and then die.

And that is true. Solomon had the same insights in Ecclesiastes.

But I don’t think that even that exhausts what Jesus is talking about. Because to the mind of a first century Jew, psyche meant something even more than that. It means everything that makes a human a human. It means the self, the part of humanity that was created to reflect God.

Living through these days, I think I am starting to get a glimmer.

If your whole life is consumed by profit, and the whole of your morality is who will leave the most money in your pocket, soon you will lose your very soul.

The music and the dancing. The part that plays with the cat.

The song and the poetry. The art and the novel.

Empathy for the outcast. Love for the neighbor. joy in colors and art and expression.

The glint of a rainbow on the tear of a shepherd, the rapturous joy in the final moments of Beethoven’s fifth symphony.

The chills of the entrance of the trombone in Prokofieff’s third piano concerto; the astounding skill of Caravaggio and the brilliance of Poe.

The perfect pairing of wine with each course of dinner. The beauty and joy of the embrace of love.

The first kiss. The first time someone spoke to you with respect. Your first time making love. Your first embrace.

The first time you found someone and realized that you were wanted and loved.

Standing in the middle of a lonely highway in Wyoming singing Mahler at the top of your lungs after one too many…(not that I have EVER done this).

Growing your hair long, or cutting it short. Wearing an earring, getting a tattoo.

Or having a conversation and sharing a glimpse of your soul in safety, without fear. It took me too long to realize the joy of that. I longed for that and never knew it.

And we forget beauty and freedom and love and joy – because we are afraid.

Egg prices get high. Gas gets high. Somebody is different than I am and wants to come to my church.

And all of the sudden you are afraid that you won’t be good enough or pure enough or strict enough to earn God’s favor because you did something wrong somewhere, or you accepted and loved a sinner, or were friends with a sinner on social media, so now God is going to remove his blessing.

And somewhere along the line, you forgot – Your blessings, your “money in the pocket” doesn’t come from a politician or from making the right choices, or from working hard or running faster or having stronger will power…

It comes from the uncontrollable, unlimited, incredible love and goodness of God.

As my pastor said this morning, “It’s God’s party, and he can invite who he wants.”

And that blows the mind.

Because the love of God is free. His love and blessing for you aren’t dependent on how well you perform. He delights in you and delights in your personality and your dancing and singing. He created you to laugh and sing, even though there are times when we weep and mourn – the laughter will come again. If we don’t crush it out of fear.

And when you know and feel that love of God given so freely to you, suddenly love becomes far more important that how much money is in the pocket. And then you might see that God’s resources are unlimited. There is enough for everyone. But God is calling us to step away from our vaults and our counting machines and our investment portfolios and our fear and learn to dance again.

Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days. Give a serving to seven, and also to eight, For you do not know what evil will be on the earth. (Ecclesiastes 11:1-2)

Paul and Silas sang in prison. We can sing with expensive eggs. Maybe that is the lesson God is showing us. That the price of eggs isn’t worth the price of the soul.

Sing, dance, paint, write a poem. And more importantly than even that –

Let your neighbor draw, sing, paint, write and dance. His enrichment might actually enrich you.

It certainly won’t make you poorer.

One-Time
Monthly
Yearly

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00

Or enter a custom amount

$

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly

Leave a comment

Filed under Hope, Love

Tagged as , , , , , ,

February 23, 2025 · 7:20 am

Exchanging Jesus for Barabbas

Imagine a man who is a sinner. The particular sin isn’t relevant. Perhaps he is a tax collector for Rome with sketchy morals. Perhaps a woman who sells her body to put food on the table. Perhaps a man seeking life in the arms of many different women, using them and never speaking to them again. Perhaps a thief, a reviler, a blasphemer.

Sinners cause grief in society. They are at war with nature, at war with themselves, at war with their neighbor. Every time God’s moral code is broken, someone gets hurt.

So we want to do something about it. We don’t want prostitutes on the corner of our neighborhood. We don’t want the government getting rich on the backs of the poor. We don’t want to be cursed out when we are in the market. We don’t want thieves running the cash registers.

So far, nothing too controversial. So with those images in mind, ask yourself – what should be done about it?

There are really only two things that can be done. First, is to make the sinner stop sinning. If you have a strong enough king, you can put a stop to an adulterous man. You can eventually lock him up and never let him out. If he has no access to people, he can’t commit a sexual sin against people. Depending on the severity of the situation, this might need to be done. A man who rapes children, for example, needs to be removed from children, whatever it takes to do so. The damage is too great.

But the fact is, this doesn’t actually stop the sinning, because the man still has his heart with him. He still takes his fantasies and his greed and his hatred and his envy, even into prison.

The second problem is this one: If you seek to purify society by removing all the sinners, where do you stop?

Who purifies the ones purifying? The oppressed class rises up and purifies themselves from the oppressors and the oppressors become the new oppressed class.

Revenge is a vicious cycle without an end.

Which brings me to the second way to do something about it.

David cried out, “Oh that salvation were come out of Zion!”

David was the king at the time, and Zion was his palace. He knew that as the king, the salvation he was seeking wasn’t forthcoming. A different kind of king would be needed.

What if a heart could be changed and the adulterous man no longer had any desire to use and abuse the bodies of others?

What if the thief got a job because he wanted to have enough to give to the poor rather than making the problem worse?

What if the racist could see with new eyes the perspective of people different than he is, and actually spend time listening to the struggles and desires and difficulties of the refugee?

What if the greedy government official found security somewhere else rather than in his bank account?

In other words, what if the heart was freed from fear and filled with love?

This, of course, can never be done by laws, by education, by religion, by philosophy, or by anything under the sun. Under the sun is only death and vanity.’

In order for the heart to be changed, a savior must come from another realm with power that doesn’t belong to the realm of death and misery.

It can only come from God himself.

The laws of men can never be strong enough to change a heart or purify sinners. They can’t even agree on what “sin” is!

One problem with the ruling class seeking to purge sinners is that they first have to classify what a sinner is. The next problem is that they have to propose a solution to those that they have deemed sinners.

This is why seeking to eradicate “sin” by the law always ends up multiplying atrocities and never actually solving any problems. You declare a certain type or class of people to be the problem with society (sinners) and then you seek to put a stop to it.

But where do you stop?

You can’t build enough prison camps. You can’t have enough Guantanamo Bays, or Gulags, you can’t have enough Auschwitzes. And not only have you not corrected any problem, you have only made society worse. Death and misery will never cure death and misery.

And death and misery are in this world under the sun because we are alienated from the God of life, fearful of those who are different than we are, and seeking to cover shame and fear and guilt by adultery, murder, anger, reviling, drugs, alcohol, suicides, theft, and the list continues.

In order to truly change behavior, guilt, shame and fear must be removed.

But God doesn’t just zap us and make us perfect. He created us after his image, with personhood, personalities, will, culture, and all of those things that Jesus called “talents”.

And like a skilled surgeon removing a cancer but keeping the patient alive, God removes the fear and the shame and the bent nature and leaves our humanness intact, because God loves his creation and does not desire the “death of the wicked”. Jesus came to redeem a cursed world, not to condemn a cursed world.

But redemption takes time and can’t be rushed. In fact, it takes a whole lifetime and is only complete at the resurrection.

And we are impatient. We want the problem taken care of right now. Our pride tells us that the problem is those others who are sinning.

The problem is that prostitutes are on the corner. Greed is in the government. Refugees are stealing jobs. Politicians are lying. Women are having abortions. Men are sleeping with men.

And if we just had a righteous, powerful king to rid society of these menaces, then the price of eggs would go down, inflation would be over, and we could make Israel Great Again.

And this is where Barabbas comes in.

John’s gospel tells us that Barabbas took part in an uprising.

He thought just like Peter did. Just like Judas did. Just like the crowds did when they welcomed the Son of David into Jerusalem.

FINALLY – God is acting. Jesus is going to rid the world of these Romans. Prostitutes and tax collectors and religious zealots and Herodians and Essenes will finally be put in their place. We will rise up with the king and finally have the peace and security that we deserve!

But then Jesus just rode in to Jerusalem, looked around, and then left!

The Romans didn’t even pay him any mind!

Day after day went by, and nothing.

He let a woman pour a years worth of money out on his feet!! Think of what he could have done with that!

And after Jesus told Judas to leave the woman alone because it was for his burial, Judas finally got it.

He wasn’t going to do anything about Rome at all! He’s just another loser sitting around and doing nothing.

I’m going to join the winning side. Maybe Barabbas can get something going. At least he tried to do something.

And by Friday morning, when the crowds finally realized that Jesus wasn’t going to overthrow Pilate, their shouts of Hosanna quickly turned to shouts of “Crucify, crucify”.

And they exchanged the Lord of life for Barabbas.

He might be a murderer, a thief and an insurrectionist, but at least he tried to make us great again!

Peter was confused, but he tried to keep up with what Jesus was doing. He even drew his sword in the garden.

But when Jesus rebuked him and healed the ear, even faithful Peter had enough.

He didn’t deny Christ because he was afraid. He denied Christ because Jesus didn’t do anything and just allowed himself to be arrested.

He was angry and disillusioned, not afraid.

They had that vision of David – the Great King, defeating the enemies. The time of Israel’s greatness.

But was it that great, really? There was death, corruption, continual war, plague, oppression, enforced slavery…and even David longed for a better salvation.

And now, 2,000 years later, it is easy to scoff at Peter’s faithlessness, Judas’ betrayal, the crowd’s fickleness…

But we still fall into the same trap, over and over again.

We still exchange Jesus for Barabbas. Jesus takes to long. He’s too soft on sin, we say.

We forget that if Jesus came to condemn the world, none of us would be here.

If Jesus came in judgment, the wheat would be thrown in the fire with the tares.

But we think we know better. We think that we can separate the wheat from the weeds and send the weeds off to Guantanamo, so the wheat can get on with growing, and it won’t stop ever.

The body count will get higher and higher. More and more prisons will need to be built. More soldiers and police will be needed until the whole nation is fearful, ashamed, hiding, turning on each other –

And there will still be prostitutes on the corner, greedy government officials,  women getting abortions, thieves, and murderers.

Righteousness will never come by the law. Only death and misery.

Shouldn’t we know this by now? It is literally what every single one of Paul’s letters is about. And history has shown us over and over and over.

When Barabbas is king, only misery can follow.

The duty of Christ’s people is NOT to shout for Barabbas to be king, but to take up the cross and follow Jesus. His cross and his resurrection, motivated by God’s love for the world, changed the world and is still changing the world.

But it isn’t on our time-table. We always kill the good while trying to purge the bad. Let Jesus do that. Let the Holy Spirit do that.

In the meantime, love your neighbor. The ones with brown skin who are being threatened. The trans kid with no place to go. The woman on the corner. The greedy government official.

And it might cost. In fact, I know it does. It will cost everything, because we are Christians – like Christ. So we take up our crosses and be willing to even lose our lives for the sake of our communities – and even our enemies.

Because we, of all people, should understand that resurrection only comes after death. Never before.

So we wait, we mourn, we dance, we sing, we take up our crosses, we give generously, and we refuse to give into fear and shame. It has no place here.

Here we will stand. We will crucify fear and shame to the cross of Jesus and stand with joy and peace, with infinite love to share from Jesus through us to the world.


1 Comment

Filed under kingdom

Tagged as , , , ,

January 15, 2025 · 6:49 pm

The end of an era

It’s time for boldness as well as encouragement for the people of God. There are Christians like me all over the world who are grieving. They watch their Savior’s name being dragged through the mud by the worst sort of men – adulterers, liars, abusers, rapists, con-men – and these same men then take the name of God on to their filthy lips for the sake of power. It grieves my heart.

That being said – at the end of every era, By God’s design, wickedness becomes exposed as it grows more powerful and seemingly omnipotent. It is a terrifying time when an age ends.

But in God’s design, the exposure is necessary before judgment. First the exposure, then comes judgment.

Before God’s time, wickedness is restrained, hidden, in shadows and corners and down alleys. Those who have tried to speak are not believed, silenced, ridiculed, shut down – and wickedness grows and becomes more emboldened.

How many spoke up before Luther and died at the stake?

How many spoke in ancient Rome and died in the circuses?

How many were executed by wild beasts and furnaces BEFORE God brought judgment to Nebuchadnezzar?

But then the time of judgment and exposure comes.

The darkness bursts out in all it’s ugliness and hatefulness and power, crushing the soul and leaving the innocent crying out in agony. “Does anyone hear? Does anyone care?” But that is the sign that the end is near.

Follow me – God told Abraham that the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet complete. And we have followed this pattern ever since. Revelation speaks of Armageddon, when the forces of evil are at their most deceptive and most powerful.

And so the ages come and go.

One power is exposed and falls, the next rises and continues until its injustice and wickedness is complete, then it is exposed before all and destroyed by the breath of God, and another kingdom takes its place.

It is always darkest before the dawn.

We are, I believe, at the end of the age. We are in for a bit of darkness, but let’s take a look at it from the throne room of God:

This hatred and fear and contempt will grow worse and worse. The iniquity of American Evangelicalism is not yet complete. It has crushed the enslaved, destroyed humans in the Native genocides, crushed women and children in mines and factories, raped children in the Sunday School rooms and Bible camps, and has turned God’s house into a safe-haven for robbers, adulterers, and thieves.

God has sent prophets, but has not yet come in judgment, because the iniquity is not yet complete. But it is coming.

This facade of religiosity will soon be peeled back and we will be left with unmasked Baal – worship, throwing its victims into the furnaces and ghettos and death camps and will reach the height of its earthly power.

But do not fear. It is as it has always been as we approach the coming Day of the Lord.

God still has angels with swords. He still has the breath of his mouth. And when the time has come, and the evil is fully seen for what it is, it will tumble down in a moment.

Until then, my friends, do not fear.

There will be mouths to feed. Victims to sit with. Refugee families to house and hide. Neighbors to love. People to clothe. Escapees to sit with, and so so many left outside the camp.

Do not mistake what you see in the halls of Power as Christianity. It is not there. You have never found Christ in Christendom. It is a different kingdom with a different master. Jesus said that you will know his disciples by their love.

Look for it. Show it. Shine it out. Don’t be afraid.

Firing squads may come. It will be the organized church and the power-hungry religious leaders that lead the violence. This will not be where Christ’s people are.

Christ’s people will be following him. Outside the camp. On the cross. Taking the lowest place of all. Waiting for resurrection.

Hold on to that, and don’t be discouraged.

One-Time
Monthly
Yearly

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00

Or enter a custom amount

$

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly

3 Comments

Filed under Hope, justice

Tagged as , , , , ,