I have been processing the events of the first week of 2021, both in my personal life and within this nation, and I am deeply disturbed. Sadly, I’m not surprised, as the events at the Capitol on January 6th are the logical end to a movement characterized by an ever growing and desperate need for power, and when idolatrously baptized in the name of God, Evangelicals followed en masse.
I’m going to call this what it is: Idolatry, blasphemy, the epitome of bearing the name of Yahweh, and His Son Jesus, in vain. In reading through the golden calf incident at Mount Sinai I was recently struck by the fact that the Israelites did not outright “reject” Yahweh in that story. What they did was create an image of the god they thought they should have and follow, one created in their own image, one created following after the pattern of the gods of this world and they called that image Yahweh. They gave to that image the worship and allegiance that belonged to Yahweh alone.
What we had on January 6th was the logical conclusion of an ideology that has created Yahweh in their own image. They have rejected the power-under, self-sacrificial way of Jesus outlined in his Sermon on the Mount, His manifesto of what it looks like to live in the Kingdom of God, in favor of a power-over ideology that rejects the least of these – the poor, the outcast, the foreigner, the refugee. This way of gaining power is exactly what Jesus rejected in His temptation in the wilderness. The Satan tempted Him by showing Him all the kingdoms of this world and declaring, “All this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me.”
How ironic that the very speech and rally that projected Donald Trump into the presidential race was a speech directed at Evangelical Christians, promising them that if they elected Him, they would have power! A promise He repeated over and over and over to the resounding cheers of Evangelicals across this country.
In His temptation, Jesus soundly rejected the powers of darkness, the powers of the Kingdoms of the world, in order to show us what it looks like to live in the Kingdom of God now while we wait for the final consummation of the union of heaven and earth and the restoration of all creation. That way to live doesn’t look anything like Donald Trump, doesn’t look anything like conspiracy theories used to manipulate and prey on the fears of the people of God for power, doesn’t look anything like what happened on January 6th at the capitol building, where anti-Christ was on full display. The way of Kingdom living looks like enemy-loving, non-violent, self-sacrificial Jesus. Jesus, who called out the abuses of power over the least, over the downtrodden in this world, and then submitted Himself to that power, unto death, in order to defeat it. The only way to defeat the power of darkness is the way of Jesus. That way is antithetical to the power-over ways of the Kingdoms of this world, antithetical to all that transpired at the Capitol on Wednesday.
For the last six or seven months I have included the Prayer of Saint Francis in my morning prayer time. It has been a breath of fresh air for me, so much so that I framed it and have it hanging on my wall. As I was watching the opening proceedings in Congress the second time around, it struck me that Nancy Pelosi opened the session with this prayer.
Lord make Me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness joy.
O Divine master grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled as to console.
To be understood, as to understand.
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
Nancy Pelosi, the enemy of conservative Christians, opened with this beautiful prayer after all the violence and it struck me just how badly we’ve got our enemies all wrong. The enemy and powers of darkness are those that oppress the least in society and keep them oppressed. As Christians, if we claim to be about the business of Jesus, then we need to be about the business of Jesus, lifting up the least in this world and living out the Sermon on the Mount Kingdom of God. We may not, in fact surely do not, agree on the way to go about that within a government context but liberals, many who are devout followers of Jesus, are not the enemy and it’s time Evangelicals come to terms with the reality that they’ve been played, they’ve been used, they’ve been abused and they’ve become to others the very people and thing they fear from others – they have embraced tyranny – their kind of tyranny, right-wing tyranny that gives them the power.
I say they, because at this point, the term Evangelical has been usurped by those seeking worldly power in the name of Jesus and has come to mean something very different to those who are trampled by that power, to those who I want to reach out to in the love of Jesus, to those who can’t see beyond the term “Evangelical” to the Jesus who was initially behind the term. And so I now simply claim the title “Follower of Jesus” because I want to follow Him to the ends of earth. My allegiance belongs to Him alone. His ways of living and breathing are the only way to be fully human, to be who we are created to be.
I’ve also been processing the wrath of God in recent weeks, through the Bible Project podcast and resources, and it’s interesting that God’s wrath is first of all, not what we think of in the modern context of wrath, and it’s almost always displayed in the context of His own people and their idolatry, and it is poured out by Him lifting His hand, leaving them exposed to the chaos, and allowing the full force of the consequences of their idolatry to suddenly occur.
I have watched this reality of God’s wrath play out on a personal level in my husband and it was painful watch. Is this not what we are seeing played out today? God is allowing the full force of the idolatry of His people to be poured out and it’s painful to watch. But there is hope. There was hope for my husband and it was turning point for him. It opened His eyes to the reality of the situation he was in. Will we allow this to open our eyes to the reality of the Evangelical embrace of idolatry in the form of Christian Nationalism. Will we allow this to be a turning point for Evangelicals?
“Yahweh is compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, full of loyal love and faithfulness, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion.” If His people, who are called by His name, will humble themselves and repent, will turn from their idolatrous ways, He hears our prayers, he sees our hearts, and He will relent. The consequences of falsely bearing the name of Jesus in the midst of the violence that ensued at the capitol building, weighs heavy on me. The Satan, the forces of darkness won here, but they will not be the victor! It is time for the people of Yahweh to turn back to Him, to see Him as He revealed Himself in Jesus, and to publicly repent for their idolatry in following after the false gospel of Christian Nationalism. Jesus shares His throne with no other. He alone is worthy of our allegiance.
In processing these events, I’m heavily burdened for the leaders and pastors of those who have embraced the tyranny of power that led to these events and I’m desperately praying that they will be bold, that they will not be complicit in silence but will speak up and, in the power of the Spirit, confidently call a spade a spade, and lead the people of God in repentance back to the way of Jesus. I can’t imagine the pressure they must feel to find a way to firmly convey these truths and I’ve spent every night this week, awake, unable to sleep, in thought and prayer, trying to process it all and lift these leaders, my pastor especially, up to the throne of God. It is time to be a true prophetic voice to the people of God and call them to repentance. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Grit 'n Grace Life 