BLOG 11/3/17. GREATNESS: IT DEPENDS ON YOUR DEFINITION

This present administration rode into power under the motto: Make America Great Again, … but they did it with the overwhelming support of a vast number of faux evangelicals, who claimed to be followers of Jesus, … but who had, evidently, never read his teachings. These faux evangelicals were, first off, primarily white nationalists aligned with all kinds of male dominated, and Islam-o-phobic folk who were, seemingly indifferent to human need, to the homeless, poor, and the helpless of our society. So, in their minds, what would it mean for America to be great again?

A whole lot rides on one’s definition of the word great. Jesus never equivocated on this. He taught: But whoever would be great must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all (Mark 10:43-44). He taught: For he who is least among you is the one who is great (Luke 9:48). As if that were not enough, it is interesting to look at those who are defined as the arrogant wicked as defined in Psalm 10, and those who are the helpless victims of their arrogance, to understand the heart of God as exhibited in Christ. Governmental policies of those seeking ‘American greatness’ are unquestionably controlled by those who control the wealth, and are indifferent to the desperate need of the helpless and poor.

Jesus, again, taught it graphically: Woe to you rich, blessed are you poor. By that teaching, faux evangelicals flunk a basic test of being formed by the teachings of Jesus. Jesus inaugurated his public ministry declaring that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him to preach good news to the helpless poor. By that criterion (to stretch our boundaries a bit) the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ populist movement of a few years ago, which sought to expose and limit the arrogance of the wealthy, was more truly evangelical, more truly in accord with the teachings of Jesus, than all the pulpit expostulations of the wealthy mega-church ‘evangelical’ preachers on television, alas!

Jesus came to inaugurate a new creation, a holy nation, which would incarnate the image of God in its ethics and relationships. We receive a glimpse of its character in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew) and the Sermon on the Plain (Luke). It is radically upside-down, or as author Donald Kraybill designates it: The Upside-down Kingdom. That, accordingly, means that Jesus redefines greatness, so that if this nation were to truly express an affinity for the teachings of Jesus, then it would become a servant nation, using its vast potential to meet human need in all its devastating expressions (rather than tax-breaks to the wealthy, and unholy amounts spent on armaments).

Only such radical (and, frankly, unimaginable politically) priorities that express the sweet aroma of Christ can be called truly evangelical. But the faux-evangelicals have so misinterpreted and bastardized the word that it has taken on the reverse meaning. Within this larger nation (and in most nations of the world) there exists, however, a holy nation which is the church, which in its integrity is not determined by the kingdoms of this world, but which is the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. And in that holy nation is the continual quest to faithfully and obediently to incarnate the life and teachings of Jesus, . . . and so bring hope to the poor, the homeless, the stranger (immigrant), and the sick. Rivers of living water bring life as it flows from that holy nation. Again, a lot rides on one’s definition of greatness.

“In haunts of wretchedness and need … we catch the vision of Thy tears.”