Four years ago the rhetoric for culturalized Christianity was about “winning.” For culturalized Christians, it was about being “pushed around” and “bullied.” Now, finally, there was someone there to stand up and not let us get bullied anymore.
Same thing this cycle.
Fear wins elections.
My reading in the Daily Office takes me to Matthew for the Gospel, so I am slowing it down as the Spirit leads… to walk through the Sermon on the Mount again. The most distilled teaching on the Kingdom of God is found here and over the years, since The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard completely turned my thinking on this passage many years ago, I have found a well that never runs dry. I can return again and again and find new treasures of the Kingdom.
I return here at the end of two weeks of political conventions. The last one was designed to simply (and pardon my directness here) scare the hell out of “God-fearing Americans.” (Brought to you, ironically, by folks who have no fear of God in them whatsoever.)
Fear wins elections.
Unfortunately, fear has driven culturalized Christianity for decades. The Sermon on the Mount is my back stop. It keeps me in check. It realigns my thinking. It pours the true Kingdom of God into my heart and soul.
The Beatitudes, at the front of the Sermon, aren’t about “power” and “might” and “winning.” It is Jesus saying, “The Kingdom of God comes to least of these. This isn’t about you becoming poor or weak or humble. It is about the Kingdom coming to the least of these. It is to know that no one is beyond Kingdom blessing.”
The good news isn’t that we have a “chief bully” punching us through to “victory.” The good news is that we are really losers… and the Kingdom blesses us anyway.
We need these reminders in our day. Rejected culturalized Christianity. Find the treasure that is Christ.
Apprentice 2 Jesus 