Archive for category: Case Studies

If you would like to comment on the June topic as a whole, please do so below.

As a final case study from our small church, I would like to present a sermon I gave on June 17th, 2018. Our fellowship observes communion about once a month, and this was given right before communion. The greater context was the news of that week: President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions had hardened their immigration policy on the US-Mexico border, and begun detaining immigrants, even those guilty of the misdemeanor of entering U.S. soil for the first time, separating the children of these immigrants, and taking the children into custodial care, and removing them far from the parents, in some cases. Attorney General Sessions attempted to justify this action to his fellow church members as an application of Romans 13.

This is an unusual sermon for me, in that it’s a bit more “political” (that is, in this case, responding to a political issue in the news) and much less exegetical (we usually follow the lectionary, and I usually preach from one of the lectionary passages). But Sessions’s use of Scripture to justify his actions, and the acts of separating children from their parents seemed to call out for a response.

Gratitude, immigrants, and our brother Jeff Sessions

Kalamazoo Mennonite Fellowship
Will Fitzgerald
June 17, 2018

I want to talk to you this morning about three things: Gratitude, immigration, and our brother Jeff Sessions, the attorney general of the United States.

Let’s start with Brother Jeff. I call him “brother” because he is my, our, brother in Christ. He is a member in good standing at the Ashland Place United Methodist Church in Mobile. Alabama. He professes to follow Jesus, and it’s always been important to me to take, at least usually, people at their word.

As attorney general, Brother Jeff has cracked down hard on what he sees as violations of immigration laws and policies. Most recently, he has led the effort to detain adults crossing into the United States without permission, and even the detainment of adults who are seeking asylum in the US. He’s also come out strongly in favor of limiting which kinds of asylum seekers will be even have their cases heard. The detainment of adults has meant that children who have come with those adults have been separated from their families. We have reliable news reports that over 2000 children have been taken away from their parents in a recent six-week period, and this is ongoing. This happened to some extent even under the previous administration, but previously, asylum seekers especially were allowed to remain in the community, with their children, while they awaited hearings. That policy has been derided by the current administration as “catch and release,” and stricter, harsher policies put in place.

Brother Jeff justified the taking of children away from their parents by quoting the “wise words” of the apostle Paul in Romans 13 were that we should “obey the government.” In Brother Jeff’s mind, it seems to be a fairly simple argument: people should not seek to enter the United States illegally, or perhaps even to seek asylum here. We don’t want ‘em, if they come, they’ll suffer the consequences of being separated from their children. It’s not our fault, but theirs. If they would just do the right and lawful thing, they would be ok. (The attorney general and the president blames the Democrats, for what it’s worth).

Well.

There are so many things wrong with Brother Jeff’s exegesis. First, it is apparently against international law to threaten people to not seek asylum. Note: I am not an expert in international law. So, is he being disobedient to the Paul’s wise words? I’m sure he’d say no, and fight vigorously for the rights of the United States in international court. This is how the law, in the twenty-first century, works. Obedience to the government in these days is to follow, but also to challenge, through the court systems, the laws of government.

And second, to think that Paul’s “wise words” are a statement to obey the government in all cases is ridiculous on its face. Paul is writing to the church in Rome, but it’s important to remember that many of his letters were written from Rome, while under arrest from Rome. Even Paul didn’t heed Paul’s wise words. Which is to say, they can’t mean what Brother Jeff claimed they mean. Elsewhere, Paul says we should try to live peaceably if we are able, and he and the other early Christians showed, by their example, the importance of disobedience at times. And, as we saw in the example of Jesus a few weeks ago, Jesus broke the law by “working” on the Sabbath. Jesus said the Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath. And I think it’s a good natural extension to say that laws and government are made for humanity, not humanity for laws and government.

Thirdly, when Brother Jeff was asked to justify the government’s actions, he did not justify the government’s actions, but put the burden on immigrants to obey. He is the policy maker and policy enforcer. Even if it were the case that we should always obey the government (and, as we have seen, it is not), if one is in a position to set policy and set enforcement, the question really is to ask whether those policies and enforcement actions are justified. Brother Jeff, like us, seek to serve a Lord who was wrongly crucified under cruel enforcement of government policy. Jesus was “obedient unto death,” but woe to those who set the policies and enforced those policies that led to his death! But also: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Now, oddly, I want to talk about gratitude.

I have been reading Diana Butler Bass’s new book, called Gratitude, and it’s helped me to understand some things about our current administration and it has evoked some thoughts about ways to live under this administration. Like Bass, gratitude is not the first thing I think of when I think about the current chaotic and divided state of our society. But Bass has written some very interesting and useful things, some of which can help us to understand the Roman Empire under which Paul lived, and can help us to understand the current empire under which we live.

I hope I can do justice to what she says. In the days of the Romans, the top of the heap, of course, was the Caesar. He was uniquely blessed, and from him would flow all the blessings. The closer you were to the top of the heap, the more blessed and valued you were, deriving your blessings from those above you, and flowing down to those below you. And you were required to be grateful. And gratitude wasn’t a matter of just saying “thank you.” It meant cold, hard cash. To not pay your taxes made you an ingrate. As Bass writes, “Gratitude was not an attitude. It was a political requirement.”

Of course, with blessings flowing down (meaning favors that resulted in some kind of benefit) and gratitude flowing up (meaning taxes being paid), people were skimming those benefits along the way. Someone like Zacchaeus in the gospel story is a perfect example. He extracted taxes from those around him in return for a cut of the collection and a higher standing in the empire.

And there is something like this happening with President Trump. The son of a rich man grown even richer, he expects gratitude both in words and benefits. As a modern American Caesar, he expects praise, and sees it as his right to decide where largess flows. It’s why he can praise the Korean dictator Kim for having people obey and respect him. They have both successfully achieved the top spot, and he thinks we owe him the gratitude of obedience. This is not the only thing going on of course (I’m pretty sure he also wants to open hotels in North Korea), but Brother Jeff’s statements make more sense in this light. President Trump will set the rules, and we owe him this kind of gratitude.

But Jesus says (and Bass reminds us) that the ones who are blessed are actually the poor and the mournful. (You know as soon as she started talking about the Beatitudes, I would sit up and pay attention). In God’s economy, in God’s kingdom, privilege belongs to people like that, not people whom we call privileged.

“A voice is heard in Ramah, Rachel crying for her children” (Jeremiah 31). And voices are heard in Texas, Raquel and Maria and Carlos crying for their children, torn away from them by agents of the United States, agents who represent us. We, far away, see their poverty and their mourning, and we should ask, how can we be God’s blessing to them? Because we surely want to be part of God’s work and welcome and healing in the world. And God’s promise is also for us: when we make peace or hunger and thirst for righteousness, we too are privileged.

One small thing we can do is to simply state, as a church, that we stand with immigrant parents and children, and against those who would tear them apart.

Another set of things we can do is to contact our representatives in Congress, and the White House, and state our position to them. I have a sheet of paper to pass out with steps you can take, if you are interested.

Another thing we might do is explore taking some more steps, as a church, to welcome and stand with immigrants. I have some ideas about that, in particular contacting our friends at Bethany Christian Services and perhaps the local organization called Moviemento Consecha to see what kind of monetary support might be useful to flow through them. If anyone has time and energy and a vision for this, please let me know.

We also can pray for the children and parents who have been caught in this terrible situation. And we should pray for our brother, Jeff Sessions, and for the president for a change of heart. Honestly, I don’t have much faith in doing so (it’s not even mustard-seed sized), but we are called to do so anyway.

And we can be a community of gratitude. Truly grateful people are protected, at least somewhat, from the despair of living in a terribly broken world. Truly grateful people can open themselves up in welcome to neighbors and strangers in need because they know they will be cared for. Truly grateful people provide an alternative to the fears of missing out, of being cheated, of not getting what we need.

As we go into communion, I am reminded of a phrase often used in a communion service: “the gifts of God for the people of God.” Let us receive God’s gifts with grateful hearts, remembering our communion is with the poor and the mourning, and communion with our Lord who was poor and mournful himself. And, afterwards, let us remember to carry that communion and sense of gratitude into the rest of our lives.

In 2012 the Office of Social Justice (OSJ) coordinated hundreds of letters to encourage Christian Indonesian immigrants who were living in Highland Park Reformed Church to avoid deportation. We also coordinated hundreds of letters to Congress, urging legislation that would allow these Christians, who came to the U.S. fleeing persecution, to gain legal permanent residence in the United States.

Highland Park Reformed Church started sharing their building with an Indonesian congregation in the late 1990s—not for immigration sanctuary but as a shared space where both congregations could worship. Members of the Indonesian congregation had recently left their predominantly Muslim country at that time and arrived in the U.S. on tourist visas which were offered as means of quick escape from the danger they were in as members of a minority religion in their home country. Once in the U.S. they had a year to apply for permanent asylum but many say they were unaware the necessity of that crucial step. Because they never adjusted their status, when their first year ended they were living here illegally and the window for a chance at permanent legal status was officially closed.

Later in 2002, after the September 11 terrorist attacks, male foreign visitors, mostly from predominantly Muslim countries, were asked to register with a program called the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or NSEERS.  Since Indonesia was on the list, the men from this church consulted with their own pastor and the pastor of the Highland Park church and made the decision to come forward and be registered. They believed this could be an opportunity to repair their legal status but that didn’t happen. Instead they found themselves on the radar of immigration enforcement. ICE raids were carried out and dozens of members of the church were deported. Leaders from both Congregations met together to make a plan to try to find a way to stop the deportations.

They managed to work out an agreement with ICE to allow undocumented Indonesians with no criminal record to live and work in the community if they checked in regularly but that was a temporary solution and within months the deportation raids started again. The only permanent solution would be an amendment to U.S. immigration law that would allow them to apply for asylum even though they were outside of the one year window. Without that change to the law there could be temporary waivers and discretion by ICE to not prosecute certain cases but they would still be a precarious situation without true legal status.

Attorneys from the church drafted sample legislation that their Congressperson could introduce to the House of Representatives. The Highland Park pastor shared the story throughout the U.S. and brought more churches on board to join in doing advocacy and raising awareness about the situation. Church members, including followers of the OSJ, sent letters and set up meetings with their own members of Congress and dozens of Representatives joined to cosponsor the legislation. Unfortunately, the legislation was never adopted and a permanent solution still hasn’t been enacted so the New Jersey church continues to show hospitality and to advocate for justice. The Highland Park congregation made a decision to stand with the Indonesian congregation and to this day they are continuing to share God’s love by sharing both their building and their voices of influence.

Biblical justice flows out of ministries of word and deed                                      

A similar story of advocacy flowing out of ministry starts in Sierra Leone where Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (now known as World Renew) and Christian Reformed Church World Missions (now known as Resonate Global Mission) began doing integrated community development work in the early-1980s. They were using the latest in community development theories and practice and they were seeing real results in terms of increased ag yields, increased savings for families to survive through lean years and decreasing rates of poverty and hunger. Fifteen years into the project, after seeing gains and opportunities to continue scaling the project up in neighboring regions, all of the progress was destroyed.

Peter Vander Meulen, the West Africa coordinator for CRWRC at the time wrote, “in the short time of a week or two, huge damage had been done to the 15 years of work and millions of dollars in investment. Buildings were burned. Villagers killed, abused, fleeing for their lives. CRWRC and CRWM Sierra Leonian pastors and staff were scattered to the four winds – fled over the Ginuea border or gone to Freetown – away from rebel held areas.”

In the months that followed, Vander Meulen and Sierra Leone staff analyzed what might have been missed in the careful planning, millions of dollars spent and years of investment. This wasn’t the first time that CRWRC’s work was stopped by rebels. It was a problem that was encountered in neighboring countries in the past but this was the first time that a project with such scale and planning faced this kind of devastation. The question on everyone’s minds was, “with all that we had to offer these communities is there nothing that could have been done to prevent this?” Pushed out of the country and away from the people they loved they turned their energy towards investigating the systemic factors behind the violence more closely. They were experiencing the reality of a third movement in the theory of giving a person a fish—give a fish and eat for a day, teach to fish and eat for a lifetime unless there is no access to the pond.   

Vander Meulen writes, “We were still engaged in our mission to Sierra Leone; still trying to get our arms around that country in church planting and integrated rural development; still serving the Kuranko people. It was mission by advocacy. We were using our influence as citizens of the most powerful country in the world in concerted action with others of like intention to change a corrupt global diamond marketing system, a system that was fueling West African warlords’ greed for money and power. It was clear that without stopping the illicit trade in diamonds there would be no peace, no development, and no CRC church planting in Sierra Leone.”

 

Missionaries who were once on the ground in Sierra Leone now placed themselves on the ground in Washington DC. They lobbied members of Congress and testified before committees. At the same time CRC members throughout the U.S. raised local awareness. This was one of the OSJ’s first major advocacy projects. Vander Meulen writes, “Over the two-and-a-half year campaign to bring our governments to agreement on what was called ‘The Kimberly Accords’, the CRC repeatedly used its small but strategic influence to help. Several small groups of church members visited their local diamond stores to simply ask: ‘Can you assure us that the diamonds you sell do not come from illicit sources? Are not ‘blood diamonds’? How can you be sure? Visits like this soon turned the diamond industry into allies. And our lone CRC congressman from West Michigan, Vern Ehlers, became a champion of the Kimberly Accords in the US House of Representatives.”

 

Following implementation of the Kimberly Accords the entire country of Sierra Leone experienced progress beyond what the CRC was originally able to accomplish in those individual communities where they had started working. For these communities ‘knowing how to fish’ wasn’t the end of poverty—it was about access to the pond and transparent conditions of the pond.

Currently, the Kimberley Process is losing effectiveness due to lack of enforcement but the progress that was made cannot be undone. Sierra Leone and other countries like it had the time to institute their own internal controls on diamond mining. There is still work to do on other abused commodities, such as precious metals in the Congo, but if we are willing to learn from the lessons of our own short history we could use our influence to push back on the unchecked abuse of power by those who control these resources.

In a representative government where elected officials determine laws after listening to the input of all impacted sectors it makes sense for non-profit agencies, including churches, to give voice to the concerns that touch the lives of the people with whom they work. For the CRC, work like lobbying for the Kimberly Accords rests on an even deeper ethic than this. We believe in a Biblical call to work towards peace and justice. We see through redeemed eyes the possibility of flourishing for all people and we believe in sharing that vision with publicly—which includes shining a light on systems of oppression.

The CRC has adapted several statements that beautifully express our call to be agents of change in the political realm:

 

Our World Belongs to God Article 52

“We obey God first; we respect the authorities that rule, for they are established by God: we pray for our rulers, and we work to influence governments—resisting them only when Christ and conscience demand.”

 

Our World Belongs to God Article 53

“We call on all governments to do public justice and to protect the rights and freedoms of individuals, groups and institutions so that each may do their tasks. We urge governments and pledge ourselves to safeguard children and the elderly from abuse and exploitation, to bring justice for the poor and oppressed, and to promote the freedom to speak, work, worship and associate. We call on our governments to work for peace and to restore just relationships.”

 

Charge to Deacons, CRC Ordination Liturgy

“Be prophetic critics of waste, injustice and selfishness in our society, and be sensitive counselors to the victims of such evils.”

 

Belhar Confession

“That the church must therefore stand by people in any form of suffering and need, which implies, among other things, that the church must witness against and strive against any form of justice, so that justice may roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

 

Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 107

Q. Is it enough then that we do not murder our neighbor in any such way?

A. No. By condemning envy, hatred, and anger God wants us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to be patient, peace-loving, gentle, merciful, and friendly towards them, to protect them from harm as much as we can and to do good even to our enemies.

Immigration and Creation Care Advocacy

The CRC has also made statements on specific biblical justice issues that intersect with the realm of politics. These include the sanctity of human life, religious persecution, immigration and climate change.

On the topic of Immigration synod directed the OSJ to create educational resources for churches and to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. Even though immigration is a topic that makes headlines there tends to be a lack of awareness about how the immigration system works and what it takes to immigrate legally to the U.S. To overcome this lack of awareness the OSJ does immigration simulation workshops with interested congregations. The simulation gives participants the bio of an individual who hopes to live and work permanently in the U.S. With their bio in hand the participants walk around the room to try to find a visa for which they could successfully apply. For everyone who hasn’t had a lot of experience with our immigration system there are usually lightbulb moments. They discover the connections between the broken spots of our immigration system—like the fact that 70% of all U.S. farm workers do not have legal status—and how the system actually works, in this case how it is nearly impossible for a potential immigrant farm worker with a job offer in the U.S. to meet the requirements needed to earn a visa. This first step doesn’t always result in a consensus on solutions but it does lead to more civil conversation and more respect for immigrants because people are speaking from the same set of facts.

Like any workshop that exposes a previously unknown crisis, participants then ask, “what can I do about this?” The OSJ’s response to that question goes back to the statement on immigration from Synod and back to that deeper call to be a people who expose injustice. Along with faith-based coalitions like the Evangelical Immigration Table and Interfaith Immigration Alliance we share resources to empower members of the CRC to advocate in the public square for immigration reform that keeps families together. There are strong opponents to calls for more humane immigration laws so progress is a challenge but every time we see significant reforms come close to clearing the final hurdle we also see our numbers grow. When we started working on immigration in late 2010 we did about 15 workshops in one year and advocacy alerts would get about 50-100 people sending a message to their Congressperson. This year we’ve convened over 50 workshops, advocacy alerts have had over 1,000 participants and we’ve had several in person meetings between CRC members and their elected officials.      

Our climate change work takes a similar approach but engages more directly with individuals in congregations who are then empowered to set their own course for their church’s activity. Individuals sign up to be part of a campaign called the Climate Witness Project (CWP). Then, when a congregation has three or more people signed up regional organizers from CWP connect with those individuals to share resources and ideas based around four main pillars of the project: (1) worship, (2) education, (3) advocacy and (4) energy stewardship. We also send out a monthly newsletter with updates and we organize national level advocacy opportunities that all CWP members can get involved with on their own or as a church.                                                          

Transformational Advocacy

I wouldn’t describe the OSJ’s work as ‘redeeming the political system’ because politics isn’t our focus but I would say we are seeking, along with CRC congregations and ministries, to be faithful actors within the system; especially when it comes to standing in solidarity with groups whose voices are being marginalized. Neighbors and members of the Church have experienced oppression throughout her history in various forms and that marginalization continues to this day—so we advocate for change. Micah Challenge, of whom the CRC is a member organization defines transformational advocacy as, “Challenging ourselves and leaders to change attitudes, behaviors, and policies that perpetuate injustice and deny God’s will for all creation to flourish.” Because the Church is a body of people with so many backgrounds who have such of range of experiences of privilege and oppression, we are in a unique position to be examples of how to engage in the public square. Hopefully, our transformational advocacy work leads to systems of human flourishing and brings a value added of faithfully demonstrating the value of political engagement that amplifies voices from the margins.

 

Recently I was asked by a frustrated Christian how I might respond to the imprecation, “keep your damned politics out of my church.”  I asked her to allow me think on this – as it is something that I have wrestled with in my personal ministry but have rarely spoken about in a pastoral context.  Comforted by the promises of Jesus Christ in Matthew 10:20 and Luke 12:12 I offered the following encouragement.

I riffed on the famous quip by German novelist Thomas Mann.  I said, “Everything is politics. And nobody goes to church on Sunday to feel bad.”  On balance, these two counterweights have informed nearly every sermon I’ve ever preached and my efforts at encouraging fellow pilgrims to repair this broken world and build upon it the Kingdom of God.

I serve as the 29th Senior Pastor of a church that is nearly two centuries old.  Our congregation is older than the city in which we reside. Kalamazoo is a marvelous town of roughly 80,000 inhabitants and we view our mission focus as a principally local concern.  We are descendents of Puritan stock and take seriously Winthrop’s words that we ought to establish ourselves as “a City upon a Hill.”  Communalism is a deep-rooted theological constant among traditional Congregationalists.  As puritans, we are also thoroughly intolerant of sin. As we view sin through the Biblical lens of the oppressive actions of “powers and principalities,” it is incumbent upon us to use the capacity of our body (the Body of Christ) to confront, condemn, and ultimately exorsize the demonic forces of systemic sin (racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, etc.)

Historically, our church has sheltered refugees from every war involving U.S. military engagement since 1835.  In the 1850s, we willfully and publicly violated the Federal Fugitive Slaves Act in order to provide cover, accommodations, and supplies to Americans fleeing the state violence of chattel slavery.  Sojourner Truth preached in our pulpit. Today, we manifest these core, theological values by advocating spiritually and materially for marriage equality, support for the immigrant and wanderer, ending the unnatural abomination of homelessness, and providing radical hospitality in our current house of worship.  Each of these issues stem from a Biblical mandate.

To be absolutely clear, we are not liberals.  We do not “celebrate” or “endorse” any political party.  In our affiliated denomination, the United Church of Christ, you will often hear it said: “We aren’t liberal.  We’re just early.” Most, if not all, of the positions we stake on scriptural grounds (i.e. the abolition of slavery, the ordination of women, persons of color, and lgbtq individuals, the enfranchisement of women, opposition to wars of aggression, marriage equality) typically become “common practice” in the greater church within a generation or two after adoption by our independent churches.

Our reasons for selectively taking church-wide positions on ministry are typically the culmination of a great deal of prayer, the study of God’s Word, and advice from the individuals directly affected by the issue.  Recently, we voted to become a Public Sanctuary Church and are now protecting a 63 year-old woman from deportation at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). We share the use of our campus with over 130 different community justice, arts, and support organizations and nearly 14,000 unique visitors passed through our doors last year.  We have revitalized the traditional practice of hosting town-hall meetings in Congregational Churches. We share our building completely free of cost or expectation.  Our church’s benevolence provides direct cash assistance to those in need, absent the red-tape of our bureaucratic government or the Kafka-esque process of “proving need” established by other social service agencies.  We donated the use of our chapel to another church that was at risk of closing.

A recent evening town-hall meeting held in the historic sanctuary of the First Congregational Church

These and other actions are preceded by a need, a call for action, critical reflection on God’s Word, and typically conclude with a congregational vote.

Are these ministries “political” by nature?  If we define political as, “having to do with a particular political party or party agenda,” then the answer is, “no.”  If, on the other hand, we adopt a more traditional definition of politics as, “concerning public affairs and public well-being,” then they are certainly political issues.  Our concerns stem not from loyalty to some political party or figure – but rather from God’s high expectations for the practicing Christian. I gave a sermon in which I channeled the words of a preacher I greatly admire, lightly admonishing a few parishioners (which led to some outrage): “Some of you are willing to knock on doors for Bernie Sanders but you refuse to knock on doors for Jesus Christ – and this tells me a little bit about where you believe the real power in the universe resides.”  For all I know – in another century we may be lambasted as backward, conservative relics. Our so-called “liberal” identity is a manufactured product of a secular culture responding subjectively to a church tradition that predates modern liberalism by almost three hundred years.
Church sign addressing the protests over the Dakota Access Pipe Line

Supplies donated to the water protectors at Standing Rock Reservation were blessed during a Sunday morning worship service

But what does this mean for parishioners who are frustrated or disagree with our common ministries?  Our congregational votes are rarely unanimous. Congregationalists speak their minds and vote their conscience.  By this measure, we are a remarkably healthy church. Our members know that if they stand and voice an opinion, no matter how unpopular, they will never be shunned or held to a separate standard than the dissenting majority.  We are, after all, a body made of many members.  While our church does enforce church discipline our disciplinary procedures are reserved for abusive or criminal behaviors.  We would never consider exercising church discipline to punish a member for a differing opinion – political or otherwise.  Thankfully, God has provided us with the gift of worship and praise by which we can be made whole, regardless of our diversity of thought and behavior.

Every single Sunday morning is a celebration.  Every Sunday morning is a little Easter.  Every Sunday we rise with dawn and exalt our creator and the work accomplished through the empty tomb by our Risen Savior.  On Sunday morning, it no longer matters where we reside on the political or economic spectrum. Indeed, if our worship is authentic, these things cannot intrude upon our joy.
Joy comes with the dawn.  It comes not with some metric or pedagogy for the coming week, but rather with the simple anamnesis of who we actually are.  We are stewards of creation, made in the very image and likeness of God (in whom there is resplendent diversity), who have been completely and irrevocably set free from the powers of sin and death.  This is Sunday morning (and, as we have it, Sunday evening as well). The message from the pulpit may rage against the criminal injustices of sinful systems and oppressive regimes – but it is only all the more in order to rejoice over their coming collapse and the ultimate reign of God’s shalom.  There is nothing that we cannot accomplish through our faith in Jesus Christ and our fealty to the Bible.

I have received no small measure of impatient criticism from my peers within my denomination and elsewhere regarding our excessive, exuberant joy on Sunday morning.  Some prefer Sunday morning as an opportunity for demonstration or “raising awareness” about the rampant cruelties in our mission field. Recently, a small army of defectors from a neighboring city abandoned their congregation for our own after a Sunday worship event.  (This happens as frequently in Congregational Churches as in other denominations – I suspect, perhaps, with greater frequency.) Their pastors had held an obligatory service of mourning for black victims of state police violence. When dissenters appear at my door I take their concerns seriously while gently encouraging to make their way back home.  These are not refugees – they are rather protestors. Thankfully, most of them did return to their home church. However I received an aggrieved complaint from a fellow clergyperson demanding to know why we didn’t hold such a worship session.  I responded that we had done our work – we had hosted a very large protest and “die-in” in the adjacent park, held talk sessions with young folk targeted by police aggression, spent time investigating our own Public Safety Department, and we placed a “Black Lives Matter” banner in a prominent place much to the ire of Monday morning passersby. On the Sunday morning in question we had marked this state violence with a moment of silence and a reading of the names of those afflicted. But then we began to praise God.  Because, ultimately, we know that God is going to conquer this terrible evil – and that we have a critically important role to play in the battle.  We can hear the victory refrain even now in the distant wind. And every single one of us – no matter our political affiliation – has a role to play in this journey.  We do the painful, critical work of understanding our role in powers and principalities six days a week.  On Sunday, however, we rejoice without ceasing. Because, ultimately, nobody goes to church on Sunday morning to feel bad.  And after a sufficient amount of suffering, even the most stalwart Christian would prefer to simply sleep in.

Our journey into the Word of God is going to naturally challenge our personal politics.  You cannot get very far on the Jesus path without acknowledging God’s preferential option for the poor.  It is as though it’s written in letters ten feet tall. There will always be those who claim that “illegal immigrants” are somehow outside of God’s protection or the domain of the church.  That the children murdered by autolatrous fascists and their servile agents “got what they deserved.” That the prison population serving unjust sentences as chattel slaves to the corporate estate are receiving their “just desserts.”  There will always be those who stand firmly rooted outside the Kingdom of God. And God knows them by their fruits. Yet there will always be at least one congregation, on the corner of one park, in the center of one little rust-belt city that is going to unapologetically fly the pennant of the conquering lamb.  When we begin and end in the very body of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can have a spiritual clarity that defies the raging world and all its many voices and turns, instead, to the still, soft voice of God and obediently follows wherever it leads.

We have no politics but the politics of Jesus Christ.  Throughout the week we study, pray, meditate, interview, protest, and converse over shared meals.  Occasionally, we reach a conclusion. Regardless, on Sunday morning we rejoice, and rejoice, and rejoice always.