Imagine for a moment that Jesus Christ was here in this sanctuary, sitting in one of the back pews, just watching. Watching church this morning. Scanning our space and our assembly. What do you think he would notice? What do you think he would pay most attention to? Me and my beautifully embroidered long robes? Standing here in this elevated pulpit so that I and the words I speak might appear even more superior, more worthy, more powerful than anyone else in the room?
Or perhaps Jesus, like the rest of us, when he entered this beautiful sanctuary, found his eyes drawn upward to the angels, and the graceful coves of the ceiling, and light coming through the jeweled panes of our stained glass windows. Maybe he focuses in on one of the windows or another, his eyes beginning to focus and decipher the content of a window or two. Raising his hand and pointing a finger and thinking…Oh, I recognize that story. That’s me, helping Peter drowning in the sea. Or that one, that’s me…that’s me teaching the most important ethical lessons for humankind, that’s me preaching my Sermon on the Mount. And perhaps he smiles, thinking. Yes, there must be faithful people here who grasp what it means to be my followers….but those windows must have been so costly, this building must be so costly. And maybe he shakes his head slightly no that’s not what church is. It’s not the robes, it’s not the carvings, or the windows or the arches. It’s not the marble, it’s not the brass offering plates, it’s not the music—as beautiful as it is—it’s not the elegant liturgy and processions and mournful chants. Church is Jesus and the people. So I believe if Jesus were sitting in a back pew in this sanctuary he would not spend much time looking at me and my robes, or the art and architecture. I think he would be looking over all of you. He would be scanning this assembly like a camera with a wide-angle lens, looking, looking, and then, like in our Gospel reading today when Jesus does not look at the men in long robes to embody Jesus’ way of living but narrows his focus on the widow who gives all she has—I think here Jesus would narrow his focus and zoom in on Alice, persistent, faithful Alice and her walker, on Martha who needs a car, on the children playing in the prayground, on Elizabeth and Joyce and Pat and Karen and Luanne and Helene and James and all the other widows and widowers in this space this morning. And anyone else who feels like they—like Peter in our stained glass window—are drowning. Jesus wouldn’t be looking at those of us with wealth and power, especially not those of us with wealth and power who abused that God-given wealth and power like the religious leaders in their long robes in our Gospel reading who “devour” widows houses. Jesus would be looking at those whom the powerful at worst abuse, at best ignore.
Christianity isn’t a cakewalk. It isn’t a club. It is a transformative religious and ethical movement that challenges us who claim to be Christians, who claim to be the Church to be more Jesus-like than we ever are.
In the leadup to the momentous national election we just had this week, you may have noticed I said very little about it other than to urge people to vote. I am a pastor, not a politician. I pastor as I parent. You can ask our daughters, I don’t tell them what to do (unless they explicitly ask me for advice). I teach, I model, I serve, I love. Our daughters turned out pretty alright. I think that model works. I don’t tell people what to do. Because I believe that God calls on us to use our judgments, our conscience, to discern what Jesus teaches and to live that out as best we can.
I am a pastor, not a politician. My focus is not political systems, my concern is religion. My concern is Christianity. And right now, I am deeply concerned about Christianity and how it is practiced in many places. I have deep concerns that Christians are ignoring the ethical teachings of Jesus, and ignoring the parables of Jesus like our parable today in which Jesus makes clear what it means to be or not be ethical church.
We have a problem with Christianity in this country when Christianity is coopted and perverted to elevate and maintain power structures with claims of God’s election, God’s will, declaring a candidate a savior of the people, that God has spoken through one candidate's victory. There is only one savior. And he is Jesus. Religious nationalism is a profoundly dangerous thing. Not only here in this country but everywhere, and not just in regard to Christianity. We see the conflation of religion and nationalism in India’s Hindu nationalism that systematically denies the rights of Muslims, And in China’s coopting of Tibetan Buddhism into a religious movement to uphold the power of the Chinese central government.
We have a problem with Christianity in this country when Christians marinate more in news and podcasts and social media echo chambers than in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And I will say one thing about this week’s presidential election: We have a problem with Christianity in this country when self-identifying Christians nominate and elect immoral people whose claim to power is wealth and technology, and whose concern for people appears as a mask covering up a volcanic pool of self-interest. Justify your vote however you will, but don’t use Jesus to do so.
I am a long-time Biblical scholar and Christian religious leader, and a fierce defender of Jesus’ teaching and the way of life and the way of Church that he calls us to. It is not a way of life and way of Church that seeks economic and religious power. It’s not. It is a way of life and church that zooms in and lifts up and makes seen the poorest, the most vulnerable, the maligned.
That is the Gospel. Nothing else. That is what we are called to when we gather here with Jesus—whether he is sitting in a back pew observing us and our understanding of church, or when Jesus placed in our hands, our bodies, our hearts through the sacrament of Holy Communion—in the smallest, most ordinary, almost unnoticeable things: a morsel of bread, a sip of wine. Christianity is in the small things. Let us see with the eyes of Jesus, not the eyes of power lust. Amen.
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