 |
| Wash. Post reporter Michelle Boorstein |
We're currently watching President Trump channel the Authoritarian God in his "fire and fury" pronouncements about North Korea. Some prominent Christians, Boorstein writes, love it: "... one of Trump’s evangelical advisers blessed the president’s rhetoric, saying “God has given Trump authority to take out” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un."
Meanwhile, "many who see Trump and his supporters as irreligious do not interpret the president’s remarks and behavior as strong, but rather immoral." These Trump critics are likely to be among the Benevolent God people.
Boorstein gives us a good rundown on the Authoritarian God/Benevolent God debate which has been ongoing in this country all through its history. What she does not tell us is how to — or why we ought to! — settle our differences on such fundamental matters.
I'd say that we as Christians ought to set aside our differences wherever possible for the very reason that setting aside differences is precisely what Jesus taught during his ministry on Earth. Boorstein writes:
[Texas megapastor Robert] Jeffress told The Post that a Christian writer asked him: “Don’t you want the president to embody the Sermon on the Mount?” The sermon is an epic collection of Jesus’ sayings that have to do with turning the other cheek, loving your enemies and the hell that awaits people who judge or are angry. “Absolutely not,” Jeffress said.
Jesus says at Matthew 20:16, "So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen." Once again, this says to me that we are not to be judgmental. If we deign to rank who ought to first and who ought to be last, we inevitably judge the "last" harshly. If we judge anyone harshly, there can be no basis for setting aside differences, loving our enemies, turning the other cheek, making peace.
Matthew 19:24 reads: "And again I [Jesus] say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." In our ordinary way of looking at things, rich is something we'd all like to be. I don't think Jesus was lambasting just the rich per se, though. Rather, he's warning us all against our ordinary way of ordering things, just as he did in saying "the last shall be first, and the first last."
If we Americans who have radically different ideas about our God want to be able to set aside our differences, we first have to set aside our ordinary way of ordering and judging people and things. That's super-difficult to do, no? But every harsh judgment implies that we have perceived some violation of our ordinary ways of ordering matters, no?
I think Jesus wants us to set aside our ordinary judgmental "apparatus" so that we even have the power to set aside our differences. That power is a mysterious — even a miraculous — power. I think that mysterious, miraculous power is what Jesus was teaching us to seek.
Still, it's so difficult to see the sense of that, is it not?
[Texas megapastor Robert] Jeffress told The Post that a Christian writer asked him: “Don’t you want the president to embody the Sermon on the Mount?” The sermon is an epic collection of Jesus’ sayings that have to do with turning the other cheek, loving your enemies and the hell that awaits people who judge or are angry. “Absolutely not,” Jeffress said.
 |
| Jesus preaching the Sermon on the Mount |
Jesus says at Matthew 20:16, "So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen." Once again, this says to me that we are not to be judgmental. If we deign to rank who ought to first and who ought to be last, we inevitably judge the "last" harshly. If we judge anyone harshly, there can be no basis for setting aside differences, loving our enemies, turning the other cheek, making peace.
Matthew 19:24 reads: "And again I [Jesus] say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." In our ordinary way of looking at things, rich is something we'd all like to be. I don't think Jesus was lambasting just the rich per se, though. Rather, he's warning us all against our ordinary way of ordering things, just as he did in saying "the last shall be first, and the first last."
If we Americans who have radically different ideas about our God want to be able to set aside our differences, we first have to set aside our ordinary way of ordering and judging people and things. That's super-difficult to do, no? But every harsh judgment implies that we have perceived some violation of our ordinary ways of ordering matters, no?
I think Jesus wants us to set aside our ordinary judgmental "apparatus" so that we even have the power to set aside our differences. That power is a mysterious — even a miraculous — power. I think that mysterious, miraculous power is what Jesus was teaching us to seek.
Still, it's so difficult to see the sense of that, is it not?
No comments:
Post a Comment