John 12:20-33
Rejecting “The System”
James Sledge March
18, 2018
The
first church I served was in Raleigh, North Carolina, and a member happened to
be the clerk of the House of Representatives. Occasionally she would ask me to
offer the opening prayer when the House went into session. One of those times
was when then President Clinton addressed a joint session of the General
Assembly in the House chambers.
I
said my prayer and took my designated seat on the podium right up front. Then
members of the Senate came in, and the pastor who opened their session came and
set next to me. Guests and dignitaries then came in and were seated in extra
chairs added for occasion.
It
seemed a bit odd to be seated up front while important dignitaries sat far away
in folding chairs. I could look over the President Clinton’s shoulder and see
his notes. I wondered if someone had made a mistake seating us, but apparently
there is a designated place for the chaplain, right next to the Sergeant at
Arms, a vestige from an earlier time when religion played a more prominent role
in public life.
Even
as religion becomes less central, rituals such as my opening prayer persist.
Our culture still wants a bit of religion here and there. Governing bodies,
football games, and such still enjoy a hint of religious sanction, a little
like parents with no interest in church who still want their children baptized.
My
colleague and I both understood our role in this. We offered bland, generic,
prayers that offended no one. If either of us had decided to be prophetic and
speak truth to power, I don’t know that anyone would have stopped us, but I’m certain
we would have never been invited back. And we both behaved and did what was
expected of us.
From
the beginnings of society, the powers that be have wanted religion to play a
support role, to promote public morality, give divine sanction to rulers, and
generally support the status quo. In the modern version, pastors, rabbis, and
imams are supposed to provide chaplaincy services for their flocks, to care for
souls and stay out of politics.
To
make matters worse, American Christianity has become excessively personalized
and individualized. It’s about my getting into heaven, my personal relationship
with Jesus, my personal spirituality, or my salvation, things far removed from
a biblical faith.
In
the synoptic gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – Jesus’ central proclamation is
about the coming of God’s kingdom, God’s new day where the world is set right. John’s
gospel rarely speaks of the kingdom, preferring to speak of the conflict
between Jesus and the world. But as
so often is the case in John, this term is symbolic, not literal. The world is not a place but rather a
situation or condition where creation is at odds with its creator. The world is a culture that prefers to live
in opposition to God’s ways, an outlook, a way of living, that draws us away
from God.
I
once read a commentary on John that suggested translating the world as the system. That might help understand what Jesus says in our gospel
reading. Jesus calls his followers to “hate their life in this (system).” Speaking
of his coming death on the cross, Jesus says, “Now is the judgment of this
(system); now the ruler of this (system) will be driven out.”
In John’s gospel, the cross is not a sacrifice
or Jesus taking our punishment on himself. Rather it is Jesus’ glorification, an
event that both judges the system and
breaks its power. To be a believer, to follow Jesus, is to recognize this, to
reject the ways of the system and embrace the way of Jesus. Oh but how hard
that can be.
Martin
Luther King, Jr.’s leadership of the Civil Rights movement embodied what Jesus
speaks of in our reading today. King not only fought against the system, he lived and died as one who
knew the system’s power was passing
away, that it had been judged and defeated at the cross. But Dr. King discovered that many did not share
his view. Many preferred the system
and sought to protect and preserve it.
Some
of these were racists and segregationists who clung to the fiction of white
superiority. But their immorality became increasingly evident, and more and
more people could see that they were on the wrong side of history.
But
another group turned out to be more problematic for Dr. King. These were people
who agreed with Dr. King’s goals, who recognized the immorality of the system, yet would not break free from it.
Nowhere was this more true than among Mainline, progressive Christians and
pastors, those whom Dr. King addressed in his Letter from Birmingham Jail.
"…
I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached
the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride
toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner,
but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice.”[1] Or
perhaps we might say, who is more devoted to the system than to the way of Jesus.
Back
in the 1950s and 60s, we Mainline Christians – Presbyterians, Episcopalians,
Lutherans, etc. – were enjoying our heyday. We sat squarely in the midst of the
culture with seats at the tables of power and influence. We liked it, and we
weren’t going to let go of it, never mind what Jesus said.
A
lot has changed since then. Despite our loyalty to the system, it eventually decided it did not need us. Right now it is
Evangelicals who are willing to sell their souls for access to power and
influence, never mind what Jesus said.
The
cross may have judged the system and
broken its power, but it is not yet completely dead. It is all too easy to
embrace the system over the way of
Jesus. We willingly join the rat race because the system tells us to. We chase fulfilment by acquisition, more money
and possessions and influence and experiences, because the system tells us to. We burn the candle at both ends, always worried
about our status because the system
tells us to. We overschedule our children and drive them to achieve because the
system tell us that we are never
quite good enough as we are. We struggle to be truly generous with either our
money or our time because the system
tells us that we must protect and hoard them. We tolerate the inequalities and
inequities of our world because the system
says that’s just how thing are, and because the system often benefits us.
But
Jesus insists that hitching our lives to this system is not life giving but death dealing, something many of us
eventually, begrudgingly recognize. Conversely, rejecting the ways of the system and embracing the way of Jesus
brings a new quality of life, something many of us long for but too often seek
unsuccessfully by the system’s methods.
Jesus
says that the new life he offers is not about adding something more to our
already hectic, frenzied, hurried lives, not even more religion. Rather it is a
reorientation that lets go of things the systems tells us to chase and cling to
so that we may discover new life, life in all its fullness.
Where
does the world, the system, have you in its death grip? What
do you need to let go of in order to be free? What lies the system tells must you reject in order to
experience the embrace of God’s love that longs for you, no improvements or
achievements required?
You
are God’s beloved just as you are. The system
may not want you to believe that, but you are. And when we truly accept and
trust that this is true, then a new, deeper, more fulfilling, truly abundant
life becomes possible. And so does a more just, hopeful, and equitable world.
Thanks
be to God!
[1]
Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in Why We Can’t Wait (New York: Penguin Books, 1963-4) 84.
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