Discipleship, Politics, "Isms," and Idols

A line in this morning's psalm reads,  “Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now rise up,” says the LORD."  It's hard to read the Bible without getting the sense that God cares especially for the poor.  Conversely, Jesus seems to think that wealth is something of a curse. Not that many of us take him seriously on that.

Now this is not a political post (though I suppose it has political implications).  People can be very concerned about the poor and end up in very different political places. But I'm not sure the Bible's aim is simply to create concern for the poor.  Rather it seeks to form us into people whose lives are radically reoriented. Jesus calls his followers to lives of total devotion to God and concern for others that, at the very least, equals concern for self.  And whether we are Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal, most of us find this very nearly impossible.

It is very difficult for any political movement to embody the reoriented life Jesus asks of us because all such movements, all "isms" from feminism to liberalism to fundamentalism to patriotism, suffer from the basic human problem of being self-centered rather than God and other-centered.  Even movements begun from entirely altruistic motives eventually succumb to this tendency, to our sinful nature.

Churches and faiths on both the left, right, and everywhere in between routinely forget this and too easily associate God and faithfulness with their particular stances and positions, politics and "isms."  And far too often, churches and faith communities of all persuasions fail to encourage an openness to fundamental transformation that transcends politics and "isms."  As such, our devotion is too often to our causes, politics, and "isms" rather than to God and neighbor.  Fervent, well-intended causes make the most impressive idols, and very often we are remarkably blind to our own idols, although we can be quite astute at pointing out the idolatry of others. I take it Jesus is addressing just such a concern when he speaks of seeing specks in our neighbors' eyes while missing the log in our own.

I don't mean by this that all stances, causes, politics, and "isms" are equally loathsome.  Loathsome indeed would be the person who argued that the causes of civil rights and segregation were equally misaligned with God's coming Kingdom.  I have no doubt that Jesus was on the side of civil rights marchers and not segregationists.  But Jesus asks something bigger of us that simply to back the right causes.  He wants us to be completely made over, to discover our true human nature in living as he lived.  But that seems so hard.

I sometimes wonder if the Church hasn't done a great deal to make the call of Jesus seem too hard, even impossible.  For a variety of reasons, church leaders have been afraid to ask much of those in the pews.  We might lose members if we spoke as Jesus did. Easier to stake out a few positions or embrace a certain cause and tell people that faith means agreeing with us or supporting our cause.

I certainly get nervous at the thought of calling people to radical discipleship.  What if I offend the people who pay my salary?  A self-centered fear if there ever was one.  Maybe what I need to do first is listen more carefully for Jesus calling me.

Click to learn more about the Daily Lectionary.