Expectations are at the center of this Sunday’s readings. They are based on exclusivity and chosen people. The Old Testament reading reflects the culture of Militarism and sets up the expectation of a violent warrior who is an exclusive savior for a chosen people. The Gospel then says “the people were filled with expectation” for a savior. Because of the Old Testament, the people do not expect Jesus to fill that expectation. He is not a violent warrior. He is not exclusive and gathers no chosen few. Jesus is powerfully inclusive, making peaceful communion among all people. We would expect Peter who spent years living with the inclusive Jesus to be inclusive too. But the Old culture keeps a grip on him now and then. Thus, as the second reading relates, Peter excludes Gentiles from a community supposedly based on Jesus’ inclusive way. Peter does not expect Gentiles to follow Jesus, but they do and Peter ultimately accepts them. Peter is shown publicly admitting the error of his way. He converts again to Jesus’ inclusive and peaceful communion.
Expectations are at the center of the U.S. culture, which can be described as a modern day Old Testament culture. Here too, from founders and laws deemed sacred, there are a people whose values are based in exclusivity and chosen status. It is apparent in white people’s treatment of Natives and Mexicans and Africans. An exclusive people legislating their chosen status stole land and used slave labor to gain a commanding amount of plunder. The U.S. has done the same to people across the world and still does. Centuries of an Old Testament based exclusivity and chosen status influences self titled christians in the U.S. the same way it influenced Peter 2,000 years ago. It is therefore to be expected that at the present time: gun wielding whites are patriots while unarmed Blacks are thugs; Bundy-like stand-offs consist of heroes while the Black Lives Matter movement consists of terrorists; a white president who invades and occupies a Muslim land for oil is regarded as a Christian while a Black president, who maintains his predecessor’s warfare, is regarded as a Muslim; GOP presidential candidates who support “torture,” “carpet bombing,” “killing the families” of Muslim opponents, and accept the endorsement of neo-Nazi groups are Christians while the targeted Muslims are a “dangerous threat.” What else did people expect from a centuries old racist U.S. religious culture? It calls itself Christian while it routinely produces violent exclusive saviors for a chosen white people. What else did we expect from it than to produce the current GOP? Currently centered on Donald Trump, the GOP have for decades been steadily expecting and securing supremacy for their own 1%. They have as well been expecting compliance from minions they manipulate. GOP members tout themselves as the party of personal responsibility but they are not. They are the party of personal irresponsibility. They refuse to take responsibility for their chosen status and failed policies of exclusivity which spawn inequality and violence against all people, people of color especially. They refuse to take responsibility for manipulating whites into blaming their ensuing hardships on non-whites. Thus, the GOP fuel rage by poor whites against poor Blacks, Mexicans, Muslims, and others. The GOP, Trump especially, are inciting an environment of civil unrest unto civil war. The GOP is this nation’s supremacist, angry, and violent chosen people. It is to be expected these qualities will persist no matter if the GOP wins the presidency or if they do not. They will rule with out apology and certainly without a Christ-like leader; even without a Peter-like leader. Thus there will be no Peter-like public conversion from the GOP and no admission of the error of their way. What else can people expect from such a culture and such rulers? What is it people can expect from me during this coming time of trial?
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” (The Second Coming by W.B. Yeats)
Prayer: Source of Peace, I commit to peacemaking.
Question: What are the inclusive and peaceful communities I’m nurturing?
January 10, 2016 Luke 3: 15-16. 21-22 Baptism Of Jesus