Jesus tells disciples, in the “Community of God” caring for the least is caring for him, “Whatever you did for one of the least of mine, you did for me.” Opponents of Jesus will not care for the least and therefore will not care for Christ Jesus nor Christs throughout history, “When did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?”
Opponents of Jesus do not care for his teaching about caring for the least of us in the Community of God. Their opposition usually reflects a two-fold misunderstanding; about people and about the people’s authority, aka democracy. Opponents misunderstand people not as the least of us but as sinful. People are thus deserving of a lack of care, even deserving of punishment; hunger, illness, imprisonment, and more. Opponents also misunderstand social authority as politics, the kingdom of Caesar, in which rulers claim justification for judging sin and inflicting punishment. But social authority is not politics. Politics originates in punitive rulers policing commoners and who, like the uncaring Gospel characters, do not care for people and do not care for Community. Social authority is inherent in Jesus’ Community of God. It is a teaching and an endeavor that nurtures people’s social authority to provide collective caring action for the least of us and all people and their common good – democracy. Rulers who do not understand democracy, like institutional christianity’s rulers, promulgated a well-intended but mistaken political glorification of Jesus in today’s feast, Christ the King. The title was metaphorical and was supposed to end the use of ‘King’ by earthly punitive rulers over the sinful least of us. But punitive rulers keep using the title Christ the King to justify their judging and punishing the least of us. Liberals want to steer a middle course of caring for people while allowing rulers to pilot punitive politics. A peaceful Community of God, or simply democracy is thwarted because well-intentioned liberals are reforming the kingdom of Caesar. They petition captains of the ship of state who herald Christ as King to increase wages in a debt based system, to increase farm subsidies in a capitalist scarcity system, and petition for smaller Pentagon budgets while supporting the troops. Under liberalism, rulers and their Empires still keep our focus, determine our values, and get our compliance for degrees of change. Liberalism influences people toward a well-intended but erroneous glorification of Christ as Liberal. But Christ is not liberal. Christ is radical. Christ is all radical peacemakers growing a Community of God that cares for the least of us. To the degree we are steered by liberal reform, we will not be leading a radical revolution. As we do share leadership in a radical revolution, the kingdom of Caesar will not merely be reformed, it will be dissolved.
Self-titled Christians and liberal reformers both chastise peacemakers for leaving U.S. Empire’s politics to non-believers. Precisely. The U.S. Empire is the politics of nonbelievers. It is rulers and supporters who will always coerce our reform of the kingdom of Caesar so that we will never radically replace it with the Community of God, or at least democracy. Liberals assert those who detract from their reforms are judging the glass half empty instead of seeing it half full. But in reality, the glass is sitting next to us, topside on a slave ship. We keep repairing and servicing the ship, making the round trip, and congratulating ourselves for pulling a slave or two topside to join us for a drink. At the same time there is an entire ocean of care that is the Community of God we could all be swimming in. We know how to swim. We’ve known for 2,000 years. Get off the slave ship and get in the water.
Prayer: Spirit, we share power with the least of us.
Question: What keeps me on the slave ship working for reform?
November 22, 2020 Gospel Matthew 25:31-46 Feast of Christ the King