Jesus taught us that individual people can be spiritual.
- But that societies and institutions cannot…because they have completely different purposes and motivations.
- There has never been such a thing as a “Christian society” or “Christian Nation.”
- Even though we hear those words a lot.
- What I am saying is that no society…including our own…has ever been willing to live the actual teachings and values of Jesus Christ.
- Theocracies (that is…governments run by religions) simply do not work.
- Take a good look at the country of Iran (their world cup soccer team) and you will see what I mean.
- That’s why in the USA we have the separation of church and state.
- In this way the church is able to challenge the state when it has lost its way.
There have been societies that have used Christian institutions and doctrines to consolidate their power:
- Such as The Holy Roman Empire.
- Such as Jim Jones’ People’s Temple in Jonestown Guyana and their mass suicide…drinking “Drinking the Cool aide.”
- But the relationship of these societies with real Christianity is at best flimsy.
- As was the relationship of the Jewish hierarchy with real Judaism in the time of Jesus and John.
In other words: Societies and institutions are guided by the principle of self-interest and Self-perpetuation.
- A Christ disciple is guided by the opposite principle of selflessness and sacrifice.
When John attacked the religious leaders of Judea…
- He was showing people that what they called “Judaism” was a sham…a fraud.
- He was saying: “What you call ‘spiritual’ is not spiritual at all.”
- He was saying that the entire conventional fortress of religious tradition was so far from the truth that it could not even be rehabilitated.
- He was saying that it could not be rehabilitated.
- He was saying that it could only be uprooted and demolished.
We should not be surprised…then…that John…and Jesus…
- Were perceived as a threat to the state.
- And they were a threat!
- And they died like lambs.
- But the challenge they raised was the challenge of lions.
- The state and the religious hierarchy acted to preserve itself by killing them.
The Hebrew preoccupation with the bloodline of Abraham was based on a dark tribalistic idea of spirituality.
- Now…I need to explain this.
- Most ancient peoples…the Hebrews included…
- Did not perceive themselves as fully individualized beings…like we do.
- But instead saw themselves as parts of groups…and clans…and tribes…
- With whom they shared a common identity.
The blood link with Abraham was believed to reward them with salvation.
- Because Abraham was pleasing and acceptable to God.
- All who descended from him would likewise be pleasing and acceptable to God.
- And John was saying that this was not true.
- It was as if I said: ”I know that I’m not a good person but my grandmother was good…so that makes me good.”
John was saying that a sorting process was underway.
- Symbolized by the winnowing fork.
- Ties to the group…the clan…the tribe…were not enough.
- A million people agreeing to a false or shallow idea of spirituality could not give it credibility.
- The winnowing fork would scatter falsehood and retain only the kernels of truth.
What John was saying went against the whole fabric of conventional Jewish belief:
- He was saying that the Messiah was not going to embrace the whole of the Jewish nation in one vast uniform glob.
- And that Christ was going to look at people as individuals.
For example:
- Immediately following World War II…
- The court of war crimes heard the repeated defense of Nazi criminals.
- That they were only following orders when they slaughtered defenseless civilians.
- The reaction to this…across the world…
- Was of horror and self-righteousness.
- The horror was real.
- The world had never witnessed such well-orchestrated and mechanized brutality.
- But the self-righteousness was hypocritical.
- It obscured the fact that most of us…
- Most of the time…
- Live in a state of compliance to the dictates of the group.
- That is…we do not call the person out who tells a racist Joke.
Fortunately…that compliance has never led us down a path as destructive as Nazism.
- For most of us…compliance remains relatively nondestructive.
The attitude of consumerism…for example…is one which is not consistent with being a follower of Jesus.
- To be a follower of Jesus in America…then…means resisting the preoccupation with acquiring stuff.
- Even while living and working in the middle of it.
What John is saying is that our relationship with Christ cannot be given to us by anyone else.
- Our relationship with Christ will…at times…isolate us from other people…
- And exile us from our own cultures.
- This is the cost of being personally accountable to Christ.
When John talked about “unquenchable fire”…
- He was saying the fire and winnowing fork of the Messiah will sweep through the lives of us who are in the process of wide-awake redemption.
We are missing his meaning if we think that the fire and fork will spare the believer…will spare us.
- The reality is that we suffer the advent in a personal way.
- Remember…Advent is a penitential season.
- We are brought face to face with realities we may very much wish to avoid.
- The fire and fork pass through our lives as a sorting out of truth and lie.
- What is false is burned and scattered.
- And we feel…at these times…that the very roots of our identity are being hacked to pieces by an unmerciful force.
One of the problems with “cosmic ‘left behind’ scenarios” is that they project the idea of judgment onto everybody else.
- With the hidden smugness that some are going to be spared.
- And allowed to watch from a safe distance.
- But Jesus wanted us to understand that we are all part of this winnowing.
- Each in our own way.
- That no one is to be excluded from the process of being purified.
John sounds as though he is warning of damnation in this passage.
- But this is only because of the tone of his message.
- John is really talking about the spikey and knotty personalized process of redemption.
Our story is of us trying to find something other than God to make us happy.
- Resulting in poverty…war…prostitution…classes…empires…slavery.
- But God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself.
- John is saying that there is no such peace apart from the grace of God.