Look to the Future

Look to the Future

Isaiah 43:16-19

            Name any important figure in history and you can be sure multiple groups with widely varying agendas will try to claim him/her as their own.  It’s natural, I guess.  Whatever our outlook we want to have important people as our representatives, or as representatives of our ideology.

            This is truer of Jesus Christ than any other person in history, at least partly because so much is at stake.  If we can tout Jesus as a spokesman for our point of view, people will have to give us a hearing.

            White supremacists want to make America a white Christian nation, implicitly claiming that Jesus is a white supremacist.  Interesting interpretation.

            Most minorities claim that Jesus is on their side, and that he supports their claim to equality.

            Conservatives believe Jesus supports their worldview, preaching that we must adopt what they believe are first-century Christian practices, or some other ideology anchored in the past.

            Liberals point to Jesus’ support of the disenfranchised, the poor, the suffering, the homeless to validate their view that society must make a priority of caring for these.

            Radicals point to Jesus’ message, which opposed the religious and political leaders of his day, and his willingness to suffer torture and death for his beliefs.

            So…who is right?  Is Jesus a conservative?  A liberal? A radical? One who favors one group or race over another?  Does he stand for complete equality?  Where will we find Jesus?

            I believe Jesus is neither a conservative nor a liberal.  I do not believe he supports, or can be made to support any political or social agenda.  Jesus stands outside all of those, outside all human constructs of politics, religion, social structures. 

            This helps us understand where Jesus doesn’t stand, but where will we find him?

            The gospels make it clear that Jesus stands with the poor, the disenfranchised, the hungry, the needy—all those who, for whatever reason, find themselves on society’s margins.  Jesus also proposed a radical interpretation of the Torah—radical for his day, but in reality a return to God’s original intent.  In spite of his comments about coming solely to the house of Israel, the gospels tell us of instances where he went out of his way to provide assistance for those outside Jewish society.  He was also responsible for calling Saul/Paul to be the apostle to the Gentiles. 

Jesus was—is—definitely inclusionary.  Perhaps we can best describe him as a progressive in the truest sense of the word.

            God, speaking through Isaiah, says, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I am doing a new thing.”  God reinforces this statement in Revelation (21:5), with these words: “Behold, I am making all things new.”

            Our problem is that too many of us resist change.  We like things the way they are—or, more reactionary, the way things were.  We don’t want a new thing, thank you very much.  We’ll stick with the old ways.

            Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) addressed this viewpoint when he said, “Each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand mediocre minds appointed to guard the past.”  We must be sure we’re not clinging to the past so blindly that we miss the new things God is doing every day.