Hope for All

We live in interesting times.

We live in a moment when you have to watch what you say, to whom you say it, and how you say it, despite knowing that no matter what you say, to whom you say it, or how you say it, there will be a reaction—not a response, but a reaction. We live in a moment of hair triggers. We live in a moment where picking sides is almost mandatory, where declaring allegiance, then tolerating nothing from someone else is simply the rule of the day.

It is more a time of the prophet Amos, who thundered to the Israelites in the name of God—

I hate, I despise your feasts,

    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

    I will not accept them;

and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,

    I will not look upon them.

Take away from me the noise of your songs;

    to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

I can hear the gathered protesters in Washington loudly shouting such a thought at one another across the barricades. 

Such a thought leaves no room for compromise. It leaves no room for reconciling differences and coming together. It leaves no room for welcome. It seems in direct contradiction of Paul’s thought— 

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 

And that is where people of faith trying to follow Jesus need to stop and stay a while.

Obviously, partisanship is nothing new to the church. If it was there in the 2nd Century, it should be no surprise that humanity is still partisan in the 21st. 

But how do we move from Amos to Paul?

Read more of Amos to start. Yes, the prophet boils over in righteous indignation in the text quoted above, but only after he has named in utter exasperation the failure of the people to overcome their inherent partisanship to truly embody the compassion that flows from God. The main problem was that Israel neglected the neediest of all, yet somehow felt entitled to the grace of God, somehow missing God’s long established counsel that to experience grace, one needs to be gracious. Amos, if we read more of Ch. 5 than the verse above, you find an amazing congruence with Paul’s thinking as he writes to the Corinthians—in God, all human beings are meant to coexist, gather together as family, and look out for the weakest among us to ensure our greatest strength is love. No one should fall behind. No one should languish in isolation. No one should arrogate themselves over another. Instead, there should be a continual drawing together of humanity as we awaken to the reality that every human being alive is a beloved child of God. 

If we were able to actually make this idea a reality, the hair triggers and reactions that flare within us could be tempered and quieted. We could raise ourselves into the communion God desired in making us in the first place.

How?

As followers of Jesus, we share baptism. Baptism belongs to no church, no preacher, and no one save Christ himself. To be baptized is to be within the communion of saints, the great pantheon of all God’s children that crosses all human lines and divisions in the utter transcendence of being a child of God among children of God. 

At an ecumenical worship service, the Lutheran preacher said something that struck me right between the eyes—

In the fellowship of Jesus, water IS thicker than blood!

We are united in Christ, no matter what human theology we preach, what form of worship we practice, or what polity we follow. We are in Christ, of Christ, and with Christ. 

In Christ, we can be one, liberated from all that divides us and threatens to undo us.

And that is our hope.

That offers us a way into what Amos saw as our everlasting hope—

Seek the Lord and live…

Seek the good and live…

Let justice roll down like waters,

    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.