Messiah

This "war" that Israel is committing on Palestine has been eagerly anticipated by evangelical christian nationalists for some time. About a couple decades ago, evangelical leaders have been building strong ties to the Israeli government and the Zionist movement.  The Zionist movement of Israel and the christian nationalists have become very strange bedfellows. Zionists use the christian nationalists political power in the US, especially in Washington, DC, to further their agenda, which is the eradication of any chance of a Palestinian state. The christian nationalists further their agenda to bring on Armageddon so the Jews may be turned into Christians or burn when their Messiah, Jesus, returns and rids the world of all the undesirables, mainly anyone who is not an evangelical white US citizen. They really don't like each other, but are alright as long as their purposes are served; the ends justify the means, in other words. For some people, I may be putting this a little too bluntly, however, this is part of the mix and politics happening right now.

Unfortunately, it was early Congregationalism that planted some of the seeds of a hard, puritanical, and selective Christianity, where there is much evil in the world and other people. Pilgrims didn't come here for religious freedom, they came to practice their version of Christianity and have the right to kick out anyone who disagreed with them. The First Great Awakening was lead by many Congregational leaders like, Rev. Jonathon Edwards, had God dangling sinners over the pit of hell. Though many Congregational churches, pastors, theologians, and members have left this theology of original sin behind, we cannot say we are free of this. The theology, mythology, ideology, and practice of an angry God who only sees sinners is alive and well in our country. 

There is much in the prophets and prophecy of the Bible that share this view of an angry God, promote this theology, creating fear of the world and those around us. In Isaiah alone, there are many times the number of chapters and verses of the angry God and the bad, bad people, than versus like today, which call for comfort, reconciliation, and a time of peace. What we often don't realize, is that these prophets are only a small part of Israel's history, about three hundred years, from the eighth to the fifth century BCE, that covers fifteen hundred years from Moses until Christ. Isaiah today evokes the story of creation where God speaks and the universe is created. A voice calls out, "Let there be a way, a highway, mountains lowered and valleys raised..." It is promising that unlike the journey of Moses and the people trudging through the desert for forty years, this journey home will be much smoother, safer, and gauranteed to make it in their lifetime. Throughout the sixty-five chapters, there is a lot of bluster, calling out the sins and promise of punishment. However, God does not cut the covenant. The Hebrew people are still God's people and God continually prepares the way for a chance for reconciliation, leading them gently like a shepherd who leads and cares for the mother ewe. 

Too many Christians and others believe in a God that regularly, and almost exclusively, uses violence to control people, to make them do His will. It is the threat of hell to make them repent and eternal punishment for those who don't. It is the natural disasters that God uses to punish the wicked. The sword and weapons of war are God's greatest tools. However, the one whom we call Messiah, Christ, Jesus of Nazareth is the shepherd who leads and cares for people gently and with love. We are called to repent, to turn toward the way of God, walk the path of peace paved with justice. All the laws and all the prophets are summed in this, the Messiah reminds us, "to love our neighbor by doing to others what we want done to ourselves." Amen.