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Do not be Afraid!

 There is a plan for the future of this country that is posed to be a '2nd American Revolution.' It is called, "Project 2025." The authors of this 91 page plan are mostly former staffers of the last President and the Heritage Foundation. It is so bad that as the word is getting out about it  the actions that are set to be taken, even the current Republican Presidential candidate is trying to put some distance from it, because he knows he can't sell it. The highlights are taking away abortions and contraceptives for all our nation, getting rid of marriage equality, allowing the President to fire any government employee and put in their place someone whose only qualification is loyalty to the President, and getting rid of the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency. Basically to turn our Democracy into an authoritarian regime ruled by the oligarchy. 

We, as a church, are not supposed to be dipping our toes into politics for the most part. We really don't want a theocracy. However, we can't remain silent when the other side is using the Bible, or should I say misusing, or should I say weaponizing the Bible in give themselves power. We automatically have associated Sodom and Gommorah with gay sex, gay rape, and homosexuality and for that reason, the towns were punished with fire and brimstone. However, in this book, the prophet Ezekiel, had a different interpretation of their sin, for he proclaimed in chapter 16 verse 49 "This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease but did not aid the poor and needy." Their sin was pride, excess, and no compassion. These are the hallmarks of Christian Nationalism and its sister White Patriarchal Supremacy. These powers and principalities were alive and present in Sodom and Gommorah, in Israel and Babylon in Ezekiel's time and present in our world today. Pride, excess, and no compassion. 

Ezekiel was already taken from Jerusalem when he was called in this chapter. He was living in Babylon for maybe ten years and was a priest, who along with the ruling class and skilled workers, were removed from Judah to make it harder for Judah to organize any kind of rebellion. He hears God who lays the blame on the conquering of Judah on the rebellion of the Hebrew people against God. Because they have strayed, because they would not listen, because they would not take care of the poor and needy, they had not strength (courage, brotherhood, and trust) to defend themselves and God was not going to save these rebellious descendants of rebellious ancestors. For they were filled with what?

Lamentation and mourning and woe are coming says Ezekiel. If our current President remains in office, those who support MAGA are not going quietly away. Our nation will be tried and challenged in a way that hasn't happened since the 1850's. If his challenger wins, our nation won't be the same as the Supreme Court just ruled the office of the President has near total immunity for official acts. 

Someone wrote to me this week that we need more hope and to be uplifted in our worship services. Here it is: ever since we have made "In God We Trust" our national motto and inserted "one nation, under God" into our pledge of allegiance, we have become a more liberal and diverse society. I am not saying this is a causation, but more of a correlation. We have marriage equality, people of color and minorities don't yet have equality, but we have come a long way, and soon whites will not longer be a majority class. Yet, some of the rights of voting are being challenged and abortion rights have been taken away, but 70% of the nation wants those to be for everyone. We have the time to bring those back. The anger that is being expressed now is the process of grief that we aren't returning to the past, and with compassion, we can help them move through it to let go and be a part of a greater America and more sustainable world. Ezekiel is shown a valley of dry bones. But he is also shown the power of God, of love and compassion that even if the worst happens, the night of darkness and death will end and a new dawn will arise. The Spirit of God, the Breath of God will revive the people. God is not on our side, but we are on God's side because God is for the poor, the needy, the stranger, the foreigner and for justice. God is for all people being fed and having a place to lay their head. God lifts up the peacemaker, not the one who plots violence. God created this world for life and that all may live in harmony. God is love. Jesus comes to bring release to the captive and the prisoner, to fill the hungry and clothe the naked, and invite us all to the banquet. Do I hear an Amen?

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