At Home Here?

"Those Christians who feel at home in the United States can do so only because they have buffered themselves from the brutal conditions of poverty, blinded themselves to the realities of racism, and deluded themselves into imagining that the vast military force of this country is the agent of justice. Many such Christians worship the idol of prosperity and have quieted their conscience in return for lives of relative ease and material comfort." Dennis Jacobsen, "Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing, p.2.
The American religious narrative in which so many Christians are entwined fails to recognize the difference between the "gospel" of empire-building through consumer/material wealth and the good news of the Kingdom of GOD. I suggested recently that a subversive and cruciform expression of stewardship might be to give up credit cards because we seek to live Jubilee by remaining debt free and we seek to eliminate indebtedness. We also seek to dismantle the power and privilege dynamics that are expressed economically in our culture. Credit cards are a privilege for the wealthy, even as credit card companies and lenders have taken advantage of or rejected the poor. I wonder if any of us would willfully give up credit cards as a sign of our rejection of over-consumptive habits and a privileged status?
Reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John with the hope of finding an alternative vision for life in this world reveals a subversive, non-conformist, irreligious, anti-imperial edge to Jesus and the church that has largely been rejected in favor of a more sanitized and less risky Euro-American, middle-class, suburban country club church. We have inherited a temple cult with its own pantheon, including the gods of war, wealth, eroticism/sexuality, and narcissism.
A church is emerging, however, whose subversive edge includes not only sacrificing but also embracing certain forgotten joys and hopes. This church will embrace the joy of sharing in a community. It will embrace practices of sustainability with an awareness and care for all of creation. It sees people as beautiful and broken creatures, whose sexuality is both mysterious and God-given. This church seeks compassionate justice for the least, the last, and the loser; especially those who have been imprisoned and those who continue to suffer in bondage to poverty. It will embrace non-violent forms of confrontation with powers of injustice. It will worship God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in unity and truth.
This church will not be conformed to this world but will be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we might discern what is God's good, acceptable, and perfect will. (Romans 12:2). This church's home is in the believer's heart and mind and transcends nationality, ethnicity, race, and other forms of identity imposed on the modern individual or group. It is a movement called to action by Jesus in order to embody God's dream for the new creation.
Brian McLaren says that we must defect from the narratives in which we currently reside in order to embrace the story of Jesus and the church. Defecting takes courage in the face of an oppressive system that requires conformity/uniformity. Defectors will feel like illegal aliens in this culture and may xpect to be treated as such. More on the defection strategy when I write about McLaren's book, "Everything Must Change."