The Great Reversal

Last week my wife received an email from a friend. It was an article they read and wanted to pass on concerning the tragedy in New Orleans. It stated that much of the responsibility for the inhuman scene fell on the "parasitic welfare collectors" who made up a large portion of the area hardest hit.

This article made me mad.

A few days later we received yet another article from yet another friend. This article was an open letter to the president. The writer of this letter placed the responsibility squarely on the president: how dare he not go to New Orleans sooner.....How dare he not mobilize a relief effort faster. The letter ended with a blatant accusation of racism on the presidents part.

This article made me mad.

In both cases, I sat for several moments and thought about how I could reply to both emails. I began to mentally prepare a lamblasting of my two ignorant friends and their uninformed opinions. I started amassing historical data to back me up and strengthen my impenetrably correct opinion. I searched the Word for ammo with which to hurl at them, shaming them both for their ignoble thoughts.

And that's when I heard it. My great hope is that it came from behind me because the only other possibility, the one that terrifies me, is that it came from right inside my very own chest. It was barely audible but still managed to elicit a chill: a low, guttural, bloodthirsty rumble of a growl.

I had heard the growl twice before that I can remember, both during my time in Kansas City. Once when I was alone in my apartment watching Alien and praying in the spirit and the other when Mark Douglas and I were listening to Tom York sing "...We want young blood" on a radiohead album.

Even then Mark had the discernment to identify it for what it was, although I was too frightened to imagine that, it both cases, the enemy could get that close without me knowing.

And that same frightened surprise is what I felt just days ago as I prepared my respective replies. He was close enough for me to feel his foul breath on my neck and I knew, I just knew he was smiling approvingly at my every foul thought. He was there, the living, breathing (err..) enemy and he was achieving to the letter just what I was told he would try to do:

"He will do everything in his power to LIE TO, DIVIDE and DESTROY this body."

Along with this enemy and his purposes, I have counting against me an insaciable need to be right. I think this is the most dangerous thing that festers inside of me and if you suspect for even a moment that it be true for you as well, may we both ask the LORD to judge us so that we would be free.

Acknowledging my need to be right, I will proceed best I can.

I think politics divide the body. This is not good. It is the enemy achieving his end.

Some of you who read this are very politically minded and active. Some of you are not. I used to be and now, am not. I don't know exactly how this happened and it wasn't completely intentional. It just happened. I think it was around the time my dad died. Presidential nominees were campaigning and backbiting like mad. Fox Newsers and New York Timers were going back and forth like four year olds. Rock stars were selling out to politicians. And the whole time, my dad was just physically disappearing right in front of me. I stopped caring personally about politics out of natural necessity then...And it just hasn't come back.

By the way, my peace has multiplied exponentially.

You might say, "Jesse, that's no good....To stop caring!! How dare you be so selfish!" Well, I still care, I think. I cry a lot at least. When both sides of an election used the private anguish of a family dealing with terminal illness and the dying wishes of their daughter, I cried. When I was called a "baby-killer" by a loved one for not voting, I cried. When my wife and I drove past the city-sized mountain of burning trash that the Dominicans force the Haitans to live in, I cried. And when a storm destroyed a city and reduced its people to such a level of primal fear and rage that they would steal from sick and dying children, I cried.

And when I stop myself just long enough to realize I've joined in the futile and divisive finger-pointing, instead preaching and being the gospel of Jesus Christ, I cry.

Don't you dare tell me that I don't care.

Something ironic:

God decided to make himself a man during a time of political oppression the likes of which most of us have ever come close to knowing. Jesus was born into a political hotbed. They wanted him to rant against Rome. They wanted him to overthrow. They asked him political questions looking for seething answers they could use to further their movement and uprising.

He did not do this.

He did however have the absolute audacity to tell his closest Jewish friends He found more faith in one Roman soldier than He did in all of Israel.

We hip gen x'er believers who think we got hipster left-wing Jesus in the bag should staple that one to our foreheads.

I used to think political activity was my duty as a believer. People would quote scripture to me about why I should vote, defend the moral majority and support our leaders because "they were the ones in power." In fact, someone recently said the president is the most powerful and thus the most dangerous man in the world.

Well I just don't know if I believe that notion of power is true anymore. Jesus talked about a Kingdom in which all those notions of power, wisdom and strength were all blown out of the water and flipped upside down. It seems as if political leaders have more influence than me...They can create policy that reaches millions of people.

Gee. All I have the power to do is visit someone in jail. Maybe clothe someone's nakedness. Perhaps take the edge off someone's hunger. Wait that all sounds familiar...

And as far as power goes, the reversal that Christ talked about left one and only one definition of power standing: the promise of His indwelling Holy Spirit. Any other kind of power is fading fast and becoming increasingly ineffective. Perhaps this is the source of so many good intentioned people's frustrations: the belief in a power that is not really there. Maybe Jesus told us to pray for our leaders because He knew what we are missing....These people need the power that we have.

Take a deep breath. I might be about to really piss you off...

Depending on who you are (especially if you are a believer) you may need to do one of two things with George Bush: either one, get over him and your anger that he's in office or two, stop kissing his ass and blindly defending him.

You have more power than George Bush.

If you do not agree you do not understand the Holy Spirit and are missing the reversal of Christ's Kingdom. If you believe the leader of this or any nation has more influence or responsibility with their position than you do with the gospel of Jesus Christ, repent, you are doubting the gospel. People in New Orleans have incredible need. Babies in South Africa are being devoured by AIDS. Eight year old girls are being sold into prostitution in Asia. If you think anything other than the gospel is going to have a long lasting effect, you are in for a lifetime of needless frustration. Your man may take office. Your policy and aid programs may get passed. You may see some positive change. Praise be. Really, I mean it. But if it is not rooted in the gospel, it is temporary.

I don't think Jesus refused to take power. I think He always had it. Then He offered it to us. I think we misunderstood what power was.

Oh...and to lighten the mood, I've also given up on all news anchors other than John Stewart.

Go pray.