MAGA: THE CHURCH of HEROD and the qospl of Q

“Many that were rich…, a...poor widow...and...these great buildings’” (Mk.12:41-13:2).

“And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Mt. 19:24)

“The poor have the Good News preached to them” (Lu. 7:22)

The Bible has a lot to say about the plight of the rich. The contrast between rich and poor would have been vastly greater in Jesus’ time when there was no social network to make up the difference. The average Westerner today would have more luxury than the richest man alive in Jesus time. The Gospel (the Good News) came at a time when there was much bad news: Roman soldiers on every street, the tyranny of the Herods, the utter banality of the scribes and Pharisees, ten tribes of Israel scattered permanently abroad, the Abrahamic promise seemed to have gone cold.

What is good news to people who have everything? And most of us have. What is there left to hope for besides the next version of Iphone, or wait in line to buy a $300 pair of sneakers? The level of desperation in Jesus’ time would have put the average person beyond hope of relief, so much that , when the “poor had the Good News preached to them,” it would have actually given them a surge of hope. And not only the hope of salvation, for that applied to the rich as well, but the hope that someday their physical misery would be exchanged for something else “when life on earth is done.” And it is an actual “living hope” in their hearts immediately that would have given them the spirit and vigor to climb upward, “for the joy of the Lord is their strength.”

Life is good today, and all the average person wants is for it to go on from here. We have come to look at the Good News today as salvation from sin only, and not from grinding, hopeless, earthly misery. It is that earthly misery that often causes people to discover the roots of man’s real hopelessness: sin. Equally, now that there are social programs to counter any and all consequences of sin, even that is no longer a spur to repentance, for, in a Western welfare state, prolonged misery is not allowed. Add to that, the utter lack of shame and loneliness brought on by shunning (“neither do I condemn thee, go sin no more”). In fact, the shunners are now the sinners, the phobes. Or the notion that the Good News promises a fresh start. Fresh start from what? Why fix what can’t be broken? LGBT is the new start. LGBT now demands access to front row pews in the congregation of the righteous, and Christianity Today churches are secretly complying. This “progress, ” they say, is what the Good News is all about. Grace will cover even LGBT.

Where will this take the church? Why not just put GAGA: Headquarters of the Democratic Party over it (or “Ichabod, the glory is departed”) and be done with it. But Christianity Today is laying the groundwork here with it’s “don’t be homophobic" message. The Rev Tim Keller (the New York Times’ favorite non-homophobic preacher) is busy laying brick on brick upon this new tower of Babel.

The woman caught in adultery could have entered any Jerusalem assembly without so much as a stain on her name. “Your sins are forgiven you, go sin no more.” She got a new slate, instantly, and the ability to rejoice in it. How do you argue with that? A woman of reputation now made a respectable member of the family in the blink of an eye. This is real power. “If any man is in Christ, he is a new Creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.” To the Pharisees this woman was of the lot of the Damned--”this people is cursed.” They could never rise above their circumstances. Today, this (unrepentant) woman would be a persecuted minority who didn’t need forgiveness. Good News is meaningless here. Good News today only means that churches are free of homophobes. This is now the dominant message of the Christianity Today churches: "Don't judge, don't be homophobic."

But here is real power. In a moment, this woman’s circumstances are changed completely, with real-life tangible results. For, in the Church of Christ, “where we go one, we go all.” "One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism." Go, seer, go preach this to the wretched mass shivering behind that wall, if you wish to see what “Good News” would have meant to the crowds Jesus preached to. “Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Imagine what that would sound like to people desperate to go where people consider them enemies. They long to come for the welfare of their bodies, but their soul shrivels when they think of the icy stares that await them. And the coldest looks come from behind church walls. God will not long suffer this, "for judgement must begin at the house of God."

And, as Jesus would say later, there were enough self-serving grifters in that crowd (they came only for the food). Only “a remnant will be saved.” God fishes for the remnant. This is a lot of wasted effort, you say. Why even bother? But not even “all Israel is Israel.” It may seem that the Bible is simply covering up for it’s inefficiencies and low returns with its "remnant" rhetoric. The Bible is very upfront about all this. If you need heroics, drama, and fireworks in your life, you best look elsewhere. Nothing here but not being "weary in well doing." The desert will wear you down to the very soul. "The kingdom and patience of Christ" was too much for Lot, so he looked to politics ("the gates") for his well-being. If Christ, they say, was truly the Jewish Messiah, then why didn’t the Jews recognize him as such (to this day). Or, if Jesus saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” is true, then why wouldn’t mankind receive him as such. In the end, to each his own. Without faith, the Bible is the laughstock of the library. And “faith cometh by, hearing and hearing by the world of God.” If you still don’t have faith after reading the book of faith what can we do? Just keep going down the line--the remnant is in there somewhere. There are 8 billion people ahead of you--keep reading from the Book of Life, and don’t stoop to the sorceries of the theologians who can tell you how to kill your enemies and commit adultery and still go to heaven. If they hear not “Moses and the prophets (‘whose children you are’),” why would you take refuge in the banalities of the king’s chaplains, who even wicked Herod couldn’t stand? Who would listen to people who believe Christ descended from Apes (the Rev Keller and Christianity Today are Apeists, evolutionists). He knew who they were, unregenerates like himself. Herodias, of course, (like the New York Times) preferred preachers in fancy robes to John Baptist. She saw nothing to dislike in their preaching. Whenever you see a preacher in robes, you know you’re safe. You will not get “hewed by the prophets.” Herodias is safe. All trophy wives are safe. And they are legion. Whether this is MAGA or GAGA , or simply MAGAGAGA is beside the point, at this point, isn't it.

to be continued