Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve

"Kathy, I'm lost", I said, though I knew she was sleeping I'm empty and aching and I don't know why Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike They've all come to look for America All come to look for America All come to look for America America Simon and Garfunkel 1965 What has happened to us? American Racism? “We predicted that Charlottesville would be the largest gathering of white supremacists in over a decade. Unfortunately, we were right.” - Oren Segal, Director of ADL's Center on Extremism “Jews will not replace us!” This was one of the rallying cries of the white supremacists who converged on Charlottesville, VA in August 2017. American Antisemitism? American Nationalism? "I think, somehow, the Lord's plan is being put in place for America and these people are not only revolting against Trump, they're revolting against what God's plan is for America," Robertson said during a February 2017 broadcast of "The 700 Club." Has the Evangelical Church Embraced American Nationalism? What is Christian Nationalism? “Christian nationalism believes that the American nation is defined by Christianity and that the government should take steps to keep it that way to sustain and maintain our Christian heritage. It’s not merely an observation about American history. It is a prescription for what America should do in the future. We should sustain and continue our identity as a Christian nation. That’s Christian nationalism.” “Christianity will have power.” Donald Trump “No other candidate ever came close to being that blunt about championing Christian power. That's Christian nationalism in a nutshell, advocating for Christian power rather than Christian principle.” Christian Nationalism Is Worse Than You Think Christianity Today Podcast MORGAN LEE | JANUARY 13, 2021 How broad do we think Christian nationalism is? How influential are these claims? How far are they spread? Paul D. Miller: Whitehead and Perry measured this and they say that 52% of all Americans are what they call ambassador. Then there are accommodators, people who are adjacent to Christian nationalism, tolerant of it, and accepting enough that they're not going to get in the way. 78% of self-identified evangelicals are either ambassadors or accommodators of Christian nationalism. It's really important to recognize that distinction, by the way, that the ambassadors are a smaller group. Over the past hundred years, as America has grown less Christian and less white, it has put the white Christian conservative population on the defensive. We feel like the world's against us. We're shrinking, our power is shrinking, our influences are shrinking against all of the other forces in the world. Non-Christian and foreign influences are now controlling our country and taking it away from us. In the last 40 years, Christian nationalists tend to believe that Christians are under attack and are being persecuted. That leans towards a worldview that increasingly includes a lot of fear: us-versus-them dichotomy, forces beyond our control are steering events against us. I think it is why today's Christian nationalism is different than past generations and why it bleeds over into some of the conspiracy theory stuff as well. Choose this day whom you will serve I Jn. 4:11-5:5 What does the outside world see when looking at the Church? Division—Personal (Inability to get along with one another) or Denominational (We’re right and you’re wrong)? Judgmentalism? Irrelevance? Maybe they don’t see anything!! Have we become invisible? What does the Church see when it looks at the outside world? What did Jesus see when He looked at the world? And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Mt.9:35-36 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:18-21 Highlight all the words and phrases that Jesus uses to describe what he came to Earth to do. “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:18-21 What does this reveal to you about God's heart for justice? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Mk.1:4-15 Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Mt.24:14 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” Rev.11:15 Mt.25:31-46 “The original Jesus movement was not a pietistic religion of private belief about how to go to heaven when you die. The original Jesus movement was a countercultural way of public life. It was the kingdom of Christ, and as such it was a rival to the kingdom of Caesar. This is what made the principalities and powers of Rome so nervous about the Way. Though it’s well known, it still needs to be emphasized that Jesus and his two most important apostles, Peter and Paul, were all executed by the Roman Empire. Why? Not for their religious beliefs about an afterlife, but because the kingdom of heaven they announced and enacted posed a challenge to the dominant myth that Rome had a manifest destiny to rule the nations and a divine right to shape history. Either it was Jesus who was the last best hope of the earth or it was Rome. But it couldn’t be both.” Brian Zahnd Postcards from Babylon Either it is Jesus who is the last best hope of the earth or it is the United States. But it can’t be both. “It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there” Bob Dylan