Radical, but not wacko

There's a plague in our country today that places an entire segment of our population in jeopardy. It's an old plague, like those gray VW vans that litter junk yards. No Ebola or some such. But it's been dressed up in the Emperor's New Clothes and it threatens the good name of Jesus Christ. So, I must write about it. Must.

The big news where I'm from is about a pastor who was arrested at a local park with his hands in his pants. It's big news, I think, because he was a very loud and obnoxious fellow when it came to protesting gays celebrating at Southern Decadence.

The big news across the country yesterday was about the Supreme Court allowing protess outside of military funerals. "The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the protesters from Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas have the right to demonstrate, no matter how distasteful, even painful, some find their message. The fundamentalist church has stirred outrage with its demonstrations contending God is punishing the military for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality. The protests are not linked to specific servicemen and women-only to the idea they represent our nation and government.

My, my, my things are achanging.


They introduced an I-Pad2 yesterday. I've not gotten my I-Pad1 yet, and possibly never will. But the more things change, the more they stay the same. Yesterday the Volkswagen folks re-introduced a VW Van. My, my, my things aren't changing.

See a connection in the two news items? Boy, I do.  Actually there are two.

One, of course, is homosexuality and what Christians can do about it. It's an interesting subject, a painful subject in some cases, because it affects so many apparently in today's culture. It's interesting because Jesus never said a word about it. Nada. No direction whatsoever. The law had plenty to say. Paul wasn't shy about saying things. But Jesus? Nada. The question becomes, then, why are so many so up in arms about this sin while leaving so many, many others untouched in our squabbling. Why no signs in front of divorce lawyers offices? Why no signs in front of front of all the liars in our society? You get the drift.

But the main thing that connects these two incidents is the very real and harmful to Christianity and the church plague of hypocrisy.

Now, Jesus said nothing about homosexuals, but he had plenty to say about hypocrites.

Jesus said:  “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full."

Jesus said: "You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you"

Jesus said: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to."

Jesus said: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence."

I could go on and on, but you get the drift. Jesus believed in an authentic way of living. He got riled more often about church folk who didn't live that way than anything else.

Someone asked me in a Bible study last night which was more effective, preaching fire and brimstone your going to hell manner or a loving manner.

I told them that Jesus showed more anger at church folks than he ever did against the non-churched. He never condemned those who didn't know the way of the Temple. But for those who did and didn't have hearts for the invisible, he had little patience.

The outside of the cup and dish have been washed clean by the pastor in the park and the church in Kansas. But their hearts? Oh, my goodness.

Listen, all of us have masks (the meaning of hypocrites when Jesus walked this earth). All of us have things in our closets that would upset someone if we let them run out of there. Maybe it's the sin of anger, or hatred, of bigotry, of spending, of whatever. Don't even get me started on abortion, which Jesus also didn't mention because, I believe, he couldn't reason that humankind would be so awful to contemplate that sin. We all have our issues and our problems.

Hypocracy, however, is a whole new animal. It's being outwardly one way and inwardly another. It wraps itself around not just our hearts, but our actions. Those actions are often creepy. When we're caught in the truth and it is so full of conflict with how we acted untruthfully, it not only reflects on us (as bad as that is), it reflects on the body of Christ. That's much, much, much worse.

I pray that someone who is struggling with their identity, with who Jesus is, doesn't hold those folks' actions against the body. I hope. I know better.

So the world goes on without the one thing that can save it because the world thinks us brazen, hypocritical and stupid.

Maybe we are. Ever wanted to not join a club simply because it would have you? If it would have you, how good a club could it be?

Maybe we all should ask ourselves what club have we joined.

Jesus? Have we sought to become Christlike, who would never carry signs and protest anything?

Or are we part of some wacko movement.

They're not one and the same, I promise. Oh, true Christianity is ragamuffin and radical and out there somewhere the foolishness of God meets the reality of the world. But wacko? We reserve that for nutjobs on the streets protesting while never looking at the inside of their own cups.


Times are achanging; and yet they're not.