KISS

There is a saying that I like....It is an acronym actually:  KISS....Keep It Simple Stupid.  I know that it is not politically correct but it is very appropriate for me to use on myself.  I have a tendency to make things complicated.  To over analyze and over emphasize and over everything that I do or think. 

The Lord has had me staying in the Gospels lately in my reading and blogging.  Hence blogging through the life of Jesus.  I know what some of you are thinking.  I am taking my own sweet time in that process.  Part of what I need to simplify is finding to time to write daily, so I appreciate your prayers...but I digress. 

I am just finishing a book by Brian McLaren called The Secret Message of Jesus.  In the book Brian is looking at the Jesus' message of the Kingdom of God.  A subject that I have been obsessed with since my early twenties.  A mentor and professor challenged me on this subject some 25 years ago.  Yet I digress again.  One passage is this book really has me stoked this morning.  Brian summarizes Jesus' Sermon on the mount.  He calls the Sermon on the Mount, "The Kingdom Manifesto".  I want to  share this with you and then make a few comments.

Be poor in spirit, mourn, be meek, hunger and thirst for true righteousness, be merciful, be pure in heart, be a peacemaker, be willing to joyfully suffer persecution and insult for doing what is right.
Be salt and light in the world - by doing good works.
Do not hate or indulge in anger, but instead seek to reconcile.
Do not lust or be sexually unfaithful in your heart.
Do not presume to make vows, but have simple speech, where yes means yes and no, no.
Do not get revenge, but find creative and nonviolent ways to overcome evil done to you.
Love your enemies, as God does, and be generous to everyone, as God is.
Give to the poor, pray, and fast secretly.
Don't let greed cloud your outlook, but store up treasure in heaven through generosity.
Don't worry about your own daily needs, but instead trust yourself to God's care, and seek God's kingdom first and foremost.
Don't judge others, but instead first wok on your own blindness.
Go to God with all your needs, knowing that God is a caring Father.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Don't be misled by religious talk; what counts is actually living by Jesus' teaching.

When Jesus is finished with the Sermon on the mount he says this: 

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain fell, and the flood came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell - and great was its fall.  (Matthew 7:24-27 NRSV)

It is amazing to me that we as Christ followers can get caught up in so many different things and yet ignore many of Jesus' core teachings.  I think we could camp out right here in Jesus' "Kingdom Manifesto" and do just fine in our walk with God.  I guess that is what it means when God gives us a KISS!

Herod's Rage

My wife and I are reading through Matthew together this week.  As I was reading Jesus birth account, I was struck in a new way about the fear and rage that Herod expressed at the revelation that the birth of Messiah was imminent.  What would cause him to fear this child so much that he was willing to slaughter innocent children?  I felt the Lord burning in my heart the thought, "Jesus was going to threaten his ability to consume and profit from the Romans".  Herod had a sweet thing going.  He was the Governor.  He was living high.  As long as he didn't stir up the Jews too much and make waves with Rome, he could live in his luxury palace and enjoy all the pleasures he could consume.  He had built the Jews a new Temple to placate them.  They could live in their little Jewish bubble in the midst of the empire and pretend that all was well.  They had their Jewish Temple, Jewish Holidays, Jewish customs, Jewish schools, Jewish political lobbyists, and Jewish way of life where they were able to look down on all those "pagan" Romans and know that they were above them.  All they had to do was pay some taxes and lead a quiet life and they could have best of both worlds.  They could live in their separate (holy) little Jewish culture as well as profit from being part of the Roman Empire.

Herod realized very quickly that Messiah would ruin all of that.  In the Jewish mindset of the day Messiah would liberate Israel from foreign oppressors and set up a kingdom that would never end.  This would put an end to Herod's control and profit.  I also believe the Pharisees of the day felt the same way when they turned Jesus over to Pilate.  Jesus didn't play by their rules.  He abhored their consumer religion.  They had a good thing going.  Jesus coming in and turning over their book tables, (I mean dove stands) and exposing their hypocrisy didn't set to well with them.  It was easier to kill him than just dismiss him or repent.

I don't know about you but I see a lot of similarities between Herod, the pharisees, and the church of America today.  There are all kinds of little Herod's running around building there pseudo kingdoms in the name of religion.  Like Herod they have combined religion, market, and politics to create a life of greed, power and consumption.  We have made our churches into little more than another super box store peddling religious goods for the modern religious consumer.  Politicians and Political Action Committees have duped religious leaders and unsuspecting Christians into thinking that their party or philosophy is serving a greater cause.

Let me be perfectly clear.  There is no great cause except the cause of Christ, neither right nor left, conservative or liberal.  Christ came to shake all of that up.  He unabashedly stated that His kingdom was not of this world.  He aligned himself with neither the religious nor the political.  He only aligned himself with His Father.  He provided a different way.  A way of heart change, not a way of law.  A way of servitude, not a way of power.  A way of giving, not a way of consumption.  He called His church come and die with Him.  His way is not a way of ease, comfort and endless prosperity.  Christ is calling us to His kingdom.  A kingdom that is different, where the last is first and the weak are made strong.  His way is a way of redemption and love, truth and grace.  Everything is upside down, a kingdom where He is the only one receiving glory.  May we awaken and quit following the deception of power and greed and begin to follow the way, truth and life of a peasant carpenter from Nazareth, who was really the King of all Kings!!