From the intro to Radical Religion: Faith
Without Works Is Dead.
See the end of this entry for ordering
information.
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| Radical Religion: On James |
Even
before he arrived, the story of Jesus was already revolutionary. From the
wilderness beyond the borders of proper society, the voice of a crusty,
dreadlocked, dumpster-diving, home-made leather wearing activist-prophet
shouted the first declaration of a new king for whom the entire order of the
world would change.
"Repent!"
John
the Baptist cries out from the wilderness.
"The
Kingdom of God is here!"
So
begins the gospel of Mark, the oldest of all the accounts of the life of Jesus,
and the gospels of Matthew and Luke, both of which are inspired by Mark's
account. All three introduce their story of Jesus as a "gospel", in
the original Greek an "evangelion", from which we derive the English
words "evangelist" and "evangelical". But when these books
were written, this word did not have the religious meaning we give it today. It
had a political one.
This
strange orator, John, and Mark, the first author who wrote of him were both
part of many indigenous groups in Europe and Asia in the first century experiencing
colonization and occupation by the expanding Roman Empire. As this juggernaut
of a political force moved across the landscape, it would send ahead of its
colonists special ambassadors who would spread the evangelion (or the “gospel”,
often paraphrased in English as "good news") in the form of a
declaration that this region was now in the control of the Roman Empire.
"Caesar
is Lord!” these bearers of the gospel of the empire would proclaim. And with
each new emperor in succession afterward, these ambassadors would come and
declare again. They reserved the word "gospel" for these
declarations, because only this word contained the full meaning of
world-altering, system-shattering, joyful-eruption-producing news necessary to
truly communicate the highest laudation appropriate to the emperor of all the
nations of the known developed world.
It
is with this powerful word "evangelion", that Matthew, Mark, and Luke
first describe the story of Jesus. In this introduction they place the first
words of this proclamation in the mouth of an outsider, crying out from the
wilderness of a new Kingdom.
That
is radical. That is revolutionary.
"Repent!"
he cries out. Prepare yourself for a big change, he warns. To repent means to
change the way we live our lives. For those comfortable and happy with the ways
of the empire as they were, as they are, such a word is an offense. But for
those who have hoped all their lives for something more, this word is not a
warning, but a joyful invitation.
Good
news! There is a new Kingdom at hand! The world as we know it has drastically,
radically changed! We're under new management! The laws are different now!
In
Luke's declaration of this glorious gospel, John declares that this gospel will
make the valleys high and the mountains low. Rulers will be brought down, and
the low shall be exalted. In all three accounts, we are commanded to make
straight paths for the coming of the new order that will turn everything back
to justice.
This
forerunner-prophet-evangelist who declared the great change in all the corrupt
empire from bottom to top was compared to Elijah. Like John, Elijah also lived
outside of the empire of his day, entering only to approach the wicked king
with finger pointed boldly toward him. With wit and authority and unvarnished
truth he would expose the king's wickedness, and call him to repent of his
injustice toward the citizens and the oppressed foreigners in his empire. Both
Elijah and John spoke truth to power in their day. Like Elijah before him,
John, the first evangelist, was also found in the court of the king, boldly
calling him out for his wickedness and hypocrisy before all the people. For
this, by the king in power in his day, John was executed by beheading.
After
Jesus' execution as an insurrectionist and vindication by resurrection, his
followers would spread over the empire and continue the evangelism that John
had begun.
"Repent!"
they cried. "Believe the gospel!"
"Jesus
is Lord!"
The
first sermon preached at the formation of the first Christian church boldly
declared that all class, gender, and culture barriers had been removed from
those who would accept the Kingdom of God, or those who would declare it. Young
and old, men and women, all ages could receive and preach the coming kingdom,
no previous experience or qualifications required (Acts 2). The Kingdom of God
would instead be planted in the centre of a person's very being, and dwell
inside them as the living Holy Spirit of God. By this living Spirit, any and
everyone could know the way of justice required of citizens of the Kingdom, and
by the power of God's Spirit alive within them, they would be empowered to live
as the Kingdom required. No imposition by any outside authority, no human
mediator of any level of supposed holiness need ever again come between any
person and a direct, personal connection with God, their redeemer and true
King.
Peter
preached from the ancient prophesies, the same ones that said a day would come
when the law would no longer be imposed from without, but instead written on
the hearts of humankind. He preached during the feast of Pentecost, the
traditional religious celebration of the day God gave the first law at Sinai.
He preached to a mixed multitude made up from every nation, separated
significantly enough that they didn't even share a common language. The Holy
Spirit that lived in these early proclaimers of the world-changing gospel
empowered them to speak in the languages of everyone present, breaking down any
walls between people that would separate them from one another in the new
Kingdom, as every wall had already been removed from between each one of them
and their true King.
The
message and movement springing from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus
Christ is necessarily radical. His execution as an insurrectionist by Roman
Empire is alone enough to recognize that the life and message of Jesus of
Nazareth was in direct opposition to the violent ruling powers of colonialism,
imperialism, and power through fear. After living his life among and for the
marginalized and the oppressed, his life was followed quickly by a fast growing
group of community building radicals, living outside the mainstream in generous
and just communities built on love. They shared all they had commonly, gave
generously to the poor, and were willing to die as they followed the footsteps
of their Messiah King.
Christians
are called to be activists, actively living for a more just world, actively
resisting the injustice of the powers of this age, because we are followers of
Jesus. Being a Christian means we’ve accepted the Holy Spirit, the seed of the
Kingdom of God planted into our hearts by faith in Jesus. We’ve been set free
from sin, and set free to demonstrate the Kingdom of God here on earth, now. We
participate in God’s work in the world. Sometimes, that will mean active
resistance to the injustice in the world. Sometimes that’s uncomfortable.
In the spirit of this exact sort of
resistance I have often found myself in direct practical opposition to agents
of unjust power. Through our small church’s efforts to know and support our
neighbours and foster community in our neighbourhood, we came to know a mother
and her son living on the same block where we gathered. We knew her story, that
her ex-husband had been using manipulation and power games to abuse and oppress
them. One of his methods was to manipulate the police with any excuse to
convince them to search their home, harass her, or even have her arrested. She
told us stories of abuses she’d received at the hands of some of these
officers. So when I saw from the window of our church that a police car was
parked in front of their house, I walked onto the sidewalk to observe and
record what I saw. I walked up the sidewalk to the police car until I was close
enough to touch it, stopped, pulled out my mobile device, and took notes.
Though our neighbour was not home, I recorded extremely inappropriate and rude
conversation between the officers as they walked to the door of the house and
back to the car. They called the woman names, and joked crassly about what it
was like to arrest her. All of it was loud enough that I could have heard it
from the window of our church had I opened it, but they weren’t keeping their voices
down even with me standing right there in front of them. Before they got into
their cars, they approached me and demanded I answer some questions about our
neighbour. With knees shaking, I refused, as was my right. They asked my name.
I did not give it. I asked for their badge numbers, which they did give me. Six
months later, my notes were used as evidence in a trial in which one of those
officers lost their job for misconduct.
I believe that this act of resistance was
the right thing to do. More than that, I believe that it was a Christian thing
to do, to resist oppression in solidarity with the oppressed. This is what it
looks like to be a Jesus Follower.
Christian
resistance looks different than the world. We are not rebels in our resistance.
Rebellion is sin. This makes a very narrow path when we find ourselves needing
to resist oppression. We resist, but we do so with honour and respect and
submission to God’s authority. Jesus was not a punk or anarchist. Jesus is King
of Kings. Therefore, we are not rebels. We are followers of the king, living in
resistance to those “authorities” that rebel against his Just Kingdom.
We
have a rich tradition of resistance in the history of the Church, and many
throughout the world continue in resistance today. Not every Follower of Jesus
has had the privilege of white, North American, 21st century Christians.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a hero of mine, was a German theologian and pastor living
in Germany during the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. He actively resisted
the Nazis within Germany, speaking out against the Nazis and even helping in an
underground plot to have Hitler assassinated. He was executed shortly before
the end of the war.
The
most I’ve done is march against Nazis, and I wore a mask (which is now illegal
in Canada, as of June, 2013). Twenty-four Nazi protestors took the public train
from the South end of my city into the centre of town to hold a "White
Pride" rally. On the same day, over two hundred people met in my neighbourhood
to celebrate the UN "International Day for the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination". I was part of the second group. Upon hearing that the
first group had been sighted, we took to the streets, literally stopping
traffic as our mass moved toward the downtown core.
The
couple dozen Nazis had only been able to demonstrate for a few minutes when our
group arrived, causing them to flee back into the subway from whence they came.
The police did not allow anyone from our antifascist group to follow the Nazis
into their hole. For the next few hours, the handful of underground Nazis
continued to ride back and forth under the city’s business section,
occasionally coming up for a few minutes at a time before being sent back into
the ground by the huge Antifa group like so many Whac-A-Moles. They never did
get to have their rally without interruption.
We,
however, got to have plenty of sunshine and exercise on a cool Spring day.
Onlookers honked and cheered for us like a parade wherever we went. It's probably
the best reception I've ever seen for a crew as punk and diverse and strange as
ours. For the safety of my family, I masked up and disguised my appearance for
this event. Choosing and then donning my full-coverage, all-black outfit in
preparation for confronting Nazis made me feel like a superhero.
I believe that it was right and good to be
part of this demonstration, even in the face of potential violence at that
event or the risk of targeted attention by Nazi gang members afterward. I
believe that on that day, dressed all in black, I was demonstrating my faith.
Should the need arise for another such demonstration in my city, I will join
again. I will intentionally mask up again, just as I did last time, for the
protection of me and my family, even though it is against the law.
These
stories may seem extreme, but we can all choose to live differently than the
stream of the majority culture that flows always in the direction of greed and
selfishness. Maybe you’re able to start with how you spend money. We wear
disposable clothes now, because we’ve made it normal to want to buy new clothes
every few months. In doing so, we are complicit in the oppression of people on
the other side of the world on both ends of our purchase. Many of our
inexpensive clothes are made by slave labour. Once we wear them out (and we do
wear them out, because they’re junk), we have nothing to donate to poor people
in developing countries who have become dependent on our second hand clothing.
This is a real, serious problem. Today’s clothes go to the third world as
industrial rags, instead of as clothing for people who need them, because they
don’t last. However, the politics of “ethical spending” can just as easily be
nothing but a way to ease our conscience if it goes no further. Not everyone
has the same privilege to easily decide where and how their money is spent.
Living God’s Just Kingdom now goes beyond us. It is shared in community. We can
get to know our neighbours. I recommend throwing a block party, and blessing
everyone with a pot luck, sidewalk chalk, and fun music. As we get to know the
needs of those around us, we can educate ourselves in how to organize
alternative communities of justice (like churches, support groups, or unions)
that can speak out in unity, a prophetic voice declaring the arrival of a new
world.
Like John the Baptist, like Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, like the early Christians, like Jesus, we are invited to join a
tradition of joyful, celebratory resistance that declares its praises to the
one true King, and grows defiantly through the cracks of the old world as it
crumbles down from the inside out.
☠
Text taken from the introduction to Radical Religion: On James - Faith Without Works Is Dead by the Pirate Pastor.
To order the book, please email shawnbirss@gmail.com. Payment can be received online through Paypal or Interac. Please send $10 Canadian plus adequate shipping (50 cents in Canada, or your own estimate for other destinations).
The next mailout for online purchases will be September 10, 2013.
The second two books in the Radical Christian series, Radical Pastor and Radical Freedom, are scheduled to be released before the end of the year.
