Walking Beyond Empire

My observation of the USA is that it is fragmented by tribalism in religion, corporate culture, governance, race, and class. More individuals are wandering disconnected while some groups solidify their self-contained ecosystems caring only for their own success and welfare. Solidarity is promoted within such groups, but wherever it is exclusive, this loyalty cannot qualify as true solidarity.

Solidarity is a hopeful, open attitude which we learn by the examples of many diverse people joining together and giving their lives for the common good, especially for the marginalized. Václav Havel, president and statesman of Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic, described solidarity not just as a protest movement, but a collective experience of living within the truth. The Solidarity Movement that overthrew communism in Poland and other Eastern European countries was an extraordinary mobilization of citizens from all walks of life united in protest against living in a communist lie. (Center for Nonviolent Conflict Research)

Crucifixions

Jesus was an example of solidarity with all crucifixions, and they are still being perpetrated in various forms daily all over the world. Jesus’ crucifixion is followed by the promise of life beyond injustice, state sponsored violence and threat of destruction. Unfortunately, his demonstration has been homogenized by some over the centuries into a one-time, supernatural transaction meant to provide escape from the “evil world” (for those who qualify).

It is mind-boggling that people claiming to follow Jesus live in or are complicit with the Trump/MAGA cult which perpetrates various kinds of crucifixion as one of their strategies for domination.

Nowhere is the irony of tribalism more blatant than in a large segment of evangelical Christianity where people are taught that their spiritual well-being depends on being separate and aloof from the mass of humanity. Their only sanctioned involvements with “secular” and “the unsaved” masses is in their personal wealth-building, and in programs to convert people to their church.

With that worldview it is not surprising that they would resort to any means to own the whole world and enforce their religion, a worldview commonly called “Christian Nationalism.” But, if this kind of activity is “not your style,” you are free to ignore any trouble “of the world” unless it threatens the church and your wealth. Constituents are admonished to “keep the peace” in the church by looking away and avoiding “worldly” controversies.

Religious passion and fear have been stoked in this segment of the church to become a primary force in the Trump/MAGA cult’s work to divide the country and subvert the government. The irony is obvious as corruption, lawlessness, violence, attacks on other countries, immorality, greed, lying, genocidal treatment of non-whites, and other anti-Christ practices multiply by those who have conned the church.

That Does Not Come from the Gospels

The Gospels show that Jesus called humanity to join in solidarity together and leave these animalistic tribal ways. When Peter said Jesus was the Messiah (Luke 9:20), Jesus commanded the disciples not to tell that to anyone. Why? Because it is an old order expectation of Israel’s exclusive nationhood. Jesus called himself the Son of Man because he viewed himself as humanity, not just savior of the Jews. He was revealing that the Christ is emerging within humanity, which is universal, not just nationalistic.

We find this emergence to be difficult and uncomfortable because it is the birthing of the on-going creation, the turmoil of us growing toward the ultimate life. In his ancient context Jesus calls this higher state of being “the coming of the Son of Man in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” By telling us to “take up our cross daily” he was challenging us not to stay in the past, small, compartmentalized mentality, but to press onward through our crucifixions, growing into that state beyond our current morass.

Keep Walking

Walking through the crucifixions of Jesus’ day and our own day is not simply letting them kill us. Believing and pressing through all kinds of resistance to life transforms us into the state Jesus calls “eternal life,” or the state to which we are evolving, the state better than the current troubles. Our daily cross is a choice to take a new step up in the on-going creation rather than stay in our current state trying to own the world as is.

He called us away from a militant, imperialistic growth, toward a much more powerful and long-term evolution that leaves temporal ways of empire in the dust. He called us to embrace the ways which have characterized the very development of the universe and have resulted in the complex subtleties of life thriving today. This involves sorting right from wrong, choosing the ways of Love, healing, nurturing creation, generosity, humility, and rejecting destructive self-indulgence.

Let us walk through this dark experience with faith in the mysterious and wonderful life beyond. As Jesus warned, “… whoever wants to save [their] life [or stay in the way things are] will lose it, but whoever loses [their] life on account of me [moving on with the Son of Man], this person will save it. …what is a person benefited if [they] gain the whole world but lose [themself]?” (Luke 9:24-25)