In the News
Earlier this week, the administration issued a memorandum on “Protecting Religious Expression in the Federal Workplace.” A more accurate title might be “Evangelical Christians Can Be As Obnoxious As They Want and There’s Nothing You Can Do About It.” Sure, the memo theoretically applies to all religions, but the examples given include crosses, crucifixes (which are a type of cross), rosaries (which include a cross) . . . you get the idea. There are a couple of Jewish examples thrown in for good measure, but the evangelical Christian bias of the memo is not exactly subtle.
[O.K., friends. I have a lot more I could say about this memo. I can already tell that one challenge for me in writing these Spacious Word posts will be to stay in my (theological/biblical) lane. And to keep the posts brief enough that I have time to write them and you actually want to read them. I’ll do my best.]
In the Word
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” ~Matthew 28: 19-20 (NRSVUE)
These verses from the end of Matthew’s Gospel are commonly known as “The Great Commission.” Most people who leave Bibles in hotel rooms or knock on your door with a little booklet about Jesus or hold up “John 3:16” signs at sporting events (or write memos on “Protecting Religious Freedom”) would cite these words from Jesus as a primary motivation for their actions.
Their reading of this passage–probably the most common reading of this passage–is that Jesus wants Christians to make everybody else Christians too. But that’s not what Jesus says here. He doesn’t say to make people Christian. He says to “make disciples.” I would argue that these are not the same thing.
I know of plenty of people who call themselves Christian who most definitely do not “obey everything that [Jesus has] commanded.” We can start the list with every “Christian” who voted in favor of a budget bill that will block healthcare access for millions, widen the wealth gap between rich and poor, and excessively fund a campaign of terror against our immigrant neighbors. Because Jesus spent most of his ministry healing the sick, lifting up the poor, criticizing the rich, and insisting that the family of God does not adhere to familial or political boundaries. So not all “Christians” are disciples–followers–of Jesus.*
I also know of many people who are not “Christian,” but live out the teachings of Jesus in beautiful ways. They tend the sick, visit the prisoner, feed the hungry, decry injustice.
An evangelism that just wants to get people to pray a certain prayer or attend a specific event is a lazy and unbiblical evangelism. If we who claim to be Christian really want to live out The Great Commission, we first have to commit ourselves to actual discipleship–to following the way of Jesus and obeying what Jesus taught. And, of course, the heart of what Jesus taught is The Great Commandment, from his Jewish scriptures: to love God with everything we have and to love our neighbors as ourselves. (Our neighbors being, you know, everyone–and especially the people we don’t really want to call neighbors.) (See Luke 10:25-37)
We will always fall short of the love that Jesus calls us to. And so it is only with the deepest humility that we might reach out to other people with an invitation to follow Jesus. Not an invitation to say the right words or check the right box or use the right label. But an invitation to join us on this path of faithfulness where we are trying to love each other well. An invitation to die to the selfish ways of individualism and nationalism and empire, so that we might live within a new reign where we recognize God (the Parent, Christ, and Spirit) as the true power; a new community where all of the categories used to divide us (Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female) are seen as the lies they are and we are able to live with and for each other. (Galatians 3:28).
Jesus says, “Go, therefore, and make disciples.” This is not about converting people to a different religion, it is about inviting people to a new life. And it is about re-committing ourselves over and over again to this same new life that comes when we follow Jesus.
Jesus’ way of humility and peace, of openness and care, of justice and liberation, feels particularly difficult right now. So I am happy for you all to help me along on my discipleship journey–to teach me to obey God’s command of love. And maybe I can help teach you a bit as well. And we can all be grateful that, however hard it is, Jesus has promised to be with us “always, to the end of the age.”
*Just about an hour after writing this post, I came across this quote in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book Discipleship, which seems somehow relevant: “To acknowledge that other baptized Christians have received the gifts of salvation, and then to deny them the provisions necessary for this earthly life, or to leave them knowingly in affliction and distress, is to make a mockery of the gift of salvation and to behave like a liar.” (trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss; Fortress Press, Minneapolis, p. 216-217)
Note: This is the first post in my new “Spacious Word” series. You can read the introduction to the series here.
Spacious Faith 