The end of ars politica (Oct 1-7)

This week’s snapshots:

GUYS WE DID IT THIS IS THE END OF MY POLITICAL ARC ahahahaha and what a juicy conclusion they chose~

Before you skip ahead, my week was tremendous. You see those beautiful pictures of the LED wall. Yeah. We did that in days. We are the champions, my friends! Tulsa was a delightful break from Edmond - but I have a whole ‘nother week in Edmond ahead. Hopefully it turns out at least half as delightful…

We have tackled some really controversial questions. You guys have mostly let me vent and sadly, not contributed to the nuance I need in order to be a well-balanced person. But today, nuance is out the window, because this question is so egregious, it doesn’t need nuance, it needs a slap in the face.

I’ll try to do so with a feather, even though I felt like I got impaled by a chair when they posed it.

#5 What is America's hope? And what can Christians do in our nation today?

The literary nerd in me immediately heard this question as “is there any hope for America?” and my heart bRoKe. In a church, the question is supposed to be, “who is America’s hope?” with the resounding, triumphant answer of Christ in me, the hope of glory!

Yet the reality of the cross before, world behind, resurrected-new-creations living from glory to glory because of the living God living inside mere men is… not the normal experience of the American Christ-follower. And without that, it’s pretty easy to ask all of the questions we’ve been looking at these past few weeks and feel pretty bleak about your country. Which is even more heartbreaking, because if the gathering that should have the most hope, the most certainty, the most confidence that we love and follow a good Father who loves us, guides us, and desires to manifest his shalom upon all mankind doesn’t know? What our hope is? Who our hope is!?

What the cU$s are Christians going to do in our nation today except continue in their cultural heritage and do violence!? Or… nothing? If these are the kinds of questions Christians are asking!?

Aight, let’s set aside my emotional outburst. I invite you to pause for a second and chat with Holy Spirit. First - is Christ your hope for America? If not - what or who have you put your hope in?

Imma need you to take a deep breath. When I asked this question, I found that I simply had no hope (aka believed Christ is powerless to or disinterested in making a difference for oppressors like us), and harbored resentment against my passport country. That names my hope for America as “Babylon-style judgement” instead of Jesus Christ. Storms. Of. My. Ancestors. insert vehement conviction here

Second, after you’ve confessed your hope - can you vividly imagine your hope in Christ? Not the outcomes that you want him to have on your life/home/city/state/nation but the emotion of hope and the kind of person Christ is to inspire that hope? Ask Holy Spirit if that distinction matters as much for you as it does for me - and then can you articulate that hope?

The feeling of my hope in Christ throbs in my chest, making me want to run or dance or h e a d b a n g. It feels like the peak of a breakdown in EDM, the fist-throwing chorus of a post-hardcore song, the slam of a perfectly pronunciated poem but forever instead of for a moment. It is the triumph of a corner kick swishing into the net, the rush of cresting a mountain peak, the thrum of blood in your ears as you loop-de-loop in a roller coaster. Don’t get me wrong; I’m here for God’s still, quiet shalom on Earth as it is in the heavens but his hope feels, fittingly for my formerly suicidal self, A L I V E!

Unlike a “wrath-soaked Zeus-alike,” Christ shows God is patient, and kind, he is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. God doesn’t demand his own way. God is not irritable and keeps no record of wrong. He doesn’t rejoice about injustice but whenever truth wins out. He never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

I had to stop and sit a bit with some of those sentences because they seemed patently false. So bear with me:

The Creator of the Universe, an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient and eternal being is patient, and kind, he is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. The King of Kings, so impossible to imagine that the heavens are his temple and the Earth but his footstool, doesn’t demand his own way. Elohim, who knows all the horrible thoughts we have and the vile words we spit and the ways we murder those worse off than us, isn’t irritable and keeps no record of wrong. Yahweh, who was and is and is to come, doesn’t rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever truth wins out, he never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

God is good. Not just in the vague moralism ascribed to the adjective, but in a vibrant, encompassing reality that is creative and not simply expressive. He suffers injustice and creates mercy. He travails death and creates life so abundant, it eternalizes our temporality. He entrenches himself in our midst by his very image and crafts us into living masterpieces oozing patience, and kindness, with long tempers that lack jealousy, boasting, or pride…

There’s a song you sing - the chorus is 3 words long - 🎶You are good, good, oooo🎶 And all of this is what reels through my head as we repeat the vague adjective over and over. How unfathomable is it that the One whose rules I strive to follow doesn’t demand his own way? The One whose final judgement I fear keeps no record of wrong? How could the One who knows the end of our stories still have hope? That One loves! me! And you! And He loves my gay/pagan colleagues! And He loves my coworker whose anger/sleepiness endangers lives! And He loves the lady with the Christian fish sticker who cut me off in traffic! And the widows in Russia! And the orphans in Ukraine! And the aliens crossing the border!

My chest throbs, alive.

That is the kind of Christian who can do anything in our nation today. When the hope of glory is alive inside? Hah! Let the gates of hell just try and keep their chops when Christ is in me!

I am going to feel a bit like a crazy person until you share with me what your hope for America actually is (you already know mine is more embarrassing than yours so please tell me) and! what it’s like when your hope is Christ. Please, pray, tell.

Eagerly awaiting your response,

—Beth