Sunday Stretch: Vol. 19

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

One of my favorite ways to combat the rising tide of white Christian Nationalism in America is by teaching the theology of the cross. As I write about every week in the Friday News with Nuance posts, I believe Christian Nationalism is merely another (more violent) form of the idolatrous theology of glory, which teaches that to follow God means earning wealth, power, and influence in the world. You can also see this framework operating in the massively popular Prosperity Gospel, which promises riches and wealth in return for giving your money to the church and to popular televangelists.

This week’s readings, which we’ll study in detail below, powerfully combat that idea, reminding me instead that the Way of Jesus is the Way of Cross, a walk that is often painful, scorned, persecuted, and lonely. To follow Jesus means, as Jesus did when tempted by the Devil, resisting the siren call of the world’s money and influence. To follow Jesus means that perhaps history will admire you, but in your lifetime, you will likely be terrorized and slandered and possibly even killed, as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Perpetua, Felicitas, Joan of Arc, and the Apostle Paul himself all were, and even today the prophets among us are reviled, tortured, and killed.

Sometimes following the humble way of the Cross will also merely mean you feel ignored, and irrelevant to the dog-eat-dog world, which elevates lies and greed. Maybe you are a caregiver, a teacher, a farmer, a factory worker, a counselor, a construction worker, unemployed or under-employed - making your way in exhaustion day after day and feeling that you can never catch up. The way of the Cross, and Jesus and Paul and the Prophet Micah remind us this week - that God sees what the world ignores, and God honors the humble, kind, and lowly path. May we too look to see what God sees, and to elevate those whom the world too often ignores.

Bible Stories

Here are some weekly readings (from the Revised Common Lectionary), and some reflection thoughts/questions:

Micah 6:1-8