It is said that the groundbreaking bile issuing from official sources is overdue.  People who despise government, people who are prone to use violence to get their way,  people who are unapologetically racist and xenophobic, are having their day in the spotlight.  The poorly opinionated will believe that the public airing of their views is a sign of triumph, but they willingly are wearing blinders and will not escape the lesson learned by Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. The sun sets on the kingdoms and empires.  The sun and moon also set on television clips,  the simple get lost in the spin, trapped in the web of insincerity and ignorance, and while the number of people who think that they can plant flags on things they hear on TV from people they admire, remains at the same level,  the voices become more insane in support of racism. 

Privileged but gehenna-bound

And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades!

Luke 10:15, NASB

Although Capernaum was Yeshua’s chosen hometown there was no benefit to the town from the fact.  Capernaum never became a tourist attraction and did not become a holy city.  The Bethlehem native was never compromised about righteousness and goodness, unlike the people of the so-called Book.  Just as he fled from Bethlehem to avoid Herod’s sword so he fled Capernaum to avoid the stones of synagogue attendees.

The United States is an aborted frog-prince

There is no free lunch for homicidal cultures.  Lots of people associating themselves with Christ of Nazareth like to think of ultimate justice as the annihilation of wrongdoers.  They believe in unending punishment and ignore the successive generations of public villains and private sinners.  They play with capital punishment and mouth platitudes about Christian virtue. The wonder of the American rise from under the British colonial boot and the new national psyche is still unprecedented in the modern era, and God must have inspired the vision of rights and liberty as basic to all human beings, even though American powerbrokers feel they can change ALL to SOME and get away with it. The pressures to steer the United States into the mold of the nations whence the pilgrims came are immense and unrelenting.  One would have to be pretty naive to see as unrelated to these pressures the perversion of religion and politics.  Instead of the land of the free and the home of the brave, we are witness to “a home for demons, a cage of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.” (Revelation of John 18:2). Believe your eyes: all kinds of crime and immorality get the approval of legislatures and high court justices.  The prince in shining armour of the American Revolution is today, 200 years later, a Wizard of Odds, clamouring to ensure a place at the table of honour for criminal types.

Nobody knows justice like the Nazarene.

Solomon was wise, learned and discerning, but he made the mistake of embracing the spiritual priorities of all the nations within the young king’s reach.  We make the same mistake concluding that ancient customs are the best, and like Israel, cannot seem to be able to pull away from the agricultural and astronomical elements of all primitive cultures.  We have no excuse for trying to combine the nobility of human beings with the interests of earth’s rulers.  Governments will continue to prosecute people for doing things the Almighty authorized.  You have no leg to stand on when the very things you proscribe are in your bosom, mouth, hands and feet (Romans 2:17-21, 3:13-18).  There is no such thing as a spiritual government.  Every example before us is like an agent of Sheol, dealing out pomp and ceremony and death. Each one parades  their wealth and tradition like a hypnotist.

Who is drumming up war with Caesar, Herod, or the Council?

It surely is last gasp bravado and chest-thumping when instead of providing peace and security for all the people in their care leaders all over the globe are arming their supporters with increasingly lethal weapons and hateful rhetoric.  The alliance between religious movements and political parties is as abominable as partnerships can get.  Yeshua did not join a political or religious party and he raised no militia against Rome.

24) When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?” 25) He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?” 26) When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt.” 27) “However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and Me.”

Matthew 17:24-27, NASB

The megaphone justification fizzles

We are witnesses to an unspeakable disregard for facts.  Because worms do not eat them up and the ground does not open up and swallow them we should not think that their causes are just.  Even if the majority marches in support of racism, xenophobia and misogyny.  The doors are closing of tribalism and insurrection, but people are loathe to acknowledge the fact.  The voices of intolerance are loud and urgent but God has a generation that will situate itself in the valley between tradition and the here and now.  I have to imagine that the Jewish public at the time of Solomon’s Temple felt that Yahweh had swept the country free of Canaanites, but God had a surprise for them, and in such a way as to make sure that it could not ever be forgotten. David bought the property on which the temple was built from a Jebusite, one of the nations destined for dispossession by Yahweh in the instructions that came from Moses.  Inconsistencies in national policies do not escape Gods notice, as surely as the xenophobic policy the Israelites thought they had could not be laid at Yahweh’s feet.  No magaphone or megaphone can prevail when hearts get turned to hearts. If we keep falling for extreme sound bytes and violent revolutionary slogans just because it is on television and comes from an elected official, we may never recover from the tinsel that passes for public discourse, and we may never see the light.  Tune in!