Christ is probably not visiting  certain churches any more, and one might think that because Felonius I has not visited your church that you have nothing to say to rebuke him and all the other rogues seeking adulation.  Because you’ve decked yourselves out with the trappings of Judaism or draped yourself in flags, cultural and national traditions does not mean you have contact with God or courage to face the foe.  The foes that are exacting a cost from Christians are not foreigners to our several nations – that would end up in a racist and xenophobic fight – but the cowardly leaders who have failed to connect themselves with Christ and the apostles.  Would they have rebuked Hitler? Would they have rebuked any of those abusive Roman emperors of the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries? Would they have rebuked Herod the fox?  Did their ancestors deride the Ethiopian Emperor in 1936 at the League of Nations?

Connecting with Christ and the apostles

Your church’s name says something urgent and decisive about you, not just your church.  It is unlikely that there is a theologian who does not have a few things in common with the representatives of the Messianic communities anywhere.

• If you are a Roman Catholic then Rome can be considered your badge, not the heavenly throne of grace
• If you are a Latter Day Saint then the latter days are your foundation not the eternal platform of the Incarnate God
• If you are a Lutheran then the teachings of Luther are your rallying point not the teachings of the apostles
• If you are a Seventh Day “anything” (Adventist, Baptist, Church of Christ) then the creation (on account of the sabbath) and its priorities are your raisin d’etre, not God’s lifesaving gospel to all humans

Failing to stand firmly for the weighty matters of faith and practice is confusing millions of people today.  The focus so many people lack is the wonder of the cross.  Of course those focused on this world will define themselves as acting responsibly for their small things, but small things are not Christ’s priorities.  Incarnation is no peanuts.  Atonement by blood is not a minor detour or inconvenience to God.  The believer – prospective convert –  loses his way by the time the church finishes its introductory speech.  Looking away from the cross and expecting glory is like the horse calling the pond whither it was brought to drink a mirage.  Christ is not Moses.  Need I say Moses is not God’s Anointed? Understanding Levitical priesthood is not an essential for salvation and God’s way is his own Son.

Who calls the kings of the earth to heed their master?

The wielding of power by national leaders seems to begin and end with taxes and birth/death.  The life and the living are not birthright issues.  Most living people and the thirst for security are under the thumbs of unscrupulous and undisciplined persons.  Some lessons are really hard to grab.  For eight years the entire den of Jim Crow and White supremacist devotees watched their fiery darts fall at the feet of one Barrack Obama.  The felon of Mar a Lago is America’s racist reaction – it is not a response – to Black intelligence and skill.  Their noses will never lose the smell of their own excreta, even if they can design immunity for cops and presidents, or even if they can engineer a 3rd presidential term.  “No one is able to serve two masters” is a lesson every generation has struggled to grasp.  The slave trade and Jim Crow has drilled the idea of independence as a quality for some people, so expecting the agents of racism and xenophobia to wake up one morning and bring non-poisonous loaves of bread to their Black neighbours is not happening any time soon.  The preachers of a money-loving Jesus will not call for justice.  The third generation of American racists will not say Blacks are humans made in the image of God.  That is how deeply ingrained American discrimination is.  Imagine how steep a climb down it is for Jews, with millennia of a green light to stop denigrating Gentiles!  Who indeed will effectively call for the beastly and prostitute nations to heed their master?