Liberals—a lousy moniker, I agree, or lefties, equally fraught; comes down to us from seating arrangements in courts from the past; but you know what I mean. Liberals like to call themselves Progressives, which basically means anybody who is not them is regressive. It’s an arrogant pose that has backed them into a corner—they have to “progress” all the time. It’s tiresome; but they are Christ – like, or at least that’s the cover story.
Conservatives (same caution re the word) believe they have sole ownership of the Bible; only they understand and appreciate sola scriptura. It’s an arrogant pose that has backed them into a corner. As self – styled keepers of ancient wisdom they have become pious proprietors of tradition. It’s tiresome, but they know what Jesus would do, or at least that’s the cover story.
Jesus, the Christ, mocked the extremism of both camps. He had no time for rigid traditions or rules. He was a thorn in the sides of the vapid behaviour police. He also couldn’t abide the vapid do – gooders. The poor will be with us, he said, but it is important to make the effort for worship.
Jesus Christ is not ideology. Both modern day liberals and conservatives would have rejected him equally, though for different reasons, in his time. He does not fit into their cheap moulds. He hung out with the unclean of society—both the right and left want to bring ministry to sex workers and the working poor, but neither, it seems, simply want to hang out with them, have a drink, a meal, share a laugh.
The child born in a manger grew up to be a complicated character with a clear message; a character who defies our labelling. Any sort of labelling. He gets frustrated, and at times violently angry, with theologians and theologies and religious institutions. Christ demands we shake all comforts—intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical.
To be a follower of Christ requires agility and practice; it demands work and focus. You can’t take a pre – formed idea and ask Jesus to squeeze into it. The Pharisees tried that, as did the disciples, the Romans, the various multitudes. You can’t take your prejudices and ask him to support them. He will challenge you; he is challenging you. You’re just not listening.
Whether you’re union or management, all those worker parables will shake your foundations. If you let them.
Please let them. Give yourself a Christmas present this year: Read the gospels; binge them, from beginning to end, a few times. As many times as you need to get past the familiar—the stories you’ve read or heard many, many times over the years, like the tall tales shared at family reunions without analysis or questioning—and past your need to simplify them according to your biases, till they are new to you, and you suddenly see them for the first time.
Until you find yourself saying, whoa, what just happened there?
That child in the manger came to upset everything. Let him upset your comfort zones. He’s worth it.
