WWJD? Budget Edition

Stumbled across a quick and easy read this morning.  Jim Wallis, from Sojourners Magazine (in regards to the debate on Capitol Hill about the 2012 federal budget) asks the question, What Would Jesus Cut? The arguments are not anything new or even particularly pointed but its nice to see a prominent evangelical challenge the church to tackle this question.  In the church, we confess a Christ who is concerned with the poor and with justice and yet we often fail to see how that impacts our own lives.  We place ourselves just behind Christ’s right shoulder as we watch him tell the young ruler to sell all that he possess; we nod with Christ when he tells the crowd that it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter heaven; we delight in the story of Lazarus and the rich man, when justice is meted out…and yet our own lives show no trace of carry over.  Our politics and our ideologies rarely seem to match our professed faith. That has been painfully obvious in this latest round of budget politics in DC this month. 

If I hear the word socialist thrown around one more time from men and women who also confess to be devout Christians, I’m going to scream.  What about the book of Acts where Christians sold everything and lived in common?  What about the miracle of the fish and loaves, where the crowd shared what they had and everyone was fed?  What about that rich young ruler?  I say, when we set budget priorities, we should replace the word socialist with biblical – biblical program to provide health care for the sick, the poor, the widows.  Biblical programs to provide housing grants to the homeless and the poor.  Biblical programs to protect the environmental integrity of God’s creation.  By that count, the priorities of this congress and Republicans in particular are all backwards.  From Wallis’ article:

Bread for the World made a list of the top 10 cuts that would hurt poor and hungry people at home and abroad. The total amount of those cuts is $5.177 billion. For President Obama’s “surge” in Afghanistan, the U.S. sent an additional 30,000 troops. The estimated cost of keeping one soldier in Afghanistan for one year is now $1 million. Preserving the funding for the top 10 cuts that would most hurt poor and hungry people would cost about as much as 5,000 troops in Afghanistan.

This is the simple math. Bring 5,000 troops home from Afghanistan and save funding for Head Start; low-income energy assistance; the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program; Hunger Free Communities Grants; McGovern-Dole food aid programs; the Development Assistance Account; the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief; the Global Health and Child Survival Account; and the Peace Corps. Most of these programs have enjoyed significant bipartisan support in the past because they are cost-effective and save the lives of children and families. Is every item of Pentagon spending more important to our well-being and security than school lunches, child health, and early education programs?

 Our churches have long opted out of this argument for fear of hurting feelings or alienating members…but by doing so we’ve abdicated our biblical responsibility to witness to the Gospel.  And the results are clear in the way the debate is framed these days.  I wish more evangelicals had Wallis’ courage to say what they know to be right.

Palm Sunday

 

21When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ²saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. ³If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” ⁴This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, ⁵“Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” ⁶The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; ⁷they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. ⁸A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” ¹⁰When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” ¹¹The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

                        The Gospel of Matthew 21:1-11

 

I don’t know where the time goes.  I complained and complained that this winter would never end and suddenly it is Palm Sunday and my mind cries out, “Wait, I haven’t been present enough in Lent!  Do over!  I’m not ready for Holy Week!” But time waits for no one. 

And maybe that is the point.  We are never ready for Holy Week.  We are never ready for the mystery God is presenting to us.  We are never ready to receive grace.  Certainly, if people had had some more time to consider this Jesus fellow and the kinds of things he said, they wouldn’t have been lined up in Jerusalem, waiting to shout Hosanna and throw down their palm leaves.  They would have realized that this man could never be the conquering hero for whom they yearned and that the kingdom he was establishing had little to do with Geography.  But they had little time to think about things.  Suddenly there he was, this mad prophet who performed miracles and spoke as one with authority, on his donkey, riding into the city in humility.  He looked like the embodiment of some frickin Biblical prophecy and that got their blood pumping and their hopes elevated. The haste that brought the crowd that day also facilitated their anger on Thursday when this man they had cheered and for whom they had hoped was arrested and refused to resist.  In the space of a heartbeat, their new found hope was dashed and this filled those folks with anger and confusion.  Which, in true human form, led to their cries of “Crucify him!” on Friday.  If they had had time to think things over, they would have realized that he never gave them reason to think he was going to be a king.  Thus, they might not have been so disappointed on Thursday, which probably would have kept them from the crowd on Friday, screaming for his blood.  Cooler heads might have prevailed, if only there had been more time, had events not piled up so quickly, had the people not been so unprepared.  And the funny thing is, had cooler heads prevailed, Pilate might well have released Christ on Friday, which means no crucifixion, no resurrection, no salvation. 

Maybe the divine plan involves a certain amount of chaotic unbalance.  Maybe grace sneaks up on us.  Maybe we can never be ready for the mystery, prepared for the incarnation, waiting on the revelation of God.  Maybe the agitation that accompanies being surprised helps us to be open to suggestion, to formation, to transformation.  Maybe we are caught off guard every year at Holy Week because that is just as God intends.  Maybe.