money machine

Saturday November 23^rd, Luke 21: 12 "But before all these things happen, people will arrest you and treat you cruelly. They will judge you in their synagogues and put you in jail and force you to stand before kings and governors, because you follow me. 13 But this will give you an opportunity to tell about me.14 Make up your minds not to worry ahead of time about what you will say.15 I will give you the wisdom to say things that none of your enemies will be able to stand against or prove wrong.16 Even your parents, brothers, relatives, and friends will turn against you, and they will kill some of you.17 All people will hate you because you follow me.18 But none of these things can really harm you. 19 By continuing to have faith you will save your lives.  When a follower of Christ in the first century says that Jesus is Lord, they are also saying that Caesar and all that stands for the powers that be, are “Not” Lord.  By standing up for Christ as the Prince of Peace, they are saying that Caesar and the powers that be, at Not the prince of peace.  Throughout history, there are attempts to meld together the powers that be and the word of god.  It helps give the powers that be the illusion that they have more power.  But Christ is counter-cultural.  Our powers that be pass huge military spending bills the still don’t have the operating budget feed the poor, Jesus says pray for your enemies and reconcile your differences.  Very few heard the voice of praying for your enemies following the attacks on September 11^th.  Instead it has simply been a cry for bigger and bigger budgets that are spent with less and less scrutiny in the creation of a war machine that can roll over any program having to do with children’s health, living wage, public education and the like and fund the political ambitions of the ones who control the purse.  We went to war in Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands of the children of God on our side and on theirs, for the sake of political funding for reelection.  For those who do speak up, yes people will hate you because you present the real Jesus rather than the one molded from iron to look like the military money machine.