Douglass Church - Douglass Blvd Christian Church

True freedom, as we find it in Jesus, can never be about ever more elaborate ways to justify selfishness—to say that we have responsibility only for ourselves and those we love.

True freedom for those who follow Jesus is being given the opportunity, no matter how much it costs, to love those whom Jesus loves.

But the thing is, we have to leave the empty tomb to do it. We remember it; we love it, but we see it as a place from which we’re sent out into the world—because that’s where the sick, and the hungry, and the imprisoned are. That’s where the work is. And that’s where Jesus is.

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Salving our consciences by looking away betrays Jesus and the world God is busy creating.

Shuffling the houseless off to someplace where the people can’t see them may be good for tourism, but it fails our community and vocation as Jesus-followers by making some of our neighbors expendable.

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In other words, unlike the kinds of rulers people are used to, who always seem to be using their power for themselves, Jesus’ use of power is always focused on the most exposed and exploited among us.

Jesus’ use of power builds up instead of dividing and tearing down.

Heals people rather than afflict them.

Sets them free instead of subjugating them.

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In fact, the story’s not about us at all. We find out that if the father in this story is a stand-in for God, God’s not keeping score the way everybody else keeps score. In a culture where shame lessened everyone’s respect for you, God demonstrated God’s willingness to dive face-first into the slop to show us how much we’re loved.

But God’s also willing to risk humiliation to find the entitled older brother and listen to his whining about how—after all he’s done—he’s never got so much as a case of beer and a cheese ball for a party with his friends.

Think about it. God embraces humiliation to preserve a relationship with both the irresponsible brat and the entitled fussbudget.

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In the old windswept world, people like Vladimir Putin invade the homes of others for their own gain. In the new world, refugees are the very people best situated to understand how much returning home is worth.

In the old desolate world, our worth is determined by the size of our bank accounts and the colleges we can get our children into. In the new world to which we long to return, our value is determined by God’s desire to bring us home.

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Consequently, The Great Man Theory of History should have been recast as The Great White Man Theory of History. But since everybody already took for granted that the only history worth telling would have white men as the central characters, being explicit about it was not only unnecessary, it was redundant.

So, when white people complain during February every year that there’s no “White History Month,” and I say, “Oh yes there is; it’s called ‘the rest of the calendar,’” I’m not just being a smart-aleck, I’m being painfully literal.

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The wonderful thing about the popular version of Christianity is that it can be done with minimal inconvenience to one’s otherwise comfortable lifestyle. Much of it can be accomplished without ever making your back sore or getting your hands dirty.

The trouble is ... that doesn’t sound like the Jesus of the Gospels at all. Jesus, it turns out, is interested in establishing the reign of God; but that reign is first about the lives we live as we try to love others before it’s ever about suspending the living of our lives until after we’ve died.

It’s about what’s going on around us as much as it is about what’s going on inside us.

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Unfortunately, what too many people mean by “freedom” is freedom from responsibility for anybody but myself and those I love. Freedom on this reading means something like, “You can’t tell me what to do. I can do whatever I want. Why? Because this is a free country.”

But, I mean, come on. That’s how children think, isn’t it? Freedom read this way amounts to an ever more elaborate rationalization of selfishness. Think about the issues you can pass through this lens. Healthcare, unemployment insurance, immigrants, state-sanctioned violence against Black people, houselessness, student loan debt, food insecurity. Think about the refugees from Ukraine who’re living their worst nightmares right now because of the selfishness of another fox, a Russian Herod whose desires always seem to center on himself.

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You get to choose how you’ll view the world, to whom and what kind of attention you’ll give. Nobody is the boss of how you choose to act but you. No one can tell you what to do about the kind of love you offer to others.

The whole “you’re-not-the-boss-of-me” thing is always about power. But here’s the thing, you don’t have to give yours away.

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Jesus says, "I’m talking about a cosmic rebalancing of the scales, where those who’ve had to hide who they are and whom they love will be welcomed and celebrated, where parents will no longer have to live in fear of their children being stopped by the police—just because they happen to have skin with a different color or worship in another way, where strangers and immigrants won’t have to endure the spite of the 'home team' and their children being ripped from their arms and thrown into cages, where women no longer have to be afraid that their gender will put them at greater risk for violence and exploitation, and where the people in power will no longer acquire and maintain that power on the backs of the poor and the voiceless.

“And all of this isn’t merely a hope for some world in the future … after you die. The vision I’m setting down is first of all for you, for this world … right here, right now.”

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