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couple of weeks ago, my oldest son graduated from high
school. Perhaps I’ve seen one too many Michael Moore
movies or read one too many Chalmers Johnson books or
heard one too many teachings from David Korten, but I
couldn’t help but tremble with concern for his and
his fellow graduates’ futures. They come of
age in a time of great transition. The institutions,
values and mythologies underlying the foundations of the
American way of life have atrophied. What has been
is passing away, what will be has yet to be given birth.
What that will be, good or evil, is not yet determined.
Within the life of the institutional church I find
some fragments of hope. True, the Church has much
of the stench of corruption about it, but it also continues
to carry within it the subversive memory of Jesus the
revolutionary. The message of Jesus consisted
of redistributing the wealth of the nation, of resistance
to global empire and of communal identification with
the lowest, least and lost of society. This message,
and his organizing of the people to implement the message,
threatened the interests of the financial elite and
of Rome. He was put to death not because he was
a troubadour of love, but because he was a fiery prophet
offering a way of life that challenged the way of empire.
This subversive memory is still alive even within
the compromised shell of the institutional church. We
can see the revolution of Jesus in action every time
a congregation opens its doors to the homeless. We see
it in the New Sanctuary Movement as congregations open
their wallets, buildings and resources to immigrants.
We see it every time another house is built by Habitat
for Humanity. We see it in the lives of the Amish who
not only forgave the man who killed their school children
in 2006, but who counseled their neighbors to spare
oppressing the man’s family and who themselves
have offered friendship and financial resources to the
man’s family. We see the powerful non-violent
revolutionary movement of Jesus every time a local congregation
mobilizes against war, practices civil disobedience
for justice and works for reconciliation between enemies.
The revolution of Jesus lives within history as a
seed sprouting, slowly, step-by-step evolving and opening
history itself to a change in consciousness and in societal
structures. I hope that my son’s graduating
class will look beyond personal profit and towards a
social prophetic possibility that can build a bridge
between what was and what will be: a bridge for all
the people and not just for the benefit of a few. I
hope that they will not settle for the mediocrity of
what is, but will soar with new wings into the possibilities
of what could be and I hope that they will embody the
revolution of radical change in the American way of
life.
Rich Lang is Pastor of Trinity United Methodist
Church in Ballard and the host of Living Faith Now,
a progressive Christian radio show at www.livingfaithnow.org.
He can be contacted at ddrev@yahoo.com.
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