The struggle for power in Egypt has turned violent. I’m on a Sojourner’s mailing list so I got a “Dear Paul” letter from Jim Wallis demanding that the US government seek the ouster of Mubarak. I received the email just as I was meditating on this Sunday’s sermon from Luke 21 on Jesus’ words to the crowd who stood in awe of Herod’s temple. Jesus told them that the temple which was being used to establish the legitimacy of the religious authorities that Jesus denounced would soon come to an end. “When you hear of wars and insurrections do not be terrified”.
It is easy to get excited watching the events of Egypt unfold. It is easy to project our own narratives and desires upon the thin screens through which we watch. The relatively bloodless popular revolutions that felled much of the communist block gave us hope that a new technology of peaceful protest could fix the world’s corrupt tyrannies. The Internet, texting, Twitter and Facebook will bring justice to the nations. We imagine a young Egyptian Jefferson arising from the fray to do for the country what a dictator could not even with buckets of US taxpayer money. Enthusiasm turns to outrage when the bullets start to fly.
A number of questions shoot through my mind. Did we really think powerful interests would simply surrender their ideologies and positions of privilege? Do we really imagine that those who stand together today against Mubarak will stand together once he is gone? Do we really imagine that most of us with almost no knowledge or experience of the lives of the diversity of those in the streets have any clue about what will take place in the aftermath? Politics, religion, culture and economics are at least as complex there as they are here.
In Luke 21 Jesus’ disciples have receded into the crowd dazzled by the spectacle of the temple. When Jesus predicts its downfall they are captivated by the imagined horror of its destruction and hungry for predictive details. Jesus advocates for a strange hopeful sobriety. He cautions them to refrain from chasing around every emerging messiah or fixer. Many will rise up with “the answer” to all that ails us and promise a new prosperous day if we would only offer our allegiance. The truth will be grim and bloody, especially for those who bear his name and his cross.
Some of you might quickly protest, “Jesus is talking about a future yet to come where the ideological lines are clearly drawn by religion between Christians and non-Christians like we find in a “Left Behind” film. This Egypt thing is on a different political plane, a battle between liberty and tyranny. This passage doesn’t apply!” I disagree.
As Americans we watch the events in Egypt through our lenses. We see freedom fighters and tyrants and we are appalled today at how our government so easily has sold out its ideological roots for the sake of military, economic and political expedience in a difficult part of the world. Unfortunately the timing of our outrage is convenient. Egypt has been an ally of our former object of interest, the war on terror, and in that light the recent instability makes us nervous. We don’t love Egypt despite a rush of interest in what is going on in her streets. Our interest in her is a function of the narratives we need her for. Yesterday Mubarak gave us comfort, today we demand he goes. Once again the self-centeredness of our power is revealed. We are users of people and nations according to our national interests. This is how politics works and what it is for. Yesterday we were impressed by the temple edifices of power and authority we constructed investing into them the legitimacy of our righteousness and our belief in our goodness as paladins for the war on terror. Today we are appalled by the chaos and desperately seek time tables for resolution and escape.
The hopeful sobriety that Jesus admonishes here is based on the resurrection, not Jeffersonian notions that if you give people rather than governments power perpetual revolutions will establish just governments. Have two thousand years of revolution really brought about the just governments our ideology tells us they should? What we tend to more often see are cycles of people demanding order by allowing tyranny or chaos if it affords a bit more freedom. Do we look upon the Iranian uprising against the Shah in our Jeffersonian light?
Jesus advocates neither escapism nor a Jeffersonian gospel. Most of the predictions put forward in Luke’s “little apocalypse” will come to pass in his book of Acts and they will cycle down through the centuries to today. Jesus gives them the contradictory statements that some of them will be arrested and killed yet not a hair from their heads will perish. The only way that this makes sense in an always contemporary way is if we imagine a positive engagement in the events of the world with a clear view of the impending resurrection. All edifices we invest ourselves in within the age of decay will be destroyed. All governments will fall short of justice yet we can never tire of seeking justice because the resurrection draws us forward.
I stand with Jim Wallis and many others praying and seeking peace as Egypt hopefully makes steps towards a more just political reality. It’s a good time for confession of how our temple constructions like Herod’s serve our own needs for security and self-righteousness at the expense of the powerless of the earth. The path to resurrection always leads through the cross.
Whatever becomes of this latest revolution Jesus predicts there will be more. Freedom fighters become tyrants. Tyrants bring order out of chaos. Order comes at the expense of freedom and justice. The people demand a chance to fix it once more. A hopeful sobriety demands we engage with a view to a resurrection.
About PaulVK
Husband, Father of 5, Pastor
Leadingchurch.com 
Egypt and the Little Apocalypse
The struggle for power in Egypt has turned violent. I’m on a Sojourner’s mailing list so I got a “Dear Paul” letter from Jim Wallis demanding that the US government seek the ouster of Mubarak. I received the email just as I was meditating on this Sunday’s sermon from Luke 21 on Jesus’ words to the crowd who stood in awe of Herod’s temple. Jesus told them that the temple which was being used to establish the legitimacy of the religious authorities that Jesus denounced would soon come to an end. “When you hear of wars and insurrections do not be terrified”.
It is easy to get excited watching the events of Egypt unfold. It is easy to project our own narratives and desires upon the thin screens through which we watch. The relatively bloodless popular revolutions that felled much of the communist block gave us hope that a new technology of peaceful protest could fix the world’s corrupt tyrannies. The Internet, texting, Twitter and Facebook will bring justice to the nations. We imagine a young Egyptian Jefferson arising from the fray to do for the country what a dictator could not even with buckets of US taxpayer money. Enthusiasm turns to outrage when the bullets start to fly.
A number of questions shoot through my mind. Did we really think powerful interests would simply surrender their ideologies and positions of privilege? Do we really imagine that those who stand together today against Mubarak will stand together once he is gone? Do we really imagine that most of us with almost no knowledge or experience of the lives of the diversity of those in the streets have any clue about what will take place in the aftermath? Politics, religion, culture and economics are at least as complex there as they are here.
In Luke 21 Jesus’ disciples have receded into the crowd dazzled by the spectacle of the temple. When Jesus predicts its downfall they are captivated by the imagined horror of its destruction and hungry for predictive details. Jesus advocates for a strange hopeful sobriety. He cautions them to refrain from chasing around every emerging messiah or fixer. Many will rise up with “the answer” to all that ails us and promise a new prosperous day if we would only offer our allegiance. The truth will be grim and bloody, especially for those who bear his name and his cross.
Some of you might quickly protest, “Jesus is talking about a future yet to come where the ideological lines are clearly drawn by religion between Christians and non-Christians like we find in a “Left Behind” film. This Egypt thing is on a different political plane, a battle between liberty and tyranny. This passage doesn’t apply!” I disagree.
As Americans we watch the events in Egypt through our lenses. We see freedom fighters and tyrants and we are appalled today at how our government so easily has sold out its ideological roots for the sake of military, economic and political expedience in a difficult part of the world. Unfortunately the timing of our outrage is convenient. Egypt has been an ally of our former object of interest, the war on terror, and in that light the recent instability makes us nervous. We don’t love Egypt despite a rush of interest in what is going on in her streets. Our interest in her is a function of the narratives we need her for. Yesterday Mubarak gave us comfort, today we demand he goes. Once again the self-centeredness of our power is revealed. We are users of people and nations according to our national interests. This is how politics works and what it is for. Yesterday we were impressed by the temple edifices of power and authority we constructed investing into them the legitimacy of our righteousness and our belief in our goodness as paladins for the war on terror. Today we are appalled by the chaos and desperately seek time tables for resolution and escape.
The hopeful sobriety that Jesus admonishes here is based on the resurrection, not Jeffersonian notions that if you give people rather than governments power perpetual revolutions will establish just governments. Have two thousand years of revolution really brought about the just governments our ideology tells us they should? What we tend to more often see are cycles of people demanding order by allowing tyranny or chaos if it affords a bit more freedom. Do we look upon the Iranian uprising against the Shah in our Jeffersonian light?
Jesus advocates neither escapism nor a Jeffersonian gospel. Most of the predictions put forward in Luke’s “little apocalypse” will come to pass in his book of Acts and they will cycle down through the centuries to today. Jesus gives them the contradictory statements that some of them will be arrested and killed yet not a hair from their heads will perish. The only way that this makes sense in an always contemporary way is if we imagine a positive engagement in the events of the world with a clear view of the impending resurrection. All edifices we invest ourselves in within the age of decay will be destroyed. All governments will fall short of justice yet we can never tire of seeking justice because the resurrection draws us forward.
I stand with Jim Wallis and many others praying and seeking peace as Egypt hopefully makes steps towards a more just political reality. It’s a good time for confession of how our temple constructions like Herod’s serve our own needs for security and self-righteousness at the expense of the powerless of the earth. The path to resurrection always leads through the cross.
Whatever becomes of this latest revolution Jesus predicts there will be more. Freedom fighters become tyrants. Tyrants bring order out of chaos. Order comes at the expense of freedom and justice. The people demand a chance to fix it once more. A hopeful sobriety demands we engage with a view to a resurrection.
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About PaulVK
Husband, Father of 5, Pastor