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| This ancient yoke was on display as I gave a sermon at the Zion Mennonite church on how those yoked to Jesus are bound to live, love and serve as He did. |
Here are some examples:
1. Every true Christian should aim to marry, settle down and raise a family.
Jesus, while strongly supporting fidelity in marriage and consistently opposing divorce, was himself never married, a fact no one seems to note.. And the New Testament, in sharp contrast to the rest of scripture, offers the names of only two complete families, that of Zechariah, Elizabeth and John, and of Joseph, Mary and Jesus. Jesus clearly elevates the importance of the worldwide kingdom-of-God-family over the nuclear family.
2. It is the patriotic duty of good Christians to pledge allegiance to, and sacrifice their lives for, their country.
Jesus taught that only the worldwide, heaven-governed Empire of God demanded our supreme loyalty, and never aligned himself with either liberal Sadducees, conservative Pharisees, revolutionary Zealots, pro-liberation nationalists, or loyal Roman citizens. One cannot picture him tossing free Make Israel Great Again caps into any of the crowds he addressed.
3. Christians should earn as much as possible, tithe what they earn, but save all they are able for a comfortable retirement and to pass on to their heirs.
Very few proponents of Christian values ever even mention Jesus's teachings about the impossibility of serving both God and money and the need to avoid hoarding ever more wealth. Nor do they note the fact that the Son of Man, their Supreme Prophet (Teacher), Priest and King never owned a place to lay his head. As North American Christians we tend to justify our sense of entitlement as among the wealthiest people on the planet.
4. Christians should give primary attention to good things in their nation's history and not on stories that highlight its sins and shortcomings.
The Bible is one of the most brutally honest texts in the world when it comes to exposing unvarnished and necessary truths from our past. Jesus and the prophets spare no words when it comes to calling for thorough repentance for past wrongs.
5. Christians should support every means necessary to keep desperate foreigners from crossing their borders, and to apprehend those whose visas have expired, even if it means separating families.
Jesus's Bible, the Pentateuch, has more to say about welcoming foreigners and treating them with respect than it does about the observance of the Sabbath. And Jesus commended both a Roman occupier and a Phoenician outsider for their faith, and showed special regard for despised half-Jews in neighboring Samaria.
In the words of Richard Rohr, "The only way evil can succeed is to disguise itself as good. And one of the best disguises for evil is religion. Someone can be racist, be against the poor, hate immigrants, and be totally concerned about making money and being a materialist but still go to church each Sunday and be 'justified' in the eyes of religion. "
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