As one begins to understand the political aspect of the message of the Kingdom of God, you realize that faith in Jesus calls many societal assumptions into question. This is the essence of Paul’s phrase “Jesus is Lord.” In this statement Paul is claiming that Jesus is ruling this world instead of Caesar (since it is meant to subvert Caesar’s self appointed title of Lord of Earth and Sea).

Paul’s letters beg Christians to distrust Caesar’s imperial gospel and trust instead in the gospel of the Kingdom of God where the first is made last and the weak are made strong.

Fast-forward to today…

In America, we are fed the gospel of the American Dream. “Work hard and play by the rules and things will work out.” “America is a place where dreams come true–where any man can pull himself up by his own bootstraps.” American residents (and the rest of the world) are bombarded with the framing story of the gospel of the American Dream that bows down to the “movers” of the world like Henry Ford and Steve Jobs.

So many Christians have embraced this framing story that is so opposed to the first century Jewish man named Jesus.

Many of us struggle with a Christianity within which we have the same values and faith in human political systems as everyone else, we are merely more morally pure (no drinking, smoking, or sex). So, we still embrace selfishness, judgmentalism, classism, and various other side effects of the American Dream and then go to Church on Sunday.

It is a challenge for everyone that puts their face in Jesus of Nazareth to reorder our values around the Kingdom of God. We must question our framing story to see whether we get our attitudes and societal assumptions from the biblical story or from our nation’s forefathers. Is the way we conduct our personal business designed to capitalize on the weak, or is it designed to bring justice, joy, and peace to the world?

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