A Theology of Democracy with Brian McLaren

hi friends my name is brian mclaren this is a sermon called a theology of democracy i'd like to begin and end by reading these words from matthew chapter 25. now when the human one comes in his majesty and all his angels are with him he will sit on his majestic throne all the nations will be gathered in front of him he will separate them from each other just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats he will put the sheep on his right but the goats he will put on his left the king will say to those on his right come you who will receive good things from my father inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world began i was hungry and you gave me food to eat i was thirsty and you gave me a drink i was a stranger and you invited me in i was naked and you gave me clothes to wear i was sick and you took care of me i was in prison and you visited me this act of dividing the sheep from the goats runs really deep in a lot of our religious upbringing as well as in our political lives we love to divide people into two categories us them good bad in out acceptable unacceptable clean unclean it's funny a lot of our growth and maturity involves learning to make those kind of distinctions and then learning to complexify them learning eventually that some of the people we thought were us and good are not so good and some of the people we thought were them and bad are not really so bad so at first thought when you read this text and you see jesus dividing you think oh it's playing into the same kind of in-out exclusion but when you go deeper you see how jesus is actually subverting that way of thinking because the king who is emphasized as majesty comes in majesty surrounded by angels sits on his majestic glorious throne this majestic one is in solidarity with the people at the opposite end of the majesty spectrum the naked the homeless refugee the incarcerated prisoner the hungry the thirsty the poor the unemployed the sick person without health care do you understand what jesus is doing he's not reinforcing that in-out thinking he's subverting it because the one who's at the very top is in solidarity with those who are seen as at the bottom he's identified with them if we would like to have a theology of democracy we have we have to work against our tendency to create these binary groups or these spectrum of the most valuable to the least valuable we have to see jesus turning all of that upside down so that i see that homeless refugee wandering looking for a place of safety that sick person sick in mind sick and body is cherished and valuable that the way i treat that person is the way i'm actually treating god this inversion this confusion of those simple dichotomies is essential to a theology of democracy we at our most fundamental level have the dualism of me and everything else that's our our egotistical dualism and at the heart of jesus teaching and really teaching in the hebrew scriptures as well and it's an insight shared across religious communities is this insight that i cannot separate myself from you but that i and you are connected what dr king called the web of inescapable web of mutuality this is what the great commandment is about to love god you can't love god with also without also loving your neighbor you can't love your neighbor without loving your neighbor as yourself god neighbor self this deep mutuality this deep connection this deep solidarity if i try to separate myself from my neighbor i'm separating myself from god talk about democracy this is at the core of the golden rule do unto others as you would have them do unto you stop thinking i can get away with hurting someone else no no no no what you do to others it's going to actually affect you we're all connected do unto others as you would have them do unto you is the only sensible sane way to live it's in the powerful parable of the good samaritan you'll remember the two religious leaders who've been trained in that dualistic mindset they think i'm clean that guy over there is dirty i don't want to get dirty by touching that person but the samaritan has none of those scruples and he goes and he touches the bleeding person and cares for them makes sure that they get the health care that they need he understands that his well-being and his neighbor's well-being are bound up together that is the essence of a theology of democracy and it has everything to do with how you will vote if you go into the voting booth only voting for yourself your self-interest what will make you the most money what will be the best for you you don't get it you're certainly not voting as a christian no even if a thousand preachers tell you you are if you vote only for yourself or only for your race or only for your religion or only for other rich people like you or other middle-class people like you if you only vote for your nation you're violating this theology of democracy this theology of radical equality before god this theology of our ultimate interconnectedness in a web of mutuality when you go to vote then keep in mind paul's words from philippians 2 do not seek your own personal interests only but also the interests of others now when the human one comes in his majesty and all his angels are with him he will sit on his majestic throne all the nations will be gathered in front of him he will separate them from each other just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats he'll put the sheep on his right the goats he'll put on his left the king will say to those on his right come you will receive good things from my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the world began i was hungry and you fed me i was thirsty and you gave me a drink i was a stranger and you welcomed me in i was naked and you gave me clothes to wear i was sick and you took care of me i was in prison and you visited me and those who are righteous reply to him lord when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you a drink when did we see you as a stranger and welcome you are naked and give you clothes to wear when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you and the king will reply to them i assure you that whenever you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you have done it for me when you vote on november 3rd may you vote for the least of these may you vote as part of the web of mutuality into which we are all woven amen

Channel: Vote Common Good

Views: 475

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: gwvAFPQlQk8

Length: 10min 33sec (633 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 16 2020