I am trying to figure out what set in motion a "them and us" culture. I get it. Jesus famously said, "He who is not with Me is against Me" (Matthew 12:30). Someone who opposes is certainly not on the same team. But in our culture, we have gone crazy with partisanship to the point that "He who is not with Me, I have to hate, slander, and wish for horrible things to happen to him." It shows up especially in our political viewpoint.
An old joke that I have repeated is that politics is a combination of two words: "poly" meaning "many" and "tics" meaning "blood sucking parasites." Funny but not funny. Politics (some but not all) has become pandering over governing. The expected migration from campaigning to governing never really happens. Power is abused, people are marginalized, and the base is satisfied. For a minute.
How did we become a nation of crazy people? How have we become people who despise someone who doesn't look like me, talk like me, believe like me, have a birth certificate from the same place as me? How has truth left objectivity and arrived in crazy town as an algorithm that gives us, "if I shout loud enough and long enough, it will become true." Some writers call it a post-truth culture where truth is a byproduct of emotion rather than objectivity. Volume does not equal truth. Affirmation in an echo chamber does not equal evidence collecting to arrive at a measured response.
How do we get on the train out of crazy town? For me as a Jesus-follower, I need to learn to hold Jesus' teaching tightly instead of loosely. In His most famous sermon, He told us that enemies are to be loved and prayed for (Matthew 5:43-44). He reminded us of the upside-down Kingdom where the things that are repeated as conventional wisdom or response are no longer appropriate for kingdom living in a crazy town culture.
In the fourth teaching cycle in Matthew, Jesus says to live like kingdom people, we are characterized by understanding, forgiveness, non-judgment, empathy, discipline, respect, kindness, humility, integrity, prayer, and accountability (Matthew 18). Since these words were ia response to a question about the kingdom of heaven, it makes sense that Jesus is talking about the kingdom of heaven on earth. He taught us to pray that God's Kingdom would come "on earth as it is in heaven."
As I read the words of the Good Shepherd, who demonstrated all of these character traits, I see the breakdown in me. And maybe the crazy town culture. But it starts with me. It starts inside each of us, not because we want to prove a point or fix everyone else, or pass laws, but because we want to walk in a way that honors King Jesus. It starts when we each "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." (Matthew 6:33). Then other things will either begin to fall in place or reveal to us a greater purpose for whatever circumstance is causing us heartburn.
