Matthew 11:2-11

When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: “‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

John the Baptist (JB) seemed so certain. “Behold, the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world!” He witnessed the voice from heaven when he baptized Jesus: “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased”, and he saw the dove descend. But now, JB is uncertain. He has moved from certainty to doubt. And doubt often leads to hopelessness and despair.

What has changed? For one thing, his circumstances have changed. We initially met JB in the wilderness by the Jordan River. People had travelled long distances to see him and hear him proclaim the coming of the kingdom of heaven, telling the crowds to repent and prepare for the arrival of the One; speaking truth to power as only a prophet can. The wilderness was a place where the prophetic voice was unbound and prophets were safe. But JB isn’t in the wilderness now. He is in prison, put there by the State (Herod) for speaking against the State.

And there is no sign of the kingdom of heaven. The Empire, which does not like talk of change and moves to silence the voices calling for change, is still in power. Where is the kingdom? Where is the coming One that was promised? I thought I knew, but now I’m not so certain. Was I wrong?

I have to give JB credit. He doesn’t let his doubts have the final word. He investigates and seeks confirmation of the vision of God’s reign. Sending a delegation to Jesus, JB seeks the answer. “Are you the one who is to come? Or should we look for someone else.”

Jesus doesn’t give a ‘yes or no’ answer. Jesus simply says, “Look and Listen.” And Jesus then points to evidence of the kingdom’s presence in the world—blind see, deaf hear, lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the poor hear good news. This is the kingdom. This is Jesus’ work.   Look. See. Listen. Hear.

In these days when the kingdom of Hell and the reign of death seem to have reasserted themselves into our national lives, I can relate to John the Baptist. There are days in the past several months when I have had my doubts—doubts about God, doubts about the future, doubts about whether the church is relevant anymore and doubts that the kingdom of heaven is near. And the kingdom of heaven seems far, far away…farther than it has felt in a long time. The news is full of confirmation that the Empire is still in power:  Russia influences US elections; climate change deniers are in charge of the EPA; an oil executive will likely run the State Department, the stock market surges into record territory, benefiting the 1%; white supremacists advise the President-elect and hate has permission to go public.  And the voices of dissent and the voices of change are intimidated and threatened. This feels like prison. It feels like the kingdom of heaven is being pushed back. This is the time that doubts rise to the surface. Were we wrong to believe that the kingdom of heaven is near?

Jesus would have us also look and listen. See and hear. There is evidence–small as a seed buried–but evidence just the same that God is still with us, and God is still at work. I see God in the US Army Corp of Engineer’s decision to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and protect the waters of the Missouri River. I see God in the ways that people are coming together to resist evil and promote justice and righteousness. I see God in an unexpected federal court hearing that could force CHA to replace the 525 units of public housing eliminated from Lathrop Homes. I see God in our Alderman’s commitment to replace at least 40 of those units in Logan Square. I hear God in the chants of the Black Lives Matter movement and the Las Posadas march for affordable housing. Look. Listen. See. Hear.

And after I see and hear, I am strengthened to return with renewed commitment to live and act in alignment with God’s presence. My doubts may remain and the future may be uncertain. Just look at JB’s future. He remained in prison and then was beheaded. He was silenced, but the message went on. “The kingdom of heaven is near.”

In the face of the present evil days, the message goes on through God’s faithful church. The day IS coming.  And we continue to prophetically speak with renewed certainty that the future bends toward justice and that some day, we will overcome.

The following is an edited version of Pastor Ray’s sermon given Sunday, November 13, 2016—a faith response to the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.

Like many of you, I’ve spent that past several days processing the outcome of Tuesday’s general election where Donald Trump unexpectedly shocked the nation with his victory. On Wednesday morning, I listened to the deep pain and profound grief of family and friends—women, LGBTQ folk, people with disabilities, Latinx and African American sisters and brothers, and I watched as tears streamed down their faces. Again and again, they asked with fear in their voices, “What will happen next?”, knowing full well that history has already shown us what regularly happens next to people who are perceived as the cause of the problem. I felt their fear. Again and again, I was asked, “How could this have happened?” I don’t believe anyone expected me to have the explanation, but it moved me to seek an answer. How did this happen? How did the least qualified candidate in United States history become President?

The answer was deeply painful for me. Donald Trump won due to the votes of white men (60%) and the votes of white evangelical Christians—both men and women (over 80%). Of course, others voted for him, but without the support of evangelical Christians, he would not have been elected. Which deeply grieves me since I was born and raised in the evangelical tradition and I am still deeply connected to it.

I am grieved because people that look just like me and use the language of my faith selected the candidate that Jim Wallis of Sojourners (also a white man of Christian faith) called “ a man who embodies the most sinful and shameful worship of money, sex, and power, and—perhaps more than any other public figure in America—represents the very worst values of what American culture has become….” As a result, white evangelical Christians are now inextricably linked to the bigotry, the misogyny, the hatred, the cruelty, and the rudeness and crudeness of Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric. White evangelical Christians are now bound to white supremacy, hate, rape culture, homophobia and religious intolerance and with all those who want America to be great (code for white, male, straight, Christian) again. And all Christians are now implicated by association.

White Christians have communicated to our neighbors—women, Black and Brown Americans, those with disabilities, immigrants, Muslims, and the LGBTQ community, “you are not and never will be fully accepted. You will never be equal. You are less important; less valued; LESS, PERIOD.” The white evangelical church demonstrated in the polling place that the they are more committed to making America great again than to following Jesus, who commanded us to “love the Lord our God…and love our neighbor as ourselves.”

The Shepherds—the theologians, the evangelists, the pastors, the revered representatives of the evangelical faith—have led the flock into the depths of hypocrisy, excusing behavior that the Word of God expressly condemns—adultery, sexual assault, abusive speech, false witness—and justifying a man who has arrogantly refused to confessed his sin. Christians have aligned themselves with darkness. Christians have chosen the road of Balaam. Christians have turned to Egypt and “drunk the waters of the Nile.” Christians have embraced the harlot.

Some may object and say, “We didn’t like the man. His words and his actions were disgusting and vile. But we had no alternative.  We had a moral obligation. We were voting for the future and protecting the children living in the womb.” And in so doing, you have sacrificed the living children who now cling to their mothers in fear, anxiously wondering if they have a future.

Indeed, you have voted for a future, but it is not the new heavens and new earth where justice dwells that God announced through the prophets and that Jesus inaugurated. The future you elected is built on the sand of the past not the Rock. You supported the old racism. You supported the old misogyny. You supported the old bigotry. And you chose to rebuild the dividing walls of hostility that Christ destroyed at the cross.

Sadly, we have already begun to see your future, which looks disturbingly like the past. Hate crimes have spiked since Tuesday’s election with Muslims and blacks and gays the primary targets. A chapter of the Ku Klux Klan has announced a victory parade in North Carolina. Andrew Anglin declared of the election results on his Neo-Nazi website, “Daily Stormer,”: “Our Glorious Leader has ascended to God Emperor. Make no mistake about it: we did this.” ¹

And you helped to do this. What you thought was buried has returned to life. The demons you thought had been cast out have returned seven fold.   Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy.

God has a word of mercy for us. “REPENT!”   There is a way forward. God’s prescription for a people infected with the disease of superiority and supremacy is this: “IF you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and IF you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, THEN [and only then] your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. (Isaiah 58:9b-10) (NIV)

 And Jesus is standing at the door of the evangelical church—poverty stricken, naked and blind as the Church of Laodicea—and he is knocking, inviting us to “Come, follow me.”

So we all now have a decision. Will we take the medicine God offers? Will we answer the call? What will be your next step?

For me, I can no longer self-identify as ‘evangelical Christian’ or even ‘Christian.’ Those labels have lost all credibility as a result of this election. From now on, if I self-identify my faith at all, I will self-identify as ‘Follower of Jesus.’

My next steps will be in the footprints of Jesus. And his footprints lead me to the very people so belittled and abused in this election. Jesus said, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ (Matthew 25:35-36) (NIV)

Jesus is found in the marginalized, the oppressed, the vulnerable; in those who have been stripped of their dignity and human-ness; in those who have been mocked; in those who have been rejected; in those who have been poisoned by the water; in those whose land has been forcibly taken from them; in those who are considered ‘less than’.

I will follow Jesus in these people. In repentance, I will offer my hands and feet to their cause. With ears to hear, I will listen to their cries. And with renewed strength, I will bear their burdens. I will humbly remember my Lord’s words, “the last shall be first and first shall be last” and “whoever wants to be great…must become the servant.”

So, if you are looking for me, you will find me following behind the women, the people with disabilities, the LGBTQ folk, the communities of color, the indigenous peoples, the immigrants, the laborers, the Dreamers, the chronically unemployed, the incarcerated, the Muslims, the forgotten and the displaced. And whatever power and privilege I have because of my race and gender and faith, I will offer it to them. For it is in them that I will find Jesus and through them that I will enter into the fullness of God’s kingdom and God’s love.

I will follow the way of faith that joyfully welcomes the outsider, graciously includes the outcast and the sinner, boldly defends the vulnerable, and prophetically liberates the oppressed. I will model THIS faith for my children and grandchildren, for my congregation and for my community.

God has said, “Here is the way. Walk in it.” It is a narrow way. It is a way that leads to insults and persecution. It is a way that ultimately leads to the cross. But I will walk it, knowing that Jesus walked this way ahead of us and made it through; and knowing that there is a cloud of witnesses who have also walked it before us cheering us on.

“Let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely. And let us run with perseverance the course that is marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning it’s shame.” Hebrews 12:1-2 (NRSV)

¹ Southern Poverty Law Center