Christians Celebrating Christmas

The day after tomorrow, Christmas will herald joy to the world, hosted by Jesus followers from every corner of the Earth.

Normally this is a time of great rejoicing for Christians. We lay aside any minor grievances to sing carols and drink eggnog. We celebrate what we believe to be the greatest news in human history: that God Almighty sent his Son to save us from our sins. We welcome anyone and everyone to join the celebration, and many cultures around the globe do just that. Here in the United States, we suffer no fear of persecution for celebrating our faith. With all its glitter, glitz, and overwhelming sugar overload, we as a community of faith remember the birth of our newborn King. He is, as we say, the Reason for the Season.

But do we ever stop to ask ourselves this question:

What to give Jesus for Christmas?

We Evangelicals claim the Bible to be the true and inspired Word of God. It is only from this book that we know of our Lord’s love for us, and the sacrifice of His Son for our sin. Jesus’ birth signified what we consider to be THE turning point in history: God’s wrath on this sinful world would fall, eventually and in its entirety, on this sinless baby.  Born a refugee, Jesus grew up to be a homeless, Middle-Eastern Jewish carpenter and itinerant rabbi . The religious establishment of his time despised him, eventually leading to his murder. In his short ministry, He stood up for all the hated and downtrodden folks of the time: tax collectors (who were actually extortionists and thieves), adulterers, prostitutes, women, children, and more. The only folks on His naughty list were the Pharisees, with whom He took very vocal and public exception.

As believers, we have given our hearts to Jesus in exchange for His saving grace. We cling to the promise that our hero, our Savior, will be standing between us and God Almighty when we walk into eternity. He asks nothing of us except for our love, our trust, and our surrender. To the outlaw on the cross dying alongside our sinless Savior, Jesus granted this one request: “Remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” (Luke 23:39-43)

This criminal, by his own admission, was only receiving the punishment that he himself deserved. Asking Jesus for this one favor may have been the only right decision he ever made.

First note what Jesus did not say. He did not say, “Are you sorry for your sins?” He did not say, “What country are you from, anyway? Are you here legally?” He did not say, “you should have worked honestly for your living- you don’t deserve any help. This is your own fault.” He said only this, which is the greatest promise ever made:

“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Now there are a bunch of folks in Scripture who seem to deserve this promise. In the book of Hebrews, chapter 11 is called “the roll call of faith.” Countless Old Testament saints are remembered for their courage and their refusal to give up, even when faced with impossible odds. In reading the New Testament, we encounter more heroes; those who walked with Jesus, and those who never met Him but still believed, even to persecution and death. I find great comfort in knowing their stories, all of them, because each provides a particular precedent. Their individual challenges, enriched with the details of both the beauty and the brokenness of their lives, provide examples of how to live, and give us hope for tomorrow.

But in truth, aside from Jesus Himself, my favorite character in the Bible is the criminal on the cross. To our knowledge, he never performed a selfless act. We don’t know his lineage, his nationality, his age, or even his name. He was never mentioned in Scripture either before or after Luke 23. Seemingly inconsequential, you might wonder why I love him and his story.

I do, because Jesus did. I do, because it reveals the very heart of God towards “the least of these.”

God’s Heart Towards “The Least of These”

I believe Jesus wants me to act exactly like that when it comes to helping people. The refugee, the criminal, the poor, the persecuted. These were the people He loved, and this story shines like a breaking sunrise on the Good News we’re supposed to live out.

So what can we give Jesus for Christmas?

We can obey his commands in Matthew 25:31-46, without asking people where they were born, or do they belong here. Without looking down on them because they speak a language other than English, or dress differently than we do. Without passing judgment on why they can’t afford health insurance or medical care. Without judging why they need food stamps or help to feed their children. We can stop the current administration from further tormenting the poor by suspending the programs they need to survive. We can vote out the politicians who steal from the poor to give to the rich.

And for those who believe that Matthew 25:31-46 does not apply to those of us who are already “saved”- that this will be a judgment for those left behind-I pose this question: Do you not believe that Jesus Christ, who welcomed a filthy criminal to accompany Him to Paradise, would want us to treat “the least of these” with the same compassion He showed? Our Savior was, and is, the most consistent character in history. He is, after all, God.

So Merry Christmas to all. We can still rejoice, because Jesus is now, and always will be, the King of Kings. We can lay aside any minor grievances to sing carols and drink eggnog. We can and should celebrate what we believe to be the greatest news in human history: that God Almighty sent his Son to save us from our sins. We welcome anyone and everyone to join the celebration. Here in the United States, we suffer no fear of persecution for celebrating our faith. We can overdose on sugar and remember the birth of our newborn King. He is still, and always will be, the Reason for the Season.

I’m grateful beyond words for Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross for me. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine God would love me, and it’s taken me over half my lifetime to even begin to grasp it. As the old hymn “Rock of Ages” goes, “In my hand no price I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling.” I have no gift to give Him. I can only offer my love and my best effort to do what He asked, which is to attempt to love others as He does. And for this special season, that is resistance enough.

©Rachel Ophoff, Coconut Mountain Communications LLC, 2019. All Rights Reserved.

On the teeter-totter of the holiday calendar, we are smack in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Southwestern Colorado is sunny with intermittent snow. Oslo is dark and wet. Recently, Kevin I spent nine days in Norway, visiting our son and his family. My flashlight came in handy, since the eight-hour time change awakened me four nights straight at two am. Initially I wondered what to do in the world’s darkest hours while everyone else was asleep. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to share another woman’s journey; one that resembled my own in our pain and angst over differences with the Evangelical Church. I read Searching For Sunday by the late Rachel Held Evans.

Rachel Held Evans* in Searching For Sunday

She was, as she described it, “a millenial with one foot in Gen X.” Born in 1981, she was 25 years younger than I, and almost the same age my daughter would have been. Our upbringings were wildly dissimilar. If Trump had not been elected President by the support of the Religious Right, I probably would never have heard of her. But as her story spilled out in the light from my tablet, illuminating those dark Norwegian nights, her pain of estrangement from the Evangelical Church mirrored my own. Her quest for answers from the church’s benevolent powers-that-be returned the same results. She had walked ahead of me down the road in search of solutions, and what she found will serve as a guide for what I attempt. Were we to sit down to coffee, I’m sure there are points on which we would have disagreed. But I am profoundly grateful to this woman I won’t meet until Heaven.

Going Public as The Christian Resistance

As I shared in a previous post, I waited over two years from the inauguration before I figured out that the Religious Right would continue to support Trump, no matter what he does. My greatest distress is knowing that many non-believers think all Christians endorse this president. I cannot imagine a worse impression. Neither can I, in good conscience, do nothing. In September I joined the Resistance by launching this website. I have begun to pray about how to counteract this misconception on a local level, but at this point, difficulties abound.

I love church life. Having been raised by crazy people, I first found love and acceptance in the embrace of the Evangelicals.  I also love my local church. Most of these folks are pretty taken with Trump, and the ones who aren’t don’t share their opinions openly. Just so there were no misunderstandings, I have been open about my leanings as well as my mission. And as I’ve shared before, almost everyone has accepted me with open arms. I don’t want to do anything to hurt them. Yet, I feel compelled to act on a local level, which means going public in a small town where everybody knows somebody who knows their everybodys. This action carries real consequences. Fortunately, I know more than to “look before I leap.” I have a go-to course of action that has served as my path for decision-making ever since I worked through the study Experiencing God, more than twenty years ago.

Experiencing God

For as long as it takes, I will pray. I will continue my annual walk through the Gospels, this time in the Daily Bible chronological format. I will listen. As Henry Blackaby wrote in Experiencing God, our Lord “speaks through the Bible, prayers, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.” Never has there been a time I have found this to be untrue. The only caveat may lie in the timing, because it doesn’t specify how long this process might take. That’s okay, though. I will continue to write, and the only place I might be going is Heaven. And in that case, problem solved.

Here on Earth, there’s no place like Norway for getting away from it all (except maybe for the Norwegians). God always knows what I need better than I do. When “He makes me lie down in green pastures,” I never quite know where those pastures might be. Oslo at two in the morning in November was neither green nor grassy.  But the place, the time, and the guide were the perfect combination to provide rest, encouragement, and perspective. I don’t know what the Lord will bring in terms of my next assignment. But considering how He works, I’m looking forward to that moment; one that illuminates possibilities I could never have imagined. And it will be just the right idea, at just the right time. That is the God I have come to know.

© Rachel Ophoff, Coconut Mountain Communications LLC, 2019. All Rights Reserved.

*Rachel Held Evans passed away on May 4, 2019, due to complications from medical treatment for an infection.

1 Psalm 23: 1-2, King James Version (KJV) Public Domain

Christian Resistance Organizations Arise

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting it is really cooperating with it.” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Is evil in the eye of the beholder? And is it our responsibility to stand up to it?

It used to be that “church people”- in this case I’m referring to the only kind of church people I’ve ever known- used to pretty much agree on what constituted evil behavior. Having been what they call “unchurched” as a child, I stumbled into the Protestant Evangelical Christian world in my late 20’s. Until lately, I was unashamedly devoted to the mission of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, working alongside my brothers and sisters in the family of faith. I loved these people, and I love them still. Some of them even still love me. But Jesus himself seems to have fallen out of the mix. For many (present company excluded) the mission has morphed into a political movement with aspirations that fly in the face of Jesus’ teachings. In fact, some of these aspirations are just plain evil. You know, like separating children from their parents at the border, or cutting programs that feed the hungry, or denying health care to the poor, or tossing our allies the Kurds into the hands of their enemies. The list goes on and on- just do an internet search on  “Programs Trump has cut.”

You can imagine my dismay.

Three years ago I was dumbstruck by Trump’s victory. It’s not like it was the first time my candidate lost. But it was the first time that a mentally unstable megalomaniac won. And to add insult to injury, my family of faith did everything they could to put him there. The political machine known as the Religious Right is powerful and pervasive. Thousands of us have just walked away from the church we love, because there seems to be no point in raising our voices. They are, after all,  the “Moral Majority.”  Who are we to question them?

Who indeed. We are children of the Most High God, and His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus’ teachings have stood the test of time, and this is no exception. And fortunately, there are groups of Christ-followers who are raising their voices and raising the roof and raising up a movement that the rest of us can join. Reclaiming Jesus (now Sojourners) is an organization of pastors, preachers, and theologians who first gathered in prayer in 2018. I cannot do them justice, so I urge you to visit their website and read their “Reclaiming Jesus” Declaration. It’s only a few pages, but it succinctly compares the current administration’s policies with the teachings of our Savior. They also offer free, downloadable resources for those of us who want to start a movement in our hometown.

There’s also an online community known as Red Letter Christians. In many Bibles, the words of Jesus Christ are printed in red ink. You know, so we wouldn’t be confused. With all the amnesia surrounding our Lord’s actual teachings, I urge you to take advantage of this source of news, as well as links to groups already carrying out His instructions.

I am vastly relieved that God is raising up believers who are devoted to making a positive difference in these dark days, and not just adding fuel to the flames. I feel that I’ve been flailing about, writing as a lone wolf in a world gone crazy. Red Letter Christians  offers online writings, encouragement, and suggestions for taking action instead of whining on social media.

Anger is a waste of time, and I am sick of mine. It’s just obnoxious. The Bible acknowledges that we struggle with anger, but is quick to instruct us with some solid common sense:  In your anger do not sin. (Ephesians 4:26 NIV) Now we have online communities and resources to help us do more than whine. We can make a difference. We can remind people of who Jesus really is.

And even though we always have Him, we now have each other.

©Rachel Ophoff, Coconut Mountain Communications LLC, 2019. All Rights Reserved.

Every generation has its heroes. People who seemingly stand head and shoulders above the crowd- not because they are wealthy, or beautiful, or talented, or famous, but because they are brave.

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know I love The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen.  This story has been a favorite all my life because everyone in the empire, from the greatest to the least, pretended to see the King’s new clothes. They took the path of least resistance. Only a child had the good sense and the courage to say, “But the Emperor has nothing on at all!” One person who will speak the truth sometimes shoves the door open for the faint-of-heart wobbling in the wings.

What Do Heroes Look Like?

The Emperor’s New Clothes is certainly a story for such a time as this. Another is Jim Wallis’ book Christ in Crisis.  I’ve known all along that Donald Trump’s policies bear no resemblance to the teachings of Jesus Christ, but shockingly, even I’ve become inured to just how ungodly this man is. To reiterate his shortcomings would overwhelm this space. But to actually see a side-by-side comparison of Jesus’ instructions versus Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign is jarring. Have we become accustomed to Christians trying to convince everyone that wrong is right and crazy is sane? Well, like the child who exposed the King, I’m standing up. I am a Christian, and I hereby declare that Donald Trump is a villain. His policies compared with Jesus’ teachings reveal that they stand in complete contradiction to each other. Now it’s time for the adults in the room to gather their courage and put on their big kid pants. It’s time to stand up to this brazen bully.

So how would we look in our grown-up clothes? Well, it could look a lot like Martin Luther King Jr’s journey. In his book Strength to Love, he says this: “Nowhere is the tragic tendency to conform more evident that in the church, an institution that has often served to crystallize, conserve, and even bless the patterns of majority opinion.”  Well BOOYAH! I seem to remember His own church murdered Jesus. We’re great when we’re at our best, but God help everyone else when we gang on up the least of these- immigrants fleeing poverty and violence, the poor of our own country, our allies the Kurds (welcome to Russia, comrades!), and whoever else- in the name of Christianity. It’s enough to make a woman scream. But I’ve got other plans.

I’m no hero. I’d hoist a protest sign, but I’m afraid I would whack a Trump supporter over the head with it. (Wake up already!) I’m just angry. My church has been hijacked by a powerful political party. I’m also very cognizant of the fact that one day I will stand before the ultimate Hero and give an account of my actions in the face of evil. I may be saved by grace, but I also want to be able to say, “I did all I could.”

And I invite you to come with me. I’ll keep you posted.

©Rachel Ophoff, Coconut Mountain Communications LLC, 2019. All Rights Reserved.
 

Seeing Jesus as Two Trump Supporters Loved Lil ol’ Liberal Me

My two best friends from church are in their eighties. Yesterday we took a road trip to a nearby town for a day of window shopping, lunch, and just catching up.

Like the town of Pagosa Springs itself, our church is friendly, warm, and quite conservative. When we first moved here I was shocked to see Girl Scouts auctioning off guns in front of Wal-Mart. We used to just sell cookies. Trump bumper stickers abound. In the sixteen months we’ve been here, I’ve only seen one vehicle with bumper stickers I could relate to: “I want my country back” and my adopted rallying cry:  “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”- Edmund Burke. I wanted to find that pickup truck’s owner and just hug the stuffin’ out of them. I felt slightly less alone, way down here in the conservative corner of southwest Colorado.

Making friends at church was relatively easy, but as I spent time with these folks, I realized one thing: it was assumed that all Christians are conservative, Republican, and Trump supporters. This was new to me. After some thought and prayer, I started coming out of the closet as an unapologetic Jesus-loving liberal. Transparency is my middle name. I couldn’t let them believe I was something I am not. Also, it’s not conservatism I protest: it’s Captain Insano in the White House, and the Religious Right’s support of this decidedly non-Christian nut job.

As I revealed my lack of support for Trump, I found that almost everyone took the news in stride. And these two ladies, my shopping companions, never missed a beat. We’ve been able to get together for dinners and dominoes, studiously avoiding our differences. I am very grateful for them and their spouses.

Will Friendship Survive the Changes?

But now things are changing. With Trump becoming increasingly unhinged, the time has come for action. Fortunately, a friend pointed me in the direction of the Red Letter Christians. The red letters are a reference to the ink used to highlight the actual words of Jesus in many versions of the Holy Bible. Red Letter Christians, founded by Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne, take the instructions of Christ quite literally and endeavor to carry out His commands. Since the policies of Donald Trump run almost completely contrary to the teachings of our Savior, I believe I have found a way to protest the hijacking of our faith. I am planning a Bible study of the Gospels, designed to draw attention away from Trump and towards Jesus. Simultaneously,  I will be working towards launching a Red Letter Christians ministry here in our town.

Even though this decision comes after months of prayer, I was nervous about telling these friends. After all, I’m taking up arms against their side. This will be in the local paper. The church leadership may not appreciate my direction. While I have no doubt that I’m doing the right thing, I can’t bear to bring pain to these precious ladies who love me in spite of my leanings. I just had to tell them before they found out from someone else.

Mustering my meager courage, I poured it all out over lunch. I needn’t have worried. Despite our differences, these women are the real thing. They love like Jesus loved. When I told them that one person-only one- in our church reacted cruelly when I went public with my convictions, one of these ladies cried and the other narrowed her eyes in a terrifying manner. I could almost see the smoke coming out of her ears. She was ready to set the offender straight in short order, even though she agrees with them politically. Nobody was going to hurt her friend and get away with it. There is no way I will ever reveal the offender’s name, because this person wouldn’t live to see the morning. But for those moments, I felt loved by friends for the first time since we moved here over a year ago. And boy, did that feel good.

So here’s what I’ve been asking myself: Am I that good of a friend? Would I take up arms against someone who shares my own belief system in defense of a Trump supporter? Do I love as well as these women love?

Would I love as Jesus loves?

I’d like to say “yes,” and I believe I would. But it’s been a long time since I really saw Jesus, and yesterday I saw Him in two Trump supporters on behalf of this liberal. There may be hope for us all yet.

©Rachel Ophoff, Coconut Mountain Communications LLC  2019. All Rights Reserved.

Can Pro-Trump and Pro-Sanity Forces Work Together?

Last week my biggest ethical concern was deciding whether or not to leave our church because the leaders are Trump supporters. I feared that, as we moved closer to next year’s presidential election, support for the incumbent as well the Right’s political platform would spill out around the edges. I figured it would be easier to leave now, even though I really like the church and the people.

Last week, the problem with that scenario was the fact that my husband has a vibrant ministry that is changing the lives of some young people. It would be selfish in the extreme to remove him just because I’m fearful.

That was last week. This week, things got so much worse.

Trump Caught Red-Handed

Folks, (especially you on the right), please understand this one thing. The fact that the Donald finally got caught red-handed breaking the law is NOT good news for any of us. Of course we on the left would love to see him leave office. He’s awful. But there is nothing good about impeachment for anyone. This is not good for the country. As hard as it is, I will refrain (at this time) from reminding everyone how poorly he is reacting to this development. Frankly, I don’t believe either side is surprised.

A Change in the Status Quo

So now we have bigger problems than disagreeing on doctrine. Of course that is still an issue. But Donald isn’t going to go without a fight, and I would not put it past him to stage a violent coup. Both sides need to work together to figure out how we’re going to help our country survive this. I understand the Right is entitled to their belief system, as are we; if and when the dust settles, hopefully we can all find the group we should belong to. But for now, I’m going to try to moderate my remarks with less anger and more understanding. I’ll share this post with the leadership of my church and hope we can share a vision for peaceful coexistence.

And may God help us. We are most certainly going to need it.

©Rachel Ophoff, Coconut Mountain Communications LLC 2019. All Rights Reserved.

Anger and Hurt Thwart Non-Violent Resistance

This morning I had a vision of how hurt and anger go hand-in-hand. Anger is the shield that circles the wagons around a broken heart; when we hold the offender at bay, we believe they cannot hurt us anymore. What we fail to realize is that the shield also keeps healing at bay. Like a broken axle in a muddy ditch, our wagon’s just plain stuck until we let down our guard and work to forgive.

In this past summer of 2019, two and a half years into Trump’s reign, I discerned that his strongest supporters, my family of faith, were not going to change their minds or their support of him, no matter what he does. And that being said, I realized I may have to leave the family. He’s a megalomaniac and a liar. Joining the effort to remove him from office doesn’t trouble me; leaving the family just kills me. I find myself wondering: is it okay to stay in a church if neither side brings up politics? If I don’t stand up for a solution, does that make me part of the problem?

The Strength to Love

One of the books I’m reading now is a collection of sermons by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. entitled Strength to Love. In the foreward, his widow Coretta says, “Noncooperation and nonviolent resistance were means of stirring and awakening moral truths in one’s opponents, of evoking the humanity that, Martin believed, existed in each of us.” ¹ Anger is not nonviolent. On the contrary, Jesus commanded Peter to “put your sword away!” ²  as the authorities came to arrest Him in the garden. Even when anger is not accompanied by physical  violence, it strikes fear into the heart of its target.

“In  your anger do not sin.”- Ephesians: 4:26. The next step I need to take in my journey of resistance is learning to speak up without terrorizing others.

© Rachel Ophoff, Coconut Mountain Communications LLC 2019. All Rights Reserved.

¹ Strength to Love by Martin Luther King Jr., Fortress Press, 2010

² John 18:11 NIV