Not economics or politics, but the Way of the Christ

It is right for us to care about the health and wellbeing of our society now.

But for those who believe and follow the Way of the Christ, how and why we care about society are to be different.

When society is sick, it is typical for people to look for cures in economics or politics. They argue about whether capitalism or socialism will make things better. They fight about whether conservatism or liberalism will get it done.

But the church of Christ follows a different way altogether, the Way of the Christ. The Way of the Christ is over-the-top service and submission, radical inclusion, and reckless sharing in a community where everyone has a place and everyone is truly equal.

The church of Christ is not an institution within society; it is an alternative to society itself. It is an alternative economy, an alternative polity, where people go to extremes to practice the love of God for each other.

In living together as an “alternate reality,” Christians make the church of Christ into a kind of sacrament for the reality they leave behind. When the church of Christ is truly living and loving in the power of the Spirit of the Christ, it becomes the healing, life-giving force that human society needs.

But as the Christ taught those who would be his church: “I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them will bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing” (Gospel of John 15:5).

Christians waste their energy and time when they blame everyone but themselves when society gets sick and weak. It is the church of Christ that is to be “light” and “salt” in human society. If human society grows dim and tasteless, is it not because the church of Christ hid its light and watered down its own saltiness? Is blaming politicians and pop culture not just a way for us to deflect the blame away from where it really lies: Ourselves?

So in these times when society is sick, the Christian response is not to fix blame (for the blame truly lies with us). It is not to look for solutions in economics or politics.

Rather, it is for the church of Christ to abide in the One who will make us fruitful for the sake of the world God so loves.

How do we abide in the Christ? We abide with one another. We abide with our neighbors, with strangers, even with enemies. Abiding means serving, sharing with, and submitting to those we feel we deserve to shame, shun, or subjugate.

Where do we find such people? Where can we practice abiding with them?

In the church of Christ, the alternative kingdom. The alternative society. The sacrament through which the Spirit of the Christ might feed, heal, and restore all of human society.

Christian, let us turn our full attention toward the Christ, his church, and its neighbors. This is the Way.

Grace and peace.