Emily and i are the best of friends,
we spend bright mornings together
singing to her line’s sharp ends;

and i, i hide my jealousy
between the dancing stanzas;
she deserves praise for every elegy,

these great songs spent in cloister
like the hands that poured them out
as pearls hid by suspicious oyster

NOTE: I am not fond of this poem but i’ll put it out there and maybe fix it later.

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” – Philippians 2:5-8

Leaders and would be leaders take note – Christ is the very anti-thesis of the will to power. Those who would seek out power are the absolute opposite of Christ.

Those who would yearn for a strong leader and a strong nation would be wise to remember the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 when he relates the words that God told him –

““My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

When we look to Jesus we do not see power and strength – we see something far greater – we see humility and a willingness to walk even to death for the sake of others, even those who would hate him, especially those who would hate him.

When you look to your leaders what do you see? Do you see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control as Galatians says are the hallmarks of the Spirit of God?

If not be wary. This is not a leader to envy, this is not a leader to place your hope and trust in. This leader is the very opposite of Christ whom you are called to pursue and to emulate as best you can.

Ask yourself if this leader, when struck, would turn away. Ask yourself if this leader would command you to “love your enemy”? Would this leader tell you to care for the foreigner? Would this leader have mercy on the homeless? Would this leader command you to feed and clothe the poor? Would this leader send you to the prisons to visit criminals? Would this leader promise the kingdom of heaven to the poor in spirit? Would they give the whole earth to the meek? Would this leader make peacemakers children of God?

Ask yourself – would this leader store up treasures for themselves on earth? Would this leader, modeled after Christ who said “You cannot serve both God and money.”, be rich?

Would your leader be cast in the mold of Christ if their focus was judging others when we have all been commanded in Matthew 7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.“

Would this leader mock others?

How would this leader speak about and treat women if they are seeking to model themselves after Christ? This same Christ of whom it is told in John chapter 8:

“At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Is this the model that your leader is following?

Be wary if you see the face and hope of Christ in this leader for if you do then you do not know Christ.

What do you call a person who advocates for the death penalty for prisoners, state sponsored military invasion and bombing campaigns, fear and seek the expulsion of foreigners from the land, condemn certain types of people simply for who they love, subjugate women beneath men, treat creation like a disposable piece of trash, deny scientific truth, and breathe judgement and wrath?

You call them Christian.

What do you call a person who is commanded to love, believes the earth is a rare gift to be stewarded and protected, seeks restorative justice, is told to forgive again and again and again and again, turns the other cheek, loves their enemy, walks in sacrifice, sees strength in weakness, understands that leaders must be followers, feeds the hungry, clothes the poor, receives and distributes grace, visits the prisoner and sick?

You call them a Christian too.

How is this possible? How is it possible that you can call these two very different and seemingly opposing types of people the same thing? It seems ridiculous. It feels wrong.

From the outside of Christianity it is simply a sign of the increasingly out-of-touch state of the faith from reality. From within it depends on who you talk to. In reality it all comes down to how each on reads the core text of the faith – the Bible.

The first type of Christian reads the Bible through the lens of the Old Testament – particularly the Torah – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Everything in the Bible is interpreted through the lens of the law and these books. The New Testament is read and interpreted through the filter and lens of the Old. Christ is interpreted through the lens of the Old Testament.

There is no room for the growth of grace and the transformation of God’s message as the people it is delivered to are transformed.

The second type of Christian reads the same Bible, Old through New Testaments, but when they read it they read it and interpret it through the lens of Christ. Every book from Genesis through the Revelation of John is read through Christ. Every law, every parable, every psalm, every narrative, is read through the lens of Christ and interpreted through him. God is interpreted through Christ because we believe that God is in Christ and that God is Christ.

In my opinion this is the only way to read and understand scripture – through Christ. Every other way is simply wrong and can lead to a stagnation of understanding (or worse still it can lead to harm). A regression. To read scripture without Christ as the central interpretive lens and framework creates a Pharisaic perspective. It creates a faith and understanding that is bound by law,wrath and command. It removes the heart and Gospel from the story of God and God’s people and leaves a cold corpse that spreads death instead of life.

Christian.

Christ is at the centre of what it means to be Christian…always, in everything. In our failings, in our successes, in our pain to be sure…but more so in the pain and suffering of those who are not us.

Christ the centre of all things.

Christ the centre.

Christian.

when you live your life in winter
spring seems a dream of another world
that one goes to after death…
a promised land of growth and warmth
where renewal and new life
go hand in hand

but spring is not some deluded hope
told to bind and subjugate the hopeless,
it is as real as the wandering sun
as it hikes from capricorn to cancer
thawing homes and hearts along its way
in a grand resurrection

Wherever you find hopelessness, desperation and destruction is never far behind.

Hopelessness of mind, hopelessness of body, hopelessness of circumstance…all are precede brutality and loss of humanity.

Once a person or people enter into a state of hopelessness their actions quickly become untethered from any ethic and conscience because hopelessness is corrosive to value and values.

If you want to understand why a person or people would do something horrific you need to become a student of hopelessness and the things that lead to such a state.