The Camp Crystal Lakewood saga comes to a harrowing conclusion as all three arch villains descend upon our weary heroes!!! Marching in to the tune of “Onward Christian Soldiers,” the villains reveal their true agenda: uniformity by conversion or coercion…you decide!

Some defining terminology:

nationalism – “loyalty and devotion to the nation-state, often surpassing other individual or group interests.” While patriotism is defined as “a feeling of attachment and commitment to a country, nation, or political community,” nationalism makes that attachment the most important priority, out of a belief in the superiority/supremacy of one’s ideology.

definition from Brittanica.com, “Nationalism vs. Patriotism, What’s the Difference?“

Each villain in this story has represented a different threat to Christian community, as commonly perceived by mainline Christians:

The first threat: super cool evangelical ministries are stealing our young people with Calvinist and complementation theology! Egad!  The second threat: Christian nationalism is everywhere and no one seems to be able to distinguish Christianity from American supremacy anymore! Oh no! The third threat: online Christian  influencers have conflated capitalism and the gospel so interchangeably we’ll never know the difference anymore!  Wowsers!  And now, they’re joining forces to form an all-powerful nationalist movement to squash out all dissenters in the name of Jesus! And weirdly, also, in the name of Martin Luther King, Jr! (read article: “How the Distortion of MLK Jr’s Words Enables More, Not Less, Racial Division Within American Society.”)

So what is the solution to such threats?  It’s not like it’s new for Christians to disagree vehemently with one another.  We have entire histories of Christians at war with each other, of Catholics and Protestants killing each other in the name of Jesus. How does one stand up to increasingly stubborn siblings in Christ on a national stage, especially when those siblings refuse to acknowledge their relationship to you?  Do we meet self-righteous anger with self-righteous anger? hatred with hatred? darkness with darkness?  Did Jesus really have nothing to say about this, and so are we left to only the solutions of the world?

A Good Tree Cannot Bear Bad Fruit

¹⁵ “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Matthew 7:15-20, NIV

A bad tree cannot be conquered by becoming a bad tree.  We will all only end up with bad fruit.  Our responsibility in the face of bad trees bearing bad fruit is to hear the voice of John the Baptist, and “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt 3:8, NIV).  How you plant yourself into the Gospel will result in the kind of fruit you produce.  Jesus’ teaching on false prophets bearing bad fruit  (thornbushes and thistles) falls at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, between teachings of the narrow and wide gates, true and false believers, wise and foolish builders.  How easy it is for any human to put ourselves on the “right” side of those parables, and see our opponents and clearly on the “wrong” side of them.  I’m curious, though, if there’s a better way to hear Jesus.

It is all too easy for me to become a ferocious wolf in my zeal for righteousness.  But what help is that? Those wolves over there just become more like foxes, pointing out my hypocrisy as if they have none themselves.  It’s infuriating!  What if the narrow way, the good tree way, the true and wise way has nothing to do with proving you’re better, more right, more holy, more just…and everything to do with faithfulness to loving God and neighbor regardless of the result?  What if following Jesus looks more like failure than progress? What if it looks like a cross not a crown?  What if following Jesus looks more like losing the world rather than taking it over?

That sucks.

 

We will have one more page next week to fully wrap up our tale, but I want to leave you today with this challenge: insist on the image of God in yourself and look for it, no matter how hidden it is in the villains who only see their supremacy.  Let your response hatred-in-the-name-of-Jesus show another way. Though they chop you down, let your faithfulness prove there is resurrection for trees planted by the living water.  It is not your job to chop them down when they come at you with an axe. It is your job to look them in the eye and insist on your mutual humanity, to turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile.

After all, that is one narrow gate to enter, because most of humanity, and certainly most Christian nationalists, won’t consider it.