Against the wind- still running against the wind.

I don't know who wrote it and I don't know if any others sang it, but I remember hearing Bob Seeger and the Silver Bullet Band sing the song, Against the wind. Listening to a message today, that song came to my mind. The message was delivered in the l970's by a minister in Charlotte. It must have been Palm Sunday and he was talking about how the "multitude" was shouting and rejoicing about the coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

From that introduction his message was against the wind of almost every Christian preacher I hear today. This man said first of all, we live in a nation where we began because we disliked kings; we rebelled against kings; and we have a historic dislike for Monarchs and Kingdoms. The whole Idea of Jesus as King, if he really wants to have a Kingdom and be a real King, is an insult to our democracy and our democratic ideals.

Turns out there are at least three major cardinal convictions in American society that clash with the proclamation of the New Testament. There is this universal doctrine that we claim we believe in the abstract that all people are created equal. We can never find it in reality. Some talker, some shorter, some blond, some red hair, some smart, some stupid, some fast,others slow. But we claim to believe that all are created equal. And often we take the next step that all opinions are the same. Everybody is equal and every body's opinion is equal. You can see this in our news reports and CNN and the reading of email opinions. There is no place for an expert who knows more than others. But if Jesus is King and Lord of Lords then He says that there are some who are greater than others and you earn that greatness by service to others. Our American philosophy believes that all are equal, and Jesus knows that how we serve others makes us all different.

There is in our American creed the conviction that "free market enterprise" is the path to the great society. That unhindered competition is the right way to go. The whole Ann Rand philosophy of the individualism. The rugged man who follows his dream despite all opposition and triumphs. Of course, that is hard to hold with all of us being equal, but we do believe that all are equal and that if we lined us all up and fired the starting pistol we could let them all run the race and see who wins. There are two reasons that runs counter to Jesus. One is that Jesus calls us to deny self and become part of the community. Jesus says the way to economic justice is cooperation and sharing. Competition is not helpful. Cooperation is the nature of Jesus kingdom. The second reason is that nobody wants an equal playing field. Everybody wants an edge. Everybody thinks giving the other person an equal shot is giving them an advantage.

The third doctrine of American culture is that the majority rules. But in the Kingdom of God there is no majority rule. In our society we claim that the surest way to a just answer to our problems is to vote and see what the "people" want, but we admit that that is not always wise so we have forced upon ourselves laws that project the minority. We claim that we want to have the voice of the people determine the truth, but over and over the voice of the people has been so wrong. Southerners had the voice of the people fight for slavery and their economic way of life. But we all agree now that that was not just or proper.

Some want to claim that America is a Christian nation. Well, it is hard to be a Christian nation when our American ethos is built on a claim that all of us are created equal, that rugged unhindered individualism is the way for economic justice, and the majority rule is the solution to our problems, and Jesus claims that we are not all equal, that some are greater in the Kingdom of Heaven than others, that competition is not the way to a just society, but cooperation is, and that the majority is very often immoral and wrong about what is good and true. Jesus is King not elected Chairman.