Open Your Eyes

Open Your Eyes

John 11:45-54

Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

A lesson from this passage from John’s Gospel is that the people need to monitor their leaders to ensure that their values and truths are being used. The people in Jesus’ day had little choice who their leaders were. The people could have spoken up when the High Priest and the Sanhedrin enacted laws and taxes that the people were not pleased with. Unfortunately, in ancient days the people did not have leverage to change things.

Jesus came along and expressed his displeasure with the Hebraic leadership. As the Messiah, he assumed the role of prophet. It was the prophets that came to the leaders of Judea and Israel to tell them that their laws were against the ways of the LORD or when they were damaging their own people. What happened to these prophets? The leaders murdered them. The kings and courts did not like being told what to do. Therefore, they killed the LORD’s messenger. Jesus was no different when he was in the prophet's role. Therefore, this passage about killing the messenger is to be expected. It had nothing to do with the people calling Jesus the Messiah. It had everything to do with the leader's desire to stay in power and control the people. There were approximately 400 years between the last prophet and Jesus, and the control of the people was still the same.

Today the United States population has some control over their leadership because of elections. However, the truth about what a politician wants to do is usually hidden. Just watch any politician from any political party. Their message changes depending on what group of people are at their rallies or where they are visiting. How does one determine the true heart of a politician? Unfortunately, it cannot be done until the voting record of the politician is examined.

How about church leadership? In the beginning of the church, the people elected leadership. There is a story that they elected Augustine a Bishop of the church because at the meeting to select a Bishop from the city of Hippo, there were several people who were paid to shout out his name. That is the way Bishops were nominated. People would shout out names and the person’s name that was loudest became the new Bishop. The qualifications of the person were not in question. All that mattered was who was loudest. So, Augustine became a Bishop.

I am going to use the United Methodist Church and its current situation as an example of how the people left the decision making process as to who their leaders are. It may sound like a condemnation, but it is not. I am stating facts and it is up to you to decide what it all means. All over the denomination, UM churches are voting to disaffiliate. A new denomination is forming called the Global Methodist Church. The GMC is getting UM churches who vote to disaffiliate to join them. Currently, the GMC is offering a leadership structure that does not impose itself as much on the local church. However, as people get into power, that probably will change. Let us say that history proves this. So, be aware disaffiliating churches, you are leaving a taskmaster just to go under the rule of a different taskmaster.

As I understand the letters from the Bishops of the UMC, and confirmed by others, they are saying that social justice and equity are more important than learning about Jesus and imitating him. How did the UMC go from a Jesus centered church to a social justice centered church? The UMC has been electing bishops that are defining what is being called “progressive Christianity.” A majority of UMC bishops now press this new expression as a branch of Christianity. How can they say that? If Jesus is not the center of the church, then you do not have a church. Instead, you have a social justice club.

Approximately 20 years ago an article was written that said a problem in the UMC is that Jesus centered ministry candidates were going to UMC seminaries and being turned into social justice centered ministers and then sent to Jesus centered churches. In the original article, it used the words conservative versus liberal ministers. When I was on my cross-cultural trip, the group had a discussion of what conservative and liberal Christianity was. The group could not present a good definition. As I read what the UMC Bishops are doing I can offer this definition.

Conservative Christianity is when the church is Christ centered. This is also called the traditionalist church. Liberal Christianity is when Christ is not the center of the church and today social justice has become the center of these churches. Trying to define what social justice is has its complications. I am not saying that in the US we still have areas of social concern that need to be addressed. However, the church exists for the making of disciples of Jesus Christ and educating them in the faith. When the church takes Jesus Christ out of the center, it is no longer a church.