“I can’t stand these protestors,” he said.

At a pastor’s prayer meeting in 2014., a colleague mentioned how he couldn’t stand all the protests going on. This white male pastor mentions this in a room with two black pastors.

If looks could kill. I felt the tension rise in the room. I reached for the only tool I have at my disposal… sarcasm.

“Wait… Aren’t you a Protestant pastor?! Protest is in your name!”

That broke some of the tension. Not all, but some.

Sometimes we can drift from the narrative. We lose track of the story. Protest is in our name. We came from a protest started on Halloween 1517 by Martin Luther against the corruption of the Roman Catholic church. Our Congregationalist ancestors later protested the abuses of King Henry VIII and the corruption of the Anglican church.

Our protest is part of the Protestant protest. Protests are not just against injustice, but also for other values. Luther’s protest was focused on how you can’t pay off your sin through indulgences. Faith that’s rooted in scripture is the only way for salvation to come in. The Congregationalists picked up on this and said that sin is so pervasive, that there shouldn’t be bishops or higher up authority figures in the church. Only the work of the Spirit through the local congregations should matter. Local control. Local wisdom embodied by the church which is not the structure, the hierarchy, or the doctrine… the church has always been the people seeking to follow Christ.

Jesus Christ is the pioneer and perfector of our faith. Jesus was baptized by his cousin John in the River Jordan. In a way, Jesus was a protestor as well he was part of John’s baptism protest for the repentance of sin in the wilderness.

John’s protest was against the corrupt religious establishment of his day. He used familiar water-rites of purification that were used by the Temple. In the Temple, when priests would come back from a journey, they had a ritual bath to cleanse and purify themselves from being amidst the unclean world. It was not a baptism of the repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The Temple’s version ended up becoming nothing short of spiritual snobbery. Only the temple has the means to cleanse you. Only our special club has the right approach to God. Only we are God’s favorites inside this building, everyone and everywhere else is farther from God.

This is a far cry from the humble spirituality of the Jewish faith expressed in the prophets and law. It’s a far cry from the God of the Christian tradition who came to us in very humble means: born in a stable. Homeless. One who was refugee hiding in Egypt, fleeing from the wraith of a king who wanted to kill him and would stop at nothing to do so.

Those in the temple lost the narrative. Instead of serving they sought to be served. Instead of welcoming, they excluded. Instead of loving, they dealt in contempt. They no longer served the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but had sold out to the Roman Empire. Rome controlled everything. Where you sat. Who you ate with. Even the clothing of the high priest of the temple.

The high priest had this traditional garb. Like I do. I have my robe and my stole. When the high priest wanted to use his robe and stole, he had to go to the Romans because they kept it in their local garrison. It’d be like whenever I wanted to do a church services and wear my robe and stole, I had to go to the local police department to request access to the garments.

John is protesting all of that. Saying you don’t need all of that to get to God. John cried this message out in the wilderness. He was out in God’s first testament of nature. He baptized in a river. Not an officially sanctioned source that was in controlled by the Temple and only for the exclusive use of Temple priests wearing traditional clothing. John would know. His dad was a temple priest. John knew exactly what he was doing and why he was doing it.

He was protesting. God is bigger than the rituals, the man-made-rules, our imagination, our denomination. If God isn’t bigger than those things, then our god is too small. An idol of our own making.

John pointed to that. John offered another way. It’s just an ordinary river. It’s brought to you by no sponsors. That act points to a God that’s bigger than the imagination of the temple system. The Creator of the whole world and everything in it. Jesus took that message and extended it to all people. The God of all people. Who loves and forgives us all. Even at our worst and especially when we don’t deserve it.

That’s what John and Jesus are for. They protested against those who had a small idol of their own making. Those who demand everyone else check their boxes before offering love, forgiveness or even prayer. One of you recently reached out to me. You had asked for prayers for someone who you know who has COVID. You asked for prayers from a religious friend who asked, “Well, does this person know Jesus?”

Wrong question. You simply pray in that instance. Your neighbor is standing in the need of prayer. You pray. Only God knows our hearts. Part of me protests that sort of religion. I get it honest, I guess. It’s from our congregational ancestors. They got it from the Reformers. The Reformers got it from the tradition found in Scripture and passed down through all the saints which came from the disciples who learned it from Jesus. And Jesus learned it from John. And his mom. And the prophets. And all the saints in his life who taught him. And from God…who was pleased to dwell in Jesus.

The early church carried this out. Scholar R. Alan Streett stated that, “When the earliest Christ-followers were baptized they participated in a politically subversive act. Rejecting the Empire’s claim that it had a divine right to rule the world, they pledged their allegiance to a kingdom other than Rome and a king other than Caesar (Acts 17:7).”^[1] Dr. Streett goes on to say that, “When you’re dealing with anti-imperialism, we’re not talking about overthrowing the Roman Government through violent means and turning it into a Christian Empire. You’re simply saying that you’re for the kingdom of God and by virtue of that you are resisting Rome’s agenda.”^[2]

They weren’t resisting out in public. They did so in private in their baptism rites. The early church claimed that they were one in their baptism. They were one at the table. Our two sacraments, baptism and communion.

What I believe John and Jesus point to. Very practical, humble and egalitarian. Everything about Judaism and Christianity despite theologies to the contrary, is earth related. Not heaven related. John baptizes with water. Water created by God. God who created us out of the earth. Created the earth to sustain us.

What I am for, and what I’m asking you to be for… is a faith that changes the world… this world… for the better. More just. More equal. More life giving. More affirming of people. That views each person as a child of God. That means you will be against theologies and ideologies that lift up only certain people, or that are exclusive, or say that they are the only way to the next life and care nothing for this life.

We can’t lose track of that narrative. That is the narrative of Christ: your sins are forgiven. God loves you. Change your thinking after hearing this good news! Give God everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself. Upon this rests all the law and prophets. All of our sacred stories and traditions.

After the events of this past week at our nation’s Capitol building, let me be extremely clear. As my friend Sheila Banerji, (an intellectual and spiritual giant) stated, “This isn’t a protest devolving into vandalism, this is an attempted takeover of GOVERNment buildings and disruption of a government in session. That is why people are more worried and outraged today.”

I am against protests that devolve into vandalism. I’m on the record of saying that from this pulpit this past summer. I say it again to you today. What we saw on Wednesday started out as a protest and it became an attempted coup. A segment of our republic decided to insist on its own way and storm the Capitol. A sad day in our nation’s history. One that is counter to the ways of Jesus. Here’s the biggest difference between the ways of Rome and the ways of the Kingdom: Rome is willing to kill for its way; Jesus is willing to die for his.

The cross or the sword? That question that is always in front of the Christ follower. Many Christians of our time are under the spell of the empire, willing to kill for that which they are unwilling to die. Showing up armed. Using threats of violence. Planting pipe bombs at the national headquarters of the two major political parties. That day was chaotic and evil.

When things get chaotic, it is always good to turn to our convictions. I am reminded of our baptismal vows. The vows I ask parents and sponsors. The vows I ask each of our confirmands from our UCC Book of Worship. They are the vows we ask our new members. They are as follows:

Do you promise by the grace of God to be Christ’s disciples, to follow in the way of our Savior, to resist oppression and evil, to show love and justice, and to work and witness to the work and word of Jesus Christ as best you are able? Do you promise to grow in the Christian faith and be a faithful member of the church of Jesus Christ, celebrating Christ’s presence and furthering Christ’s mission in the world?

If so, please respond: I promise, with the help of God.

Remember your baptism. Remember the meaning of your baptism. Remember the words of the Apostle Paul:  So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are heirs according to the promise.[3]

Works Cited

[1]  R. Alan Streett, Caesar and the Sacrament: Baptism: A Rite of Resistance (Cascade, 2018). As per the podcast, https://onscript.study/podcast/r-alan-streett-caesar-and-the-sacrament/

[2] Onscript podcast, minutes 9:15-9:30

[3] Galatians 3:26-29