If “I follow the Lamb, not the Donkey or the Elephant” means I follow the Kingdom of Jesus and will live, advocate, and vote according to those values, and I will stand up to the Donkey and the Elephant when they aren’t, then I’m all for it.
But where I’ve most often heard “I follow the Lamb, not the Donkey or the Elephant” used is by Christians who also say things like “Just preach Jesus (and don’t talk about issues of oppression and injustice, despite what the Bible clearly commands).”
We love these pretty red bows in our contemporary sermons and ideas of prayer. But the psalm does not stop here. The transition from verse 10 to 11 feels like taking a stick shift automobile from 5th gear to 2nd. One minute the psalmist is extolling God for rescuing the poor from their oppressor, the next he is writing about his ongoing, brutal oppression. Verses 1-10 paint the picture that God has throttled the oppressors and the poor (and the psalmist, written as one of the poor) are free. Verses 11 and following take us down the dark road of the real, daily, in-your-face oppression that the psalmist is still currently under.
I have heard lament described as a language of prayer. Have you ever been in a foreign country and you didn’t speak the language? If you tried venturing away from your interpreter, guide, or the comfortable confines of your English-speaking resort, you quickly find yourself baffled and bewildered. You need a common language to connect and communicate. God gave us the language of lament when we are suffering and everything is falling apart around us. A language that acknowledges the state of the world we live in. If we don’t know this language, mostly because our church tradition has neglected it in favor of products that sell better, we will be baffled and bewildered when suffering hits us.
Episode 10 discusses the June 2nd scenario of Pastor David Platt praying for President Donald Trump from the stage of a McLean Bible Church worship service. You probably already have lots of predetermined feelings about this, so rather that write something that will make you listen (if you agree), or dismiss this (if you disagree), go ahead and listen and see if there’s a different way to approach topics like this than you are used to.
I’d be honored if the Babylon Bee made fun of me someday. That’d be a more meaningful “you’ve arrived” moment that the elusive blue check mark on Twitter. The concern I have with the Bee is they are recklessly making fun of and running over marginalized people in a way that dishonors Christ.
A lament My heart is heavy from a Bible that says defend the oppressed and a Church that says just preach Jesus. Just preach Jesus, but don’t preach anything he stood for or taught. I will leave your church if you do. Don’t preach about touching lepers or loving the poor or proclaiming liberty to […]
