[/caption] “…You say you want a revolution – Well, you know – we all want to change the world…” – the Beatles I am political agnostic. I don’t fit on either side of the fence. And while I do talk heatedly of politics at times-  I do not have hope in any politician. In fact I have a sneaking suspicion that our country’s ability to govern itself through the democratic process has been severely undermined by corruption and deeply embedded interests that vote with banknotes and back room deals. So as I have watched the Tea Party movement and then in turn the Occupy Wall Street movement I have sympathized with their cry for reform, for justice, for a new way of doing things. Both movements are social critiques born of a cry for justice.  I believe this cry for change is an inherent longing put there by our Creator – it is an un-identified cry for the Age to Come when the LORD will judge evil and renew all things. Surely it is GOD who made plain to us through Jesus: “Another World is Possible” and who revealed to us that love is the real revolution. Still, these two movements, in my opinion, represent a continuing fault line in American culture – they appear to be the political Left and Right reborn but distilled into their raw and radical (back to the roots) forms. One side calling down fire on corrupted Government and the other calling down fire on corrupt Business. Soon the whole empire could go up in flames. As I watch these movements at a distance I can’t help but be reminded that our ways are not GOD’s ways. One day we are the liberators and reformers – and then down the road – as we “Take back our nation for GOD” or subvert “the evils of global capitalism” we may discover that our new saviors become new tyrants, and new leaders become new puppets that take to the stage in a continuum of ‘bread and circus’. Old idols are melted down and new idols are fashioned in the same fire – and sometimes at the same time. In all this though there is a remedy. For the soul of a nation to be redeemed it requires the shedding of blood – but not the blood of revolution. It is only the blood of GOD that can redeem. It is only the “Word made flesh” – Jesus- incarnate of the Father – that can offer us “change we can believe in”. But His kingdom is yet to come and today the Church must no longer look to lead but to serve. We must go down, as Jesus came to earth- not in triumph – not to take dominion – but to incarnate again His presence to those hurting around us – to those who are bound in sin, in rebellion against our Creator – in fear or anger or pain. We go down and become small and reflect the Father’s love in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Maybe the answer is not a tea party or an occupation or any protest movement after all. I believe we must give ourselves, as disciples of Jesus, to another movement – to His living Body – a people who are again re-incarnating a kingdom not of this world – GOD’s upside down kingdom that starts now with every small mustard seed we cultivate. We must become people of the Incarnation.   (Kirk Franklin says it best: “Do you want a revolution?”)]]>