The Madness of the Kin-dom: What Would Jesus Deconstruct?

It’s been five years since a “Faith Fight” broke out in Fountain Hills, Arizona, that sparked a bit of national news coverage. A number of my colleagues and I signed a statement in response to a six-week sermon series being given by several of the conservative evangelical pastors in Fountain Hills entitled, “Progressive Christianity: Fact or Fiction.” They advertised the series in the local paper and put large banners (pictured to the right) in front of their churches. The aim of the series was clear: to discredit progressive Christianity as not really Christian. “They are the eyes of the snake,” was said in at least one of the sermons preached by these self-proclaimed protectors of the faith.

Since then, the Presbyterian minister leading the charge led his congregation and himself out of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). I’m not sure what else has changed or if that sermon series had any effect. And I am not sure if the response my colleagues and I offered had any effect. And, to be honest, I’m saddened by the whole episode. I’m saddened by my colleague’s attack on good people trying to be faithful to the gospel of Jesus. I’m saddened by his distorted view of the gospel that compelled him to attack people who are actually trying to embody the value of loving one’s neighbors. I’m saddened that as I read our response again this many years later that I can see, in spite of our attempts to be gracious and loving while still holding true to the values we glean from the gospel of Jesus, how he could see it as an attack on his character. And I’m sad that he felt compelled to lead his entire congregation out of our denomination. My predecessor at the congregation where I serve was this pastor’s liaison as he walked through the two to three year process of being ordained as a minister.

I share this bit of history because I’m reading a book I probably should have read before I preached my Advent sermon series on “Christmas Deconstructed.” It’s by John D. Caputo, Professor of Religion and Humanities at Syracuse University, entitled, What Would Jesus Deconstruct?: The Good News of Post-modernism for the Church (2007). Many fear any deconstructionist tendencies, for fear any such dissection will result in the death of whatever is being deconstructed. But, as Caputo offers, their fears are unfounded. A system of belief is not a frog laying on the dissection table of our middle school biology class. Faith is an ever-moving part of who we are—just as our personalities change as we get older, so does/should our faith. To deconstruct, according to Caputo, is to seek deeper understanding. That is the difference between “destruction” and “deconstruction”&mdahs;”con” as in “with.” Deconstructing our Christian faith is to take the brave step of exploring what it is we claim to believe, what we actually believe, explore how those beliefs affect our behaviors, and to discern what is good and healthy and what is not.

If someone is afraid that any kind of deconstruction of their faith—as a progressive Christian is apt to do—will make the whole thing fall apart, then I suggest that their faith is not very deep or strong; that maybe they really need to deconstruct such a faith in order to discover the core that will truly ground them in the love God professes throughout our history. Deconstruction should be at the core of who we are as Christians, driving us to always ask hard questions of ourselves, to wrestle with what a faith in the Way of Jesus looks like in any given moment. He deconstructed the faith of his people, the behaviors of his tradition’s leadership, and unpacked their long and windy history. He saw disconnects with what he had grown up watching under the watchful and harsh gaze of the Roman Empire. He sought to set his people free from the oppression of their own beliefs and behaviors.

Caputo suggests that the kingdom (or kin-dom) of God is madness! Especially the kin-dom professed by Jesus. “The first shall be last and the last shall be first”? “Love your neighbor”? Or worse, “love your enemy”? Madness! The poor shall inherit the earth? Truly madness and inconceivable. But as we progress in our faith journeys, as we dive ever deeper into scripture and open our minds to the sometimes subtle nuances of the context and text itself, “madness” seems almost too small of a word. If we want to truly embody the faith taught by Jesus, one quickly recognizes how counter cultural, and even counter intuitive, the whole endeavor becomes.

The sermon series my colleague preached was from a place of fear under the feigned pretense of curiosity. “Progressive Christianity: Fact or Fiction”? It’s clear the predetermined answer was “fiction.” The intent of the series was to lift up and enable the shakey faith of his congregation and inflict pain and suffering on the targets of his ire. Progressive Christian faith posed a threat to a faith that was built as one would build a house of cards. If we truly seek to walk in the way of Jesus, nothing can really shake us for everything is an opportunity to deconstruct, to learn, to challenge, to grow.

I try to share a vision of faith that seeks an ever deeper understanding of scripture and tradition, one that is not afraid to question what is in order to discern what could be, to move forward with a spirit of exploration, experimentation, and a desire to grow; to be better stewards of sharing the truly good news of God’s ever expanding love. I want to tell you about God’s love. I hope to share it and my experience of it with you, to ask you to share it with me, and to seek to understand it better together. But we need to allow one another to ask questions, sometimes impossible to answer questions.

I’ve had high school students in the past who ask the impossible questions—there’s always at least one. I loved it! While some adult leaders were terrified and struggled how to respond, I loved it and relished the opportunity to explore with these students. More often than not, we both discovered something new.

Can there be such a thing as a “progressive evangelical conservative” Christian faith? Can we find a way to live within the tension of seeking to understand and seeking to conserving our history and traditions, while also using them to grow further—to progress—in our faith? Yes, it may mean throwing some current practices or beliefs away because either they don’t work any more (while still respecting them for the purpose they served for previous generations) or because they were misguided since the beginning (while seeking to reconcile and heal the suffering they may have caused). Continuing to believe something or behave a certain way just because our parents or grandparents did it serves little purpose and can actually stunt our growth. On the flip side, throwing things out just because they are “old” is often a missed opportunity to grow.

I am happy and hope-filled that my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is beginning to repent of its past actions that caused incredible suffering with our LGBTQIA+, Native American, Latin American, and African American siblings in Christ. We have begun the hard work of trying to repair the breaches our denomination created, whether it was trying to “normalize” Native Americans in the 16th-20th centuries and participating in the near extinction of their cultures and people, perpetuating Jim Crow laws through the support of targeted policing practices or policies, or excluding entire peoples because we feared who God made them to be and refusing to listen or seek understanding. Several years ago our Stated Clerk, the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, went to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation that straddles N. and S. Dakota and began the process of confessing our sins and seeking forgiveness. Later, Dr. Nelson and our former Stated Clerk, Rev. Gradye Parsons, made a similar statement of apology to the Native Alaskan people. Our denomination has spent decades increasingly opposing policies and laws that have targeted people of color. It took decades, but we have finally acknowledged the God-given beauty and worth of LGBTQIA+ persons, allowing them to follow God’s call on their lives to serve in ordained ministry. And now we have acknowledged their right to share in the fullness of God’s blessings of marriage. We have begun the long process of reconciliation and seeking forgiveness of those who have been marginalized and subjugated.

We still have a long way to go to repair decades and centuries of unjust behavior and decisions. My hope is that through our efforts we might “normalize” the Jesus values of radical hospitality, abundant grace, and unbound love. And none of this would have been possible without a progressive deconstructionist spirit founded on an ultimate trust in God’s providence and grace. Thanks be to God.