"You Never Ask Questions, When God's On Your Side"

Jesus' message from Luke 14 is simple, but start: "Violence will only lead to more violence. Compromise will only lead to more compromise. It’s death and destruction down both of those roads, as it has been for all of history. If you want a different outcome, you’re going to have to try something different!” Jesus could be accused of channeling Abraham Lincoln when he said, "My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side For only God is right.” God isn’t a mascot; God isn’t a badge you wear or a slogan you recite; God isn’t the big man on the playground that you get to pick to be on your team. God isn’t on anybody’s team, because God doesn’t play our games. God doesn’t take sides. God calls us to that "something different." What is it? Nothing new. It’s as old as the core tenet of the Jewish Prophets; for if one could distill the moral and spiritual demands of the entire Judeo-Christian ethic into a single practical phrase, it would be this: “O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: To do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Justice. Mercy. Humility. These three together appear as love being practiced in the world. Such love is the only chance any group of people will ever have at experiencing anything that resembles a future.