No Land for Kings

I cannot help but feel so deeply biblically rooted in this time, and I know truly, there is nothing new under the sun. We find ourselves once again hoping that righteous judges will save us from a would be king, and as always, it is a king of our own making, and we must choose to save ourselves for we were surely warned:

He said, ‘These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. I Samuel 8: 11-17 (ESV)

This foolish folly of king making has left our hands stained with blood. We have not protected the orphan, we have made orphans by imprisoning their fathers in CECOT death camps, and the widows we have torn from their children. We do not welcome the stranger, instead we watch masked agents of the would be king, kidnap, torture, and extradite the stranger – who in truth is no stranger, but our neighbor. Our trans children – children of God – live in fear as their parents move from one state to another, praying for a safe harbor, praying for care. It is the weakest and most vulnerable that this would be king targets, and what shall we do? I tell you, Sodom burned for less than this.

In this moment, in this country, resistance is holy, it is not countercultural, it is orthodoxy. God warns us against kings and offers us instead a kindom. It is not a partisan act to name the sin of refusing the migrant. It is not partisan to call out the sin of refusing to hear the cries of widows and orphans. It is, in fact, a sin to allow people to go hungry when they could be fed. It is a sin to cut off access to medical care. It is a sin to break apart and imprison families. It is a sin to set the suffering out in the cold or the heat and to take away the shelter of the poor. It is a sin to create literal hell on earth to terrorize people and call it freedom.

God wants mercy, not sacrifice, mercy upon mercy is what God would give us. Kings create fear, kings demand sacrifice, and sacrifice from those who have the least to give. If we are to be a righteous moral people, then we must reject kings. Let us choose faith in our shared humanity over the fear that this system would inflict. It is okay to be afraid in this time, but I know that God hears the trembling voice, and that it is right to resist evil. This pastor will stand with you, come what may, and we will create the beloved community in the face of tyranny, for this is no land for kings.

Originally posted in the Bennington Banner