"I call a lie: wanting not to see something one does see, wanting not to see something as one sees it." -Nietzsche

We used to have an old Volkswagen Cabriolet convertible. It was Niki's car, really. She loved that car with all of its quirks and personality, if a car can have a personality. We didn't have enough money to be able to store the convertible in the winter so it was a year round driver for us. It leaked when the ice would get in the cracks, expand and then melt. The radio had a bit of static to it. Electronics on the car would decide when and how they would work, when you turned a corner the car would occasionally honk, or should I say beep, at the people on the sidewalk. At its best, in the warm summer months, you could drive with the top down, the sun on your shoulders, enjoying the wind in your hair. One quirk that the car had was that the check engine light was always on. We took it in to a European car shop to have it looked at and he said there is nothing wrong with the car, it just does that. His suggestion for the fix was a piece of electrical tape. The tape wasn't to repair some sort of short in the wire. The tape was to be placed over the check engine light so that you didn't have to see it.

I don't think the tape over the check engine light really worked for us. Even though we weren't as distracted by the light, there was always this sinking feeling that there really was something wrong with the car and that we were going to break down at the most inopportune time. Well, I'm not sure when it happened, but we have allowed some electrical tape to be placed over the malfunction of the American Evangelical church. Sure, maybe we aren't so distracted by the check engine light, but I am left with a sinking feeling that this church is set to break down, if it hasn't already done so. So we are stuck in a bit of Nietzsche's definition of a lie.

"Wanting not to see something one does see"

We can no longer lie about what we do and don't see. We are overwhelmed with images from around the world. We see starving children in our country and abroad, we see images of bombed out buildings, lifeless bodies in the street, we see people covered in dirt and ash begging for safe spaces, we see a mosque burning, children taunting foreigners and that is all just a Wednesday. We are having a harder time being able to say "I don't see it". It's a lie! There is no way, unless you live under a rock, that you can say that you don't see the hurt and the harm in this world. The first half of the Nietzsche quote is the external. This is a statement of fact. Do we or do we not see the things around us. If we fail at this part of the test than I fear the church is in worse shape than I had first imagined.

"Wanting not to see something as one sees it"

Here is the question that the majority of the church in the West is faced with. We can come to some agreement that we see the reality of the world. We see starvation, homelessness, war, injustice, racism, and some level of environmental impact at least, and the question is how do we see these things? Do we see refugees begging for entry, for security from this Nation that calls itself Christian and do we say, no, our safety comes first? If we see it this way, we are engaged in a lie. We can not take the words of Jesus seriously, we can not take the words of the prophets seriously, we can not take the words of the apostles seriously, and see this refugee crisis in any other way. So what do we do when we don't want to see the things we see, as we see them? We lie. We lie and say that we lock our doors at night so it is same thing as having increased security and some sort of fool proof "vetting" option. But I say, sure you lock your doors at night but if someone knocked on your door at night and was dying at your door step, wouldn't you let them in?

Now I know that our government will do what it will do, I will protest, I will do my part to hopefully vote in the people that I feel will offer the most compassionate leadership but my critique is not against our government, this time. My critique is against a church who refuses to see. A church who refuses to see it as it actually is. We have created clever memes and bogus scenarios to try and argue away the teachings of Jesus. I understand that our government has some responsibility to help protect its citizens but I would hope that the Church would be on the front lines of pushing the envelope of grace. That we would be a part of creating safe communities to welcome the stranger. That we would be at the shore building fires, cooking food to welcome those who are sick from the horrors of war, those who have been baptized in an unforgiving ocean of despair. The love of those who have been touched by the love of Christ should be the most radical, merciful, gracious kind of love. The kid of love that would risk its own security for the sake of another. A love that would gladly give up its place of comfort so that another can have a meal and a place to lay their head.

We have allowed the big box lie of of the velvet tongued teacher, who is proclaiming security and prosperity, to slither in among us. These false teachers have told us to just put some tape over the check engine light. We don't want to be distracted by the glow of negativity. I say that it is time to get the car looked at. I say it is time we took this vehicle that is the American Church, in for a tune up. I fear that we are in for a major overhaul. At least we won't have to live with a lie.