I think we all know something of those whose Christian quest is to “take America back for God.” As I reflect on that noble aim, it seems backward to me, and somewhat redundant. Redundant in that all nations belong to God and are like dust on his scales (Isaiah 40). Backward because I think the real quest is to take Jesus back for America. I don’t think the spiritual ills of the country are tracable to letting go of its grip on God. Being of Native American descent, I look a little askew on the alleged “Christian” nation status of this country. Genocide is not a Beatitude. Yet, I am grateful for many godly people woven in the fabric of our country’s history.

 The more serious problem is that the church let go of the revolutionary Jesus of the Gospels in exchange for a Jesus-just-like-me. The Jesus who wants me to be safe and my kids nice and my life comfortable and, if possible, convenient. An English speaking, TNIV Jesus. The only wood this new Jesus carries is boards for the white picket fence. Using some fine theological maneuvers to remove all revolutionary aspects of the Gospels’ Jesus, we created a comfortable camilion Jesus who blends in with everything American. We just can’t tolerate a Jesus who scares the bejezus out of us. When we sing “Jesus loves me this I know” we actually mean Jesus coddles me this I know. Like most things American, Jesus is another product to sell or own; another packaged commodity that, with a little salesmanship, we can use in a Christainized ponzi scheme. Jesus is Alka-seltzer for the soul. Pain-reliever Jesus.

We need to take the radical Jesus back. The Jesus of the canonical Gospels. The Man who exploded every category of what it means to be human and who was never for sale. When the witless, scared spitless disciples looked at Jesus in the boat after Jesus merely spoke a fierce hurricane out of existence, they screamed in terror, “What kind of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?!”

What kind, indeed. This is the Jesus we must meet. We have so many brand name Jesuses domesticated for our various tastes: Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Episcopal/Anglican, Wesleyan, Baptist, Evangelical Covenant, Four Square, Lutheran, Reformed and Christian Reformed, the generic, non-denominational Jesus, cathedral Jesus and house church Jesus, Wall Street Jesus and surfer dude Jesus, Catholic Jesus, the Protestant Jesuses, Orthodox Jesus, teetotaling Jesus and beer-drinking Jesus, institutional Jesus and organic Jesus.

“Step right up, folks! Have we got a Jesus for you! No one-size-fits-all Jesus here. No! We’ve got a Jesus tailor-made just. for. you! Step right up!”

If the Church would get its eyes off America and fix them on the Jesus of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we might discover some surprises. Surprises like God doesn’t want America. He already has it. Not that everyone is saved, of course. Yet, the Great Commission is not targeted at and limited to America. It’s the redemption of lives of the people of the world and the renewal of the cosmos that the Gospel Jesus is after. I don’t read anywhere in the New Testament, “Go, make America Christian.” 

If an American reporter from CNN had interviewed the disciples just after Jesus had stilled the storm, the reporter might have asked, “How did you feel? You do you feel comfortable with Jesus?” I imagine the disciples looking at each other and smiling. Peter, always the mouthpiece, might have said, “Are you kidding me?! How did I feel?! Was it comfortable?! God, no! But comfort aside, I’ve never felt more alive in all my life!”

Liberalism is not America’s problem. A comfortable Church with a tamed Jesus is.

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