Jesus' real message and why State House is not a 'House of Worship'

Kenya's State House in Nairobi on October 25,2022. [Denish Ochieng, Standard] Happy Christmas, everyone, on this great Christian feast, and no apologies for naming the feast that it is. It has become fashionable and apparently politically correct to ignore the religious element and wish each other happy holidays. What a sham and shame for believers of every faith who have a right to be respected and to receive good wishes at Ramadan, Diwali or Easter. Yet, leaving Christmas out of our salutations is perhaps no surprise as Jesus and his teaching has been under assault and capture ever since his birth in a stable in Bethlehem. Millions of Christians are still uncomfortable with his humble origins, his life of poverty, his unconventional lifestyle and turning the world upside down with his provocative teachings. They conveniently forget that Jesus was killed just as much for his worldview as his God view, even if one directly influences the other. So ever since his departure from this earth, the world's institutions and churches have attempted to sanitise and tame that radical mission and message and to keep him locked up safely in churches and tabernacles. They want a safe, pious and conservative Jesus that looks and sounds a lot like themselves rather than the prophetic, bold one found in the Gospels. God may have made us in his image, but ever since his creatures have been remaking Him in their image. How easily we forget that Jesus spent most of his time preaching not in synagogues but in public, visiting tax collectors, healing the lepers and outcasts and reintroducing them back into society. His was a message of inclusivity at the table. He never envisaged his mission as creating an elite of the 'saved' but as founding a field hospital for the throwaways and leftovers of society as Pope Francis so lyrically puts it. Put another way, Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Yet these elites of the saved still congregate in beautiful, ornate houses of worship often doing nothing for the poor and hungry at their doorsteps. Shepherds are more likely to smell of the most expensive perfume than of the sheep and live like kings rather than servants. The prosperity Gospel and 'panda mbegu' materialist teachings are intended to contain and restrain the masses rather than liberate, include and empower them. They may soon be competing with the hustler fund which offers another false notion of redemption. Yet, these fundamentalists and misinterpreters of the Gospel are not a new phenomenon. They have been around since Constantine gave legal recognition to the church in the fourth century. His move may have saved the believers from persecution but until today, the church has been at risk of going to bed with the earthly powers and leaving themselves open to state capture and manipulation. It has not come as an absolute surprise that pastors are flocking to State House and reportedly casting out demons by the dozen from its grounds. Constantly, I am informed that we have a God-fearing President and the country is thanks to him in God's hands. If only life were that simple, we all would not need to struggle as we do. However, as Richard Rohr so eloquently puts it, we should never expect Caesar to do Christ's work. Nor can we ever launch the Exodus from Pharaoh's palace. If we do it will always be on the ruler's terms. There is a price to be paid for State House visits even if you leave with a donation for your latest ministry. Bolsonaro and Trump used evangelical fundamentalism to maintain their grip on power and the nation's citizens. Indeed, an authoritarian regime will always use power and religion to achieve its own purpose and a similar scenario appears to be emerging on our doorsteps. What with Adan Duale's instructions on Muslim dress and State House becoming a House of Worship, we must remember that we don't need a religious culture in a secular society that will misuse and misquote Holy Books for their own political purposes. The message of Christmas that Emmanuel - God is with us - is enough for all of us to continue the struggle for a more just, equal and human society.

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