Starting Anew; Leaving the Old Behind: A Special Inauguration Day Jesus Unmasked

Jesus Unmasked

Adam and Lindsey unmask Jesus from exclusive theology and violent cultural lenses. But, during Covid times, Jesus would wear a mask! Loving others as Jesus loves us requires us to wear a mask too! “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately. That’s how quickly these fishermen leave their nets and their families and everything they know to follow a poor Nazarean on what is essentially a suicide mission – a death to the world they knew and literal death to follow… to find abundant life beyond the death of oppression, exploitation, and violence. Fishermen of Jesus’s time were lowly and marginalized, literally pushed off the land, their essential work heavily taxed by the Roman Empire so that they would be kept in poverty. When Jesus comes to them proclaiming good news and calling them to repent, he is not telling them they have done anything wrong, but rather showing, through his faith in them, that there is life beyond exploitation and oppression, and he wants them – those the world didn’t believe in – to usher in this new life. Repent – change your thinking – recognize your worth and your calling and the wonder that life can be when it serves the needs of all rather than the greed of the powerful. He’s calling on them to go and feed and heal the world with him – literally and figuratively, caring for all humanity in their full humanity. “Fish for people” rather than an exploitive system; by caring for physical and material needs, fulfill the deeper spiritual need that we all have to be loved and cherished as children of the God who is Love. In this special Inauguration Day episode, Adam and Lindsey talk about the call we all have to help heal and transform a world aching under the powers of greed and violence. No matter who leads our nation, the call to transformation is ever before us, and real change comes not from a ceremony or ritual, but from doing the work the Spirit calls us to do. We warmly invite you to join the conversation every Wednesday afternoon at 5 CT / 3 PT on the Raven Foundation Facebook page!