Melt Machine Guns into Plow Shares

Silence rests on the lips of the broken
Dwelling within the hearts of the kingdom
Being cast off by the worldly empires
Into a just world
Laughing at the marginalized waitresses and whores
We stand at the tops of landscapes littered with lust driven automobiles and racist provisions given out to the cast away
Laughing in the temple
At the money changers
Boot washers
Chastising YHWH
All in the name of a wooden tree

Yesterday… I realized that I do not follow Jesus, this is rather disturbing. This is not something that I have just come to understand, this has been a process, about two months, as I said, yesterday was the day that I came to terms with it. I am somewhat melancholy now, a little broken, and fearful. I am not fearful of judgment but of the aloofness of my life, the aimless wandering, and the fact that I have blood on my hands.
I am bothered by all of this.
I am so entrenched in Babylonian thinking…
I have blood on my hands…
I do not believe that Revelations is about ancient satanic dragons raping the earth, Jesus coming back to make us disappear, and the anti-Christ having his hay day for about 7 years.
I do believe it is written by a political exile, John. I do believe John is using a form of civil disobedience called “Prophetic Imagination” to critique the Empire. I do believe John is challenging us to envision a new community, a just community, “New Jerusalem”, and that we are to pray for this community in the face of the Empire. Why? Because Empires fall and those of us like me are severely dead to the injustice which we partake in.
I do not believe scripture prophesies about the future, I do believe that we can learn about the future from scripture, in that we do not make the same mistakes and that if we actually follow Jesus we can have the kind of community he describes.
I read Revelations 18 and 19. I encourage you to read it. I do not think Babylon is America, I do not think John was talking about any of the current Nation States. Like I said, I do believe that I can draw truth from this scripture and compare it to the state of America. It is rather scary to read it this way. Especially this, “The fruit which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your dainties and your splendor are lost to you, never to be found again” (Rev. 18:14). Do we really follow G-d? Do we really follow the Gospel? Or do we follow the dollar. Christianity in America is about morality, rule, flag worship, oppression, consuming, and fear. It is a tool at times of the state. It is Constantinian.
I believe we do not understand scripture, scripture was written by the oppressed, for the oppressed. We lose all of the imagery because none of us are oppressed. That is why we freely interpret it into are own understanding.
Not long ago a girl came to youth group who had Lice, it was almost as if she had the plague, parents were severely and still are pissed off that she came. Some of the kids have not come back. This is Babylonian thinking, dirty is bad, and clean is good, this is not Jesus.
Anyways, I am done ranting. Pray for me.

P.S. In Revelations 18 and 19 there is this part where the Merchants, the consumers, begin to mourn because the Empire has fallen, they are so upset because they believed life was found in luxurious living, military expansion, and nation worship. These chapters talk about how Babylon sold Chariots and Horses to foreign countries, which is like tanks and missiles (Rev 18:11-13). Anyways, to counter the mourning of the Merchants the scripture tells us that the Angels rejoiced at the fall of Babylon, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power to our Go, for his judgments are true and just; he has judged the great whore who corrupted the earth with her fortification, and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants ( servants is translated, it really means slaves).