Asleep In The Garden
Will We Awaken?
Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mt 26:40-41)
I’ve been struggling to write the last week. I don’t know if it is too many things assaulting our collective consciousness or the large black holes of silence from those whom I believe have a responsibility to proclaim certain doctrines and beliefs. For me personally that is the Church of the Nazarene (COTN). I am sure I have shared this before, but I also have an ever changing subscriber list.
Within the Manual of the COTN, we have a section named the Covenant of Christian Conduct. This section is one in which we claim what a life lived in holiness looks like. The idea is that if we are a holiness people, then these are the ideas and actions that will mark our lives. While the section is culturally informed it is has also been considered doctrine following a 2023 ruling from our Board of General Superintendents. Here is a relevant passage for our current atmosphere in the United States. This is found in paragraph 28.4
We call our people to proclaim and demonstrate
God’s grace and love to the world. Equipping believers for
reconciling love as ambassadors for Christ in the world is the
shared responsibility of every congregation. God calls us to
attitudes, practices of hospitality, and relationships that value
all persons. We participate as joyful disciples, engaging with
others to create a society that mirrors God’s purposes. Our
faith is to work through love. Therefore, the Church is to
give herself to the care, feeding, clothing, and shelter of the
poor and marginalized. A life of Christian holiness will entail
efforts to create a more just and equitable society and world,
especially for the poor, the oppressed, and those who cannot
speak for themselves.(Leviticus 19:18, 34; Deuteronomy 15:7-8, 11; Isaiah 61:1; Zechariah 9:12;
Matthew 25:34-44; Romans 5:7-8, 12:1; 2 Corinthians 5:16, 20; Galatians 5:6;
Ephesians 2:10,6:12; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:27; James 2:1-9)
The white evangelical church in the U.S. has three distinct groups in terms of attitude and action. This extends to the COTN. The first group is a very vocal group who have fused the political ideology of the Republican Party and the current administration of Donald Trump with their faith. Ryan Burge has some excellent work focusing on this. Tripp Fuller recently wrote an essay and presented a video on this fusion (linked below). The second group is the smallest within evangelical spaces and is those of us trying to speak out prophetically against acts of evil and dehumanization against the very human beings that our faith demands we care about.
Then we have the largest group. This group cares about Jesus and faith, but are largely asleep when it comes to the societal aspect of walking the way of Jesus. This is the group I believe sincerely believe needs to hear from leadership who we claim to be. Our credibility as people of the Gospel is in jeopardy.
Asleep in the Garden
This last group is metaphorically asleep. This is not fully their fault. It is our collective fault. Many churches in the U.S. have focused so much on growth strategies, shallow sales pitches, and organizational survival that the work of deep discipleship in the way of Jesus has been inconsistent at best. You can observe this on any post on social media when a doctrinal point is emphasized but scores of members in the COTN claim that the post does not reflect who we are - even when the post quotes our polity and doctrine. Why is this? I believe our misunderstanding of shifting cultural trends led to us focusing on church growth strategies rather than discipleship strategies leading to transformed lives. The former is easier and is visible. The latter is hard and takes time and intentional presence. Clergy have a responsibility to guide people into becoming more like Jesus. If we don’t do that, people will be discipled by something. That leads to that first group because the loudest white evangelical voices are those who proclaim a fusion of faith and politics.
In the prologue to Peter Jackson’s film version of Tolkien’s Return of the King Galadriel the elf speaks of the one ring being forgotten. “And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost.” Many have forgotten things that should never have been forgotten and those things are at risk of being completely lost. Specifically in the COTN, we have spent so much time emphasizing paragraph 31 on human sexuality and parts of paragraph 30 on sanctity of human life, that the wider marks of Wesleyan-Holiness have been lost. Not simply forgotten, but lost (at least in the U.S.). I pray that this loss is not permanent, but it feels like it when so few are trying to remind us who we claim to be.
We are sleeping through a moment in time when the church could be speaking into a situation offering the hope of New Creation. But because so many sleep we have allowed the voices of syncretism and violence to proclaim Old Creation thinking. It doesn’t matter how many references to scripture are used, they are not teaching the way of Christ. As Green Day says in their song “Look Ma, No Brains,” “nonsense is our heroin”
Waking Up
I have seen a possible fourth group emerging in the last few weeks of January 2026. This group is a combination of some in group one and three who are waking up to a hard truth. This is a truth our non-white sisters and brothers have experienced for the entirety of the existence of the United States. Violence, the refusal to see the human being, lies, and propaganda are spewing into our feeds. But when we see death in front of us, we are sometimes shaken awake. The labelling of human beings is noxious. It is especially wrong when inflammatory language is used by those with real power. I read 1984 and this feels so familiar. George Orwell was a Democratic Socialist who opposed the radical examples of communism and fascism. I believe he would be shocked to hear that people like himself are being called communists as a way to deflect the truth.
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right. The obvious, the silly, and the true had got to be defended. Truisms are true, hold on to that! The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the earth’s centre. (1984)
Faced with the truth and inescapable vision of someone who looks like them being killed, many are awakening. But, the pull of old creation is strong. So, rather than follow the example of early Christians or even early Holiness folk, there is a new idea emerging.
‘Let’s Just Calm Down’
That fourth group is now asking people to not be outraged. These things can almost write themselves... You see many of those saying we should not be outraged (especially from group one) have repeatedly shared posts designed to illicit outrage at the “right” people. They have called those who are not Christian, demonic, they have called those who disagree with them politically evil, and they have called those who speak prophetically divisive. Speech can be action when wielded by those who have privilege. Especially when action is made difficult by the powers and principalities.
The fourth group now wants things to be purely spiritual or specific actions taken they agree with. But this is a highly physical problem as well when bodies are being harmed. Many who are just now awakening were quick to label Charlie Kirk a martyr, a prophet, or “modern day John the Baptist.” Yet, when people speak prophetically, or like John the Baptist, speak into corruption of political leaders, they are told to quiet down and do something. Friends, they have been doing something most of their lives. The prophetic voices are invitations to participate in New Creation. An invitation to leave Old Creation where it belongs in the dust bin of history. To heave Old Creation into the ever burning fires of Gehenna. To participate in what God is doing
It is really easy for those who have power or position to insinuate that others need to calm down. But there is a falsity to the concern. Why? Because a pastor whose preached a sermon in which Charlie Kirk was hailed as being a better communicator of the Gospel and a better explainer of theology than most pastors has a privilege that our non-white clergy do not have. When messages that highlight partisan politics get space, but the call of faithful protest and prophetic truth gets told to be quiet, we have a problem. I believe it is best to hear from one of our pastors who has experience that I do not. The Rev. Christine Youn Hung reminds us about a deep truth in our country.
What many of your Black, Brown, and Asian friends might not be telling you, but wish you understood.
When the nation is experiencing collective trauma, it may feel shared. But what has unfolded over the past year impacts bodies of color differently. Violent attacks against immigrants, families being torn apart, and predatory hunts in our communities are happening to people who look like us. Our elders. Our children. Our sisters and brothers. Watching this over and over through the media is traumatizing our bodies in ways you may never have to carry.
When these stories are lied about, gaslighted, or justified, the betrayal cuts deeper than you can imagine.
When white bodies choose proximity to bodies of color, even at the risk of losing privilege and safety, it gives us hope. When some of those same bodies are murdered and labeled domestic terrorists, not only by officials but echoed by friends, it leaves wounds that will scar for a lifetime.
When we see the nation show up in the streets with words and action, we are thankful. And yet that gratitude is tempered by the painful reality that it took the murder of white adjacents to mobilize a movement this large. After centuries of attack on bodies of color.
When we find the courage to speak, it is dismissed as political. But for us, it is survival. Yes, this is a war on moral and theological goodness. It is also a war on our people.
When people call this a fascist regime, we look at each other and think, that has been the felt reality for many of us already.
When we speak up, we are defending our humanity and our worth. We are defending the image of Christ in each of us and the truth that we deserve dignity, safety, and care.
When you speak up, we feel seen and given dignity, safety, and care.
Words Are Action
“More action, less outrage.” Sure, if your position is one where words might call you to think, I get that thought. But outrage is perfectly normal when it is driven by truth and not something created through rage bait, A.I. or propaganda. We should live in discernment. Discernment will very likely call you to feel outrage that the bodies of fellow human beings are not treated as valuable. When the imago Dei (image of God) is not recognized in the faces of those we believe to be beneath us. When Jesus said “love your neighbor as yourself” he wasn’t saying this only applied to people who look, act, or believe like you do. He was explicitly saying to love those whom even the religious leaders have told you to hate. Jesus also did not exclude love from those who show us hate. He tells us to pray for our enemies and, even more, to care for our enemies.
A Far Side comic on my comic a day calendar this week was perfect. You see, when more voices speak, the reality shows that there are more who see the pain and can act and have the power to speak. In other words, there are more of us than there are of the powerful. Words become action. This is especially true when the church speaks in her prophetic role.
Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christian should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong.
- Deitrich Bonhoeffer in a Sermon on 2nd Corinthians 12:9
Voices work. Speech works. Those able to say things is effective in pushing for change. Because of the many voices being raised, there is a crack of light appearing on the horizon. A hope that the powerful are hearing the outrage at lies and violence. A hope that a sliver of New Creation may be blossoming because people dare to speak. I pray that the COTN finds her voice that is so relevant to our current cultural moment. That Holiness people become known for their words of action rather than the silence of inaction.
May the church wake up as Jesus continues to come to us in the garden asking why we keep sleeping.
