Preaching Positively

 I LIKE SERMONS which take the best things Jesus said, a sort of "greatest hits of Jesus", so to speak, and elaborate and expand upon them, turning them into sermon length messages relevant directly directly to current society. Fill them with logic and facts. Two of my favorite I have never heard a Christian minister sermonize: "go they way, sell whatsoever thous hast, and give unto the poor", and "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and render unto God that which is God's. , and thou shalt have treasure in heaven." I honestly cannot remember ever hearing a single sermon devoted exclusively to either of those seminal sayings of Christ. Maybe I've just been unlucky and missed out; the number of sermons I have heard in total is not enormous, since I am only a sporadic church goer, and  not religious. Or, it may be that most Christian ministers and most congregations are conservatively capitalistic, and those messages in particular imply  a liberal, even socialistic approach, not exactly TEA party stuff. Jesus clearly embraced the doctrine of voluntary personal poverty, and said so. He was hard core when it came to redistributing wealth, and said so. He never said anything about the bad influences on people getting free money, and the need for the poor to work, he said "give it to them". Not exactly a republican message. Most Christians in America seem to be political, social, and economic conservatives. They want a free market, and small government uninvolved in most areas of life, except religious freedom and reproductive rights. Conservative Christians want a federal government in which the 'christian faith is official, in which the Christian faith is officially represented. Otherwise, they want to pay no taxes, and they want the government to stay out of their way. the most frequent sermon I have heard urges people to accept Jesus Christ as lord and savior, to wash away all your sins in the blood of the lamb. It begins to sound like a mix between a feudal land contract, and a Stephen King novel. Why not talk about the necessity of paying taxes, that we may all invest in society, contribute to the national good, and pool our money together for worthwhile projects like feeding the hungry and housing the homeless? Aren't such political endeavors compatible with the teachings of Jesus? Render unto Caesar. Jesus never said anything about loaning money to an impoverished person, and charging interest, or offering a starving man a job. he said, quite clearly, go thou way, and sell whatever thous hast, and give unto the poor.. sounds like a good sermon, or something that could be made into one...