We need to be politically engaged, but peculiar in how we engage. Jesus and the early Christians had a marvelous political imagination. They turned all the presumptions and ideas of power and blessing upside down.

Rather than finding the devil "out there," we battle the devil within us. The revolution starts inside each of us.

Money has power. And so withholding money has power too, especially when a bunch of people do it together.

[Jesus] said that they will know we are Christians - not by our bumper stickers and T-shirts - but by our love.

This is what Jesus had in mind: folks coming together, forming close-knit communities and meeting each other's needs-- no kings, no major welfare systems, no presidents necessary. His is a theology and practice for the people of God, not a set of suggestions for empire.

We don't actually have rich and poor together instead we have a family. What does it mean? If you have resources, you hold them with open hands. The mark of the early church was that they began sharing and it said there were no needy persons among them. They ended poverty as they created this new loving community.

If those of us who believe in God do not believe God's grace is big enough to save the whole world... well, we should at least pray that it is.