In this political season, we hear a great deal about agendas. There is the agenda of political candidates. There is the agenda of political parties. Within the church, there are agendas arising from those who wish to make the church more orthodox, and there are those who have their own agendas around issues of justice and mercy within the church.

This past weekend, I was driving through another city and I came across a church sign that said, “Advancing the Kingdom Agenda.” I tend to be a little judgmental, and glancing at other identifiers about this church, I scoffed and thought (almost out loud), “That’s all we need … another agenda.”

But then I got to thinking about agendas. Agendas are specific steps that lead to specific outcomes. They are often used as a list of things to be covered in meetings, but I am talking about the larger meaning of agenda … especially as it regards specific things the church “ought” to be doing.

Yes, I do believe that the agenda listed on the sign may well have been more aligned with the agenda of white Christian nationalism, which could not be further from my own agenda of justice and peace. But the sign was specific in that it talked about the “kingdom agenda.”

So I went deeper into a time of contemplation about what a kingdom agenda could be about.

It didn’t take me long to look back to the teachings of Jesus to discover what the ultimate Christ agenda is about. All of the synoptic gospels include a passage about religious leaders who are putting Jesus to the test … in essence, asking him about his agenda. And in each of these gospel accounts, Jesus gives the same answer: “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)

The kingdom agenda is love!

The kingdom agenda is love! It is not convenient love, and it isn’t love that just builds me up. It is that love that takes us to uncomfortable places … like when Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” This is where it gets hard to follow Jesus.

I ran across someone wearing a tee shirt that read:

LOVE THY NEIGHBOR
THY IMMIGRANT NEIGHBOR
THY BLACK NEIGHBOR
THY WHITE NEIGHBOR
THY BROWN NEIGHBOR
THY ATHEIST NEIGHBOR
THY MUSLIM NEIGHBOR
THY DEPRESSED NEIGHBOR
THY CONSERVATIVE NEIGHBOR
THY LGBTQIA NEIGHBOR
THY DISABLED NEIGHBOR
THY INDIGENOUS NEIGHBOR
THY JEWISH NEIGHBOR
THY PROGRESSIVE NEIGHBOR
THY INCARCERATED NEIGHBOR
THY HOMELESS NEIGHBOR
THY LATINX NEIGHBOR
THY ADDICTED NEIGHBOR
THY MILLENNIAL NEIGHBOR
THY _____________ NEIGHBOR

As I considered the language of agenda, it occurred to me that this was a real agenda. It is a call across the chasms of our time. As we sense ourselves moving farther and farther apart from one another, this agenda is the agenda that is intended to bring us back together … to the place where we can see and hear one another … to the place where we can demonstrate our own unique giftedness and personhood in a tapestry made richer by our diversity more than by our uniformity … to the place where we finally meet God in the face of the other.

So if this is the kingdom agenda to which our siblings worshiping in that church where I saw the sign are referring, then yes, let’s advance the kingdom agenda … the agenda of love.

Any other agenda just won’t do in the realm of God!