Isaiah 55: 1-3
Revelation 19: 4-9
John 2: 1-11
The Cowtown Christ is a series of sermons about what it would be like if the Christ of the gospels came to modern Fort Worth. The story is entirely imaginary, though many situations are real to our local community.
The Cowtown Christ is Jesse, a young Hispanic woman who has begun to build a following in the community with her message that the City of God, la Ciudad de Dios, is in Fort Worth, that God’s presence is here, and that healing for the community can happen, if we believe.
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By this point, Jesse had a fair following, but three regulars were her central group—those she called “mis compañeros cercanos—my close companions.” They included Peter, the former gas company exec who was working at the iPhone store when she met him; John, the suburban mega-church pastor; and Joanna, a Fort Worth police officer who Jesse knew from her days working with the homeless. Joanna was one of a couple of FW cops assigned to the East Lancaster area specifically to work with homeless youth. Youth are especially vulnerable on the streets, and often are there because of difficult family situations. Many of them are gay, as was Joanna herself.
John the mega-church pastor didn’t care for Joanna the cop, because he found out she was gay and his church taught that homosexuality is a sin. So Joanna took a strong dislike to John, since he was going to be so closed-minded. But Jesse told them both to let it go. “When you’re with me, you’re mis compañeros cercanos. I chose you, and if you don’t choose to be around one another, then you’re choosing not to be with me. Up to you.”
Come to Deliver the Captive, Give Eyesight to the Blind, and Let the Oppressed Go Free
Jesse and Joanna had long confidential conversations, and when Jesse came out of them she looked pretty angry. She came to Peter one day and said, “I want to preach at a strip club.”
Peter gulped. “Why, um, are you telling me?”
Jesse said, “I know you’ve patronized a few.” Peter gulped again. “Don’t worry,” Jesse laughed, “I’m not trying to catch you out. This may be the first and only time in your life God has called you to go to a strip club.”
So Jesse took Peter to a strip club. It was a dark, suspicious place, not the sort of place many people knew about. Peter found it pretty scary, actually. He noticed there seemed to be a lot of shady types in corners, and the girls looked too young.
Jesse simply watched for a while, and Peter could tell that she took in everything, and knew exactly what was going on.
Then there was a break between dancers, and suddenly it was Jesse up there on the stage. She was pretty and wearing a suit and at first the men there thought it was something else, til she spoke.
She said: “God is here—in this room, in this place, right now, and God loves you. But it’s time to change. There are girls here who are under age, who were homeless and on the street and who’ve been tricked into a life of slavery. If you’re a slave, I am here to free you. If you’re a slave-owner, it’s time for you to beg for mercy, because God is here, and judgment day has arrived. But if you want to change, God will change you. If you want to change, then follow me.”
There was silence—then uproar and confusion. But for some reason, no one seemed to touch Jesse.
Jesse said. “Any of you girls who want to go, can leave with me now, and nobody will stop you. I’m here to rescue you.”
Nobody had noticed, but Peter had taken out his phone and was filming the whole thing. One of the girls who worked there, who looked like she was maybe fifteen, said, “Take me with you. I want to go.” She sounded scared.
Jesse said, “Take my hand.” And the two of them stepped down from the stage, hand in hand. Peter had a coat on, and let Jesse wrap it around the girl’s shoulders.
And miraculously, the crowd of standing men just parted, and let them by. Nobody bothered them. The bouncers had disappeared.
Peter posted the video on Jesse’s website and YouTube that night. He’d edited it to protect the women’s—and the customers’—privacy. It got thousands of hits.
Early that morning, while it was still dark, Jesse got the phone call she expected—from the owner of the club. He was a well-known strip club owner, who touted himself as a businessman, and even had run for office in a nearby locality.
“Who do you think you are?” he roared.
“I’m the one you’ve always known would come,” she said, “and have always been afraid of. I’m el ángel vengador de Dios, God’s avenging angel. There’s time to change, and God will change you if you repent; but you can’t pretty this up anymore and pretend like nobody notices. God has noticed. It is time to change. ”
“You can’t get away with this!” he said. “Strip clubs are legal in Texas!”
“Then shame on Texas,” she said. “But fact is, what you’re doing isn’t legal. And you know it. Why haven’t you called the cops, mijo?”
“You’re crazy!” he said.
“I get that a lot,” Jesse replied.
He cussed her out some more, and then hung up. Jesse never hung up on anybody. Especially her enemies. She always wanted people to have a chance.
When Joanna the cop heard about what had happened, she was furious. “How could you go to a place like that without me?” she demanded. “How could you take that risk? Are you crazy?”
“If I’m not taking risks, I’m not doing mi Papa’s work,” Jesse said.
The Savior Prefers Rahr’s
Thanks to Jesse’s fast-growing reputation, a big crowd showed up for the party she’d been inviting everybody to. It was held at Billy Bob’s. Everybody was there. Jesse got the Old 97’s to play, fronted by Telegraph Canyon. It was a mix of folks that is rarely seen—black, white, brown, gay, straight, transgender, Muslim, Christian, Jew, atheist, homeless, rich and poor, lots of people from the society page, a few who even had their own personal security. A lot of those folks had never mixed with the other type before. And Jesse had them all out there doing a line-dance that she’d made up herself. She was laughing and dancing and riding the mechanical bull and drinking beer with everyone else.
Joanna came over and said, “Jesse, I think we got a couple of working girls here. And a few working guys, too.”
Jesse said, “No surprise. They know they’re welcome here.”
Joanna said, “But what if they’re working the crowd? Should I throw them out?”
Jesse said, “That’s their business. The Kingdom of mi Papa doesn’t exclude anyone. But people can exclude themselves by the choices they make.”
Peter came to her with a much bigger problem. “Jesse, we’re out of beer!”
“No, we’re not,” Jesse said. “Tell the bartenders to start filling mugs from the faucets!”
And sure enough, the water faucets—in the kitchen, at the bar, even in the bathrooms–were flowing beer. What was amazing was, that entire night, nobody got drunk. Fort Worth PD was hanging around Billy Bob’s all night, and all they did was earn overtime.
God’s Immigration Policy
Around midnight, Jesse took the mike from Rhett Miller. “Hola, e hermanas y hermanos! This party celebrates la Ciudad de Dios, the City of God. It’s a city of love and welcome and celebration, because despite everything that’s wrong with the world, and wrong in our lives, la Ciudad de Dios, the City of mi Papa God, is right here right now. It is among us. It is in Fort Worth. It is in you.
“But this isn’t a feel-good city. It isn’t, ‘Ohhh, God loves me and let’s pretend like everything’s all better.’ No, this is a city made up of people who pass God’s citizenship test. The citizenship test is this: you love everyone—you put others first—you stand up against what’s wrong in the world. You aren’t complacent. You don’t say, ‘The world is fine just the way it is,’ or that you’re good enough just the way you are. You try to make the world and yourself better.
“If you don’t, then you may say what a great person of faith you are: you may go to church or mosque or synagogue, you may think, ‘I’m a citizen of heaven,’ but it’s not true. You’re just an illegal immigrant. In the City of mi Papa, you have to re-take the citizenship test every day. But the good news is, the more you live like a citizen of God’s City, then the more immigrants come over into God’s City. See, there’s no limit to immigration in the City of God—the border is always wide open!”
Somebody said, “But aren’t there some people who aren’t welcome—people who believe wrong, or live wrong? People who are just beyond saving?”
“Nobody is beyond saving,” Jesse said. “If anybody is, then everybody is. Sure, there are good things and there are bad things that people can do. If you truly live in God’s City, you’ll always be trying to be better than you are. But you know what? You’re never going to be perfect; you’re always going to fail. So that’s why God gives us a passport that always welcomes us back into la Ciudad de Dios.
“That passport is forgiveness. God forgives you.
“But you have the power—and the responsibility!–to give others a passport, too. You have the power to forgive them for all the things you think are so bad. And when you forgive them, you give them the passport to come into la Ciudad de Dios. You do it! I deputize you in the name of mi Papa God to welcome new people into the City of God by forgiving them!
“So who do you think doesn’t belong in the City of God? I’m sure you can think of many. Those are the people who mi Papa wants you to forgive! And if you don’t forgive them, you know what? Pfft! Your passport is revoked. And the Heavenly INS will deport you! You don’t want that, right? So forgive others as you have been forgiven!”
Rights Can Be Wrong
People were laughing, but they were thinking, too. But then there was some scuffling in the corner, and Jesse shouted into the mike, “You back there! Stop fighting! In La Ciudad de Dios, there’s no room for fighting, because we are to love even our enemies! Understand that? Love your enemies! Make peace with one another! Or leave!”
One of the brawlers said, “But what about my rights?”
“Rights,” Jesse said. “Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. Rights are good. But they’re the bare minimum of what is needed for a good society. The City of God expects better of us than that.
“You have the right to life, but you will only live if you live to serve others.
“You have the right to liberty, but you will only be free if you bind yourself in service to others.
“You have the right to happiness, but you will only be happy when you are sad and angry for the sake of those who are in need.
“You have the right to property, but only those who give their property away will receive the inheritance of God.
“In the United States we have many rights, but if you want to be a citizen in God’s City, you have to surrender them for the sake of others and make yourself wholly dependent on God; and then you will be a citizen of Heaven, with the right to be God’s child. You have many rights, but you will only be whole and healthy and complete when you forget your rights and throw yourself on the mercy of God.”
After she was done, the music started up again, and some people stayed, but a lot of people left. A lot didn’t seem happy. John reported back to Jesse, “We’re in trouble, boss. Everything you’ve said just hit Twitter, and both Ted Nugent and Willie Nelson have withdrawn funding for this party.”
Jesse laughed and laughed. “If I offended them both, then I must be doing something right,” she said. “But I think the party’s going to be okay.”
“Well, what’s our funding source?” John asked, frustrated.
“Same as the beer,” she said, and winked.
Cowtown Christ, The Cowtown Christ Throws a Party at Billy Bob’s, and all contents herein, copyright Fritz Ritsch, 2013.