Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 7
Howard Voss’s line, “To worship Jesus is itself a politics, a politics that subverts the status quo,” challenges the idea of being “apolitical”; what forms of “status quo” does worship subvert in your context, and what would it cost your church socially to live that out?
Another way to ask: If worshiping Jesus is a kind of politics that challenges the status quo, what “status quo” does it challenge where you live? What social cost might your church pay if it lived that out?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
According to the transcript, worship subverts the status quo by rejecting self-interest power politics, refusing Christian nationalism, and embodying a kingdom community marked by humility and economic/social leveling. The cost could include social misunderstanding and even conflict with the state if the church’s witness is perceived as a threat.
- Voss: “To worship Jesus is itself a politics, a politics that subverts the status quo.”
- The speaker contrasts God’s politics with voting “according to…self-interest,” calling it “the exact opposite of the world’s politics.”
- He says Voss is “very critical of any form of Christian nationalism,” because allegiance is to “King Jesus and the Kingdom of God…transnational…[including] all peoples.”
- Worship is not merely private; it expresses allegiance publicly and “will incarnate itself in very public, social, concrete ways.”
- This can “come into conflict with the governments of man,” depending on whether the state views it as “a threat.”