Ok, here’s a cautionary tale. You spend your life doing what you think is right. Your parents, your pastor, your political leaders have all told you what God expects of you, what it takes to be a "real" Christian, and you have tried to do it, and you’ve done it all in the name of Jesus. You have voted the way you were supposed to vote, supported the causes you were supposed to support, been active in your church, done powerful things in the name of Jesus, and tried to live the way you were supposed to live.

So then you die. (That’s not the cautionary part; we’re all going to die). Here’s the cautionary part: you die and meet Jesus, and you say then, just like you’ve said all your life, "Lord, Lord." And he says, "Look, bub, not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.’"

You’re not worried; you’ve been "raised right" and you know you’ve been a good Christian all your life. So you say "Lord, Lord, I prophesied in your name; I cast out demons in your name; I did many deeds of power in your name." And Jesus looks at you and says, "I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoer."

Yikes! That’s a little scary. That’s actually a lot scary. Then Jesus illustrates his point by saying that everyone who hears his words and acts on them is like a wise man who builds his house on rock. It’s strong and durable and holds up in the storm. But those who hear his words and don’t act on them are like a foolish man who builds on sand, and when the storm comes, the house falls.

So, what we know is that saying, "Lord, Lord," claiming to act in the name of Jesus, is not enough. We have to discern what is the rock of faith, and what is the sand. And the key is doing the will of the Father, acting on the words of Jesus. And what we also know is that the stakes are high, scarily high.

So, you’ve got some decisions to make, some important decisions that, according to Jesus, matter. So, what choices do you have? Well, our country is pretty divided along religious and political lines, and, while that may be unfortunate, it at least gives some pretty clear religious choices.

In Blue States, Democrats, for the most part, say religion is mostly a private matter. They don’t talk much about God; faith language seems to scare them and people of strong religious conviction sometimes feel out of place in their midst. Democrats (and of course I’m generalizing here) don’t tend to draw on religious conviction to articulate values, and often don’t articulate values much at all. They pay a lot of attention to poverty and other social ills, but discount personal responsibility regarding society’s ills and the importance of a strong work ethic, sexual morality, and the family structure. Democrats tend to focus instead on economic and government fixes, promoting the theology of despair that individuals can’t do much to affect their own lives. One option is to fit your religious life within that framework.

Or, you can look to the Red States. Republicans speak a great deal about religious faith. They are not at all embarrassed to publicly claim their faith and to use faith language. In fact, it has become almost a prerequisite, a litmus test. Republicans have sometimes used faith not as a social bridge, but as a wedge, as when, on "Justice Sunday," they said that if you don’t support them, you’re not a "real" Christian. One area where Republicans are like Democrats, however, is that they rarely actually quote the Bible.

Republicans care about people and believe in charity, but don’t pay as much attention to the social injustices that make charity necessary. They place great emphasis on personal responsibility (clearly a good thing), but ignore the fact that affluence and privilege often cover over a host of personal mistakes that, if committed by a poor, underprivileged person, will result in disaster. While embracing Creationism in the classroom, they often also embrace social Darwinism in public policy: a society about survival of the fittest. Their theology of the sanctity of life places great emphasis on the unborn, less emphasis on the born, and shows no concern for the criminally guilty, where a theology of responsibility and punishment rules. Finally, Republicans tend to reduce the demands of faith down to just two issues, abortion and homosexuality. To hear Republican leaders speak, you would think that these issues were the primary focus of Jesus and the Prophets.

So, there are two options for you to fit your faith life in. Remember that the states are frighteningly high, so chose carefully, and — good luck. [Start to walk away.]

But wait! Maybe it would help if we put this, "I don’t know you because you didn’t hear my words and do them" saying of Jesus in some context. When we look at Matthew’s gospel, we see that Jesus says this at the very end of the Sermon on the Mount. So maybe it would be helpful for us, who have this big decision to make, to look at what words he’s been saying. Here are some highlights:

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are those who mourn.

Blessed are the meek.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Blessed are the merciful.

Blessed are the pure in heart.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

It’s not enough not to murder people; you can’t want to murder them.

You must reconcile with your brothers and sisters before coming to the altar.

It’s not enough not to commit adultery; you can’t think of others as sexual objects.

Do not divorce when it creates hardship or injustice to women or children.

It’s not enough to retaliate proportionally; you may not retaliate. Turn the other cheek.

Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. God loves them, too.

Be generous with your money.

Don’t be a showoff when you give.

Don’t be a showoff when you pray.

You will be forgiven — as you forgive.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

You can’t serve God and Money.

Ours is not to be a fear-based life. Don’t let your life be consumed by worry.

Do not judge others, so that you may not be judged.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

And finally, beware of false prophets.

Those are the words of Jesus that form the rock of faith. Frankly, I don’t think they fit either political party. As Jim Wallis points out in his wonderful book, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, Red and Blue are not biblical categories, and "God is not a Republican — or a Democrat."

The bad news for Democrats is that the words of Jesus demand that Christians’ social policy be informed by a deeply held interior religious faith. The words of Jesus demand articulating values based on those words, and they call for personal responsibility.

The bad news for Republicans is that the words of Jesus demand a social policy driven by concern for the poor and weak. This is, remember, the same gospel in which Jesus says, "Just as you did it unto the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did it unto me, and whoever did not do it unto the least of these did not do it unto me." (Mt. 25:31-46). When Jim Wallis was in seminary, he and his friends took a Bible and cut out every verse that dealt with the poor. It is the second most referenced theme in the Bible (the first is idolatry), and when they finished they had a Bible full of holes. One out of every sixteen verses in the Old Testament was missing; one out of every twelve in the New. The bad news for Democrats is that they don’t have a Bible; the bad news for Republicans is that their Bible is full of holes.

So, what to do? Here’s what I suggest. Vote as you feel called —by the rock of your faith. But don’t be a Republican; don’t be a Democrat; don’t be a Libertarian, or anything else. Be a Christian. Criticize all these parties. It’s good for the country, and it will be good for you. Build your house not on a political party or leader, but on the rock of Jesus’ radical, revolutionary, often unpopular words.

Because it’s important, really important, that at the end of your life, the Jesus who said those words will look at what you did with your life and say, "I know you." "I know you."