Category Archives: Politics

Simple answers

22 Friday Jun 2018

Posted by in Humanity, Politics, Theology

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I have struggled with our national immigration system all week – or rather the implementation of it.  I’ve seen the pictures, heard the audio, from refugee seekers and those in detention facilities.  I’ve heard supporters carrying out the law.  I’ve heard the president shift from saying that his hands were tied to signing an executive order changing the situation.  I’ve read numerous accounts about what the law and policy is and is not – none really agreeing with each other – the same goes for the executive order.

I’ve found the policy to be immoral at its core, but at the same time, I think that’s simplistic.

It’s easy to complain and point fingers and to scapegoat.  I’ve seen plenty of that on social media. Heck, I’m willing to admit that I’m just as guilty.  Being right feels good after all.  Being able to point a finger and blame someone and label them as wrong, evil, or immoral feels really good.  And we as a nation are really good at that.

And it’s exhausting.  And it doesn’t end.  And we’ll be exactly where we are next week, only on some other divisive issue that will cause the nation to be divided, to point fingers, and to throw labels around.

I’m tired of it.  But I’m not quitting.  I will speak up – but hopefully in a different way.  Will I fail – most likely, I’m a broken and sinful person.  I have my opinions and ideas.  I have my biases and worldviews.

And like the disciples in the boat this Sunday, I’m sure I’ll be distracted by the storms of life, rather than focused on Jesus who is in the boat with me.  I’ll keep asking “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And Jesus won’t answer.  He won’t answer because that’s the wrong question.  The better question comes from Jesus – “Why are you afraid?”  Ouch.

Good question Jesus?  I don’t have a good answer to that question.  But maybe I can start to ask that question to myself and others.  To really hear people where they are – what they fear.  To hear what they place as their identities.  To voice my own fears.  To really connect with people in a vulnerable way.

We want simple answers to these challenges that we face.  I heard plenty simple answers: “Just follow the law” “The Republicans can change the law anytime” The Democrats passed it – it’s their fault” “The Administration decided to carry this out six weeks ago” “Democrats didn’t care about this before six weeks ago.”  And back and forth it goes.  Until we get to the next issue that where the arguments are not really any different and people are forced to choose sides in the battle of partisanship.

And like the disciples in the boat, we are missing the more important question – Why are we afraid?

Are we afraid because we know that our memes, and tweets, and one-liners, and insults, are as empty as they sound?  Are we afraid because we know that our simple solutions aren’t solutions at all – but rather blunt objects meant to cause damage to our opponents and enemies?  Are we afraid because we don’t know the answers and we don’t like not knowing? Are we afraid because deep down we know we are not in control?  Are we afraid because the answers might require us to change?  Are we afraid because if we became vulnerable with each other, we might actually learn that we are more alike than we thought – not just political opponents, but refugees, law enforcement, people with different skin colors, people who speak a different language, Democrats, Republicans, Hillary, Trump.  Whoa!

It’s easy to offer simple solutions.  It’s easy to attack and divide.  It’s easy to dehumanize and devalue people.  It’s easy to do this either as an attack on someone or a group and it’s easy to fall into this for defense.  It’s so easy that often we don’t realize we are doing it and then what?

Right now I’m reading a book called “Living without Enemies” by Samuel Wells and Marcia Owen.  Yes, living without enemies.  The premise is that we don’t get to choose who is our enemy – we aren’t God.  And God sees everyone as a Child of God.  Because we claim to follow God, then we are to see the world the way God sees the world – God empowers us to do that.  And to God, there are no enemies.

One of the key ideas in this book is Being With.  It’s the theology of presence.   Not coming up with answers, because sometimes there are no answers.  When I sit with a family who’s 28-year-old son is dying, there are no answers.  There is nothing I can say that will change the situation.  All I can do is be present, to sit with them in their sorrow, their grief, their questions, their anger, their doubts, their fears.  That’s it.

There are no simple answers to our immigration system.  That doesn’t mean we sit idly by and do nothing.  I think the only way we will ever be effective is to start by being present with each other.

In silence there are no answers, only companionship.  There are no explanations, only humility.  There is no blame, only common humanity.  But that silence takes discipline, self-knowledge and many years of practice, because it runs counter to a great many instincts and social conventions.  Often we want to speak because we don’t want to feel.  And sometimes we speak to try to stop people from feeling.

(Living without Enemies, pg. 78)

Let’s start with Jesus and his question for the disciples – “Why are you afraid?”  We may not have an answer, just like the disciples.  So let’s sit with that for a while.  Let’s sit together and admit we are afraid and we don’t know why.  Let’s just sit together and be afraid.  It’s as good as any starting point that I know of.  It’s not a simple answer to the challenges we face.  But it’s the start of something different.  I want something different.  Don’t you?  Or would you rather wait until the next outrage happens and revert back to the same thing of seeking simple answers that don’t exist?

I don’t want to write about these things

21 Thursday Jun 2018

Posted by in Humanity, Politics, Theology

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I don’t want to write about these things.  Nor do I want to preach about them.  The smart ass response to that is “Well, you should have known what you were getting into when you signed up to be a pastor.”  Yeah, because everybody knows what the future holds.  Thanks for the compassion.

I really don’t enjoy writing about all of the things that are happening every day.  I don’t enjoy preparing a sermon that talks about all the things that are going on either.

I don’t want to, but yet I can’t avoid it.  I guess I could actually.  I could just stay quiet.  I could not speak about any of it.  I could not rock the boat and be vulnerable to the arrows that come my way in response.  I could allow the fear of criticism and negative comments to win the day.  I could allow the potential anger in response to have sway over what I say or write.  I could create a false sense of peace to make sure that no one walks out on the sermon or protests what I have to say.  I could interpret render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s to mean that as a pastor I have no say in politics or what happens in the world.  Jesus didn’t interpret it that way – he ended up being killed by the Romans.  Talk about meddling in politics.  And to anyone who interprets that passage that way, I have a question – what belongs to God?  And why do you get to determine where God gets to speak?

I don’t want to write about any of this.  Who in their right mind would?  Who wants to write or preach about children being separated from families at the border as they seek asylum?  Or trying to make sense of an executive order that allows for indefinitely holding onto asylum seekers?   Do you think it’s fun or enjoyable to point out the uncomfortableness of this, the messiness of this?  The sin of this?  Who wants to write or preach about how we treat our neighbors, our enemies, and refugees?  Who wants to write or preach about dehumanizing other people?  Who wants to write or preach about how they see a nation tearing itself apart because of fear and anger?  Who wants to write or preach about any of this?

Instead we want quick answers that make nice sound bites.  We want to make issues seem easy.  Things like, it’s the law, so we obey it.  Or it was passed by a previous administration, so they are to blame.  Or we should ignore the law here, but not deal with a broken immigration system.  Or so much more.  This isn’t easy.  There are no simple answers.

Most people would rather hear a sermon about mushy love and being nice and tell the pastor how nice the sermon was. Why?  Because that type of sermon or writing isn’t costly.  They require nothing of you.  They don’t require you to do self-examination.  They don’t require you to look at yourself in the mirror and question important things about yourself, what you believe, and what you stand for, and what Jesus is calling you to.  They don’t require a cost or a response or a radical reorientation.  They don’t require a sort of death of the self.  Those are cheap grace sermons that remain silent about the reality of evil in our midst.  Those are sermons that would rather close our eyes because the big bad world is just too scary to deal with.  You can hear many of those sermons in churches each Sunday.

And I don’t fault the pastors that preach these sermons either.  Preaching the Gospel is costly.  It’s disruptive.  It points out the unpleasant truth.  It’s scary.  I know I have failed in this regard plenty of times.  This Sunday we hear the disciples ask Jesus in the midst of the storm – “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  Many a pastor asks Jesus the same question each week.  Just as Jesus didn’t answer the disciples, he doesn’t make it easy for us either.

I was going to write about where I saw things going – the path we are on, but really, what the heck do I know?

Instead, I’m going to tell you something else.  There is much to worry about in the world – let’s not kid ourselves.  We have an unhealthy society right now.  We are in the midst of a great storm of life.  We are calling out to Jesus – “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  And like in the boat, Jesus doesn’t answer.  Why doesn’t he answer?  We want Jesus to say comforting things.  But he’s quiet.

Often, I think we get confused. That’s not a radical statement.  The disciples spent actual physical time with Jesus and they screwed up all the time.  Why would we think we are any better.  And after Jesus calms the storm, he asks them a question – “Why are you afraid?”  They completely miss the question.  They marvel about Jesus calming the storm, but miss what Jesus is really saying.

Did they really think that God would allow the storm to harm Jesus?  They were in the boat with Jesus, the incarnate Word.  Did they think that the storm was more powerful than God?  They were letting something else define them and who and whose they were.  They let fear define them and their existence.  And Jesus asks a simple question – “Why are you afraid?”  It’s as if Jesus is asking – did you forget whose you are?  Did you forget that your identity is as a Child of God?  Why are you letting fear define you?

As we hurtle through this immigration mess, I think Jesus’ question is so very important.  Why are we afraid?  What is our identity?  Is politics our primary identity?  Are we Republicans and Democrats first and then Children of God?  Are we Americans first and then Children of God?  Are we legal first and then Children of God?  Are we identified by fear first and then Children of God?  What are we?

If Christ is not the lens that we look through, the foundation of our identity, first and foremost, then there is no hope.  We will end up killing each other.  Nothing but Christ offers us any hope.  History shows that to be true.

Let us remember who and whose we are.  That Christ gives us a different identity.  That this identity doesn’t mean conformity of thought.  Rather, it allows us to have differences, even on important issues, and still see one another as Children of God.  We don’t have to agree, but can we find something, anything, that we overlap on?  Can we start with that?  Please.

Let’s start by acknowledging that we are afraid, and that we are having a difficult time voicing our fears honestly – with being vulnerable with one another.  Let’s start with the fact that Jesus’ question makes us uncomfortable because it touches us deeply and shows our own weakness and brokeness.  Let’s start with the fact that we don’t trust one another – actually voicing it out loud so that the reality is acknowledged.  It is only from there that we can move forward.

It starts with Jesus asking an uncomfortable question that gives us room to respond.

Why are you afraid?

I don’t want to write about any of this.  I don’t want to preach on this.  Yet, here I am.  Yet, there I will be on Sunday.  Silence is not an option.  Anger isn’t either.  The only thing that overcomes fear is love.  Let us speak in love.  Not mushy fake love.  Deep love that shows that there are no enemies.  There are only children of God.  It’s not easy.  We can’t do it on our own.  We follow Jesus who empowers us.  And we risk it all.

Why are you afraid?

 

Is legality the highest value?

20 Wednesday Jun 2018

Posted by in Politics, Theology

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I have a question for those who believe that fulfilling the law is of utmost importance.

Imagine it is 1861 and you live in Maryland.  A fugitive slave family has escaped slavery in the South.  They come onto your land and seek safe passage.  You encounter them.

What do you do?

Do you fulfill the law of the land that states that a fugitive slave shall be returned to their masters – knowing that this will lead to severe punishment, possibly death, and maybe even the separation of families?  Or do you give safe passage to the family on their journey to freedom, thus disobeying the law because you recognize it as immoral and destructive?  Or do you do something else?

It’s easy to point out the differences in this situation with the current immigration mess.  It’s easy to make excuses and dismiss the example I provided.  In fact, it’s easy to decide to see the world in black and white – to separate things into issues and people’s lives and believe that the two are not related – missing the messiness of the impact of this way of thinking on people’s lives.  But are you willing to answer the question given your current logical reasoning?  Are you willing to be the one who enforces this law?  If not, why not?  It’s not your job?  That’s a cop-out.  Are you willing to take a look at how the situations are similar?  To be uncomfortable?  Are you willing to be consistent in your thinking that the obeying and fulfilling the law is of utmost importance – regardless of the morality of the law?

Or how about this situation – you are Jew in Bethlehem during the reign of King Herod – the ruler of the land you reside in.  Herod declares that all male babies two years old or younger shall be killed.  The reasoning doesn’t matter.  You have a one year old.  Would you willingly hand over your child to the soldiers in order to fulfill and obey the law and the governing authorities?  What if you didn’t have a child, but you knew a traveling family passing through did?  Would you turn them in?  Why?  Or would you do what you had to do to disobey this decree in order to save the life of your child or any child?

Now imagine you are a refugee, or even just an immigrant from Central America.  Seriously, put yourself in their just a small section of their shoes.  And don’t give me the nice neat answer of “I would obey the law and follow the rules.”  You are still thinking from the safety of your life.  Imagine that the situation in your own country is not good.  Your family is in danger if they stay – you and your family could end up dead.  You decided to leave and make a journey north to America – a land known as a place of opportunity.  While so much is unknown, you determine that it has to be better than where you are right now.  You make the trip and get to the border.  What you do is illegal, but staying within the law means almost certain death.  What do you do?  What do you hope will happen?

It’s not so easy when we move past black and white thinking is it?  It’s rather messy.  Life is messy.  Law does not equal morality.  This isn’t an argument for lawlessness.  This is an argument about the morality of certain laws and what we are supposed to obey when those laws are suspect or outright immoral – regardless of who passed them or when.  This isn’t an argument about Republicans and Democrats – of who should get the blame.  That doesn’t resolve anything and is a distraction.

What we are dealing with is a difference of image – not the skin deep images of celebrity and consumerism.  No, deeper images – ones that define and shape who we are.

Is our national image shaped by this and what it stands for:

illegal_alien_border-550x275

Or this and the poem which is associated with it:

statue_of_liberty_paris_001

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

(Source: the New Colossus by Emma Lazarus, 1883)

Which image will we embrace?

The first image is an image of the law – cold, heartless, and concerned with security, safety, and control for some.

The second image is an image of risk, welcome, and uncertainty for all.

We can do so many things that try to make us more secure, safer, and give us the false sense of control over our lives.

The disciples in this coming Sunday’s Gospel passage are all on board with that.  They are in the sea, in a boat.  And there is a great storm brewing.  They are scared and they seek safety.  They wake Jesus up because they feel insecure and unsafe.  They are not in control.  They worry about the bad things that will happen to them.  And they ask Jesus, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38, NRSV).

Jesus doesn’t answer their question.  He doesn’t give the answer they want – “of course I don’t want you to perish.”  Nope.  He doesn’t say anything.  Hardly comforting.  Later he will call on his disciples to pick up their cross and follow him, to deny themselves.  To die.

Yet, death does not have the final say.  After Jesus calms the storms around the boat, he asks the disciples these questions – Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?

These are deep questions for us.  And they are Gospel too.  Why are we afraid?  What do we fear?  Do we believe that Jesus walks with us – with all of us?  Do we believe that Jesus walks with these refugees too?  Or is Jesus just reserved for us on this side of the wall?

What does it mean to follow Jesus?  What does it mean to love our neighbors?  To welcome the stranger?  When have we been strangers and been rejected?

What is Jesus calling us to?

Have you still no faith?  Guess what – we can’t have enough faith on our own.  If it’s about us and our faith, what we know about God, our safety, our security, our control – then we’ll just end up failing and dead.

Faith is a gift from God.  It comes to us because we can’t go to it.  Faith isn’t just head knowledge, but it moves through us and causes us to respond.  To pick up our cross and follow Jesus.  Especially in the storms of life.  When there is danger all around us.  Faith moves us forward – in risk, in welcome, and in uncertainty.  Faith means we are not in control and we aren’t going to fool ourselves into believing we are.  We are safe, but in a different way – we are in God’s hands. That regardless what happens to us, God will not forget us.  And God offers us a promise – resurrection.  New life.  Transformed life.  Changed life.  Risky life.  Invitational life.  Life.

The Weakest and Most Vulnerable

19 Tuesday Jun 2018

Posted by in Politics, Theology

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I’m struggling with the implementation of the immigration policy that has resulted in the separation of approximately 2000 children from their parents.  I’m struggling for a variety of reasons.

First, that we have a law that allows for this to happen and that this law has been the law of the land for several years.  I had no idea that this was the law.  It is immoral.  These are not violent criminals we are talking about.  Often these are asylum seekers – people who left places because their life was in danger only to find the life of their families in danger by coming here.

Why? Because we have to carry out the laws?  Except our government has never carried out all of our laws.  The current administration previously stated that it would not carry out the laws related to Obamacare.  So why this law and not that one?

I’m struggling with the Attorney General citing the Bible, all with a smile, as a justification for carrying out this law.  This is the same reasoning that tyrants have used throughout history to gain compliance from people.  It is the same reasoning that the South used to support the laws of slavery.  And it’s completely out of context – using the Bible as a weapon of mass destruction, rather than something that is life-giving.

I’m struggling with other things that go beyond this one decision.  Why is it that children are always the ones to suffer from immoral policies?  Is it because they are truly powerless?

Immigration laws that separate families make no sense.  Unless we are using children as a pawn, a deterrent.  But why are the powerless used at all?  Are they pawns in a game or human beings?

Shootings at schools go on and children die – the least and the powerless suffer.  And they are used in a debate about the laws pertaining to guns – what should be legal and what should not.  Any action is held hostage to the whims of those with power.  And we wait for the next shooting and the body count that will go with it.  It’s just a number after all.  And we aren’t serious about an actual change if it has financial (fundraising) implications, or forces the powerful to acknowledge the least among us – or give voice to them as if they matter.

Why is it that the youngest, the most defenseless, are the ones that always suffer at the hands of the powerful?

While abortion is a topic that is extremely divisive to even bring up, the least and most vulnerable suffer.  Regardless of your stand on abortion – the legality of it – can you see that there are victims in this tragic decision?  The tragedy starts well before the final act and leaves emotional scars the we are not open to offering healing, forgiveness, or help that might change lives, rather than end them.  Instead we offer shame and demand silence of the women who suffer, forcing them to continue to be punished and alone.  After all there is a whole lot of money to be made from this divisive issue – campaign funds are easier to come by from controversial and emotional issues after all.  The women and who they carry become pawns in a fundraising scheme for the decision makers.

Why are the least and the powerless, the most vulnerable, used as pawns?

There are no simple answers to this.  And it is not new.

King Herod was upset about a child being born – the newborn King of the Jews.  Someone who he thought would usurp his power.  So he had to strike.  And strike he did – at the least and the most vulnerable – children.  He slaughtered all the male babies two years old and younger.

The least and the most vulnerable suffer at the hands of the powerful.  Always.

Do the powerful fear children so much that they are willing to kill them?  According to history that seems to be the case.  Power is a hungry idol that demands human sacrifice.

Do the powerful fear the most vulnerable that they are willing to allow terrible things to happen to them?  Apparently.  Power is such that is lonely and has no use for koinonia (community).  It only believes in the self.

Do the powerful fear the children that they are willing to enforce an immoral law?  It wouldn’t be the first.  Nor will it be the last.

And the good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way.  None of it has to.  None of this is set in stone.  Laws can change.  It really isn’t that difficult.  What is difficult is the will to change – the will to empower the powerless.

God presents an alternative to this way of life – not just for us individually, but as a society and how we govern.  God’s way isn’t a top-down, do this or else, type of way of governing.  God is a bottom-up God.  God is one who is incarnate and walks with the least and the most vulnerable.  We see this in the example of Jesus.  God isn’t just a God of Law, but also of Gospel – Good News.  That the captives will be set free.  That the hungry will be fed.  That the last shall be first.

I believe in a different way for this world.  A way that is guided by the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes.  A way that is guided by Jesus command to tend to the least and the most vulnerable.  A way this guided by both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures that call on us to love our neighbors, our enemies – all people.  A way that is summed up in two words – Koinonia (Community) and Shalom (Wholeness).  A way that isn’t interested in using force to get its way, but lives by something else that Paul wrote

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

(1 Corinthians 13:1-13, NRSV)

Our world doesn’t have to be this way.  God offers us an alternative – one that is actually unfolding before us.  God invites us to participate in this unfolding.  God gives us the faith to participate in it.

Sometimes it can be difficult to see this way unfolding.  But thankfully, as we were reminded this Sunday – We walk by faith, and not by sight.

Let us walk in the way of the Lord, not in the way of the powerful.  Their way doesn’t work.  It never has.  It always leaves a trail of suffering and death.

There is an alternative.  The path is set before us.  Let us take this path.  Let us walk together and not look back.

NFL and the National Anthem

24 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in Politics, Sports, Theology

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Here’s a confession – I haven’t watched an NFL game for several years.  There have been a few exceptions here and there – parts of a Super Bowl, mostly because the kids were interested in the outcome, etc.  I stopped watching football regularly though when we moved to Finland back in the summer of 2014.  Having been a long time Buffalo Bills fan, it was easy to stop watching – my team sucked – for many years.  And frankly, I was tired of rooting for a crappy team that never seemed interested in doing anything to become uncrappy.

Then a decision was made that helped me see something else about the NFL – it was a decision to increase the number of games that the players play overseas.  There was talk about launching teams in Europe.  And it was then that I realized that all the NFL really cared about was making a profit – it was the almighty dollar demanding more human sacrifice.  In this case, sacrifice of the player’s health and the fans dollars and euros.  There was big money to be made at the expense of the players.  Granted, they aren’t doing shabby financially.  But still – how much are the players’ health worth?

The concussion situation doesn’t help the NFL either.  Again, a disregard for the players, all in the name of making a buck for the owners.

And us fans aren’t innocent in this.  It is our thirst for sport, for seeing the modern-day gladiators, hit each other violently.   Oh how willing we are to pay these owners to see violence done to people in the name of one of our own idols – entertainment.

And now yesterday we get the decision that players and teams can be fined if they offer a protest during the national anthem – kneeling silently.

This was a bad decision in many respects.  You can read about these in stories that are all over the news sites.  It was bad because it brought the issue up again – it was not being talked about.  It’s bad because it was based on fear of a certain politician – would his tweets have an impact on sales of tickets and merchandise.  It’s bad because it’s just going to cause more people to tune out.

But the biggest reason, and most important reason, that I saw was because the NFL made the decision based solely on finances.  There is money to be made and so rights and protests need to be pushed out-of-the-way.  This is what we in church call systemic sin.  This isn’t about the national anthem at all – it’s about making a profit off of people at their expense and pushing away anything that might impinge on that profit.  And it is something that pervades our culture, with limited escape.  We wrap the flag around this sin, as if washing in soldiers’ blood will cleanse us and save us.  And we demand that the presentation be a spectacle – full of pomp and circumstance, complete with a fly over of the jets.  We want to hear the roar of unity and since that doesn’t actually exist, the owners did what they could to create the illusion – they pushed the protest out of sight.  Nothing says American values and what the Anthem stands for like silencing peaceful protest apparently – all in the name of keeping the status quo of making a nice juicy profit.

Which is interesting since the NFL is a non-profit according to the tax law.  Look it up if you don’t believe me.  Yet, I don’t hear protests from people about these non-profit executives’ salaries. Why?  I often hear how terrible it is that a CEO of a non-profit, ones that actually impact people’s lives for the better, will be compensated six-figures or possibly more.  Yet, I hear no complaint about how terrible it is that the owner of a team that is part of a non-profit makes multi-millions and allows for these men to be billionaires.  Why?  Maybe it has something to do with the idea that it is easy to criticize the non-profits that are helping if we don’t contribute to them.  It’s much harder to criticize the NFL when we are contributing to these profits – we would have to do some self-examination and ask how we are contributing to propping up the system that exists.  And that would be a bit to uncomfortable and close to home for us I guess.

Yesterday I heard Fr. Richard Rohr speak about systemic sin in an interesting way.  He said that we have a world that upholds the seven deadly sins in a corporate (communal) way, but punishes individuals that practice these.  In other words, killing is ok when it is done by the state and is called war because it is for defending what we stand for, but it not ok when an individual does it.  We put statues up to people who caused great killing and suffering on behalf of the state, but punish individuals who do this on their own.  You can see this same type of logic in other areas as well.

This sends a mixed message at best.  And when we give a pass to such systemic sin but condemn individual sins, then we are fooling ourselves into thinking we can have a just and free society.  We aren’t really free at all – we are in bondage to sin.  A bondage that doesn’t allow for freedom.  A bondage that will squash any opposition that exists and silence those who question what is happening.

We think of these systems as super powerful.  Yet, the reality is they are weak beyond belief.  I say that knowing that really, there is a paradox.  These systems are very power – they have immense pull and sway over us.  Yet we willingly participate in them.  Sometimes we can’t avoid participating in them.  But think about this.  The only way these systems continue to persist is through threat and silencing opposition.  They are weak in this regard.  When exposed, they fall apart.  They can’t withstand the truth.  And they crumble like a statue made with clay feet.

The NFL is promoting greed corporately and wrapping it in the flag – as if the national anthem had anything to do with football.  As if what the anthem stood for was actually being promoted through football.  It isn’t.  But the NFL punishes individuals who use something supposedly cherished by what the anthem stands for – free speech.

The NFL has become an empire that demands allegiance and turning a blind eye to the systemic sin it is protecting and benefiting from.

This really has nothing to do with the national anthem or the flag.  If it did, they would follow all the rules related to how the flag should be used and how it should not be used – like on clothing.  But when profit is your idol, your god, then that doesn’t matter. All that matters is making appropriate sacrifices to your idol.  Players’ health and freedom of speech need to be sacrificed apparently – the gods demand it.  There’s a profit to be made.  There’s the spectacle of unity to be shown, even when it doesn’t exist.  Silence has to be forced on those who raise an issue.  It’s uncomfortable and inconvenient.  Empires thrive on complacency and spectacle.  It’s also how they end up falling apart.  They get lazy and lethargic.  Their chants become empty and they are shown for what they are – greedy.  And eventually, the “barbarians” waltz into Rome and expose what is left as weak.

Politics and Gospel

22 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by in Politics, Theology

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Why do we allow our partisan politics to control and determine the Gospel?

Since when did politics get to determine what was considered Gospel?

Why do we place politics in the primary place of our lives – to the point that the Gospel has to fit into our political ideologies?

Why do we allow the Gospel to be characterized in political terms – as if politics is the foundation of life?

The Gospel isn’t a Republican or Democrat message.  It’s not a conservative and liberal talking point.  The political powers of Jesus time had him killed because he wouldn’t fall in line.  Because he wouldn’t advance the party narrative and power structures of the day.

If the Gospel doesn’t make our politics uncomfortable, then we aren’t proclaiming the Gospel.

When our politics makes proclaiming the Gospel uncomfortable then we have our priorities backwards.

Politics is not the foundation of life.  Politics in our current setting is an either/or adventure that narrows things down to only two options – two really bad options.  Why would you choose from really bad options that are anything but life-giving?

The Gospel though is different.  The Gospel makes demands on our life – our entire lives.  Not just on a Sunday morning for an hour.  Our entire life is to be centered in the Gospel. The Gospel impacts and changes our lives.  If it doesn’t change us, then there is something wrong with us – we’re not all in.  We’re putting up barriers to it – probably because the Gospel is uncomfortable and inconvenient.  It conflicts with our politics and ideology.  It conflicts with our preferences and beliefs.  It gets in our face and tells us that there is a different way – a way that is different from the either/or mentality that our culture offers us.

The Gospel is something that changes our lives – and lays claim to our lives.  It’s not just something to hear and go on with life.  It is life itself.

But the economy…

21 Monday May 2018

Posted by in Politics, Society, Theology

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Acts 16:16-24 tells the story of Paul and Silas being jailed in Philippi.

One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.’ She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.

But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.’ The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

In this story we see a radical message – that when the kingdom of God is proclaimed and where it is unfolding, the status quo will be upset.  Often in Scripture we see a linkage between evil and profit-making at the expense of humanity.  Profit itself isn’t evil – profit-making at the expense of humanity is.

And in this story we see it vividly.  The owners of this woman only cared about her as long as they could exploit her and make money off of her.  And when they could not do that, it wasn’t her well-being they were concerned with.  It was the fact that she no longer made money for them.  She became worthless to them.

They saw it as an attack on them and on their profit motive – or really, their abuse, manipulation, and power trip.

Paul and Silas literally affected the economy of Philippi through their proclamation.  This is what happens when God’s kingdom comes near.  The status quo is flipped on its head.  And many weren’t happy about it.  When people’s money is affected, people start to pay attention.  They know that what is happening is real – and they see that they are not in control.

But as long as the economy is humming along – allowing some to benefit at the expense of others – many turn a blind eye.

When money becomes prime in life and society, humanity suffers.  When money is more valuable than people, then everything is out of whack.  People are not valued for who they are, but rather for what they produce.  Humanity ends up with a price tag.

When money takes this type of central role, then it becomes an idol, a god.  No wonder Jesus spoke about money more than any other subject.

But making money into an idol, a god, has deeper ramifications than this – When producing becomes the prime directive, then the Sabbath is broken.  Sabbath doesn’t mean sitting around doing nothing all day.  It’s about resting from work in order to pay full attention to God – to focus on God and listen to what God is calling us to.  If there is no room for Sabbath, then there is no room for God.  Instead of listening to God, we listen to what the almighty dollar instructs us to do.  And people suffer.

We are no longer made in the image of God, but rather, we are just workers whose purpose is to make a profit.  We snuff out the Imago Dei in which God created us.

This is why Paul and Silas were beaten, stripped, and jailed – upsetting the entire belief system that worships money.  It was an act of defiance against the entire empire, its economic system, its message that salvation comes through the empire and Caesar.  Paul and Silas’ proclamation meant that the empire, Caesar, and their economic system of exploitation were empty and valueless.

Another blog I visit often said it best:

Jesus knows that the greatest obstacle to entering into and living in the kingdom of God instead of under the reign and rule of man is our own economic self interest.   When we are dominated by economic self interest it’s like squeezing a camel through the eye of the needle, and it’s hard.

For several decades our politicians have been giving us a message that needs to be weighed against the Gospel.  Sometimes it comes through a question – “Are you better off than you were four years ago.”  And other times it comes in campaign slogans – “It’s the economy, stupid!”

The economy is a powerful pull.  It has the power to determine our elections more often than not.  Candidates, politicians, and presidents of both political parties are often very flawed – caught in controversy, investigations and scandals, sexual philandering, and dehumanizing rhetoric, supporting policies that do not support the general welfare they are sworn to uphold, but rather to support the status quo where some benefit at the expense of others – where people are valued for what they produce, rather than who they are.

But if the economy is humming along, many are willing to overlook these character flaws.  Many are willing to put blinders on to the plight of our neighbors because “the economy.”  Many are willing to rationalize away dehumanizing policies and rhetoric because there is more money in some people’s pockets – maybe even our own.

But Jesus has a different message.  An upsetting message.  A message that conflicts with our own economic self-interest as we turn a blind eye to our neighbors’ plight.  A message that doesn’t always match up with our national narrative and what we value politically.  Ouch.

Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

(Matthew 16:24-26)

Jesus is asking us – what’s more important, the economy or humanity?  Money or God? And he is speaking in economic terms – savings, profit, gain, return.  Jesus directly confronts the economic systems that exploit others and those that maintain these systems and benefit from them.  Maybe that doesn’t sound very American.  But then again, Jesus wasn’t worried about wrapping himself in the flag.  He had another kingdom to advance – one that is everlasting.

Or as Jesus once said in the Sermon on the Mount:

‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

(Matthew 6:24)

So which is it?

 

Embassy move

16 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by in Politics, Theology

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The US embassy in Israel was moved to Jerusalem on Monday.

I have a range of emotions regarding this.

I’m saddened.

I’m saddened by the move.  Those who know a thing or two about foreign policy and especially the Middle East warned that this would cause an unsettling in the region.  It’s an act of provocation that was unnecessary and potentially dangerous.

In response we saw Iran shooting missiles into Israel from their positions in Syria and Israel shooting back.

In response there were protests.  Initial reports showed that 41 people died in Gaza.  New reports have the number climbing to over 55.  That number will probably rise.  And there will most likely be other incidents that will cause more deaths and killings.

The President sent Rev. Robert Jeffress to offer the opening prayer.  He went and offered a prayer which highlighted how great Trump is.  Jeffress has been on record as saying that Jews are going to hell.  Jeffress was sent.  To Jerusalem.  Where there are a great many Jews.

I’m angry.

I’m angry about this because we have blood on our hands for an unnecessary act that brings instability from the first moment.  But our president loves instability – he’s talked about it as a strategy that he uses.  He likes to keep everyone guessing as to what he will do or say next.  That’s not a leadership strategy – that a strategy for a TV show to get more people to tune in to the next episode.

Do the 55+ people who died in protest matter?  I think it’s time we start asking some serious questions – who counts as a person nowadays?  Did they deserve to be killed because they were protesting?  If your answer is yes, they deserved it, then I ask you – what/who counts as a person?  And what rights do people, human beings, have?  Who counts as a person that deserves to have their life preserved, even in the midst of protest?  Do Palestinians count as people?  How about Muslims?  How about Arab Christians?  How about those with dark skin?  How about those that don’t speak English?  How about those that disagree with those in authority?  Do any of these people count as people?

I’m wondering.

I’m wondering when Christianity will finally acknowledge the reality that there are Christians who worship Jesus as the Savior and there are Christians who worship the Empire and Caesar as savior.

Let me be really clear here – Empire and Caesar go beyond any particular country and can be found in probably every country – Empire is the idea that the might of the nation is of prime importance.  It is the belief that salvation comes through the conquering empire – through military might, cultural dominance, and force of will.  Caesar is the idea that a human leader who is strong – almost god-like – is the savior we yearn for.  We are to worship him and thank god that god sent him, a son of god, to save us from our enemies and establish an everlasting empire that will rule with force and crush anyone in opposition.  And do it in the name of the gods.  Empire and Caesar have existed as the predominate religion of humanity for many millennia, across the world.  Even sometimes under the label of Christianity.  And it is still alive and flourishing today in many places.

Here are the prayers offered by two “christian” pastors at the event.

“We thank you, O Lord, for President Donald Trump’s courage in acknowledging to the world a truth that was established 3,000 years ago – that Jerusalem is and always shall be the eternal capital of the Jewish people,” Hagee said.

“And because of that courage of our President, we gather here today to consecrate the ground upon which the United States Embassy will stand reminding the dictators of the world that America and Israel are forever united,” he added.

(parts of the Benediction prayer offered by Rev. John Hagee)

“We want to thank you for the tremendous leadership of our great president, Donald J. Trump.  Without President Trump’s determination, resolve and courage we would not be here today,” he said.

“And I believe I speak for every one of us when I say I thank you every day that you have given us a President who boldly stands on the right side of history but more importantly stands on the right side of you, O God, when it comes to Israel,” Jeffress added.

(parts of a prayer offered by Rev. Robert Jeffress)

Is prayer about the actions of a president and his courage and action and resolve, or is prayer an acknowledgement of God’s action in the world and about what God is calling us to?  Is prayer designed to worship the god of Empire and Caesar or the God of creation?

(If you think I’m far off base here, I encourage you to read George Will’s article in the Washington Post.  Throughout the article he talks about the words used by those who serve Trump – words that sound rather religious – “humbled,” “thank you for this privilege of serving,” “the blessing of being allowed to serve.”)

I’m just grateful that these pastors didn’t attribute this move to God.  Both of these pastors are huge proponents of Rapture theology – the belief that Jesus is coming back, will sweep away the faithful in a holy escape plan, then pull out his AR-15 and start kicking ass and taking names – bringing vengeance, destruction, and death over the world.  Apparently Jesus is just an extension of the god of Empire and Caesar.

I don’t worship the same god as Hagee and Jeffress.  I don’t believe in their god and what their god stands for.  Their god is the god of Empire and Caesar.  Their god is a god of vengeance, and military might, and might makes right, and the ends justify the means, and only the strong survive.  Their god leads to death and demands bloody sacrifices along the way.  55+ people have already been sacrificed to quench the anger of their god.  But their god will never be satisfied until there is total destruction.  I reject their god.  I reject the god of Empire and Caesar.

The God I worship is a God who calls on us to die – die to self, die to the idea of the Empire and that Caesar is the savior, die to our loyalties, die to our fears and anger, die to our desire to be in control and to know, die to might makes right and that the ends justify the means.  Jesus calls us to pick up our cross and follow him – to die to these things.  We die to these so that we can experience resurrection – new life, transformed life.  I worship a God who is love.  A God who weeps often because of the world and its sick adherence to Empire, Caesar, and Death.  I worship a God who accompanies and calls on us to accompany the outcast, the poor, the weak, those out of power.  I worship a God who does not delight in death and destruction, provocation, and war.  I worship a God who tells us that the world will be conquered by faith and love.  (1 John 5:4)  I worship a God who sends his actual Son into the world to save us from the world not through an divine escape plan, but rather through transformation and renewal.  Not by force and might.  But through Faith and love.  This is the God I worship and serve.  Who do you serve and worship?

Social Proof

09 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by in Humanity, Politics, Society

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I’m reading Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini.  It’s a great book that talks about influence, how it is used and abused.  Here’s a portion of what I read yesterday:

So massive was the commitment to their beliefs that no other truth was tolerable.

(pg. 128)

This was in relation to a cult and how their prediction of the end of the world was wrong.  They didn’t lose members – in fact they gained some and the people who were in it devoted themselves even more. This in spite of fact that all the evidence pointed to the cult being completely wrong.

Why?  Because they had sold everything and had nothing left.  All they had was their belief system, so something had to give.  Reality is what gave for them.  Here’s a quote from one of the members:

I can’t afford to doubt. I have to believe.  And there isn’t any other truth.

(Pg. 128)

Here’s another passage from the book that really struck me:

Since the only acceptable form of truth had been undercut by physical proof, there was but one way out of the corner for the group. They had to establish another type of proof for the validity of their beliefs: social proof.

This, then, explains their sudden shift from secretive conspirators to zealous missionaries.  And it explains the curious timing of the shift – precisely when a direct disconfirmation of their beliefs had rendered them least convincing to outsiders.  It was necessary risk the scorn and derision of the nonbelievers because publicity and recruitment efforts provided the only remaining hope.  If they could spread the Word, if they could inform the uninformed, if they could persuade the skeptics, and if, by doing so, they could win new converts, their threatened but treasured beliefs would become truer.  The principle of social proof says so: The greater the number of people who find any idea correct, the more the idea will be correct.  The group’s assignment was clear; since the physical evidence could not be changed. the social evidence had to be.  Convince and ye shall be convinced!

(Pg. 128)

While Cialdini wrote this about a religious cult, it seems that the basic ideas behind it extend beyond cults to more mainstream things.  Politics throughout the world would be a case in point.

You Brood of Vipers…

04 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Church, Humanity, Politics, Theology

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Here’s your fair warning – this is going to be political – painfully political.  And no, I’m not going to apologize.  I can’t just sit by and be silent.  My focus isn’t even on the politicians.  If you know me at all, you’ll know that I don’t put much faith in politicians, political parties, or ideology.  I find most of them to be worthless and primarily interested in power.  All of them are seriously flawed and frankly, I expect them to worship their idols of power, influence, money, and their other gods that they create in their own image.  I hope this post is extremely uncomfortable.  I hope it is inconvenient.  I hope this because it sucked writing this.  The focus of this post is on the Christians who read this.

Jesus said:

‘Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. I tell you, on the day of judgement you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.’

(Matthew 12:33-37)

I can think of no better passage of Scripture that applies to the filthy state of partisan politics today than this passage spoken by Jesus.

Yesterday I received an e-mail with a link to an article by Jeff Roe on why Republicans would be mistaken to abandon Trump in the mid-term elections.  Persona and policy can get mixed up.  The GOP should celebrate the policies and not the distraction of the persona – that’s the argument anyway.  The essential argument is this – the ends justify the means.

Yesterday as I was driving around I flipped through radio stations.  Occasionally I flip over to talk radio to hear what the chattering is about.  I can usually handle about five minutes worth before having to turn the station.  Yesterday I heard the host in his usual blind allegiance of the president and the actions to cover up his affair with a porn star.  The ends justified the means apparently.  Don’t you know, it was the porn star in the wrong.

Today I saw Rudy Giuliani’s interview on Sean Hannity’s show.  During this interview, Giuliani contradicts statements Trump made about knowing there was a payoff and where the money for the payoff came from.  When the ends justify the means, who cares what was said before.

Yesterday was the so-called National Day of Prayer.  People gathered and there was an official prayer stated.  The prayer is eloquent and hits on some very good points – turning from sin, unity of the body of Christ, turning from evil, forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, etc.  All things that I can get behind, but the problem is that I’m not sure if all Christians agree with the definitions of these terms.

I’m not sure that I have the same definition of unity as our “Christian” politicians and those that support their policies that do more harm than good, that uphold Social Darwinism (where only the strong survive), and where the end justifies the means is the foundation of life.

I’m not sure I have the same definition of turning from evil as our “Christian” politicians and those that support their actions by making excuses for behaviors that are unacceptable for you or I, but seem to be just fine because it was two consenting adults, don’t you know.  Yet these same people threw a hissy fit when another president screwed around with someone in the White House – which was just as terrible. But hey, when you believe that it’s a Christian virtue to lay the foundation of your life at the altar of the ends justify the means, then anything goes, right?

Does turning from evil mean that it’s ok to knowingly lie and defend those lies because the truth is inconvenient and is costly?  Does turning from evil mean that you pay hush money for an affair or that you defend someone who does this?  Does turning from evil mean that you use your Christian label as a pastor to make excuses for a worldly powerful person.  I thought we were called to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow Jesus if we claimed the label of Christian.

I’m not sure I have the same understanding of the following line of prayer as our “Christian” politicians and those that support their rhetoric:

We pray for all people of all ethnicities and races in America to come together as one, living in peace and unity together.

I’m not sure how anyone can claim to be a Christian and make excuses for a “Christian” politician who offers support to neo-nazis, labels all Mexicans as rapists and murders, who disparages numerous other groups of people.  I’m not twisting words here, go back and see what was actually said.  If you feel the need to defend these words that he said, why?  Why would you defend such vile language from anyone?  Would you defend the same exact words, spoken in the same exact tone if they came from a politician that you didn’t like?  Or do the ends justify the means?

I’m not sure I have the same understanding of the following line of prayer as our “Christian” politicians and those that support their policy actions:

We pray for God’s power to unify families, workplaces, communities, and cities in America. By Your Spirit, lead us to forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, and unity.

I find it hard to say we are all seeking to unify families and communities when we put up more roadblocks to the homeless and poor.  We have families who are living in their vehicles at truck stops.  And they are working, but don’t make enough to find adequate housing.  Men, women, and children living in their vehicles.  And the typical response is something along these lines – well, they should work harder.  Well, they should have not made so many bad decisions.  Well, they get what they deserve.  Well, if they only did this or that.  Well, the churches can take care of them.

BS.

As a pastor who does ministry with the homeless, I can tell you that churches are not equipped to do this.  We don’t have the resources, the training, or the people to do this.  We can do small things, but we don’t have unlimited resources.  We aren’t trained in how to deal with mental illness.  We aren’t taught what to do when we run out of money trying to help someone and they end up back on the street again because all the shelters are full and they have nowhere to turn.

If your response is “well, you should open your own doors then,” or some other snide remark, then you are missing the whole point here.

Jesus never said the ends justify the means.  That’s about as far away from what it means to be a Christian as you can get.  If that is your belief of what it means to be a Christian – then you and I can’t be unified because we don’t have the same foundation.

Is the defense of something and someone who is indefensible worth it?

Or as Jesus said:

Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

(Matthew 16:24-26)

You want to get mad at me – go for it.  I’ve got thick skin.  Frankly, I’m not too happy with you either.  And I refuse to shut up because I’m pointing out something uncomfortable and inconvenient.  Your comfort is not my concern.  Especially when we have people who are homeless, people who haven’t had a meal on a plate since August, people who have families that are living in vehicles, people who are being trafficked on our interstates, people who are treated as second class citizens because of their skin color or orientation.  If that’s uncomfortable, then it should be.  Being a Christian is not comfortable or convenient.  It’s not suppose to be.  It’s supposed to smack us in the face and make us so uncomfortable and inconvenienced that we respond to the injustice we see around us.

Frankly, I’m tired of Christians who want the label, but refuse to live out the calling.  I’m tired of Christians who value their loyalty to a politician or party (any politician in either party – yes, this applies to Democrats just as much as Republicans) above Jesus.  I’m tired of Christians making excuses for “bad trees,” as Jesus called them, all because they believe that the ends justify the means when it comes to policies.

We are called to live out what Jesus commands us to do, not to have blind loyalty to some politician who is temporarily in power.

Pick up your cross and follow Jesus.  Jesus didn’t say, pick up your tweet and follow Trump.  Jesus didn’t say, pick up your sign and follow some other candidate.  Jesus didn’t say send in a check and blindly follow your party.

These are difficult times in our nation.  The call for unity is something that is needed.  However, it is not possible to have unity where there is a strongly held belief that not everyone is equal in value and worth.  How can there be unity when there are some who create us vs. them situations, where the poor are seen as an expense, where we have leaders who firmly believe that only the strong should survive, where we value things over people, etc.

But not all is hopeless or lost.  Last night I heard something that hit me.  I don’t remember the exact words, but here’s what I heard – when everything has been exhausted, there is grace.

Even in this situation, there is grace.  It’s the only thing that can carry us forward.  We humans can’t fix this ourselves – we are too devoted to our divisions and separations.  We have blind worship of our leaders and ideologies.  We cling to our sin and brokenness.

Only God can fix this.  And it may require something else – something that is deeply associated with being a follower of Christ.  It will require death.  Death of our egos.  Death of our loyalties.  Death of our certainties and answers.  Death of our attitudes towards one another.  Death of excuses.  Death of our sin and brokenness.

Only then will we experience the fullness of being a Christ follower – resurrection.  New life, renewed life, restored life, transformed life.

This is my hope.  This is my prayer.  It’s time to start acting out what we claim to believe.  It’s time to start actually being Christians, not just taking on the label.  If we don’t, we’re no better than the people who Jesus called out as a brood of vipers.