Loving One Another in a Hate-Filled World

I am writing this the day after members of Dallas police department were ambushed and killed in the streets.  I have read people’s blogs and posts regarding this issue. Some say these attacks are symptomatic of the deeply embedded racism in our country. Others say it is the natural consequence of years of lack of respect, or even rejection, of authority, tracing its roots all the way back to the 60’s. Still others say it is the result of our narcissistic society, the outgrowth of too many reality shows about people who have nothing to contribute to society other than being famous for being famous.

I wish to put forth a more accurate scenario. Our present trouble is the result of sin. We wish to rule ourselves, we have rejected God rule for self-rule. The problem with self-rule is that everyone is rule to themselves. We each become little gods. There is no way we can tell anyone, “You can’t do that,” or, “That’s wrong.”

In the last 24 hours I have heard numerous pieces on how we need to embrace love; then we can begin to learn to live together. Unfortunately, we live in a society that knows nothing about love.  Society labels love as acceptance. Acceptance means that I take you exactly the way you are. As soon as I make a call about morals or ethics, I am labeled as judgmental, racist, sexist, whatever –ist fits the topic at hand.

At First Presbyterian in Ennis, we sing a chorus in response to the benediction. The current one we are using is an old camp favorite, They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love.

Unfortunately, most of us, myself included, stand little chance of being labeled as a Christian if the only thing the world uses to make the decision is how we love. . .how we love, not just the people like us, not just the people who will vote like we vote, not just the people who have the same skin color or cultural values that we have, not just people from our church, denomination, or who share religious prejudices with me.

We fear one another. Presently it seems minorities fear the established powers, while those same powers do not feel that they can trust the very people they are entrusted to watch over.

If perfect love does indeed cast out fear, then it is our goal to seek that perfect expression of love. As we seek common ground where all folks can stand equally we must come to the knowledge that the only place where all people are equal is on their knees at the foot of the cross asking forgiveness. Therefore, let us be Gospel people, people who share the Good News frequently, not just so bad people can become good people, but so fearful and anxious people can find that peace which passes all understanding.   

Turn the Page

This time of year is a time of transition. It is the season of the year when we think of weddings, graduations, the ending of one phase of life and the beginning of something new.

Some of the changes we experience are changes for which we have been waiting. We dream of leaving high school and going off to college. We dream of leaving college and starting our dream job in our dream city while living in our dream apartment. We long to begin a life together with a very special someone. We wanted and longed for these changes. Sometimes all our dreams come true; sometimes our reality life doesn’t match the one we had in our dreams.

Some of our changes are risky. We may find that our dream paycheck isn’t part of our dream job. We find a flaw in the perfect someone with whom we plan to spend the rest of our life. We learn that keeping in touch with former classmates is much harder than simply promising we will.

Some changes we can put off: We can postpone the wedding in hopes of becoming more certain. We can delay our move away from home to the dream city, dream job, and dream apartment.

But, sometimes our future comes upon us even when we would like for it to wait. Life becomes a conveyor belt, and we are on it traveling at a predetermined speed.

When your road is long, when daylight turns to dusk and the trail becomes hard to see, when the path becomes more steep than what you were prepared for, when fellow travelers drop out or drop off and you feel you must journey on alone, for all those times, the good ones and the difficult ones, there is a Father to give you strength, a Son to redirect you to the correct path, and a Spirit to offer you guidance and encouragement. Remember, Jesus became like one of us, not to remind us only of God’s Sovereignty, but to demonstrate God’s community with us and compassion for us!

                                                                                    Pastor Craig

When Faith Makes a Difference

You know the story well. You don’t have to be a regular church attender to have heard it used as the central theme for many a sermon. It is the story of The Good Samaritan. The story is told as an illustration for a theological discussion.

An expert in the Jewish law wanted to test Jesus, the great teacher of the multitudes, so he asked Jesus a simple question, “What do I have to do to guarantee eternal life?’

Jesus responds with a question, “You’re the expert. How do you read it?”

“Put God first,” was the lawyer’s reply. “Love him with every fiber of your being. Take care of your neighbor as you would your own family. Love your neighbor as you love your own life.”

“Well said,” Jesus shot back. “I think you’ve answered your own question.”

The lawyer, now feeling a little foolish, wishing to regain some sense of honor and authority asked, “Well, just who is my neighbor?”

Thus begins one of  Jesus’ greatest parables, a story of two people who should hate one another, but instead offer and receive help when others refuse to get involved.

Our society is being divided up. We are faced with an “Us vs. Them” mentality. We are more concerned with being right than being righteous, with being "correct" than being faithful, We have groups within our own country who are more divided, more hateful, more antagonistic of one another than the Jews and the Samaritans ever were. Jesus speaks to the very heart of this division.

“What is saving faith?” we ask. “How much faith is enough faith?” we want to know. Sometimes we become “experts” in the word. We go to meetings, attend worship services, gather for prayer and study with like-minded Christians.

Jesus calls us to the road. He invites us on a journey. We’ve experienced love and grace. The question is whether or not we are ready to extend that love and grace to the rest of the world.

“When is faith enough?” When it will not be content with living life in a way that allows us to watch most of the world lying half-dead in a ditch and walk on by.

Pastor Craig

Pushing Back the Darkness

The opening words of Psalm 27 are “The Lord is my light.” When I first read those words I thought of a light in the darkness, something that helps us to see our way.

Over the years I have been involved in 11 family retreats, directed 5 summer youth camps, taken a group of 21 on a two week hike along the Appalachian Trail, and directed some 10 youth retreats. Almost all of these events took place at a remote camp or conference site, a place where, when everything was over, you had to walk back to your cabin or room in the dark. For some reason I cannot explain, the one item I forgot almost every time, except for the two weeks on the Appalachian Trail, has been a flash light. I have stumbled over more roots than I can count, have missed several trailheads, and walked straight past a dark cabin multiple times. I seem to have a mental block about flashlights when it comes to my checklist before I leave.

The flashlight image is how most of us think of the light of our Heavenly Father, something to help us find our way. It is a candle to reveal for us the roots, turns in the trail, and our destination as we walk along the paths of life. Certainly, this idea of light goes with the next words in that verse. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Our relationship to our Heavenly Father brings us out of the dark and shows us that straight and narrow path that leads to eternal life.

However, there is another aspect of light that we tend to forget. I think we often choose to forget it because it is less pleasant than the warm and inviting light that helps locate home and hearth. This aspect of light is not the flashlight; it is the searchlight. The searchlight reveals. It highlights that which often wishes to remain hidden. The floodlights you may have around your home help you find your way in the night if you are walking around the yard, but you probably had them installed first as a security feature, to highlight the people who would use the cover of darkness to find an entry point into your home.

When God’s light shines on us it reveals us as we really are. Our many faults and failings, the things we would so much like to keep hidden are brought out into the bright light of God’s holiness. This too is salvation, for it is only when we recognize our need for salvation that we fall at the feet of Jesus Christ and ask him to grant us that which he has already prepared for us.

The light of Christ shining out from us, helps us and others find our way in this world. The light of Christ shining on us, reminds us that we never grow out of our need for the forgiveness that comes through Christ. Both of these lights show us the path of salvation. 

Pastor Craig

The Journey to the Destination

In case you missed it, the Christian Church entered the season of Lent on Wednesday. Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the day when all fat, eggs, and dairy are used up before the abstinence of Lent took over. Notice, there is no need to drink up all the alcohol, but some traditions seem to make an attempt at that as well.

Another name for the season leading up to Lent is Carnival, from the Latin carne vale, or “farewell to the flesh. This can call the believer to the period of abstinence and fasting or have a focus on the spiritual rather than the material. It is probable that the is some joint meaning in the reference.

Following the strict religious traditions of the time, all celebrations end abruptly at midnight on Fat Tuesday, and the Christian community enters a time of fasting, prayer, emphasis on the spiritual disciplines, and a devotion to and remembrance of the sufferings of Jesus Christ on behalf of the believers. The time of Lent was also a season to instruct those people seeking to be baptized into the faith. With the sanction of Christianity by Emperor Constantine in A.D. 313, not only were sanctions and persecutions lifted from Christians, but there were even advantages and privileges for people becoming Christians. The large number of potential converts needed to be adequately instructed and their commitment to the faith confirmed. It is said that the season of Lent was one of the ways a person would indicate their resolve and dedication to becoming a follower of Jesus Christ.

Some 1,700 years later, we have mostly forgotten those traditions. Many of us have no idea of what Lent is or how we should faithfully observe it. Others consider Lent a Catholic observance and not something Protestants normally do. So, we arrive at Easter with little or no preparation for the day, a general lack of understanding of the sufferings of Christ needed to procure our salvation, and neglected the strengthening of our faith through the use of the spiritual disciplines.

While it may be too late to wear the ashes this year, it is never too late to strengthen our relationship to our Savior. This Lenten season I am reading Lent for Everyone, a devotional book for the season by N. T. Wright. There are dozens of other devotional books for the season, including picking up one of our own Daily Bread devotional books from the foyer for free. The main thing is that you begin, and that you be as faithful to your routine as you can possibly be. Don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day or two. Remember, it’s about growth in grace, not perfection.

Pastor Craig

Hope Before Dawn

About 35 years ago I was walking on the beach. I actually started walking around midnight. I walked a long ways north, and then turned around and headed south, and then back north. Eventually, the stars you only see when the night is black began to fade as black turned to gray.

Occasionally, I could see images moving along the beach, but I couldn’t be quite sure what they were. Once I thought there was a deer out on the sand, but it wasn’t light enough to tell if it was a buck or a doe, or if it was not even really a deer at all. In the beginning of something you don’t always have the details in clear view. You may even find that some you thought were so firm and solid in fact is neither.

That is why hope begins in the dark. It is a clinging to that which we are certain of and yet do not know for certain. As Christians, our faith is boldness in the night. We don’t creep across the room as when we get up in the night to go get a drink or try to find the way to the bathroom in the dark without stepping on the dogs. We stride forward, stubbornly claiming that the dawn will come and we will realize that for which now we hope.

Faith is not simply believing that Christ can transform our society, changing all its prejudices and wiping away all its hatred; It is proclaiming in the street what Jesus said in the synagogue, proclaiming its truth directly in the face of all that would try to contradict it or cause it to fail.

"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD." Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

John 4:18-21

Our message is the same today. God’s favor is not in the distant future. It is for us and it is for now. We bring liberty. We bring peace. The poor have hope and the hungry have food because we, through the Spirit of Christ bring it to them today, not just offer it to them with the changing of the guard.

Pastor Craig