Good Monday morning...

 

… and in a measured response and prayerful attitude I greet you with words of hope for a good week and thoughtful engagement with our life in Christ and as fellow sojourners in this world.  I do believe we are in a serious time of potential regret for the direction of our nation.  For the past nine months we have heard “unprecedented” news from the White House more than any other time in our history.  My soul is tired, but on high alert.  I fear that we, by nature of democratic elections, have empowered an executive branch with unprecedented power to dictate.

Being fully devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ, I don’t lose sleep over such unintended consequences of human ignorance, but I do seek to understand what He would have us to do.  As a Christian in a nation that appears to be swinging toward Pharisaic legalism and a fundamentalist manipulation of the laws, I ask, what would Jesus do?  He stood in opposition to the Pharisees who manipulated God’s law into conveniences for their own good.  The way He did that was to teach God’s law as it was intended, the Spirit of the law, to the people.  The gospels are full of accounts of His confounding wisdom in dealing with the legal manipulators.

When asked about who to consider a neighbor, He told of the good Samaritan.  When asked about taxes, He asked for a coin and looked at the inscription… “Render to Ceasar what is Ceasar’s and to God what is God’s.”  His brilliance was thoughtful, measured, and preserved in our Scriptures.  I need His wisdom to engage in the world that I live in, one that I fear is dangling over the edge of a precipice so steep that I’m reminded of what it took an Allied Army invading the hills of Normandy, and the battle that cost so much to end the war in Europe 80 years ago.

As a pastor, I am concerned for the church and our place in this dangerous move toward Pharisaic leadership.  It seems that more of our churches are leaning into the narrative of the far right, while the balance of Christlike care for the orphans and widows with the government’s appointed power to police bad behavior and reward good behavior is tipping the scale toward a biased and unbalanced government.  So, I pray.  I pray for our elected leaders to be informed by our Constitution and to unselfishly fulfill the duties to which they’ve been elected.

As a pastor, I study the Scriptures to teach others the Spirit of God’s law, to love the Lord with all our hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  And I pray, I pray for you to be led by the Holy Spirit to stand firm in the faith of the One Who died in our place so that we might live for Him in this world, until He comes again.

For His glory,

Pastor Mike