Christians Should Reject Christian Nationalism

 You ever notice when you have the right passion but you unleash it in the wrong direction.

C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity:

Wickedness, when you examine it, turns out to be the pursuit of some good in the wrong way. … Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness. And there must be something good first before it can be spoiled.

This is a key point. Wickedness - or sin - is only the morphing of something good. It’s just the pursuit of some good in the wrong way or too much. Every evil that can be done is just a twisted version of something good. So when we talk about passion, God has a plan for us. This plan of God's will be pushed and prodded against until you compromise away God's plan for your life or remain firmly planted in his plan for your life.

Let’s set some framework. 

First, our big commandment. This is what we are to have passion for. 

“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:35-40 (NLT)

Love. An invisible thing but the most important idea. Paul tries to give a good definition to the intangible in his letter to the church in Corinth.

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 

Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. 

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13 (NLT)

Now, I want to spring with this foundation of love already established into a current news story that holds an idea that I see many falling prey to: Christian Nationalism. 

The headline reads: “Michael Flynn: From government insider to holy warrior" (https://apnews.com/article/michael-flynn-christian-nationalism-investigation-50fa5dcff7f99cf93409fcd6c1357bee)

He's quoted as saying, “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God, right?”

Then it goes on to define Christian Nationalism: “Christian nationalism seeks to merge the identity of Christians and Americans, so that to be a ‘true” American is to be Christian – and a certain type of Christian. The ideology pushes the idea that the United States was founded on biblical principles [which I have no doubt it mostly was] and has a favored relationship with a Christian God, said Samuel Perry, a sociologist at the University of Oklahoma who studies conservative Christianity and politics. 

I’ll be honest. When I think of what I could compromise to grow my local church, adopting Christian Nationalism would be it. 

Now I find the next sentence to line up with my observations too. “It is distinct from the practice of Christianity, and Perry’s research has found that many Americans who are inclined toward Christian nationalism don’t go to church.”

Perry goes on to say: “This has nothing to do with Christian orthodoxy. It has nothing to do with loving Jesus or wanting to be a good disciple or loving your neighbor or self-sacrifice or anything like that. It has everything to do with Christian ethno-culture and specifically whit Christian ethno-culture.”

Some big ideas there. But the cliff note version. It has nothing to do with following Jesus – loving God and loving neighbor. Instead, it’s a mixed up identity of white and Christian culture. 

Christian Nationalism is something to be avoided.

When we become more passionate for political power and having society shaped the way that we want, when we give up love for that, we are left with a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. In the end, pursuing that over following Jesus results in nothing. Or maybe even something worse than nothing. The destruction of all things God calls us to do as well as His Kingdom being neglected. For if we don’t focus on God and His kingdom, nobody will. 

I have no problem if you think the election was fraudulent. People have thought that my whole life. It's as if we don't remember 2000 or 2016 and now it's wrong to feel that way.

But Christian nationalism is where I draw the line. I will adamantly oppose it.

I get it. I really, sincerely, at the core of my heart do. We all want to be around like-minded people. We want to quit fighting battles with the world. We want to raise our kids around people who share our values.

The place for that isn't the United States though. That’s a misdirected passion. A passion for things that are good invested in the wrong place, which I think is always the source of the greatest atrocities. The place for that passion is following Jesus in your church with your church family. Then letting that love overflow into the relationships around you.

Now, you'll notice the sentence in the articles that says most Christian Nationalists don't go to church. That’s been my observation too. This is where the passion to build a better world gets messed up in practice. That passion to build a better nation, detached from church, produces Christian Nationalism. 

The kingdom of God needs passionate people serving Jesus together. But history shows us that trying to make the nation Christian doesn't work out well. Let's not repeat those mistakes. 

So if you’re flirting with the idea of being a Christian Nationalist, I encourage you to get involved in a church and serve the Kingdom of God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And together, we'll love and help our neighbors to make this world a better place.

You do rightly feel a call to invest your life in something bigger. It's just misdirected if you unleash that passion on Christian Nationalism. Take the humble and serving path modeled by Jesus over the path of the sword and power.

Now, if I was talking to you as a person in a position of authority in the State, my message would be different. I would be telling you to align the state as much as possible to the kingdom of God without oppressing people. Work for the poor. Work for the powerless. Bring about justice. Live in righteousness. And as much as we can do that in our lives, we must. But I’m not addressing this message here to the people who control this land. Instead, in a way, we are the poor and powerless. None of us has the power to get any law changed beyond locally and even then we struggle. We barely have a voice.

But we must recognize that we, as people who have surrendered our lives to Jesus and His will, will sometimes face a state that is opposed to the will of God. And generally, when it does that, it will proclaim that it is doing the will of God. And when that happens, we still do God’s will, and not what the state wants. We see this in the life of Corrie Ten Boom. The Germans were rounding up Jews to put them in concentration camps after conquering the Netherlands. And what did she do? She and her sister rebelled against the authorities and helped the Jews. This is living out the loyalty above all other loyalties.

And resistance to the evil German state was widespread among the Christians in Nazi Germany. Jews weren’t the only people killed in the Holocaust despite that being what we think of when we think of the Holocaust. It is estimated that 3 million Christians were killed in the Holocaust, but it’s hard to find an accurate number, as it is also hard to tell who was executed just because of their nationality regardless of their religion. But they also spied on and targeted priests and pastors. At Dachau, the Germans held 2,720 priests and pastors in the concentration camp. One of them is one of my heroes, Pastor Martin Niemoller. A hero because of his boldness that caused him to be sent away to that concentration camp.

As Dr. Laurence White described it in a message I heard him give:

In 1934, during his second year as chancellor of the German Reich, Adolf Hitler invited the leaders of the evangelical churches of Germany to a meeting in Berlin. His goal was to quell mounting criticism from the Christian community of the Nazi regime and its attempts to subvert the churches. Among those present at that meeting was a fiery young Lutheran pastor from a Berlin suburb…named Martin Niemoller. Niemoller would later recall this encounter as the moment from which he knew that Germany was doomed. Hitler was amiable and deliberately reassuring as he sought the support of these prominent churchmen. He promised the pastors that the position of the church in Germany was safe and secure - that its legal protections, its tax exemptions, and state support would remain unchanged under the Nazi government. Niemoller pushed to the front of the group to confront the chancellor directly and reject his casual consignment of Christians to social irrelevance. Standing face to face with Germany's ruler, the brash young pastor asserted: "Our concern, Herr Hitler, is not for the church. Our concern is for the soul of our country." An embarrassed silence followed his remark and it was immediately evident that Niemoller spoke only for himself. [He, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, stood alone.] His chagrined colleagues quickly shuffled him away from the front of the room. Noting their timid reaction, the dictator smiled as he replied, "The soul of Germany, you can leave that to me."”

And so they did -- Christians looked the other way while innocent people were slaughtered and a nation was led down the path to destruction. (source: http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF16H41.pdf)

For many of them, their loyalty to God was not above their loyalty to the state. They just went along with Hitler. They didn’t want to rock the boat. They didn’t want to cause any outrage. They didn’t want to sacrifice like Niemoller and find themselves also in a concentration camp. They just conformed to the State rather than Jesus. And atrocity followed. That is the end result of the church conforming to the state. It is never good. It empowers the powers and principalities of this world to unleash hell on earth unhindered. When we cave to the pressure to give blind obedience to the state, we become a tool for evil rather than a vessel for the beauty and way of God to flow through. We lose our prophetic voice as we become an example of conformity rather than the countercultural revolution of Jesus.

I propose that loyalty to Biden (or Democrats) or loyalty to Trump is just as spiritually damaging. We shouldn’t give loyalty to anyone above Jesus. 

Martin Niemoller gave the famous quote, which I’m sure that you know even if you don’t know Niemoller:

In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me--and by that time no one was left to speak up.

This wasn’t some abstract concept for Niemoller. He was then imprisoned by Hitler and served at concentration camps for eight years.  He wasn’t released until he was freed by the allies in 1945.  Unlike his famous peer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Niemoller made it out alive grew old, and eventually died in 1984, spending his life going around the world giving a warning such as this sermon serves here today.

We can easily point the fingers at Christians who compromised the gospel in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany, but we have to be careful to not do the same thing here in America.

We have to keep focused on God. And the scary thing is that evil will disguise itself in Scripture, in God language, in sheep’s clothing.

Remember when the devil tried to trick Jesus. The story goes….

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.

During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’”

Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the LORD your God.’”

Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.”

Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say,

You must worship the LORD your God and serve only him.’”

Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus. Matthew 4:1-11 (NLT)

Disguising evil into something that seems good. Satan is a master of that craft. 

And we have one right here in front of us. A very similar temptation to the last temptation given to Jesus here. A temptation to control the governments of this world. 

The siren call of the American culture and nationalism is alluring and tough to resist. Where have we compromised? 

We can just say that the battle of loyalties is a thing of the past and deceive ourselves. All eras seem to have moments where the state strives to pull us away from our ultimate loyalty to God.

But no matter the situation, we must always choose faithfulness to God. A loyalty above all other loyalties. We always choose love.

Dirk Willems was one of many fugitive Christians because his doctrine didn’t jive with the Catholics or Protestants during the reformation. Back when churches had control of the states. Eventually, he was arrested and imprisoned for his faith. 

Unlike many others, Dirk escaped from the prison tower he was locked in. He tied together strips of cloth to make a rope, which he used to slide down the prison wall. He set out across the countryside, when a guard spotted him and started chasing him. In Dirk's path of escape was an ice-covered pond. He took the risk and crossed the thin ice safely. The guard – who wasn’t on a prisoner’s malnutrition diet - was substantially heavier. When he crossed the lake after Dirk, he fell through the ice into the freezing water.

[My own thoughts: Yes, Dirk was freed. His pursuer fell into the water! I would take that moment and run to freedom, but Dirk had other thoughts.]

Dirk asked himself, “Was this God's rescue? Has God saved me from my enemies?” Dirk realized the answer was, “no.” For Dirk, this was a call to help someone in need. He believed in Jesus's teaching to love even our enemies. So Dirk turned back and rescued the guard. Dirk saved his enemy. 

Afterward, Dirk was arrested again, placed in a more secure prison, and was burned at the stake.  (source: https://izbicki.me/public/youth-group-questions/dirkwillems.pdf)

How is that for a happy ending? Dirk gave up his life to love his enemy. A loyalty above all other loyalties.

We’re called to place loving God and loving others above all else. No matter the cost. Avoid Christian Nationalism. Use that passion we have for creating a better world to be a better people, loving God and loving one another. 

No Room For Let's Go Brandon In The Church

I don’t know if you saw the video that happened in a church in Texas a few month’s back. I had multiple people bring it up with me in conversations, so I thought it may be worth addressing here. I originally started this that week, but I wanted to give time to distance my thoughts from that moment and to see if I really felt led to preach it. It’s such a touchy subject, but I think that we can and must enter into it with a Jesus perspective. That is sort of what we do in all issues. We enter into them without taking the us versus them views of the world. We refuse to adopt or identify primarily with a worldly tribe. Our tribe is the Jesus tribe, and in that tribe, we passionately view everyone as made in the image of God.

I debated on showing the video and decided not to because it crosses a line for what should happen in a church despite it being a video of something happening in a church. The video itself shows a worship leader encouraging a church to chant “Let’s Go Brandon!” And briefly, for those who don’t know the phrase, a NASCAR racer named Brandon Brown won a race. The crowd started a vulgar chant directed at Joe Biden. It was coming through during the interview and the NBC interviewer said that the crowd was chanting “Let’s Go Brandon!” And so the more socially acceptable chant replaced the vulgar one within days.

So that’s the background.

Now to look at our local context here in the middle of rural Midwest America. I know that if I wanted to grow a club in the disguise of the church, I would preach gun rights, Trumpism, sports, rugged individualism, and, in this case, the idea of Let’s Go Brandon every week. That would grow a church in our community. I see pastors doing that in some places to much success.

But that is not the kingdom of God. It isn’t even close. It’s folk American religion.

As Christians, we often speak truths – we have an obligation to speak truths – always in love - that the community we live in doesn’t want to hear. That is how we change things. We can’t change things for the better by just conforming. We are different than the world around us and one of those ways is shown in how we enter into the politics of the day.

Jesus offers an alternative way to live in this world. We will get to that more in just a bit.

I enter into this knowing that Christians can be Biden or Trump supporters. They can be for or against the vaccination. I personally do struggle with whether a Christian can be for the mandates, but I will offer grace and love to those that disagree with me on that subject. But it makes no sense to me that a Christian would make someone lose their livelihood and ability to provide housing and feed their family, but I talked about that a few months back.

It has always been my goal, whether it has been realized or not, to have a church filled with Democrats and Republicans. Socialists and Libertarians. Even Buckeyes and Wolverines fans. I find in this world of divisiveness that this goal being realized is very hard because everyone wants you to agree 100% with their views or they won’t respect you. And so they’ll go find a church that doesn’t challenge them on an issue or that just agrees with them on it.

Our approach to interacting with the world – as it gets more heated and more full of hate toward people in other tribes has to be different than the way people who don’t know Jesus interact with those that disagree with them. The way we express our feelings about political leaders on the other side of the aisle, whether that’s Trump or Biden – Pelosi, McConnell, DeWine, Holcomb, Whitmer or even local opposition has to be different than the way the world interacts with their opposition.

So let’s look back 2,000 years to Scripture and see if we can get some timeless truths that we can apply today to show how we are supposed to behave in this environment.

In the time that Paul wrote his letters, the world wasn’t a big fan of Christians either. In this passage we are going to read, Paul is writing his young protégé, Timothy, to teach him how to interact with the world as a follower of Christ.

"I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. For, He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone." 1 Timothy 2:1-6 (NLT)

Pray for all people. Give thanks for them. Pray for kings and all who are in authority. This seems to be the exact opposite from what was going on in the church that I’m not showing the clip of.

It’s hard when specific issues are on the line - when we feel that our rights are being violated – to be loving toward the people who we may feel are wronging us or even oppressing us. Yet even in that case, Jesus told us to love our enemies. Bless those who persecute you.

The Jesus way isn’t our normal instincts. It isn’t the way of this world. But it must be the way we handle ourselves in this world.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t call out a lie. This doesn’t mean to blindly follow. This doesn’t mean that you can’t disagree, but it does mean that when you call out a lie, that when you rebel, that when you disagree, you will do it in love.

Another thought that is expressed in Scripture is that we are taught that the prosperity of bad leaders leads to even our prosperity.

Jeremiah wrote:
"This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.” Jeremiah 29:4-7 (NLT)

Again, it’s noted that we should pray for those who harm us.

But this passage provides further clarity.

In a world that may cause us to be disillusioned, we’re called to continue on living. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Marry and have children. Then encourage them to have children.

I like the idea that we are to live in such a way that those around will still believe this world is worth bringing children into. I fear so many are living in such fear, hate, and isolation, that nobody would want to bring children into their world. But we are called to be different.

We live – like Jeremiah said to live in those times – for the prosperity of the evil nation around us. For Babylon.

We are called to be a blessing, even when we feel that the world around us may be opposing us. That’s the Jesus way. A way of not conforming with the oppression of the governments around us. But also seeking for the welfare of the nation we find ourselves in.

We pray for our leaders. We seek their blessing. For in them being blessed, we will also be blessed.

Jesus taught,
“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48 (NLT)

Love your enemies. That’s one of Jesus’ more radical teachings, yet it is one we must exemplify. We must be different than the world around us. We cannot join in on the divisiveness and hate.

It’s easy to love those who love us. It’s easy to love those who are on our side. But Jesus wants us to love all – even those who persecute you. And when we do this, Jesus says that we “will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.”

We as the people who follow Jesus are to be identified by our love. Chanting “Let’s Go Brandon” in a church would tell people who are Democrats that we don’t love them. And we need to not do that. It would say that we are not welcoming. Not loving. And political affiliation is not what we should alienate people with. There may be certain political issues we have stances on that will naturally alienate people just by having our convictions, but the celebrity of politics and attacking an individual should not be one of them.

Personally, I dropped my affiliation with a political party in the last few years. That doesn’t mean that is the right or wrong approach. It’s just how I figured out how to navigate these times. I stand up for issues and don’t have a loyalty to political people or a party. I have found this liberating. It may look different for you as you learn to navigate these times. That’s okay, but your political life needs to be defined by love. Love for the person attacking you. Love for the person opposing you. Love as a root of the views you have.

If we were a massive congregation, I would get us all to start chanting, “Bless Joe Biden.” Then we could put that up on Youtube for the world to see. For that is what the sentiment of the church should be toward our President and all other political leaders, whether they are on the side of the issues we want them to be or not. For as Jeremiah noted regarding Babylon, “For its welfare will determine your welfare.”

Following Jesus really isn’t about getting a counter video on Youtube though. It’s about us living this Jesus life when it’s hard. In our daily lives. And it’s so different than the world around us.

Muhammad Ali said in The Greatest: My Own Story: “I'm a fighter. I believe in the eye-for-an-eye business. I'm no cheek turner. I got no respect for a man who won't hit back. You kill my dog, you better hide your cat.”

And that sentiment resonates with us. Vengeance is really a carnal instinct. It comes naturally. But forgiveness and love of enemy, like Jesus shared on the cross, is so difficult yet so divine. Redemptive and healing. Kingdom bringing.

The world says vengeance. And then I hear the whispering voice of God telling us this is why I call you to love your enemies. To bless those who persecute you. To pray for those who wrong you. To forgive those who need forgiven. We are called to break the cycle of violence and hate. When Jesus, hanging on the cross and dying, can declare, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do", I can do the same. I can forgive the monsters who seem unforgivable. I can forgive those who want to or have wronged me. Who oppose me.  I can live in this kingdom of faith. I can be an exile in this sad, foreign land bringing light and hope.  We are, as the Barbara Johnson first said, Easter people living in a Good Friday world.

So when it comes down to it, even when we are going through the worst circumstances, we are called to remain loving and forgiving. Because we know that following the death of Jesus on Friday comes the resurrection on Sunday. We know that God is at work turning what is meant for bad into good. God brings that about through us living in the land of faith as Jesus did. As exiles in our materialistic world. And living to bring about things that are better than the current reality shows us.

Eugene Peterson wrote: "Believing without loving is what gives religion a bad name. Believing without loving destroys lives. Believing without loving turns the best of creeds into a weapon of oppression. A community that believes but does not love or marginalizes love, regardless of its belief system or doctrinal orthodoxy or “vision statement,” soon, very soon, becomes a “synagogue of Satan” (page 261 of Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places.)

Our belief, when mixed with love, brings about the will of God even in the darkest of situations. Our lives aren't typically as dramatic as Jesus' life. We probably won't be executed by society like Jesus was for not conforming to their standards, living differently, and teaching revolutionary ideas. But the call to love in all situations is still there. We will be wronged. We will have people hurt us, intentionally and unintentionally. We need to still echo those words of the perfect exile, who while be murdered on a cross said, "Father, forgive them." We can forgive those who seem unforgivable. Even when they know not what they do. We must forgive those who seem unforgivable. We must love our enemies. We must bring a different flavor into this world. We are the ones to stop the cycle of hate in personal relationships and in the world at large. If not me, then who? If not you, then who?

Yet to do that, I think there is one point we must grasp: We are all sinners. And Jesus has died for and loves us all. We may individualize the death of Jesus a little too much in saying that Jesus loves me. It's true that Jesus loves me, but he also loves the people we love the least. He didn't just die for you and me; He died for everyone. This means that the person who you aren't forgiving is worthy of forgiveness just as much as you are worthy of it. They are also loved by God.

CS Lewis taught, “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”

This is the route to a better world.

Jesus is teaching an exile way of living. It's different than the ways of the world. Praying for leaders we don’t like and asking God to bless them when the world around us is saying the exact opposite is hard. Loving our enemies does not come naturally to us, but many of the exile things don't. Many things in the way of Jesus don’t. That's part of being an exile. We're in a culture that teaches us incorrectly on how to deal with being wronged. But Jesus is God in the flesh. And I concede that the creator of all of us knows the best way that we should live. And that is to love our enemies. To pray for those who lead us – even if we feel that they persecute us.

 

The Most Countercultural Action We Can Do - Love The Other

Despondent times. Whether it’s the news or just life in our community at the moment. I know through conversations that we flirt with despondency and hopelessness these days and then hopefulness returns when we get our thinking in check. It may fluctuate every ten minutes. It may be a swing of days.

In wrestling with this, I found this quote that really spoke to me.

Ronald Wallace, back in in 1999, in Elijah and Elisha describes our situation with the following:

We need not despair when we see great movements of evil achieving spectacular success on this earth, for we may be sure that God, in unexpected places, has already secretly prepared His counter-movement...Therefore the situation is never hopeless where God is concerned. Whenever evil flourishes, it is always a superficial flourish, for at the height of the triumph of evil God will be there, ready with His man and His movement and His plans to ensure that His own cause will never fail.

When everything looks dark; when all hope seems to be lost; when the plan of God in this world seems almost forgotten, God steps in.

This was the example we see in Jesus.

The Apostle Paul wrote that at just the right time, God sent his Son. God’s solution was wrapping his divinity with humanity in the person of Jesus. 

God knew humanity had strayed. He wanted us back. God wanted to restore things to the way they used to be. When God created, God loved it all. He declared it good. Life was perfect in the Garden of Eden. We were in a perfect relationship with God and one another. We had perfect purpose. Perfect provision. Perfect protection from anything bad. It was even perfect in that we had a choice to keep it that way.

But humanity chose poorly then, and we continue to choose poorly now.

At this moment, we're starting from a fallen state, yet God still wants to set it right. That’s the process of restoration. And that is the goal of God coming in the flesh through Jesus—for God to reconcile people back to Himself. To take us out of the darkness. To show us what it means to really live—free from fear, free from slavery to sin, free from hate. God coming in the flesh is a story of suffering and hope.

Jesus took on flesh so that people could see God as he really is and see how God wants us to live. 

God is still doing the same thing through you, through me, and through all who believe and follow the divine story.

And this happens through us living differently than the world around us.

Let me repeat that because I think it is important for these times. God wants to show all of humanity how he wants us to live and this happens through us living differently than the world around us. This can only happen when we live differently than the world around us.

Love the other. The person who disagrees with you. The person who opposes you. The person who hates you.

That is about the most countercultural, radical yet totally faithful thing we can do right now as followers of Jesus. It is how we join in on Jesus’ great work.

Jesus taught:

You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48 (NLT)

That’s about as clear as a biblical teaching can get.

And that is how we will be a witness – a sweet alluring aroma to a different way of living. We can choose to live a life that goes against the grain of hate in our society. A life of love.

As AW Tozer said,

We cannot pray in love and live in hate and still think we are worshipping God.

Now, I want to move this idea into how we are living. Possibly a dangerous thought, but I’m not going to apologize for going here. I feel it is my responsibility to address this. Probably one of the more prevailing fights in our society at the moment.

The conversation in our society has moved beyond whether one should get vaccinated or not. I want to be 100% clear. I would never speak from pulpit to give anyone medical advice because that is not my field. That’s a conversation for you to have with your doctor. So this is not me talking about whether you should or shouldn’t get vaccinated. I am deeply convicted addressing that is not my role as a pastor.  The conversation in society around us has shifted beyond that to now be about whether we will oppress those who disagree with us.

Now it doesn’t have to just be this issue. We can be filled with hate towards others on a lot of different views. It’s just that this one is new and vastly prevalent at the moment. So prevalent that hate in this context has almost become okay in our society.

As a pastor, I do have a role here. To teach that as Christians we should adamantly oppose oppression - people losing their livelihoods and means to support their family over a personal medical decision. Even if we disagree adamantly with people not being vaccinated, which we are all at liberty to do, we are called to love our enemies. That is one of the key elements that make us who we are as followers of Jesus.

Jesus taught:

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. John 13:34-35 (NLT)

Love.

Love should be our defining trait. And that love will make us so much different than the world around us.

We may not be sure of the science - although maybe some are - but the idea that we are to love the downtrodden and oppressed is something that we can be assured of. That is in our field. That should be one of our specialties. That should be what we are known for.

So now is the time. Speak up for the people around us who are at risk of losing their livelihoods. Even if it means you will lose friends or influence. You were called to your role for this time. To be a voice for love in the wilderness of hate.

I have heard friends couch the whole medical choice issue in the language of you need to do it my way or you’re not loving others. Even if that is the truth, we are still left with this.

What do you do to people who choose to not love you or others the way you think they should love you or others? Do we make them lose their livelihoods, careers, and ability to feed their family? Or do we take a different approach?

There are so many things in the current situation, but in life in general too, that we are probably wrong on. This should free us up to being gracious to one another. But I propose this idea. We should not go along with our society taking away people’s livelihoods or ability to feed their family.

Look at it this way. I can’t control whether someone is vaccinated or unvaccinated. No matter how passionate on the subject I am, I cannot control that. You cannot either.

But we can control whether we love people who are vaccinated and unvaccinated. We can always control that. We can always choose love.

What is more obvious than ever is that many people are following the wrong story at a crucial time in our history. Let that not be us. Let’s follow the right story.

We have this story of love and redemption that Jesus brought. A story we are called to live – to play our part in. And then opposing this story is a story of hatred and death. Division and destruction.

I see it any time there is a great act of evil, an attack, or the like. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram reveal the true nature of people’s hearts and shows me that many are filled with hate. People are selling out the true story—the story of God coming in the flesh—God restoring us and this world. Instead, they are buying into some tall tale, some fable, some flight of fancy that somehow takes the divine image away and replaces it with the idol of self. A story where it is more appealing to be practical than faithful. Like Adam and Eve, we also at times buy into a story of lies causing us to have these destructive yet timeless thoughts: “Did God really say that? You can’t be serious. God can’t be serious. Love your enemies? Pray for those who persecute you? That’s stupid. It won't work.”

From the beginning of time, there has been a little voice in our head that whispers the wrong story: "You don't really need to be holy - to be like Jesus. You actually don't have the time, and it won't work anyway. So just go back to your own life and try to survive as best as you can." And even when we fall prey and believe this lie at times, God is faithful when we are not and continues to seek restoration with us. 

We need to reclaim God’s story - our ultimate story. In the midst of all that is going on, this is what will bring a better world. The story of God coming in the flesh. The story of God in us. The story of God coming into the world, bringing light, bringing hope, and bringing restoration. If our story is anything other than that, if we let anything else other than that dictate our thoughts and actions – if we join in on the hatred of the moment, then we’ve been deceived.

We need more people like Antoine Leiris – If you remember back to November 2015, there was a terrible terrorist attack in Paris that killed 130 people. Antoine lost his wife Helene in the violence that shook Paris. He penned a poignant tribute to his wife, publishing it on his Facebook page:

On Friday night you stole the life of an exceptional being, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you won't have my hatred. If this God for which you kill indiscriminately made us in his own image, every bullet in the body of my wife will have been a wound in his heart.

So no, I don't give you the gift of hating you. You are asking for it but responding to hatred with anger would be giving in to the same ignorance that made you what you are.  You want me to be afraid, to view my fellow countrymen with mistrust, to sacrifice my freedom for security. You have lost.

It seems that after almost any great tragedy, we see this same beautiful story. It resonates in our souls. The story of forgiveness. Of redemption. Of loving one’s enemies. It is these stories that make our world better and prevent us from falling down the neverending downward spiral of hate which leads only to destruction and hell.

Antoine modeled for us taking seriously Jesus’ call to love our enemies. That is a love that goes countercultural to the way of this world. It may be the responsibility of the elected leaders to figure out solutions, enforce laws, keep order, and look out for the general welfare of the constituents. But it is my job, your job, and every Christian’s job to bring the love of God to people. To be God in the flesh to all we encounter. To love people. To pray for people. To stand up for the oppressed and powerless. To be a light in the darkness.

Our world desperately needs to come out of its dark thinking and neverending cycle of hatred and violence. In this depressing, dark existence, our world needs light--the same light that entered our world some 2000 years ago. The words of Isaiah can be repeated about our generation: "They have no dawn." Yet Jesus came into the world to shine a light, to bring the dawn, and he continues to shine His light through us because we are made in the image of God.

Jesus became flesh to add an exclamation point to His perfect, divine story that we are called to join in on. He came to kickstart the process of reconciliation.

We have a tendency to think of change through a top-down approach. In that framework, it is believed that the politicians or the powers that be need to be convinced of the change that needs to happen in our society for it to come about. But Jesus had a different story. He brought change from a bottom-up approach. Through humility rather the worldly instruments of power. He never once tried to grasp earthly reins of power. Instead, he tried to change the hearts and the minds of the people around Him.

It is all too easy to make laws or mandates and force people to be the way you want them to be. It’s much harder to set an example of love and give the rest up to God.

But if this world is going to be reconciled with God. If it is going to have its heart changed, that reconciliation must start with us. In us. The way we live. The way we express ourselves. Loving our enemies.

Following Jesus isn't easy. Sometimes it is really difficult because the current of the world's story is trying to pull us under. But Jesus wants us to give Him our all. God wants to change the world and He does that by changing the way we live our life day in and day out.

God became flesh and came to dwell among us as a baby in a manger. God is the master of creating compelling story. Eventually this led to the cross. He was willing to go through all of the pain and suffering of life to reconcile this world to Himself. He was telling a different story. Because God turns crucifixions into a resurrections. Darkness into light. Hopelessness into hope.

Restoration is the goal of the God coming in the flesh. Jesus wrapped himself in flesh to put an exclamation point on the story of restoration. We then turn around and do the same in our world. To our neighbors, to strangers, even to enemies. We let transform us. And through us, God wraps His love around others. We exemplify a different story by the way we live. Our humility and living the way God wants us to live is the way God coming in the flesh becomes real today and changes our world. It's light in the darkness. It's the broken being repaired. It's restoration. This is our story, and the next chapter isn’t written yet! Is it going to be about faithfulness to God or living like the world? That’s up to you.

You Are A Child Of God or What Does It Mean When God Doesn't Answer My Prayers

 

You are a child of God.

An old preacher named Fred Craddock used to tell a story about vacationing with his wife in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. One night they found a quiet little restaurant, where they looked forward to a private meal. While they were waiting for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests. [It wasn’t Colonel Sanders. That would be Kentucky] Craddock leaned over and whispered to his wife, “I hope he doesn’t come over here.” He didn’t want anyone intruding on their privacy. But sure enough, the man did come over to their table. “Where you folks from?” he asked in a friendly voice. “Oklahoma,” Craddock answered. “Splendid state, I hear, although I’ve never been there,” the stranger said. “What do you do for a living?” “I teach homiletics at the graduate seminary of Phillips University,” Craddock replied. “Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I’ve got a story to tell you.” And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with Craddock and his wife. Dr. Craddock said he groaned inwardly and thought to himself, “Oh, no! Here comes another preacher story! It seems like everybody has at least one.”

The man stuck out his hand. “I’m Ben Hooper,” he said. “I was born not far from here across the mountains. My mother wasn’t married when I was born, so I had a pretty hard time. When I started to school, my classmates had a name for me, and it wasn’t a very nice name. I used to go off by myself at recess and lunch time because the things they said to me cut me so deep. What was worse was going to town on Saturday afternoons and feeling like every eye was burning a hole through me, wondering just who my father was. “When I was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to our church. I would always go in late and slip out early. But one day the preacher said the benediction so fast I got caught and to walk out with the crowd. I could feel every eye in the church on me. Just about the time I got to the door I felt a big hand on my shoulder. I looked up and the preacher was looking right at me. ‘Who are you, son? Whose boy are you?’ he asked. I felt this big weight coming down on me. It was like a big black cloud. Even the preacher was putting me down. But as he looked down at me, studying my face, he began to smile a big smile of recognition. ‘Wait a minute!’ he said. ‘I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God.’ With that he slapped me across the rump and said, ‘Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.’

The old man looked across the table at Fred Craddock and said, “Those were the most important words anybody ever said to me, and I’ve never forgotten them.” With that, he smiled shook hands with Craddock and his wife, and moved on to another table to greet old friends. And as he walked away, Craddock – a native Tennessean himself – remembered from his studies of Tennessee history that on two occasions the people of Tennessee had elected to the office of governor men who had been born out of wedlock. One of them was a man named Ben Hooper. (Source: http://www.calvaryfullerton.org/Bstudy/49%20Eph/2005/49Eph01e.htm)

You are a child of God. 

And once we realize that, we can live free. As Jesus taught here.

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of Godabove all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Matthew 6:25-34 (NLT)

And then I want to pull in another passage.

At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”

Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.

Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?”

“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

Matthew 17:15-20 (NLT)

But you know what he follows that story up with, a story that bad things are going to happen.

After they gathered again in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

Matthew 17:21-23 (NLT)

Despite being a child of God, bad things happened. He’s warning them, but he also just gave them the teaching of having a mustard seed faith that is linked to God working in that teaching of Jesus.

Mustard seed faith. I want to propose one thing. That size of faith is just the request. Our faith isn’t magical. Just necessary. But it doesn’t have to be giant.

I can’t tell you why God doesn’t just always automatically heal. I think in the world where we have two competing sides in Christianity – one that seems to oppose healing and one that seems to have a God that just heals quickly and automatically – we struggle to make sense of the struggle. Neither camp provides a way of thinking to carry us through that time in between asking and receiving. That time of the valley. I can’t tell you why you sometimes suffer despite being a child of God.

But What if just praying is enough faith? What if that is the mustard seed? And then how do we deal with not receiving the healing? 

In the end, we have to just continue pushing in. Our faith isn’t dependent upon a healing. Maybe today is the day for the miracle you’ve bene seeking. And then that is where we feel like we have to stop because talking about how today may not be the day goes against the grain. It goes against the false name and claim it way of thinking. But I want to tell you today that learning to cope and grow with the struggle does not mean that you are lacking faith. You are a child of God whether you get the healing or not.

You don’t need Superman faith. You don’t need a rambunctious, flamboyant, exuberant faith. Just faith like a mustard seed. A faith that is willing to just come to God and ask him what you desire. Just a faith that is enough that leads you to God’s throne room in prayer.

Just enough faith to pray. Now is the time for simple prayers. Like a child can pray.

The things you care about but feel stupid praying about. God wants to hear about them. God wants to have a vibrant conversation with you about those things. And that won't happen if you think they are just too stupid to bring up.

Because in the end, God cares about you and the things you care for. As we grow closer to him and allow the restoration of our broken places to happen, the things we care for will shift closer to the things that he cares for. But until then, we are who we are right now. So feel free to pray what is on your heart. Don't be fake with God. He won't think you're stupid. He loves you. He can handle your request. He can handle your disappointment. He can handle reality. 

In the end, it’s God’s responsibility. If you have asked, you have exhibited the mustard seed faith. And if he doesn’t heal, discouragement often sets in.

I remember the night our twins died. We came home from the hospital, with the dead babies still inside Lindsay. And we anointed her with oil and prayed for healing. I wanted God to give me a miracle story to tell the world. And I had the faith that he could do it. Lindsay had more faith. The next morning, we arrived at the hospital and asked them to do another ultrasound because we were wanting to see the miracle that I would tell the whole world about. My dead twins would be alive….They humored us with another ultrasound, but they were still dead. And instead of a miracle story to tell the world, God gave me this story. And as we wept throughout the delivery and the day with them in our room, as we held our dead babies, we were left wondering why God didn’t give the miracle we desired. The miracle we had faith for.

We are God’s children. Why did this happen to us?

And in some circles, people would tell me that I didn’t have enough faith. In other circles, they would tell me that it was unrealistic to expect the miracle. And yet, I’m somewhere in the uncomfortable mystery without an easy answer. God could heal but didn’t. I had faith but God didn’t respond with healing. 

But then we come face to face with the story of Job. It’s Job ranting and raving and arguing with friends for page after page about a tragedy that happened to Job.

God answers all the bickering in the conversation between Job and his friends.

“Who is this that questions my wisdom

with such ignorant words?

Brace yourself like a man,

because I have some questions for you,

and you must answer them.

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell me, if you know so much.

Who determined its dimensions

and stretched out the surveying line?

What supports its foundations,

and who laid its cornerstone

as the morning stars sang together

and all the angels shouted for joy?

“Who kept the sea inside its boundaries

as it burst from the womb,

and as I clothed it with clouds

and wrapped it in thick darkness?

For I locked it behind barred gates,

limiting its shores.

I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come.

Here your proud waves must stop!’

“Have you ever commanded the morning to appear

and caused the dawn to rise in the east?

Have you made daylight spread to the ends of the earth,

to bring an end to the night’s wickedness?

As the light approaches,

the earth takes shape like clay pressed beneath a seal;

it is robed in brilliant colors.

The light disturbs the wicked

and stops the arm that is raised in violence.

Job 38:2-15 (NLT)

It goes on and we won’t read it all here, but God concludes his first rebuke with this.

Then the LORD said to Job,

“Do you still want to argue with the Almighty?

You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?”

Then Job replied to the LORD,

“I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers?

I will cover my mouth with my hand.

I have said too much already.

I have nothing more to say.”

Job 40:1-5 (NLT)

So we enter into this age old struggle. A struggle shown in the ancient book of Job. A struggle where we could cite so many stories in our days, whether friends dying way too young or other tragedies and disease. We have these promises from Jesus that God will take care of us. We know we are children of God, yet we find ourselves at times in unresolved valleys. We have faith. We have asked, yet it doesn’t seem that God has delivered. The healing, the deliverance, the blessing that we want – still not realized.

I want that realized for all of us. It starts with a faith like a mustard seed. A willingness to pray. To be honest with God about your feelings and ask. The simple prayer that you feel foolish praying. Ask it.

And then it continues by not giving up. I picture Job just saying, “Screw it, God. I’m out.” I’m the type that would do that three chapters in to his forty-two chapter story. And then the blessing, the true realization, would never come. Instead, Job wrestled with it. And the blessing eventually came.

But we need a belief system that can get us through those days where the healing doesn’t come. And in many instances, like the instance with my twins, there is no waiting for a deliverance or healing. The moment is gone.

But what do we do with all of this? Thankfully, Scripture gives us that too.

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Romans 5:1-5 (NLT)

So drop the empty platitudes. Don’t tell someone who has prayed in faith that they don’t have enough faith for a healing. Don’t tell them to find the sin in their life as if Jesus’ blood doesn’t cover all our sins. Jesus has already brought victory. They have already exhibited the mustard seed faith in prayer. Don’t tell someone to just deny their illness as if lying to themselves is a way to manufacture faith. Laying claim to a miracle is not denial and lying. Lies never produce faith. Faith must stand up to the reality we find ourselves in and go to God to fix this broken place.

And then continue to push in toward God. You are his child after all.

Suffering does produce hope. We must allow ourselves to grow closer to God in all things. Grow in hope. Learn to “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” in all situations. Be the opposite of the world. Instead of despair, hope. And keep pushing on. That opportunity, God will deliver. That healing, God will bring. God doesn’t cause bad things, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t happen, although we can be assured that he will use them for good. In all things grow closer to your Father.

And live in the truth that God will provide and what he provides is sufficient. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Push into God. And he will give you the strength you need. You are a child of God. No matter what happens.

 

 

Gen X Core Values (as described by Adam Curry on Joe Rogan)

 

Two Gen X core values (as explained by Adam Curry on the recent Joe Rogan show.):

1. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

2. I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

As a whole, Gen X has tried to stay under the radar in the fight between Baby Boomers and Millennials over what dogma has to be essential to be a person in society because we adamantly believed there should be no dogma one has to hold and live to be loved, accepted, and protected. Despite a group's toxic dogma, a Gen Xer would fight for your right to party and hold that dogma. Just don't hurt others. Everybody hurts, sometime, but we just shouldn't add to that hurt. We should help alleviate that hurt. Just don't stop others from being able to say what they believe.

Then the hate and intolerance came back disguised as diversity and tolerance. Such an orwellian trick of words. The red, red wine spilled all over the dance floor. Dogma switched from religious views to "science" as it seemed like the world was trying to keep us separated.

This new framework was just as toxic as the one we Gen Xers rebelled against. We tore down the dogma of division to only have it replaced by a different dogma of division. The winds of change were only temporary. The better world we dreamed of and seemed to experience for a while never totally manifested. Racism switched from something to oppose, work on in ourselves, and work against to something we all inherently are. An evil accepted in people who aren't white. We apparently couldn't all just get along.

And that's just one issue. On an on. The culture switched to a new toxic dogma of hate orwellianingly disguised as love. We wanted to heal the world and make it a better place. But hate just kept springing up and we stopped resisting it. If you don't think this is true, think of the group that doesn't conform to your views. Are they accepted? Or are they snowflakes? Are they deplorable? Are they rednecks? Are they thugs?

I feel like I'm an old curmudgeon, but I want love and peace. I want tolerance and acceptance. I want us to be one people, not at odds. We are stronger with real diversity - not conformity disguised as diversity. We can get there, but it takes changing course. Right now, we are not on the way.

What The Church Can Learn From A Bunch Of Comic Retailers Getting Together

So this last week, I flew off to Portland for a ComicsPRO meeting. It's the only comics meeting put on by comic book retailers. Publishers come. Distributors come. Creators come. And it has a purpose: to create better brick and mortar comic retail stores. You know those friendly, neighborhood stores that sell comics every day of the week and help people find a story that they can love. Stores like the two that I own with my brother.

I wear these two hats in life: Being a pastor and being a comic book retailer. Once in a rare moon they seem to ruffle against one another, but most of the time they make things better and give me a perspective that pastors don't have and comic book retailers don't have. So those two hats intermingle in my mind all the time, hopefully, making me better.

With people at the meeting knowing my day job as a pastor, I get some interesting conversations. People share with me their faith journey. Some have grown up in religious families and rejected that life. Others share how they still go to church. And others share how they never did and don't even believe in God.

I realized this though. The church doesn't have the corner on making lives better. People like you do that where you work. Do you love others? Do you try to make this world a better place? When Jesus taught that the greatest commandments were to love God and love one another, he was tearing down religious precepts that we think make us right with God. And when the church becomes about something other than Jesus' greatest commandment, people start, justifiably so, hating the church. They'll go to their comic shop to find love. They'll go to the bar to find love. They will go wherever love is to be found.

I had this strange conversation with a homeless guy who meandered into the hotel lobby. He was once in law enforcement. He then was heartbroken by a lover who cheated on him. He was craving a fix of some sort. He didn't make the most sense, but he still needed to feel loved.

In a way, we're no better. We may have reached that point of brokenness and had someone around to help us through. Or maybe we haven't reached that point yet. But I was reminded in that conversation that we all need love. We need to be surrounded in love. We need communities of love. Without a community of love, that homeless person is what we all become. I understand the issue of homelessness is extremely complex, but in the midst of it is this desire to be loved. We are all made to be loved and belong.

This is what I liked about the meeting of retailers. Whether it was guests or retailers ourselves, we all shared a common mission, we all knew that we went through the same trenches together, we all knew that we are the fortunate ones whose businesses are still open. And we get to do this selling what we love. We all have stories of how comic books made us better. How we explored ideas while thinking about Genosha. Traveled to other worlds on a silver surfboard. Dreamed of community like the Bones shared. Desired to be teammates like the Justice League. Explored the atrocity of the holocaust through a tale of mice. We have seen heroes live and heroes die. We've learned to be empathetic through living hundreds of different lives vicariously. But we sort of share this common bond. Knowing that the thing we sell made us better. And we want to pass that along.

My friends in comic retailing weren't just discussing how to sell more comics although that is essential for us to stay in business and prosper. We were exploring how to sell more comics so that our stores can get books into people's hands that will help them connect with one another and dream of a better tomorrow. And we aren't shy about our different views, but we are optimistic that we can be this retail outlier in a world of so many brick and mortar stores closing. Through it all, we connect with other people who share common interests and dream of a better future together.

True, Walking Dead doesn't quite do that. Or does it in some way? Does it, through exploring the monstrosities we can become, show us what really matters in life? In looking at monsters and villains, do we truly see how to live?

Then I think of the church. Preferences can't be catered to in a church like they can in a comic shop, but people expect that. The church should be a place of refocus and hope. A place where all can feel loved. It should be a group of people on such a common and passionate mission together because we have been transformed in a way far greater than any comic book can achieve. We have surrender our lives to a loving and sacrificial king. That's not everyone's experience though. It's often just smoke and mirrors, hypocrisy and disguised hate. It's heartbreaking rather than life giving.

Do we love people unconditionally? Or do they have to meet a criteria to be loved? Do we offer hope to the hopeless? Or do they have to conform to have hope? Do we offer friendship? Or is that thrown away at the first disagreement? How did we mess it up so much?

In a world where the church should be a beacon of the things of God, the church messes it up so much at times that people go elsewhere to feel loved. It baffles me - and I'm still trying to digest how I felt that more at a comic retailers get together than I often do at church. It may not be comic retailers for you. It may be some other group. No matter what group it is, this is messed up. Although I'm thankful to experience it with my retailing peers

Love God. Love one another. Unconditionally. With every part of my being. The church should be living that everywhere. But this week I saw the comic retail community living it while in the church I feel attacked and hated at times. That may be your experience too.

We were all made to feel loved. The church was made to love people. Let's get to doing that no matter what our day job is.

An Attempt at a Theologically Conservative yet Compassionate Take on the Issue of Homosexuality

When young outsiders are asked their perception of Christians, the top two thoughts are that Christians are judgmental and that we are anti-homosexual. Interestingly, these are the same perceptions that young churchgoers have of Christians as well (unChristian 28, 34). I don't think these views are unwarranted.

So I think this, like the issue last week – maybe even moreso with this one – needs to be thought through and dealt with truthfully and kindly.

The issue is nothing new. Unlike some issues that the Bible doesn’t address, this is one that the Bible clearly addresses. As it was a prevalent practice in the Roman Empire, the early church wrestled with the issue of homosexuality too. We see Paul write about it in three separate places. The first that we will look at is in his setup to his letter to the church at the heart of the empire of the day, the church in Rome.

“But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

Romans 1:18-28 (NLT)

What we see here is a common, rhetorical approach. A way to give a speech that is convincing. Paul is building up in this letter to the church in Rome to a point where he declares us all sinners (Romans 3:23) and to explain that God is transitioning His chosen people from being the nation of Israel to being the church (Romans 9:6-7, 30-31). Yet Paul doesn't start with the lead. He is trying to persuade people. In doing so, he starts with something that they all would view as a sin, homosexuality. That's his lead. From there he goes on to expand the list of sins. What we can conclude here is that Paul felt that people would agree with homosexuality being a sin. That issue was the gimme that the crowd would all go “yep” on.  It was the easy agreement before the hard stuff. That was what Paul was trying to do. He's trying to bring them along to his conclusion. But then he hits the hammer down and tells them that they are also all sinners. We're all sinners, and we can't just point our finger at others and declare them sinners.

In another letter, Paul includes homosexuality in his list of sins to the church in Corinth.

“Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6:9 (NLT)

And here it is mentioned in his letter to his young protégé, Timothy.

We know that the law is good when used correctly. For the law was not intended for people who do what is right. It is for people who are lawless and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who consider nothing sacred and defile what is holy, who kill their father or mother or commit other murders. The law is for people who are sexually immoral, or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders,liars, promise breakers, or who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching that comes from the glorious Good News entrusted to me by our blessed God.

1 Timothy 1:8-11 (NLT)

These are the verses you should go to if someone wants to know the church’s stance because using the Old Testament story of Sodom, despite its prevalence in discussions about this, is not a great analogy against homosexuality. The prophet Ezekiel gives that story a different meaning and says Sodom was punished because they didn’t help the poor and needy. Nor is it a good approach to pull out the Old Testament law as we talked about last week. Because then you’re left with why did you choose to pick this one out while eating a shrimp or crab dinner with them. Awkward. There is no reason to stretch and include those sections because there is enough biblical evidence in other places without the baggage. People can't relegate the teachings of Paul to being in the Old Testament Law. Paul’s teachings that we read earlier are clear teachings in the New Testament.

Nowhere in the Bible is homosexuality shown as being okay. The argument to make homosexuality biblically permissible has to start by saying that the authors of Scripture don't say what they are clearly saying. The authority of Scripture and the historical methods of interpretation have to be attacked.

This is a method that some are willing to use. William M. Kent, at one time a member of a committee assigned by United Methodists, who are now going through a split over this very subject, to study homosexuality, declared that “the scriptural texts in the Old and New Testaments con­demning homosexual practice are neither inspired by God nor otherwise of enduring Christian value. Considered in the light of the best biblical, theological, scientific, and social knowledge, the biblical condemnation of homosexual practice is better under­stood as representing time and place bound cultural prejudice.” (http://www.albertmohler.com/documents/homosexualitybible.pdf)

The debate over this particular issue goes much deeper than the issue at hand as it attacks the inspiration of all of Scripture to get to the point. To go down that road, we can then make the Bible say whatever we want it to say. Critics may claim that Christians already do that, but I would argue that we don't. We have methods of interpretation that are generally accepted across denominational divides, and we try to follow the Bible’s teachings as best as we can, even when we don’t like what it is teaching.

There are certain issues in the modern church where we wrestle with Scripture (like women's role in the church for instance) and people can come to different conclusions based upon what verse and concept they choose as their starting point. Homosexuality really isn't an issue like this. The view in our society is changing; the view in Scripture isn’t.

Another approach people take is to say the Jesus himself never dealt with the issue of homosexuality. My friend, Samuel Long, who is the academic dean at Great Lakes, my alma mater, and has spoken here, wrote this: "Although Jesus does not discuss homosexuality, and it does not come up in the New Testament with any regularity, when it does, it is clearly done so in a negative way. If God had intended homosexuality to be a viable sexual alternative for some people, He would not have condemned it as an abomination. It is never mentioned in Scripture in anything but negative terms, and nowhere does the Bible even hint at approving or giving instruction for homosexual relationships. Proponents of homosexuality have to start by saying that the Scripture doesn’t say what it clearly says. They have to start attacking the authority of Scripture. And while we can interpret and apply passages differently, discounting clear teachings out of hand make the Bible less than what it is."

Approving homosexuality, biblically speaking, always comes back to disregarding Scripture and reading it in ways that are not good Bible study methods. I have read the most prominent books pushing a pro-homosexuality reading of the Bible. I have read articles doing the same. In the end, it always comes back to this.

So biblically speaking, I do not think we can make a case using historical Bible study methods that homosexuality is not a sin. Yet that still doesn't make it an easy issue.

Now, if I lost you during the Bible study portion or have upset you, please give this message another chance from this point forward.

Issues like homosexuality prove extremely difficult. Because we don’t want an issue like this to keep people away from Jesus or church. I even fear that preaching this sermon could stop my ability to minister to some of you by you withdrawing from the church because you adamantly disagree.

I get it. First, it does hurt a person with any sort of empathy to tell people who disagree or are kind, loving, and monogamous homosexuals that homosexuality is a sin. It hurts to alienate them over this issue. It just hurts to be what comes across as mean. I wish I could just tell people that homosexuality is okay for them if that is what they want. But that just isn’t what the Scriptures teach. I surmise that the Scriptures don’t teach it is okay because homosexuality, like all sins, is not what is best for a person’s life. Can I explain why that is? Nope. I wish I could explain it convincingly, but I can't.

Second, saying that homosexuality is a sin goes straight in the face of what we are taught by our society to teach. And wrestling with our society is difficult on any issue.

There is a tide that we are swimming against when we teach that the Bible teaches homosexuality is a sin. A tide that I would rather not swim against because swimming against the tide is never fun or easy, but I can't if I still hold that the Bible is the inspired word of God. For some, they will just reject the Bible. Others, may just reject God. I am not comfortable rejecting either.

But even if homosexuality is a sin, does that mean that we automatically leap to wanting our earthly nation to legislate our morality. This seems to be where a lot of the conflict in our society over the issue comes from. For many American Christians, the United States has almost become synonymous with the church. This is dangerous and heresy of the greatest sort, but in making this mistake a lot of missteps are made.

I want to propose a different approach for the church. What if we focused on God’s kingdom rather than the kingdom of the United States? Now if you were an elected official making legislation at the state or federal level, this conversation would be different. None of us are in that position, so I’m not going to explore the role of a Christian in those position. Instead, let’s focus on our role in society.

Our teaching that homosexuality is a sin yet we love all sinners becomes a problem in our mainstream culture when we try to make our moral stance a political position, so we have to be very careful when we decide that we should become politically active on any issue, not just this one. Is it possible that in trying to push Christian living onto nonChristians through using the power of the State we are hampering the cause of Jesus?

Politics and our faith can get sticky. Often people just make the leap from "that's wrong" to "we must legislate our position." This ignores a whole discussion that must happen in the middle of those two questions. We must really ask ourselves whether our position is helping the oppressed and those who can't use the instruments of power to help themselves. In those cases, I believe we should pursue helping those who can't help themselves, but I also know good Christians who disagree with me on this.

This is really an issue that I don’t feel we can win in our current society. I still call homosexuality a sin because the Bible clearly teaches that. And that doesn't make one of the sides in our society happy. They want to me to affirm that homosexuality is not a sin, not just accept a homosexual as a fellow sinner. They want me to promote it as just one of many valid lifestyle choices.

Nor do I make the religious crowd happy with my approach. They seem to want to bash homosexuals. The religious don't want to recognize that their lives are lived in such a way that they are equally separated from God and are only able to have a right relationship with God because of His grace. This is the point of Paul in Romans.

I have a NOT SO SATISFYING SOLUTION. It’s the only approach I can come up with that has both truth and love.

What if Christians and local churches became places known for their grace and love and not for their judgment? Do you think that would be attractive?

Years ago, when we passed the communion trays, I had a gay friend coming to church. He has since moved away. He wanted to help serve the Lord's Supper. At that time, the trays holding the emblems of the body and blood of Jesus were carried by four people and passed among the congregation. My gay friend became one of those guys. And one person became upset because a gay person was handing out the Lord's Supper. He told me, “I don’t want us to be known as the gay church.” I told him that I want our church to be a place where gays, whores, drunks, and sinners like me are welcome. He didn't like my reply because there is this tendency to make homosexuality a greater sin than other sins. Here is the thing. As a pastor, I have sacred knowledge of a lot of your sins. And I also know my own sins. We are committed to loving you despite your sins, and I hope you are committed to loving me despite my sins.

Homosexuality is not an issue I like to address regularly. It’s not beneficial. It has been years since I have talked about this from the pulpit. But if you are interacting with nonChristians this will come up in conversation, and I want you to be prepared and have a grasp on the issue. If we have homosexuals who come to our church (and I hope homosexuals feel comfortable coming to our church), then that is an issue we will discuss in relationships and counseling, not bash them on the issue from the pulpit.

If we have a proper understanding of the role of the church and the role of the state, we will realize that we do not have to relegate our moral thinking to the State. Just because the State says something is right or wrong, doesn't make it right or wrong. Likewise, just because we firmly believe something is right or wrong doesn't mean that we should automatically move to legislate it. So we shouldn't spend our time fighting the political battles of our day. Instead, we should lead out in our society through love. We should focus on the things of eternity.

What happens when the church gets hung up in trying to change the state is that the purpose of the church gets neglected. The mission of the church will not get done if the people of the church don't do it. We have a finite amount of time and we have finite energy. Do we spend it fighting gay marriage or world hunger? Do we spend it outlawing homosexuality or spreading the gospel and love of Jesus?

As I think we all recognize, the recorded teachings of Jesus and the life of the early church show that oppressing others isn't why the church was established. It was established to love others and be a place for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. This mission cannot be neglected to win the game of politics, no matter how alluring that power may be.

Unfortunately, oppression seems to be the magnetic pull of any organized beast or collective group. Most groups -- from Communists to Libertarian, from Republican to Democrat, from black to white, from atheist to Christian, from American to North Korean -- want to denigrate those who disagree with them. Jesus taught an alternative way to the sectarianism of the world. I can understand the desire to ignore His teachings because His followers are ridiculously bad at actually living out this radical life that we are called to live.

What Jesus taught was countercultural, in His time and ours. We can see beautiful reflections of His teachings throughout the church's existence. People loving where there is no love. People helping in the midst of situations that inspire selfishness. People being fed where there is no food. People being giving light in the midst of great darkness, hope in the midst of hopelessness.

However, one doesn't have to throw out believing in right teachings to still be the church. It's those right teachings that should lead us to freedom and empower us to be loving. People who claim to follow Jesus just have to love those who we believe are misguided. There is no us and them. Only people like us who need the grace of God to be right with Him.

All of this does not ignore the complex issues surrounding such topics as homosexuality. But it does mean that we have a new and different starting point for our attitudes and actions: love and grace. Why? Because “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). Are we willing to follow his example? Are we willing to live for others while they are still sinners? Are we willing to love and eat with sinners? A person stopping to sin is never a prerequisite for us to love them.

We need to have a biblical stance on homosexuality, but we also must realize that this is not one of the large issues. It’s only an issue we are talking about here today because this will be a subject you get challenged on time and time again when talking with nonChristians. Even so, we need to figure out how to never let the biblical stance on homosexuality overshadow our call to love one another, to love the poor, to share the message of Jesus with the world. Unfortunately, with homosexuality, we do disagree with the world. We have to if we are going to take the Bible seriously. But that doesn’t mean we have to be obnoxious or hateful over the issue. Even in our disagreements, we need to always show love.