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How about a loaded quote today from a true Christian prophet who passed from this life to the next almost two years ago. The quote is more than 15 years old, but it’s never been more true than right now.
“The prophetic tasks of the Church are to tell the truth in a society that lives in illusion, grieve in a society that practices denial, and express hope in a society that lives in despair.” ~Walter Brueggemann
There is so much hate in this country. So much division.
And people on every side of the debates and decisions, people of every persuasion and preference, are increasingly responding to all the hate and division with violence. It’s a sickness. And it feels like it’s getting worse.
As children of God and followers of Christ Jesus, we are thankful that the attacker at last night’s dinner in Washington D.C. was apprehended before he could do what it looks like he intended to do. We thank God.
We can also be thankful for the law enforcement officers who did what God has established them to do: Stop evil. Punish wrongdoers.
And we can pray for our country. We can pray for our elected leaders, starting with President Trump and all the way down the chain.
And we should commit as Christians to not be a part of the sickness.
As children of God and disciples of Christ, we do not sow hate, division, fear, or violence. We refuse to participate in any of that.
So, what do we do? How do we respond?
We live. We live as beacons of hope and shining examples of our Lord’s saving love and grace and peace. In our country. In Midland. And around the world. We refuse to participate in the sickness of division and hate. In Jesus’ name, we refuse.
And we pray.
Dear Father,
In the name of Jesus we thank you that no one was seriously injured last night in D.C. One bullet was stopped by a protective vest. And we give you thanks for that. Thank you.
We pray for our country. We pray for our elected officials. For all the Republicans. And for all the Democrats. Protect them, Father. Give them safety and wisdom, clarity and compassion, unity and purpose. God, please bring those people together for the sake of everyone who lives in this country.
We lift law enforcement organizations and officers up to you in Jesus’ name. We pray for these women and men who protect our elected officials who are under increasing physical threats of violence and death. Give them safety and courage, wisdom and quick discernment.
We also pray for your holy Church. We pray for us. For Christians. For we who bear your holy image and wear the name of your holy Son and are the dwelling place of your Holy Spirit.
May all your churches in America reflect more of your love and more of your joy and more of your peace. And all your churches in Midland.
May our individual lives be characterized by more patience, more kindness, and more goodness. To our fellow man. To our neighbors. To our enemies.
May we demonstrate a deeper faithfulness, a growing gentleness, and an increased self-control.
Father, heal us. In Jesus’ name, forgive us. Holy Spirit, restore us.
May your Kingdom come, Lord. Quickly. And may your will be done in D.C. and Moscow and Austin and Tehran and Tel Aviv and Midland, just as it is in heaven.
Amen.
“Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” ~Jonah 4:11
The last line in the short story of Jonah reveals very clearly our God’s heart and his will. The closing question is extended by God to his nationalistic prophet who has expressed in both word and deed that he cares much more about his own comfort and security than he does for the welfare of the people he calls “enemies.” God’s question challenges the way Jonah thinks and acts. And it should shape our attitudes and transform our hearts to be more in line with those of our Lord.
American Christians have always tended to confuse our religion and faith with our country and our patriotism–this is nothing new. Country singer Neal McCoy sang the national anthem at the Texas Rangers home opener Friday, but he started by asking the baseball fans in attendance to recite the Pledge of Allegiance first. And he ended the pledge–“…with liberty and justice for all!“–by saying “Amen!” Like it’s a prayer. Like it’s sacred or holy.
Again, this is not new. Neither is invoking God and faith and religion to justify a government’s acts of terrible violence and war. Constantine did it early in the fourth century and every emperor, king, prime minister, and president before and since has done the same thing. Generals and kings and presidents have always ginned up support for their wars by telling us that God is on our side.
But the conflation of patriotism and faith in the U,S. has accelerated to such a degree over the past 15 years that many Christians today are uncritically supporting a president who uses increasingly profane language to make over-the-top threats of violence and annihilation against an entire civilization in the name of our Savior. The president and his newly designated “Secretary of War” continue to insist daily and sometimes hourly that killing our country’s enemies is God’s holy will. Donald Trump ends a social media post from the White House threatening to rain “all hell” down on Iran with “Glory be to God!” Pete Hegseth asks our God in public prayer to “help every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation.” He prays in the name of Jesus for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy” and for enemies of America to be delivered to “the eternal damnation prepared for them.” Then on Easter Sunday, again Monday, and into the afternoon yesterday, in an obscene act of bullying and bluster, in a torrent of vile words and images, the president threatened to completely destroy Iran’s power plants and bridges, to take out their water treatment plants, to bomb Iran “back into the stone ages,” and to end their entire civilization.
“Should I not be concerned?”
Iran has more than ninety-three-million people. Should I not be concerned about that great nation? Iran has almost two-million Christians and, for more than ten years, the world’s fastest-growing Church. Should I not be concerned?
“As surely as I live,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.” ~Ezekiel 33:11
The American Empire and the Kingdom of God are not the same thing. The will of the U.S. president and the will of our God are not the same. To endorse the attitude, the words, and the actions coming out of the White House as God’s will toward Iran is to deny our Christ and his Gospel. After all, our Lord died for us (you and me) while we (you and me) were his enemies. Doesn’t supporting this administration’s assertions that indiscriminate violence against the people of Iran is God’s will deny just about everything Scripture teaches us about the nature and will of our Father? Doesn’t refusing to speak out loud against it make one complicit? Just listening to the president speak like this has an effect on us. It shapes us. It forms us.
Christians do not celebrate the death of human beings made in the image of our God and loved by our Father. No matter how ruthless and evil some of those leaders in Iran are, we love our enemies. We pray for our enemies and their families. We do good things for our enemies. We show concern. Should we not be concerned?
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” ~Luke 6:27-28
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” ~Matthew 5;44-45
It is good for followers of Jesus to grieve with and weep for the people of Iran who have been abused, terrorized, tortured, and killed by their government. It is proper to mourn the loss of soldiers and civilians who are trapped in the middle of this terrible conflict. It’s okay to acknowledge God’s sovereign use of nations and armies to enact his justice. It is right to join the faithful lament of the prophets and the groaning of the martyred souls under the altar and cry out to our God, “How long?!? How much longer are you going to allow this to continue?!? When will you finally put all things to right?!?”
This is a time for prayer. Reflection. Meditation. Thanksgiving. Mixed feelings. It is not a time to hate. It is not a time to insult or gloat. It is not a time to defend a world leader bent on killing so many people and destroying so many lives in the name of our God who, even Jonah confesses, is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love.”
For Christians, this is a time to be concerned.
Peace (not as the world gives it),
Allan
For those of us who live in the Basin, our annual 4Midland Maundy Thursday service is at 7:00 this evening at First Methodist Church. Our four churches–GCR CofC, First Baptist, First Methodist, and First Presbyterian–are coming together to remember our Lord’s last supper with his apostles in that upper room. It’s a powerful experience and a great joy to see a nearly 100-member choir made up of singers from all four of our congregations and to see and hear the Scriptures read and re-enacted by folks from all four churches. But it is a somber service. It’s a service that grabs your heart and soul and all of your senses. The sounds of the thirty pieces of silver hitting the plate, the nails being driven into our Savior’s hands and feet, the impending darkness of the whole scene. The betrayal. The sorrow. The grief. The suffering. And the love; oh, the matchless, limitless love!
Over the years, Maundy Thursday has become a very important part of my walk with Jesus. This is one of the ways I follow him. If you live in Midland or anywhere close, I invite you to this powerful assembly this evening. You’ll be so blessed by the experience. Maybe even transformed.
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Why are some Christians trying to force society into conforming to our values and ethics? The Christian life is only for Christians. The Gospel does not make sense outside of Church.
Thou shalt not kill. Blessed are the poor. The last shall be first. Love your enemies. Protect the foreigners. Don’t repay evil with evil. Obeying the teachings of Jesus and living the life of Jesus only makes sense if there’s a strong community of faith to back it up. We do Church and Christianity a great injustice when we say our Christian ethics do make sense in the world. I hear some Christians say that all people, whether they’re believers or not, should affirm and adopt our Christian ethics. Because they make sense. The governments and schools and all rational people should be forced to accept our Christian attitudes and practices and then America will be a better place to live.
No.
Following Jesus does not make sense. It’s not logical or rational outside the community of faith and the social support and habits and vision of God’s Church. The Church is different. The Church does not mirror the world, of course; and we don’t wring our hands and get too worked up over the world. By the grace of God and the power of his Holy Spirit, we live in HIS world–the real world that’s already arrived in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and the eternal world that’s coming.
We have to submit ourselves to the revelation and receive Church as the gift it is. The Church is the gift of Christ as he embodies himself in the world, as Jesus calls and restores, as he redeems and re-creates. And it’s so much bigger and wider and deeper and higher than anything we can manipulate or take charge of. We don’t start church or establish church or run church. We enter church and participate in church: the acceptance of a new born-again water and Spirit identity in baptism, the resurrection meal, the reading of and obedience to holy Scripture, prayer, confession and forgiveness, welcoming the stranger and outcast, speaking and working for justice and peace, healing and truth, beauty and redemption.
There are the world’s ways and there are the opposite ways of Christ Jesus. His ways don’t make sense for non-Christians.
Peace,
Allan
I’m a big fan of Russell Moore and his writings for Christianity Today. I highly recommend you read his article about how war forms us. All war is hell, in every case. And even though Midland, Texas is over 7,400 miles away from Tehran, Iran, this war between the U.S. and Israel and Iran is going to shape us. Moore cautions us to check our attitudes when it comes to the current conflict in the Middle East.
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When John the Baptist was baptizing people in the Jordan River, there were some standing on the shores who were not jumping in. It appears that they were just observing from the side. They were just watching. And John says, “That’s fine; that’s your call. What God is doing is not going to be slowed down one bit by whether you decided to jump in or not. I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children! (Luke 3:8)
Our God’s greatest desire is to create a family to live in perfect relationship with him and one another forever. God is so committed to this goal that, if nobody wants to jump in to this eternal family, he will raise up sons and daughters from the rocks along the banks of the Jordan River! That’s how determined for this he is!
Our God is so determined to create this family that he gave up his only biological Son to make it happen. That’s how committed to this he is. He sacrificed his only Son to build a forever family that’s not based on genetics or DNA or last names, but on the gift of love and grace from God and the blood of the Son that completely washes clean all of God’s dearly loved children. Romans 9 says it’s not the natural children who are God’s children, it’s the children of the promise. The promise is that God will create this eternal family, where everybody belongs together, everybody’s related, no barriers, no restrictions, no distinctions; where everybody is equally loved and nurtured and cared for. That’s the promise. That’s the goal. And that’s what our Lord Jesus did on the cross.
From the cross, Jesus is literally creating this family of God. He looks down from the cross and sees his mom and one of his dearest followers and he says, “Dear woman, here is your son. Son, this is your mom.”
Jesus isn’t saying, “Hey, do me a solid and take care of my mom while I’m away.” He’s saying, “Mother, I’m giving you a new family. Friend, I am giving you a new family.” Jesus is creating God’s family on the cross. The One who never married and never had kids is now giving birth to a new family that stretches the earth from end to end and has turned the whole world upside down. The Church. You and me. Us. The family of God. The children of God’s promise.
When you become a Christian, when you give your whole life over to God through Jesus, you are joined into that family. An eternal people born of water and Spirit, a family bigger and better than your biological family, a world-wide barrier-breaking family of God where we eat and drink and share and accept and carry each other’s burdens together. Where we rejoice and mourn together. Where we support and encourage and grow and work and bless and love together. If you’ll say ‘Yes’ to being adopted, if you’ll give yourself to it and really embrace the Church as the family of God, it’ll be the best thing that’s ever happened to you.
Peace,
Allan
To the God of Peace, in the name of the Prince of Peace,
We ask you to bring your peace to this world.
We pray for your peace in Iran, in Israel, and for us in the United States.
We pray in the name of the Prince of Peace,
who came to this earth to obliterate everything that separates us from you
and from one another,
to bring your peace to this world.
We pray for protection for the soldiers
and their families
in Iran, in Israel, and in the United States.
We pray for safety,
for comfort,
and for calm.
We pray for those who are disproportionately affected by war:
the innocent children,
the abandoned women,
the defenseless elderly,
the immigrants without a home,
and the poor.
These dwell in the center of your heart, Father;
these are the ones you command we protect and love.
We pray for them, O God of Peace.
Protect them.
Provide for them.
We pray that those in charge in Iran, in Israel, and in the United States
would cease their wars.
We pray for armies to put down their weapons.
We pray for the killing to stop.
We pray for an end to greed, anger, and the lust for power and control.
And we pray that your Holy Spirit would bring all things and all people
in heaven and on earth
together,
as is the stated mission and will of you, our God, and your everlasting Kingdom.
To the God of Peace, in the name of the Prince of Peace.
To his eternal glory and praise.
Peace.
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