From the Pastor |
Here was today's Sermon - Delivered at our Worship and Picnic at Davis Park.
God of grace, you have given us minds to know you, hearts to love you, and voices to sing your praise. Fill us with your spirit that we may learn from your word and live in your love. Amen When I began to plan this Love Feast, I have to tell you that I was moving in a completely different direction. However, recent events have caused me to change those plans. So today, I ask for your patience, your attention and most of all… your forgiveness. I try NOT to discuss politics from the pulpit… in fact, I hate politics. However, there has been so many things weighing on my heart this week that I cannot avoid what I am about to say. I will start by saying that I do not care what your political leanings might be. It does not matter to me one bit if you are a Trump supporter or a Liberal “snowflake”… or if you find yourself trapped somewhere in the middle. I. Don’t. Care! What I care about is the path we are on as a nation. What I care about is what is happening on our streets, in our schools and workplaces and homes. I care about what is happening along our southern border. I care about the children who have been separated from their families… their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. I care about the adults who are given no indication when, if ever, they will see their children again. BUT most of all, I care about the attitude of many of my fellow Americans… many of my fellow Christian Americans. I care about the fact that there are a large number of professed Christians who not only spend a great deal of time rationalizing the recent Zero Tolerance Policy that has been put in place… but actually SUPPORT it! I have spent the last week listening to all the rationalizations and reasons such as: 1st – “These people are breaking the law. When someone breaks the law, they are arrested and families are torn apart…” No matter that many have come to the legal entry points seeking asylum which is legal but are treated no differently from those crossing illegally. If this is your argument then why separate the children from the adults? Detain them all and then deport them together. 2nd – “President Trump did not make the law… it was signed by President Clinton in 1997 and enforced by every president since… right through Obama.” The immigration law was in effect, but this zero tolerance policy of separating the children from the adults is NEW! 3rd - “BUT we have seen the photos and videos of these types of centers and camps filled with children from back in 2014… under Obama. This is no different… where was the Liberal outrage then?” Well, those photos were not of children taken from their families but of the thousands of UNACCOMPANIED children that were sent ALONE across the border. They were temporary shelters until relatives or foster families could be found. Not quite the same situation! Or my favorite… “It is the choice the parents have made and now they have to live with it. They knew what would happen” … Really? These comments seem to come from the same people who feel that this policy is simply a deterrent we need to keep THOSE people from entering our great nation illegally… To keep them from taking our jobs! Leeching off our welfare system! Bringing their drugs, gangs and violence in with them! Even illegally voting in our elections! The problem is that this is just another symptom of a much larger problem and honestly… the state of our nation scares the HELL out of me. It is not our president who scares me… it is not the corrupt politicians or the lobbyists that scare me. What scares me is the amount of fear and anger and hatred that has flooded out of our citizens. It scares me that there are so many people out there ready to support and vehemently defend policies such as the Zero Tolerance Policy. And what scares me the most is the fact that many of them boldly declare themselves to be Christians! As I said before… I don’t care what your political opinions are… This is not about politics… this is about the way we treat other people. And not just the immigrants… but even our own citizens. This is a human and moral issue and as followers of Christ, it is an issue where there should only be ONE side… God’s! Throughout the Gospel and the New Testament… we are called to do one thing… LOVE! Jesus himself managed to sum up ALL the commandments in Hebrew Scripture to two commandments about love! We are commanded to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Then Jesus commanded a new one: We are commanded to love one another as Christ has loved us. Jesus even goes so far as to say that we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. In short… We are called to share the amazing love of God with ALL those around us! John’s 1st letter reminds us that God Is Love! Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. God’s love DOES NOT discriminate… it is NOT selective. God’s love is demonstrated through concrete action… For God’s love was so great that Jesus came and willingly died on the cross for all people. God’s divine love is both a model of love and the power that enables us to love. Those who follow Christ are to practice love… to live out the law of love: Love of God, neighbor, self, one another AND enemy. Those who do not… do not truly know God. John says “We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” Those who fail to love and still claim to know and love God… are LIARS! Wow! How many of those being detained today… the families torn apart… are our brothers and sisters? How many homeless and poor and hungry in our own country are our brothers and sisters? How many people who are ridiculed and ignored and hated are our brothers and sisters? Where is the love? Today’s gospel reading is Jesus’ parable of judgement… the sheep vs. the goats. Jesus said that whenever you do for “one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine” (whether it is feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, care for the sick and visit those in prison), you did for me! Likewise… Jesus said that whenever you DO NOT do for “one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine” (whether it is feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, care for the sick & visit those in prison), you DID NOT do for me! There is another aspect of this parable we must consider and that is that whenever we DO something TO one of the least of these… we DO it TO Christ. Whenever we hurt or demean or are cruel to another… we hurt, demean or show cruelty TO Jesus! Every faith seems to have their own version of the Golden Rule… but the other faiths put it in the negative format: Do not do to others what you do not want done to you. Jesus is once again different! Jesus turned it around and expanded this rule for how we are to treat other people: Do to others what you would have done to you. Now this might not seem like a big difference, but it is. It is one thing to simply say “Do not hurt someone else” and quite another to say “In ALL things… Treat other people the same way YOU want to be treated.” Are we treating the people coming to our borders as we would want to be treated? Are we treating the homeless on our streets as we would want to be treated? Do we treat the poor, the sick, those who are different as we want to be treated? Are we really aligning with the sheep… or the goats? As Christians, we need to realize that we are called to be different… set apart. We are followers of Christ Jesus and that fact is supposed to be evident to all those around us BY OUR LOVE! However, the Christian church as a whole in this country has failed to live up to God’s commandments of love. Instead, there seems to be an immense LACK of love from Christians in our society, and it breaks my heart. There are and have always been small groups and pockets of Christians who DO know and demonstrate the love of God… at least in their own communities… but I have to ask the Christian church throughout America… Where is the Love of God? We have become a nation that caters to the rich and maligns and ignores the poor. We are a nation that honors & celebrates our movie stars and athletes but ignores the needs of our own veterans, our elderly and our children. We are a nation that views basic healthcare as Big Business instead of a human need and right. We are a nation that looks more to our selfish wants and desires than the needs of others… This country is a nation of selfishness and greed and a lust for power and these things have infected Christ’s church as well. Unfortunately, a majority of the Christians in America are just as guilty as everyone else and yet we wonder why God seems so distant. The church within the United States of America has lost sight of God’s love and God’s will. We argue politics and dig in our heels on the doctrines and the issues that divide us and forget that we are commanded to love all people. Too many Christians have forgotten who it is we serve: We serve the Christ of the sinner, the Christ of the poor, the needy and the marginalized… the Christ of the unwanted and unwelcomed. We have strayed so far from the path of God that I can hear the prophetic voice crying out in the wilderness… REPENT! Turn back to God for the Day of Judgement is near! As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to demonstrate the love of God by feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, the poor, the elderly and the young and setting at liberty those who are oppressed. Let’s be clear… This is not the job of the government… this is OUR job. We can no longer pass the buck and assume others will do it! It is up to us… each and every Christian in this place… in this community… in this country… It is time to stop and think each and every day. Are your words and actions sharing God’s love? It is time to make a change… one Christian heart at a time… It is time for people to look at Christian Communities as a place of love, grace and mercy instead of a place of judgement and condemnation…It is time for a revival of Christian love… It is time to refocus our faith and reclaim the grace offered to all through Christ Jesus. We need to Live the Law of Love by reviving the love of God within our hearts AND the heart of the Christian Church in America… we need to consciously flood this community with God’s love until it pours out and spreads through the entire nation. For “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them...” Let us all allow God’s love fill our hearts and pour out for all to see… that we may live in the Love of God and then “By this everyone will know that [we] are [Christ’s] disciples.” Amen!
0 Comments
|
Yeon Shin
|