01-07-21

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 7, 2021
Like many of you (I hope most of you, if not all of you), I was deeply troubled and spiritually broken by what I witnessed on the news yesterday. I understand the feeling of being on the losing side of a lot of things, including elections. I understand the disbelief when you invested a lot of energy and time in a campaign. Been there, done that! Yet what happened in DC on Wednesday was not people expressing grief in a healthy way or raising concerns rooted in fact. It was a lost group of souls caught in a movement incapable of accepting reality, an inability to accept simple facts. Many of those folks storming the Capital claim to be followers of Jesus, but what we saw did not resemble Jesus or even the most basic ideas of democracy. It is stunning the inability of people to fact check, do good research, to ask sensible questions, to think in a critical way, to engage in thoughtful debate. I read many social media posts over the last 12 hours, including some belonging to church members, and there were posts encouraging violence, calling for Civil War and promoting nonsense conspiracy theories. This makes me wonder where I failed in teaching the message of Jesus; where my preaching fell short in announcing the core message of the Gospel; where my ministry somehow was misconstrued as something other than what I intended. That will be for me to ponder in the days ahead, but right now it is time for us to stand together and speak clearly about what is true, what promotes compassion and kindness, and what can bring back some common sense. On the Fourth Sunday of Advent, I preached on how the Christian witness requires consistency and integrity. We cannot claim the Lordship of Jesus Christ while doing something that completely undermines everything for which Jesus stood. You cannot encourage violence and follow Jesus! You cannot share conspiracy theories detached from reality and follow Jesus! You cannot speak of love and promote hate while following Jesus! Period! This is not up for debate, despite what some might try to tell you. So many Christians are scratching their heads wondering why Christianity is declining in this country, but the answer is simple. That answer is found within us. Young people look at those who claim to follow Jesus, and what they see is not only unappealing, it lacks moral integrity and the beauty of love. We can disagree on a whole host of subjects, and even participate in spirited debate on forms of baptism or approaches to scripture, but as followers of Jesus we cannot concede the core values of the Jesus message that include love, mercy, justice, truth-telling, kindness and peace. Let us remember the simple words of Micah who reminded us what is good; and what the Lord requires of us – to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.

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