What Wins Kind or Arrogant?

It has become increasingly evident that the people in the United States are living in fear of the direction that our political systems is heading.  I hear it all the time.  And the saddest part is  that even once close families are perilously divided by who voted for who.   Pointing fingers of hate and anger in both direction.  

One of the readings in the yearly church lectionary for  Sunday, September 10, was Ezekiel 33:7-11 where God is talking to Ezekiel about helping the despondent Israelites, who had been exiled into Babylon (a place were bulling and meanness win),  about their temptation to live as the wicked Babylonians. The Israelites had been taken from their lives as the “Chosen” people of God in Jerusalem. The center of their religious life of faith.  Their home, where they found a solid foundation, and constant support, from temptation to wander away from God.  And now they live with very little community support.  In a culture that begs them to compromise their belief systems and the ingrained values of the Jewish Religion.

Many in today’s American culture feel the pull of temptation away from God’s way of living.  Because, it seems, that the natural instinct of humanity is geared toward the power to win over others.  We are competitive creatures who want to find success at all cost, and in the most direct possible ways.  And the sad truth is, the ways of God — humility, kindness, mercy, justice and love don’t win!   

That is clearly what the exiles saw in Babylon.  The wick and mean get the prize!  They got all they wanted, and more, by walking all over the "losers"; and climbing on the backs of others.  They seem to have it all -- money, power, glamor! So, "if it works, don’t fix it!”   Why not join them????

According to that model of living, Jesus would never make it in 2017 in any culture on the earth.  Love, kindness, and compassion doesn't matter!  Mean wins!  Even today!

7 So you, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 

8 If I say to the wicked, "O wicked ones, you shall surely die," and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand.

9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways, and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your life. 

10 Now you, mortal, say to the house of Israel, Thus you have said: "Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?" 

11 Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?(Eek. 33:7-11)

Who Has the Right to destroy Another?

I forgot to post this yesterday 🌝 So remember today!

Yesterday morning I wrote a post to publish today.  But as I sat here this morning I remembered!  9/11!  And three songs immediately came in to my mind: Darryl Worley's "Have You Forgotten", Alan Jackson's "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning" and An artist unknown to me "Do You Remember?" 

All three of those songs talk about a day none of us could ignore; nor ever forget.  Maybe not in our every minute; but this date is one that will never pass without a memory.  Why?  Because it woke us up to the possibility that the United States of America is also vulnerable!  And that is horrifying to a people who have, for so long, lived in denial of such possibility.

The songs are graphic and bring back the pain of that day.  The sadness that our sisters and brothers on the east coast experienced in those awful moments in New York City, Washington D.C. and in the air over Pennsylvania.  The destruction was massive and quick!  Not chance to change it! No possibility that it didn't happen on American soil.  Bammm!  Done!  Period!  Horrifying!  

Now! I want you to remember that horrific -- un-godly  -- actions taken in the name of God!  Yes, in the name of "God", a minority group of people who claim to have the will of God as their personal guide for doing what they do.  And yet what they did, it seems to me and many others I am sure, so against the God I have faith in.  

Now! I want you to remember the God that Jesus came to personally model for us. The God of love and compassion, mercy and forgiveness.  A God who wants peace among his people. A God who came in Jesus skin to teach us not to be mean and unkind to others. The God who long before he came to earth in Jesus, had his Prophet Isaiah announce to the nation:


4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.   

Now ask you!  Does that sound like a God who would have commercial airplanes, full of innocent people, do such massive destruction and murder?

And yet, with all that being written, we have in our country groups of Christians -- who claim to believe in Jesus --  who would have us believe that God is a God like the god the Taliban believes in.  A God of wrath, judgment and destruction.  Who want us to believe that if we don't watch out God will get us, and punish us, and send us to hell or maybe have us killed. 

Now! Go on tube and listen to those songs sung from deep in hearts of those three men.  Watch the pictures!  Then remember this morning!  Where you are and what you are doing.  And remember now the healing that has taken place by God's Grace alone.  And remember that God does not wish for us to do harm -- large or small -- to our neighbors.  Neighbors close!  Or neighbors far away!

What We Know And What We Really Learn

...make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.

It is so very easy for us to know something in our brains and then just let what we know stay there in our brains -- in our knowledge bank.  In the libraries of our mind we store a lot of information.  There are many books of information in the archives of our gray matter.  Most of it we don’t use so much anymore -- it was learned once, for some reason or another, and now has been filed.

Information about God is not to be learned or stored that way.  For one thing, God-information is never stagnant.  We can never learn too much God-information. The other thing is that it is not to be stored, it is to be used and nurtured and allowed to grow bigger and stronger.  God-information is crucial information like looking both ways before crossing the street.  Your life depends on it!

16 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. 17 For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. 18 Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? 19 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time:.... 22 But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard - things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, 23 not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.... 

 25 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. 26 That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.(Gal. 5:16-25 The Message)