Hurt Beyond Belief

   "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing." Jesus said to the Roman soldiers who were crucifying him, to the Sanhedrin (establishment Religious Leaders) who decided he should die, and to those of us who fail to be followers in the ways of the Kingdom of God. It needs to be said loudly and clearly, that those who profess spiritual authority, and yet support the President of the United States after all that he has said and done about Charlottesville and other racist remarks, should know that Jesus forgives them.

   But Jesus also said, "As for whoever causes these little ones who believe in me to trip and fall into sin, it would be better for them to have a huge stone hung around their necks and be drowned in the bottom of the lake. How terrible it is for the world because of the things that cause people to trip and fall into sin! Such things have to happen, but how terrible it is for the person who causes those things to happen! If your hand or your foot causes you to fall into sin, chop it off and throw it away. It's better to enter into life crippled or lame than to be thrown into the eternal fire with two hands or two feet. If your eye causes you to fall into sin, tear it out and throw it away. It's better to enter into life with one eye than to be cast into a burning hell with two eyes." (Matthew 18:6-9 CEB)

   As a pastor I am finding that many people are withdrawing from the church because they believe that all pastors are like those who support Trump in spite of his being so "un Christ like." It is damaging to the young in faith or little faith, that those who know better, who know Scripture, who walk with Jesus, and pray to God, seem to have such little regard for the witness they are making. Jesus would never support the ideas and attitudes of this President that are so well documented. It's not hearsay, but we have proof of his lack of respect for women, people of color, immigrants, and the list goes on and on. "Many Sides" indeed. I have more respect for the business leaders who withdrew their support of the President over his remarks and attitude who show more of a moral compass, than the pastors who gather around him, lay hands on him, pray and support him and deliver permission to take out the leader of another country. I hope that the stone around their necks will lead to repentance and renewal. Please!

   Not just Scripture but political leaders whom we respect show us how to treat and care for one another. George Washington wrote in 1790 to a Jewish congregation as the new nation was being formed. "The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy, a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For, happily, the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."

   Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the chaos of a Civil War, trying to move forward and offer a vision of a better future said in his second inaugural address, "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." We need this kind of leadership now more than ever. We had for a while a political party that developed to support and sustain the Lincoln wisdom. I so wish it were still true. Perhaps it's time for a new political evolution, that will both look back to that wisdom and toward a future that is hopeful and optimistic. I would like to be a part of something like that.

   Jumping ahead one hundred years from Lincoln to John Kennedy, still trying to get our great nation moving toward even greater things. Kennedy in his book A Nation of Immigrants declares that "Immigration is on our blood. It's a part of our founding story. In the early 1600's, courageous men and women sailed in search of freedom and a better life. Arriving in Jamestown and Plymouth, they founded a great nation. For centuries ever since, countless other brave men and women have made the difficult decision to leave their homes and seek better lives in this promised land. In New York harbor, there stands a statue that represents the enduring ideal of what has made this nation great - a beacon on a hill. At her feet, on the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands, are inscribed the eloquent words of poet Emma Lazarus: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shores. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift up my lamp beside the golden door!" We have moments of great inspiration and we need positive influence, not a suggestion that we be rougher on each other.

   Some may not read down this far, and I accept that. But I am committed to seeing our nation under the influence of God, be better than it has been, not worse. I ran for Congress the last time, as a Republican candidate in; Maryland's 8th District, because I believe in the power of the great examples, and the wisdom and influence of Jesus, to help us solve our problems and build a better future. Under Lincoln's influence, I tried to make a difference, and I hope others will strive to make a difference as well.

John Wesley put it so well when he said we should "Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can." I want that to be a part of what drives me.,

   Will you join with me in doing all the good we can?

Pastor Jeff

It's a New Year

   Hello Blogger followers, it's a new year, this is my 100th blog, imagine that, and I'm just thinking out loud here on my first day back to the church in this new year 2017.

   First of all I would want to recommend a commitment to grow in your faith this 2017. It will take some decisions on your part to keep finding something new you did not know about  in your walk with God each day. Some days are overwhelmed with other stuff.Thanks be to God, there is Grace and Mercy on God's part. Think how someone at home would feel if some days you didn't come home? And no one knew where you were? Skipping our time with God could be like not coming home, weird, hunh?

   Having been a pastor for 40 years, it's hard to find new things too. I keep looking though, because I don't want to be the pastor that spends his last few years just coasting on what has been my spiritual life up to now. I have this hunger and thirst for something new with God, I always have.

   So I want to recommend something I found today that is available on Kindle, which is easy, or available on Amazon as a hard cover or paperback book. The 52 Greatest Stories of the Bible by Kenneth Boa & John Alan Turner.

   They have tried to cover the 52 most important stories in the Bible so that it might make sense in helping us live our lives as followers of Jesus. They chose 26 from the Old Testament and 26 from the New Testament and make it a five day devotional, Monday through Friday. It's about looking at the story and then kicking it around a little, to see what it could mean, how it might help us now, what part does it play in the whole story of God with us?

   I like the illustration they gave about a clothes line. I remember those. They were outside and you hung wet clothes on them to dry. You still see them in movies sometimes when they want to make you think back. My grandmother had the line on a spindle with four sides so the line was not too far away, and it could be reached by turning the line holder.

   The reason I bring that up, is that in the book, they realize that when we study the Bible we tend to hang up the thought on our clothes line. But fewer of us have a clothes line to hang them on. We don't get the story or the connection or even see how that has anything to do with me. Hence the book.

   Let me urge you to get the book, use it for your devotions, and write me and let me know what you think or how the reading for the day, stirred something within you for improving your spiritual journey. Or if it was confusing, let me know about that too.

   Happy New Year. Please pray for one another and for our country a lot. May the Peace of God be with you.

Pastor Jeff
macpastor@gmail.com