Let's (NOT) Talk Politics

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Hello and welcome back to Making Waves! It has been a quick minute since I have been back in this context. Two weeks ago there was a snow storm that led to a virtual sermon, and last week my wife and I had gone away for rest and renewal to relax and delve into our own personal relationship and deepen our connection with Christ. Needless to say, it’s wonderful to be back where I am called to be!

That is, it may be wonderful, but it certainly is not easy. As a pastor, there are several things to which I am called. My life and my calling can be summed up in a few ways. My calling is the life of one who leads people into physical, spiritual and relational holiness. Every sermon that I write, every time I visit a member in the hospital or sit in their home, this is on the forefront of my mind. How will what I say, do or show lead this person or these people towards a place of greater physical, spiritual or relational holiness?

This often lends itself most easily to talking about current events. By talking about what is going on most popularly in the news, I can best meet people where they are at and help guide and direct them towards a place of holiness within that conflict.

Now, for the past several months I have held my tongue out of fear. I have held my tongue out of a desire to not stoke any fires and to ensure that I bring no political persuasion to the pulpit (an incredibly important aspect of ministry that many out there do not respect). I have held my tongue out of a desire to play it safe and not talk about the reality of our daily lives.

But don’t close that tab and consider me a crock just yet!!

Rest assured that I will not compromise my morals in this message. I have vowed in my heart of hearts to never proclaim affiliation with any American political party behind the realm of the pulpit. That will not change, nor is this a political message. I assure you, you won’t hear a single ounce of political jargon in this blog. That being said, let’s dive into the Word before I risk any chance of scaring you off, dear reader.

“10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

-1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Will you pray with me? Dear Heavenly Father, I give thanks for Your eternal grace and love. I ask that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be acceptable in Your presence. That they be Your words and not the words and sentiments of our generation or nation. For You, God, and You alone are our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Is Christ divided?

Was Paul crucified for you?

Was Joel Osteen? Was John Wesley? Was Franklin Graham? Was Nathan Webb?

I mentioned briefly a moment ago about my personal struggle as a pastor. When a pastor is being trained, we are told that we are not appointed to a church directly, but to a community. It becomes this kind of religious turf war. There is this chunk of land that the pastor is to consider his parish. It goes beyond the four walls of the church and reaches out to the people around the church as well.

Now, with the inception of the Internet and it’s connectivity, this parish has been expanded. Now, my parish has the potential to expand as far as our country can reach, or even as far as the earth is east to west. If I scroll through Facebook, I now am able to not only see Sarah’s local friends in Pelham and Danville, but I can see posts that she shares from family further up north. The same is true for me. Whenever I scroll throughout the Internet, I see posts from California, Prague, Brazil, Massachusetts, Georgia, Canada, Mexico… the list goes on. The world is getting bigger.

And I don’t like it.

As a pastor, my heart breaks for those in my parish. I want to desperately guide them towards a place of physical, spiritual and relational holiness. But whenever my reach spans from dozens of miles to hundreds or thousands of miles, there are that many more hearts to focus my mind on.

Now, I know that I might be going a little bit metaphysical and showing you too much of the man behind the curtain, but this has been a real struggle of mine that I really wanted to share with you. It hasn’t been an easy task to discern what this means for my ministry, and I’m certainly not finished navigating what this calling from God means for my ministry.

Nevertheless, despite these challenges, I want to say these things to you during this time: I see a lot. Being a quiet and reserved introvert, my favorite thing to do is to sit back and experience the incredible lives of amazing people. Logan loves to people watch in the mall. We like to sit in the benches and watch people walk by and question who they are and where they come from. In the same way, I see what people post online. I care about the people who post and the honesty that comes through what they say virtually. It’s an important part of my own personal ministry.

I’m not going to dance around the truth and lightfoot my way through this challenging topic. Surely we all know that this week has been comprised of the swearing in of America’s 45th President Donald Trump, and surely we all know of the protests and Women’s March for Equality that took place yesterday following the Inauguration. You’d have to be nearly blind to not see the contention and societal divide that is occurring here, but, as I mentioned earlier, this message is hardly political.

That being said, I want to share with you what I’ve seen this past week.

I have seen men and women holding signs that declare that “Black Lives Matter” demanding equality and respect from others tossing cups full of water on passers-by.

I have seen people urging the women at the march that they are only able to protest because of the pro-life movement, then I have seen those same people demand that those same women just kill themselves because they are worthless.

I have seen feminists show the deepest compassion for one another and then declare their war on all men. I have seen Christians do the same exact thing.

I have seen people stand with signs because they want to be heard. Then I see them be told to stop talking, that they are being heard, “just be quiet.”

I have seen youth, the very youth that I helped raise and delivered the gospel of Christ into their lives, throw nasty verbiage back and forth at one another for the sake of their own political views.

Surely, you can understand why my heart breaks.

Then I finally saw what Christ wanted me to see. I was writing this very sermon and my heart kept breaking and I kept wondering to myself how I was going to resolve this sermon. Is this sermon going to have an ending? Was I just going to list the errors of man, both left and right, and not ever reach Jesus in the message?

After struggling and wrestling with God, He shows me this:

Now, if I were to un-blur the rest of the background (thank goodness for my history in photo editing) you would see a lot of words and language that would instantly take your attention. It might make you madder than a hornet on a baseball field, or it might make you feel so inspired that you’d want to write up a clever poem and post it on your Facebook feed.

But here’s what God forced my eyes to see. I didn’t notice the people in the background. I didn’t even look at their signs, their shirts, their faces. Didn’t care about their cute or funny slogans, didn’t have a chance to be offended or harassed or defensive. My eyes went straight to her. I don’t know anything about this woman. I don’t know what she stands for. I don’t know who she has hurt. I don’t know if she has faith in God or Christ. I don’t know her family. She could very well have done some awful things. But here’s what I DO know.

This is a child of God we are looking at here. You are looking at the picture of someone that Jesus Christ loves. Someone that He would sit down and enjoy a meal with. Someone who would wash our Savior’s feet with their own hair. Someone willing to crawl on the ground just to touch His robe. Someone willing to climb on top of a roof and lower in their paralyzed friend to receive healing.

And that person, that beloved child of God, that friend of Jesus, is scared; hurting; troubled.

I’m not sure where our mind goes when we gets political. I’m not sure why our first reaction is to get defensive or to put on our brass knuckles and begin to attack everyone who says something that we disagree with, but for some reason or another we seem more likely to fight with anyone who says something that opposes our opinion than to ever treat them as Christ would lead us to treat others.

Gandhi has this heart-breaking quote attributed to him: “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate, but it is really fear.” When we break down the walls and the rhetoric, when we really begin to listen to one another, we find that we are all just scared. Maybe this is why we lash out in anger and attack our brothers and sisters. Our human fear leads us to become defensive and fight. But I know of a leader that we can follow that breaks down our fears. A leader who tells us to be strong and courageous. Who tells us that each new day will worry about itself. A leader who convinces us that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in our leader, our savior, Christ Jesus our Lord.

I was writing this sermon and during the time I was reaching this conclusion, I was struggling so greatly with this message. My own personal self-confidence and self-esteem were getting in the way of delivering this message that is on my heart by the Holy Spirit. Then I received this message from Richard Rohr’s Friday devotional...

"Today in the United States we inaugurate a new president. While I pray President Trump leads with wisdom, compassion, and justice, we cannot simply sit back and watch whatever unfolds. We the people have a tremendous responsibility to work together, to speak truth to power, to peacefully advocate for the rights of all beings and the earth. This requires maturity and contemplative consciousness, empathy for the “other,” and courage to stand with those who are suffering. It is not a popular or easy path. But as human beings, we are called to be active participants in our salvation and mutual survival. I hope that by rediscovering the great gifts of Christianity we might live as our whole selves, becoming the united Body of Christ."

I ask again, is Christ divided?

Who are you following? Who is your leader? What is your goal in your everyday life?

If your loyalties lie with a political party, if you follow any human being (political, religious, etc), if you align yourself with any country more so than with your heavenly assembly, if your goal has any purpose that isn’t interested in transforming the world through Christ, if you are doing anything that is actively dividing someone further from the love and grace of Jesus, then you should come grab coffee with me. And let’s talk about the cross. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Who will you follow?