What do I do on a day when I sit down to write a Christian blog where I express the transforming power of Jesus Christ and do not feel that power? I guess that is what I am trying to do today.
Like most of us I feel that the world I lived in just a few months ago no longer exists. But that is not what is blocking my writing juices. No, I am a true believer in God’s Word and if that is true, I would expect all of what is happening to occur. I guess it comes down to and what I did not expect is the hatred and divisiveness I see within the community of Christ’s followers.
Now, let me say this before you are ready to believe I am taking sides in this political argument that is raging. I am not. As much as I am a citizen of a free country who believes that we have the absolute right to express political views, I believe more strongly that we who espouse that this earth is not our home should be refraining from any kind of rhetoric that would create more divisiveness or spread unproven or debasing theories.
I came out of that world. Those of you who know my testimony know that there was a time that I would have not only condoned hatred but would have used it as a weapon on anyone who opposed my world view. What you might not know is that I was raised in a home where deep prejudicial feelings were rife. My father was a man who was taught hatred at the knee of a man who lived it. His father, an immigrant from England, came here with ideas of superiority of race and hatred toward those who would challenge those ideas. I never met the man; he was dead long before I was born. But I saw the results of it in my father’s own feeling toward others he held in less esteem than himself.
I was a boy and a teenager in the turbulent years of the 1960’s. Through the murders of John Kennedy, his brother Bobby, and Martin Luther King. I lived in Chicago and watch whole neighborhoods burned to the ground as ‘race riots’ spread like a plague. In my house I only heard one side of the argument and it never took in any thoughts of sympathy and the frustrations of a people who had been held in bondage, first as slaves and for generations as lower class citizens at best. I heard only hatred and prejudice. I absorbed that hatred. And even though I did not take on the views of my father, I pretty much never hated a man for his skin color. I hated and brewed anger just the same. I never thought a thing about it. To me it was just the way of the world. One thing I knew for sure hatred is a powerful weapon and I used it whenever I could.
But then, not that long ago, I started reading a book that taught me a completely different way to look at this world, its history, and its future, it is known as the Bible. There is a section in it I want to share this morning, it is rather long but it is what every Christ believer, every person who has experienced the grace of God’s forgiveness needs to have and hold right now. I believe it is so important that each one of us who claim the name Christian should read it and then fall on our knees seek forgiveness and ask for the power to live it. So here it is:
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.
He said:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5: 1-12
This is the lesson that I found no way to argue with back when I first read it. It burned me with its unyielding truth. I wanted to be part of any group of people who could espouse this and live it. I wanted to be known as a follower of the man and God who spoke it. So, I was baptized into that group and joined with them in worship. But I kept seeing something I recognized from my youth. That same superiority expressed by my grandfather, later by my father and then by me. It was here among those who claim to believe in these verses. And I see it even more in this time where we who claim to be Christ-like are spewing Facebook nonsense and allowing political allegiances to overtake what Jesus expressed and espoused in his teachings, in his life and in his death for us on the cross, love. Love of his Father and love of his human brothers and sisters. Love even of those who hated him.
So today, I cannot write my usual blog that expresses God’s saving power toward this sinner. Even though that is so much a part of it. I am writing to ask and plead for us, Christ’s followers to read these words of his and seek Him today. If this is all we can do today it will change the world.
Blessings
John
6/1/20
