February 27, 2023  — “Hated Christians?”

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” Matthew 5:43-45

According to Relevant Magazine (Issue 86, March – April 2017, p. 018) A Christian is martyred every 6 minutes around the world. That means that last year alone almost 90,000 Christians died for their faith. This makes Christians the most persecuted religious group in the world.

“…but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
2 Corinthians 6:4-10

Does what you do matter? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Christians around the world should ask themselves that question, because just naming yourself as a “Christian” in some parts of the world can get you killed. So what do we do about that? As I see it, we should gird our loins and be ready to fight the good fight – killing others with the love (not hate or violence) but the love that Christians are known by. So our acts of love should speak loudly announcing to the world that Christians are people of love, not hate. Chance the Rapper once said on the television show Good Morning America: “…people are afraid to speak about God to a certain extent and I think if you’re not free to speak about God then you’re not free.”

My friends, Lent is about discernment – especially discerning the cross of Jesus and what that means to us. We will have set backs, troubles, bad days, months, and years, as well as joys and accomplishments – and the cross of Jesus will be our shield and protector. No the cross will not keep us from having bad moments, bad days, even bad years. But even if we lose our lives for our faith, Jesus has won the victory over death – and claimed an eternal victory for us, whether or not we are hated for our faith.

Let us pray: Dear G-d, you call us to love our neighbors and to welcome persecution because of our faith. Give me the strength to endure all things in your name. Amen.

Pastor Dave

February 26, 2023 — Lent 1A

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.”
Matthew 4:1-11

So, what are Jesus’ temptations and what can we learn from them? As they are presented in the Gospel text, they revolve around the interrelated dynamics of: “I need!; I can!; and I get!” In terms of “I need!”, are our wants really the things we need? Jesus may have appeared to want one thing, but the only thing he needed to keep from falling to temptation was G-d’s Word. Lent allows us to focus some intentional time on determining “what we want” as opposed to “what we need.”

In terms of “I can!”, there are a lot of things in this life that we can do. But just because we CAN do something doesn’t mean that we should. And what we learn through life is that in many instances, the things that we “ARE FREE TO DO” are not necessarily the things that we should do. We can gamble our money away, shout “fire” in a movie theater, or ignore our neighbors. We have that freedom. But what is it that G-d wants us to do? That is what Lent allows us to focus our energies – to determine what we can do, and what we should do.

Finally, in terms of “I get!”, the devil tells Jesus that if he worships him, then Jesus “gets” it all. We often make decisions in our lives based on the axiom “What is in it for me?” – “What do I get?” This is the ultimate definition of sin – turning in on ourselves and focusing in only on what meets our own needs. But life is, ultimately, not about gathering, hoarding and getting. Life should be about focusing on the blessings that come from G-d. That is what Lent allows us to focus on – appreciating that we can’t always get what we want, but that Jesus gives us all that we need.

Pastor Dave