For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. - 1 Corinthians 1:22-24
We are fast approaching another national election in the United States. These election cycles always highlight one of the great hallmarks of our representative democracy. However, it seems with each successive election in our nation over the past thirty to forty years, the level of anxiety and angst seems to rise exponentially.
Over the past few months, I have fielded numerous calls and emails asking why I have not said more about one matter or another that currently confronts our church and our nation. I think I can honestly say that each matter raised has been real, important, pressing, and carries with it many advocates. A cursory look at those matters, in no particular order, are: racial reconciliation, abortion, police tactics, Black Lives Matter, government overstep, protests, riots, and civil demonstrations, submission to governmental authorities, to hold or not hold services based on COVID-19 protocols, the breakdown of marriages within and without our church family, immigration policies, LifePoint's hiring practices, Student Ministry goals and objectives, our persecuted brothers and sisters in closed countries, and most recently, should President Trump and the Republicans appoint a new justice to the Supreme Court prior to the upcoming election.
All of these are, indeed, weighty matters. I confess that I do not have answers for many of them. Over the past few weeks I have met with numerous members of our church family who are African, African-American, and persons of color. I have met with a few of our members who serve in law enforcement. I have had meetings with members whose marriages are disintegrating. I have spoken with others as it relates to COVID-19, mask usage, and social distancing. I have spoken with some who have asked me to take a more active role in shedding light on fellow believers who are being held prisoner in Turkey, China, Iran and Egypt. I have spent many, many hours listening to podcasts that address some of these issues. I have read or perused five separate books related to racial harmony and reconciliation, all written by African Americans. I have spoken to other pastors, both black and white, concerning how they are dealing with the tensions that have boiled to the surface after the death of George Floyd in late May.
Although I have not come to any final conclusions on any of these matters (I have more meetings scheduled and more to learn), I do know this much... I love this church family, and I love the people who make it a church family- black, white, brown, American, immigrant, etc. from across the political and socio-economic spectrum. That doesn't mean it is easy to serve as a shepherd during these days. People want much and expect much. The days of pastoring a church and focusing almost exclusively on preaching the word and visiting the sick are long past. Political, social, racial, and spiritual differences in our society are permeating the church. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" exhorted the church to be the thermostat that transforms the mores of society, not merely the thermometer that records them. I fear the church (universal, not just LifePoint) has failed to heed this wise counsel and has settled into the role of allowing every popular viewpoint to distract the church from its biblical role, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:12-13).
Of course, this does not mean that justice issues, societal ills, who runs nations, viruses, and how life is lived by individuals are not important. They surely are. However, I genuinely believe that what Christ-followers are to focus on is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We should be focused on the preaching of Christ that leads to transformed individuals who, through Christ, put aside racial and ethnic distinctions, pour into their families and marriages the love and humility necessary to sustain them, and who pray and speak out for those who are marginalized. We should be those who stand up for biblical justice and the cause of Christ and those who offer grace and forgiveness to others who disagree with them on matters which are not foundational to the faith. We should be those who reject this world's lies that tell us (among other things) that human worth and dignity are determined by skin color, nationality, marital status, socio-economic status, being born or not yet born, and many other qualifiers that are not qualifiers for God (and therefore should not be qualifiers for us).
Much more needs to be said, and will be said, concerning these matters friends. In the meantime, we are called to be the church of Jesus Christ-focused not on politics or political parties, not on national pride or social movements (all of which are legitimate and have their place in this world) but on Jesus Christ and him crucified. We are called to be those who serve, not as thermometers, but thermostats, all for the sake of the great Name of Christ.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jym