In his book “Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life”, the author Charles Swindoll tells a story about the 19th Century agnostic Thomas Huxley (some of you might know that it was Huxley who promoted Darwinism and Humanism in his attacks on Christianity).

Huxley was in Dublin and was rushing to catch a train. He climbed aboard one of Dublin’s famous horse drawn taxis and said to the driver -“Hurry, I’m almost late … drive fast”.

Off they went at a furious pace and Huxley sat back in his seat and closed his eyes. After a while Huxley opened his eyes and glanced out the window to notice that they were going in the wrong direction. Realizing that he hadn’t told the driver where to take him he called out ‘do you know where you’re going?’ The driver replied “No, your honour, but I am driving very fast’.

It is a little bit ironic that I am currently (Wednesday afternoon) stuck on a plane to San Diego with my wife at SFO. We are on the tarmac with a 30 minute delay tacked on to an already one hour delay. The people who on their way to Seattle (via San Diego???) were just told to get off the plane to take a different plane to Las Vegas which would connect to Oakland which would eventually get to Seattle at 9pm tonight. Wait, what? It is not that bad for us other than sitting in the plane with no air conditioning and the person behind me complaining about the airline.

Update… (I know you are just reading the next paragraph but this is an ever changing situation) I am now typing back at the terminal. Yeah, the flight just got cancelled. The pilot apologized that he broke the plane. Ha! I am not going anywhere as of yet. Unlike Huxley in the story above- I do hope to get to my destination sometime before I fly back on Monday morning. Hmmm do I get my car out of long term and drive? I hope not.

I have no agenda the rest of this week other than read and work on my computer. Rachel (Mrs. Pr. Ben) has a conference to attend and present at. She needs to get to San Diego, I am just tagging along.

This is not about my travel troubles. This is a much bigger spiritual issue. I know where I am going. Every day I am one step closer to seeing Jesus face to face. That is where I am headed and I want to bring as many people along with me as I can. However, it is not just the destination, it is the journey too. My life is not just sitting in a spiritual terminal waiting for my heavenly airplane to depart. Poor Huxley didn’t know where he was going in the moment or spiritually speaking!

Life is both a journey and a destination. To neglect either one is to miss half of your life. I do not plan on missing anything. As a church, we have been gathered to “do life” together. In the same we cram ourselves on a plane to go somewhere different—we assemble at church to be reminded of our destination and our journey together.

I am thankful for both. I want to live life with the joy of knowing Jesus (and you too) as well as seeing Jesus face to face when I arrive home for the last time.

Enjoy the journey and look forward to going home!

God bless,
Pr. Ben

“This is the God of the gospel of grace.  A God who, out of love for us, sent the only Son He ever had wrapped in our skin. He learned how to walk, stumbled and fell, cried for His milk, sweated blood in the night, was lashed with a whip and showered with spit, was fixed to a cross, and died whispering forgiveness on us all.”
― Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

God is so good. We sang that refrain several times on Wednesday at our first chapel of the school year. It is true. Sometimes we forget or minimize it. Other times we treat that truth like it is Christmas—something that is meant for children but it has worn a little thin for us older folks.

Yet, the truth remains, “God is so good, He is so good to me.” It is easy to reduce Christianity to a philosophy or a way of life. You know what I am talking about. I know many people who believe these words as gospel truth: “Be good and go to heaven.”

The problem with that is two-fold. I am not good. I want to be, but I am not. (Just ask my wife—I bet she is not convinced that I even want to be good.) I don’t need someone to testify to that truth because I know it in my heart, and in my mind and in my soul. That’s the first part.

The second problem is this, even if I could be good I would miss out on the most important thing: Jesus.

Life isn’t about being good. (Life isn’t about being bad either, just in case you needed further clarification.) Life is about getting close enough to Jesus so you can know (and feel) how much He loves you. It will change you. It will leave you wanting more and more and even more. That is all I want in my heart of hearts… more of Jesus’ love.

I don’t want to be more religious. I just want more of Jesus in my life because it is in knowing Him (not knowing ABOUT Him) that I can rest in his grace. When I daydream, I think about sitting at Jesus’ feet and asking Him questions. The same daydream never gets old. I feel like I could sit there forever and one day I probably will.

I want that for you too. I am not even sure who reads these words anymore, but I want you to know that all I want for you is more of Jesus’ love. It is better than anything else I have ever experienced. Even better than Barbeque.

However, there is one word of warning. Once you have experienced the love of Jesus nothing else will satisfy.

Let me end the same way I began… with a quote from Brennan Manning.

“Rome is burning, Jesus says. Drop your fiddle, change your life and come to Me. Let go of the good days that never were – a regimented church you never attended, traditional virtues you never practiced, legalistic obedience you never honored, and a sterile orthodoxy you never accepted. The old era is done. The decisive inbreak of God has happened.”
― Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

 From the bottom of my heart, may Jesus bless you with His presence,

Pr. Ben

I ran across this article today from a website called gravityleadership.com. It was so good, I wanted to share it with you…

One of the most difficult aspects of Christianity for me to embrace and practice has been the whole evangelism thing.

Evangelism just doesn’t feel natural to a lot of us.

It’s like evangelism is the awkward guy at the party who can’t follow the conversation and always talks a little too loudly. It’s fine, he’s nice enough, but you just don’t know how to relate to him.

 So what’s the deal with that? Are we “ashamed of the gospel” and need to get over ourselves? Are we trying too hard to be “relevant” or something?

Maybe, but I think something deeper is going on here.

 Evangelism as winning arguments?
Here’s what I mean. My hesitations with evangelism stem from seeing it done badly.

Many evangelism techniques from a generation ago seem to be focused on how to confront strangers with the “truth,” win an argument, and thus win them to Jesus.

After all, if you were serious about your faith, if you really loved Jesus, you’d care enough about people’s ultimate destiny to give them an opportunity to get saved, right?

• “Excuse me, ma’am, if you died tonight, do you know without a shadow of a doubt that you’d go to heaven?”
• “If God doesn’t exist, then why is there anything?”

Then you were equipped to answer their objections, “proving” that the Bible was true! Because of your ability to intellectually destroy them, they’d be forced into falling on their knees and confessing that Jesus is Lord.

If you were smart and relentless and committed enough, you could argue people straight into the kingdom, saving their souls!

But I wasn’t buying it. To me, this kind of thing looked like ethically questionable bait-and-switch tactics, coercive conversation outlines, and hard sell techniques filled with fear, guilt, and shame. Nothing I wanted to be involved in.

Plus, (spoiler alert), it doesn’t work! Even if they “get in” because of the fear, guilt, and shame, they’re not actually getting saved from anything. They’re just signing up for more bondage because we scared them into a relationship with God! Yuck!

Embarrassed by coercive evangelism
I have to confess an intense double embarrassment regarding these kinds of evangelistic strategies. On the one hand, I was embarrassed to use these techniques on others, and also felt embarrassed when others occasionally used them on me.

One time when I was walking through an airport someone handed me a tract and asked me if I knew if I was going to heaven.

I sort of answered awkwardly that I was already a Christian, but that wasn’t part of his conversation script, so he kept trying to bring me back to how I knew I was going to heaven…

Ugh! At that point I just felt slimed and walked past him.

Isn’t that interesting? I was “on his team,” so to speak, but I felt like a pawn in his game. There was nothing authentic about the conversation. He wasn’t interested in me, just interested in getting another notch in his evangelism belt.

I just didn’t have the stomach to do that to people. It didn’t feel right. It wasn’t effective, but I assumed my attitude was the problem, and I was ashamed that I wasn’t more passionate about “sharing my faith.”

Evangelism by osmosis?
I responded to these confrontational evangelism techniques in the way that many others do—I backed off and simply tried to connect with people outside the church. I tried to get to know them as people, not prospects.

Which felt like such a relief! I figured this was how people would get to know Jesus and come to faith, through simple friendships where we were connected in our similarities.

I was practicing a kind of “sneaky evangelism” where I hoped that by being loose acquaintances with people, they would eventually just sort of become Christians by osmosis.

But even though it felt better, it seemed to bear about as much fruit as the coercive method (almost none).

As I’d get to know people, they’d find out I was a Christian, but that didn’t seem to mean much.

They’d talk vaguely about going to church as a kid, or even how they go to church occasionally now. Me being a Christian was basically just an interesting fact about me. Like someone with a nose ring or a passion for ballroom dancing or a Haitian ancestry.

My faith was a curiosity at best. It didn’t explain anything remarkable about me. It was just an interesting religious preference, like some people enjoy meditation and others go to church. To each their own.

Connection and distinction
So if coercive evangelism doesn’t work, and neither does “osmosis evangelism,” where does that leave us?

Here’s the thing: whenever you find yourself having only two unsatisfying options, there’s probably another dimension to the problem you’re not thinking about.

So instead of thinking about these 2 ways we all fail at evangelism as opposite ends of a spectrum, think about them as emphasizing two necessary elements in an evangelism strategy that works.

We need connection to the people we are trying to reach, as well as distinction from them. Like this:

Osmosis evangelism fail
But of course the other way most of us fail at evangelism is when we swing to the other extreme: high connection, but low distinction.

This is when we turn down the distinction and turn up the connection. We simply become “friends” with people, hoping they’ll become Christians by osmosis. At the end of the day, you can’t call anyone to anything, because there’s nothing really distinct about you.

“Come join us, because we’re exactly like you!” is not a compelling vision, nor does it even make sense! You can’t join something if you already belong. If I’m no different than you there’s nowhere for you to move. This is why osmosis evangelism doesn’t work.

 Incarnational evangelism
This is the false dichotomy we get stuck in…

• Without distinction, there’s nothing to call people to, but without connection, there’s no people to call!
• Without connection, no one will listen. Without distinction, you have no message.
• Without connection, your distinction looks suspiciously like a colonization program.
• Without distinction, your connection doesn’t lead anywhere.

So what’s the third way? What’s evangelism with high connection and high distinction? What the upper-right quadrant? It’s incarnational evangelism.

This is evangelism in the way of Jesus, because Jesus, as the incarnation, is the perfect embodiment of connection AND distinction at the same time. Jesus is 100% human (connection), and 100% God (distinction).

He embodies connection by fully identifying with us in becoming human. He also embodies distinction from us in remaining fully divine and calling us toward divine life.

One of the most remarkable things about Jesus’ ministry was that “sinners” wanted to be with him, even though he was so clearly not like them.

Jesus reached out to connect with people, and he called them into the thing that was distinct about him: life in the kingdom of God. (End of article.)

Connection (to others) and distinction (from others) are both important when we leave church on Sunday morning until we gather again a week later. Don’t miss this—everyone on the planet craves connection to others and distinction from others. We all want deep friendships (connection) and to some degree we all stand out from the crowd (distinction).

As Christians we have been entrusted with three things: a message, a relationship and the power of change. Jesus asked us to share His story of love with the people around us. Jesus also asked us to introduce others to Him. Finally, Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit who gives us the power to live and love differently.

Let us not be ashamed of these most precious gifts. Coercion and judgmental attitudes does not work and neither does osmosis. Following the lead of Jesus will change the world because he saw our two biggest needs and used them to draw us to Himself.

God bless you all,
Pr. Ben

Water is the essential for life. Without it, we die. Everything that lives on this planet requires water for its survival. Nothing-new there, right? What I find fascinating is that God uses water and water imagery throughout the Bible to remind us of a spiritual truth. Without God (spiritual water) we are spiritually dead.

We all know what it feels like to be walking through the “valley of the shadow of death.” There is no hope and you can see no reason to keep walking…but you do. When you are lonely despite the fact you are surrounded by people. When all you want to do is curl up on the couch and avoid life itself. Those are the times we need “living water” to revive and remind us of how much we are loved- even if we are incapable of love in that moment.

In the book of Job, one of Job’s friends (Bildad) puts it this way,
“Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?  While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass

Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.  What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider’s web. He leans on his web, but it gives way; he clings to it, but it does not hold.” Job 8:11-15

 Papyrus is fragile he says! It withers quicker than grass without water. And then he points out the most shocking thing—we are like papyrus without water when we are without God. Bildad mentions two types of people: Those who forget about God and those who do not know God.

At some point in our lives we forget about God. For many of us, it is during extreme hardship (or college). God will never forget us, but as in any relationship “it takes two to tango.” When we disconnect—we wither.

Thank God, Jesus is always looking for his lost sheep, his lost coin and his lost children (Luke 15). We don’t stay lost or withered forever—Jesus makes sure of that. But during those times, it seems we will never recover what we have lost.

As all life needs water to live—we need spiritual water to thrive. Jesus said to the woman at the well,

“Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14

It makes you wonder, what is in that spiritual water that Jesus offers? God offers himself. But with the gift of God himself we receive something so precious… HOPE.

Hope tells us that there is a future. Hope tells us we have a purpose in this life. Hope tells us that God is up something. Hope tells us that God won’t leave us behind. Hope tells us there is more to this life than meets the eye.

“In God’s great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you…” 1Peter 1:3-4

We are born into a new life with Christ that promises us a hopeful future. Not an optimistic wishful opportunity on the horizon. God has made some outlandish promises but remember this: God doesn’t break promises.

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:23

God is the water of our life. Without it, we wither and die. Maybe that is why Jesus chose water as a sign of adoption into his family. As a baby is surrounded by water in it’s mother’s womb, we have been surrounded by the water of God that is teeming with hope.

“A human can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air…but only for one second without hope.”

God bless you all,

Pr. Ben

Do you know what makes everyone uncomfortable? Sin. No one wants to talk about that. Let me take that back. We like to talk about the sins of others. We just don’t want to talk about our own. Right?

Are you still reading? Good. Those who are easily offended have moved on! Let’s get down to business.

St. Paul in his letter to the church of Rome (also known as Romans) defined sin this way, “everything that does not come from faith is sin.” Romans 14:23b A “definition” is much different than a list isn’t it? Often when we start talking about sin we revert to lists of things we (and everyone else) shouldn’t do.

Yet, Paul gives us a definition. Sure there are some things we should not do as Christian because they are self-serving and self-gratifying but those things point back to the definition he provided. Anything we do that does not point to Jesus Christ is sinful. That is a whole lot of stuff including every day sort of activities. They may not be harmful, but they do not “come from faith” and therefore are sinful.

Paul isn’t trying to turn us into Pharisees nor is he reverting back to his previous profession as a Pharisee. Paul is trying to point out that life is full of sin and sinful people, including us. Yet if we look at the whole chapter (Romans 14) we start see a bigger picture. Take a look; I dare you! If you read the chapter literally you would think that it is all about what you eat. It is way more than that. Paul is talking about sin! He just happens to apply it to the big issue of his day: eating certain foods that were sacrificed to false gods.

He is quick to acknowledge that what is sin to some people is not sinful to others. What??? Can you imagine? Not all sin is universal.

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Romans 14:1-3

Paul says don’t argue about stuff that is debatable or not settled. Judging someone and calling them a sinner based on our list of sins is the wrong approach according to Paul. The litmus test is this: Does this action come out of our faith? It is clear by Paul’s example that it depends upon the person and their motivation.

It is not enough to say, “That is a sin” or “That is not a sin” because someone maybe doing something out of devotion to God which is an act of faith. Yes it is true many people have done some horrible things throughout history with Godly intentions. This definition is not complete. We must also turn to the words of Jesus, which we all know so well, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39

Ahhh, things become clearer. Now we have two criteria for evaluating sin: Does it point to Christ and is it loving?

If the answer is no to either, we might have a problem. Paul puts it this way in Romans 14:13 “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.”

Paul says, appearances matter. Judging others without knowing their heart is a problem (we can never know another’s heart) AND doing something that might make someone stumble because of their faith is weaker or stronger is also a problem—even if it is not a sin!

For example: if Baptists regard drinking alcohol as a sin, then Lutherans shouldn’t drink in front of Baptists even though Lutherans do not regard drinking as a sin.

This is not the only example. We must regard the faith of others when exercising our freedom. As Paul also said, “Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial.” 1 Corinthians 6:12

We need to think twice before judge someone and call them a “sinner.” We are all sinners. Instead, let us not be stumbling blocks to one another.

According to my count “hell” or “hades” is mentioned 21 times in the New Testament. The Apostles’ Creed also states that “Christ descended into hell” or at least it used to say that. The newer translation says, “he descended into the dead.” We Lutheran’s don’t like to talk about hell. It is like the elephant in the room.

I am called to preach the good news of Jesus and not the bad news of hell—that is why I won’t spend a lot of time from the pulpit talking about it. However, I need to talk about it sometime. So why not here and why not now?

If you boil down all the Christian theologians you end up falling into essentially two camps: hell exists or hell does not exist. (Yes, I realize this is an oversimplification but I only have so much time!)

Some folks want to dismiss hell either as a metaphor or literary device used to scare people or that hell was completely vanquished on the day Jesus rose from the dead. Either way, hell is non-existent and everyone gets to go to heaven someday… no matter what.

I don’t have all the answers and I am not an after-life scholar but these ideas raise more problems than solve them. If hell were a metaphor, why would Jesus the Son of God need to come and die on the cross to forgive sins that do not have any lasting punishment associated with it? Doesn’t make sense for Jesus to die to save people from nothing but a bad metaphor. It also doesn’t add up if Jesus was misleading people only to scare them into following him. The ends do not justify the means.

On the other hand, if Jesus’ death and resurrection actually closed down hell on the day of resurrection why would Jesus say to the apostles, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades (hell) will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:18-19

Or why would Jesus say…

“But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” Matthew 5:22

 Or even…

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”. John 3:16-17

 Why would the world need saving if hell was boarded up on Easter morning? The theological term for this is “Universalism” which is nothing more than Jesus saves everyone whether they believe it or not.

I love the idea of universalism. It makes my job easier. Everyone is saved! Yay God! Let’s just play nice until Jesus comes back!

Look, it is God’s prerogative to do whatever God wants to do. He’s the boss. If at the end God wants to save everyone, He has the ability, the power and the grace to do so. I can’t even speculate on who goes to hell (and neither should you). All we can say confidently is that we know that those who believe in Jesus are going to heaven. Even saying that, we can’t truly know who knows Jesus and who does not… only God knows a person’s heart.

Back to the point, Jesus and those who recorded the words of scripture tell us there is a heaven and there is a hell. The only clear path to heaven is through Jesus. (There are others, but not as easy or certain as this—just ask me sometime.)

God loves humanity. God wants humanity to know Him like a father. God wants the people of the world to be a part of his family so that he can lavish His love upon them. God wants to share His life with us. God went to extreme measures to show us the extent of His love: He sent Jesus.

God does not want people to be without His love and His family (the church)- yet God never forces His will upon us. He wants our love because it is genuine and not coerced. That my friend is free will.

Jesus at the end of his time on earth left us Christians (his family) with the mandate to grow God’s family by telling others of His love and NOT to tell people to go to hell. I know we don’t tell people that! By not saying anything, we might be doing that very thing. Jesus asked us to share the hope that we have (1Peter 3:15). If we have hope in Christ we should joyfully share with those who are hurting, lost, lonely and misguided.

If you are reading this and you are not sure about your “hope in Christ” please contact me, I would love to share Jesus with you and what he has done for me in my life.

God bless you all,
Pr. Ben

Here’s a fun topic… sin!

OK maybe not, but it is interesting. At least for a pastor it is an interesting topic. What exactly is sin? I suppose you could conduct a survey and get answers from people to define sin. However, it is not our description of sin that matters. What matters is how God views sin.

Now if you go searching in your Bible for sin, you will find a lot of references. There are 966 references to sin in the version I use. Unfortunately, 99.9% of them do not give a definition of sin. Sure, we see actions labeled as sin, but that doesn’t get to the core of what it actually is.

After searching from the book of Genesis forward, the first clear definition of sin is found in the book of Romans. “Everything that does not come from faith is sin.” Romans 14:23

Faith is the free gift of trust in Jesus from God. When we have faith, we have the ability to trust God with our lives including our thoughts and actions. With that as an understand of what faith is, Paul tells us that anything we do that doesn’t rely on faith is sin because it does not rely on God.

Some of this is complicated by the fact that we can’t see into people’s hearts. In other words, we can’t judge motivations because we cannot see motivations. Sin is an internal problem that can (but not always) manifest in the external world. What makes matters worse is that some people do bad things “in faith.” They may be totally misguided, but the act was committed with “good intentions.”

Clearly, sin is a murky matter.

That makes me wonder, what does Martin Luther think after all he is pretty smart and a Lutheran!

Dr. Cynthia Jurisson a Lutheran Scholar from the University of Chicago wrote this about Martin Luther and sin…

“In Luther’s view, sin is not so much a verb as a noun, not so much an activity as a state of being separated from God. This is one reason why Luther rejected the practice of indulgences. They were a waste of time and money because they didn’t address the real problem: humans live in sin, unable to bridge the chasm between us and God, unable to make full reparation to God and to others for our sins.

Only Christ, the Son of God, can bridge the chasm.

Luther’s definition of sin, as a state of being separated from God, functioned as one of the great democratizing principles not only of the Reformation, but of the early modern world. If sin is the great leveler of persons, then all persons exist—in the eyes of God—at the same level, whether pope, king or peasant.”

Not only do we sin, we exist under the cloud of sin. We can’t escape it on our own. Luther refers to this as “original sin” or the sin that has been present since the beginning of creation and passed down through humanity.

Where does this leave us? I am not sure there is any resolution here other than this: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23.

We all (and when the Bible says “all” it means the whole world) have a need for a God who is willing to bridge the gap between our sin and a relationship with God. More simply, the world needs Jesus.

The problem is that we let sin get in the way of sharing Jesus. That is totally weird and contradictory but it is true. We (sometimes) determine who is worthy and who is not, yet the Bible clearly lays out the fact that we all need Jesus because of our sin.

Furthermore, Jesus comes and dies on a cross to take sin out of the equation. Why then do we judge others because of “their sin” when Jesus Christ does not? The answer: sin.

Sin is a messy business that we cannot escape… any of us. That is why Jesus comes to us and forgives us. Let us also bring Jesus to everyone we meet and not let sin be a factor in deciding who is worthy. None of us are worthy.

God bless,
Pr. Ben

I can’t remember when I was taught these symbols < > in grade school. Was it 2^nd grade or 3^rd grade, honestly I cannot remember? I do remember the concept!

For example: 3<8 (three is “less than” eight) or 5>2 (five is “greater than” two).

It is funny to think that I probably have not used those symbols since grade school. Yet this week, those symbols popped into my head.

I wasn’t thinking about which numbers are “greater than” and “less than” other numbers. I was thinking about how we do that with other people. Of course we would not say it, but we certainly think it. This person is a bad person (less than). This person is awesome (greater than). When it comes to God there is no such thing as “greater than” and “less than” when it comes to people.

Martin Bell wrote a book of short stories and essays in 1968 and they are wonderful. I pulled my copy with browned paper off my shelf to share a part of this essay with you. It is titled Wood and Nails and Colored Eggs.

“Something like an eternity ago, human beings got caught up in the illusion that being human is a relatively unimportant sort of proposition. Here today—gone tomorrow. A vale of tears—that sort of foolishness.

What’s more tragic, of course, is that in the wake of this basic error there quickly followed the idea that human beings are expendable, which easily degenerated into the proposition that some human beings are expendable. Certain human beings are expendable. Really bad people are expendable. People with low I.Q.’s are expendable. Anyone who disagrees with me is expendable…

Well, that’s not true. It’s wrong. All wrong. And it has always been wrong. From the creation of the heavens and earth, it has been wrong. There is nothing more important than being human. Our lives have eternal significance. And no one—absolutely no one—is expendable…

God raised Jesus from the dead to end that. We should be clear—once and for all—that there is nothing more important than being human. Our lives have eternal significance. And no one—absolutely no one—is expendable…

When we see people as “<” (less than) bad stuff happens. In Rwanda several years ago Tutsis were < Hutus. We all know what happened in the middle of the 20^th century in Europe: Jews and others were < everyone else. That is just scratching the surface. We know that on Sunday night an armed gunman killed many people in an Orlando nightclub because he most likely thought they were < him.

< (less than) has no place in conversations about people. When we view people or a group of people that way it can quickly turn to oppression or even violence. When we keep silent, others will view our silence as quiet approval. Neither is acceptable. This goes back to what I said last Sunday and our core value of “Hospitality to all.” Either everyone is welcome or we are a country club without a golf course. It is an all or nothing proposition. Either Jesus died for the sins of the world or he didn’t. What I mean by that is this: either Jesus died for everyone or he didn’t. (Belief in that action is a different conversation.)

This isn’t about a secret agenda. This is about our ability to live up to the words we claim as our core value. If we see all people as children of God, then there is no “less than” or “greater than.” Those words get replaced with another math sign: =. In God’s eyes we are all sinful. We are equal because we all have the same need, a God who will forgive us and bring us into community.

We don’t have to agree with someone 100% to be in community. However, we do have to treat each other as =’s to be children of God and the Church.

Below is the text of the letter from our Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, Elizabeth Eaton after the shootings in Orlando on Sunday morning.

Think and pray on these things and for the people who are treated like they < others.

God bless,
Pr. Ben

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

“So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them.” Genesis 1:27

We are killing ourselves. We believe that all people are created in God’s image. All of humanity bears a family resemblance. Those murdered in Orlando were not abstract “others,” they are us. But somehow, in the mind of a deeply disturbed gunman, the LGBTQ community was severed from our common humanity. This separation led to the death of 49 and the wounding of 54 of us.

We live in an increasingly divided and polarized society. Too often we sort ourselves into like-minded groups and sort others out. It is a short distance from division to demonization. Yesterday, we witnessed the tragic consequences of this.

There is another way. In Christ God has reconciled the world to God’s self. Jesus lived among us sharing our humanity. Jesus died for us to restore our humanity. God invites us into this reconciling work. This must be our witness as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The perpetrator of this hate crime did not come out of nowhere. He was shaped by our culture of division, which itself has been misshapen by the manipulation of our fears. That is not who we are. St. Paul wrote, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ” (II Corinthians 5:17-20).

Our work begins now. We need to examine ourselves, individually and as a church, to acknowledge the ways we have divided and have been divided. We must stand with people who have been “othered”. We must speak peace and reconciliation into the cacophony of hatred and division. We must live the truth that all people are created in God’s image.

This morning your churchwide staff came together to mourn and to pray. We prayed for those killed in Orlando and remembered the Charleston Nine killed only a year ago. We prayed for the family of the shooter, for our LGBTQ brothers and sisters and for our Muslim brothers and sisters who now face the threat of retaliation. And we prayed that the Prince of Peace will bring us to the day when we stop killing ourselves.

Your sister in Christ,
Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Back in 2010, our previous Presiding Bishop of the ELCA wrote the following article below. It reads as if it was written yesterday. All you have to change is the word “election campaign” to “primary season”. Unfortunately, we are still in the same mode of “gotcha politics” today.  I am posting this as a reminder to all of us that God is sovereign (in charge) and we sometimes forget that. The words written below remind all of us of God’s love and provision.

Please note when reading the article below, no one party or person is singled out. This is kind of like Cinderella, if the glass slipper fits…

God bless us all,
Pr. Ben

Government is God’s Servant
By The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
The just-completed election campaign should wake us all and stir us to action. Our nation’s political climate has been overrun with bitter and divisive commentary. Reckless incivility has overtaken public discourse in our nation, and it is a travesty. Our children have watched and learned from us. Spiteful rhetoric used to stigmatize opponents on subjects such as immigration and gay rights has become a script for young people and children to bully and intimidate their peers.

Enough. We deserve better. I’m adding my voice to those who call for respectful political engagement for the common good. I join all who call for a renewal of common decency in public speech. I am not alone. Many Christians choose to engage public life with a hopeful spirit, very differently from the mean-spirited cynicism that has overtaken us. I join those who act out of hope, because I am confident that God is at work in the world for the good of everyone.

Behind much of the divisive rhetoric and the partisan behavior in our nation are perspectives that are not worthy of us as a nation. Some treat government as if it were God-forsaken unless one religious tradition and its set of moral values are imposed on people of all faiths. Some view people whose language, culture or convictions are “different” as threats or even enemies to be overcome and controlled. Some present themselves as victims and engage the political process resentfully for their own self-interests and the interests of those who are most like them.

Much of the division and hostility we experience in political life flows from these kinds of perspectives. Christians whose hope and confidence come from the biblical witness have a different perspective.

We recognize that government is God’s servant, as the apostle Paul wrote in the New Testament. Regardless of the faith of the people holding public office, government itself and all public employees serve God’s providential care for all humankind. Even when we are convinced that government is dysfunctional and needs reform, public service remains an honorable vocation and it deserves the respect of all. Political life should not be abandoned as hopelessly God-forsaken. We have the opportunity and the responsibility in a democracy to engage public life with generosity and compassion. Candidates elected to public office have a responsibility to serve the common good, not privileged interests or partisan factions.

When we participate in the political process, we engage others as neighbors whom we have the opportunity and privilege to serve. Christian faith follows Jesus, who came to serve, not to be served. Authentic Christian faith serves all who are our neighbors, both in this nation and around the world. Even when we disagree on important matters of public life, we respect our neighbors. We need not caricature their words and ideas simply to defeat them. Instead, we engage in vigorous public debate in order to preserve and strengthen the life we share with all. For that reason, even when we disagree, we seek to find others at their best.

Finally, Christians do not view life as a competition, where progress can come only at the expense of others. We engage the political life of our nation, presenting ourselves as people confident in a generous God who mercifully provides enough for the well-being of all people. We present our best gifts, ready to endure hardship and suffering for the sake of the common good. Because God has not entrusted abundant resources and gifts to us for partisan advantage, we use them for the good of all, for God is the God of all.

Starting on Sunday, I will begin preaching on Bethel’s core values. I am hoping you will either come to church and hear about what we value or listen in via podcast or download. These two sentences may cause you to yawn or even second guess coming to church but I want to tell you that I am quite excited to be talking about what we hold dear as a church!

Some people think that core values are something we strive after. I don’t. Whether we admit it or not- core values already exists in individuals, corporations and even within the church. Identifying core values isn’t about stating who we want to be. It is quite the opposite, claiming our core values reminds us of who we already are!

There is nothing wrong with changing who you are if something needs changing, but as the tiger found out—changing his stripes was harder than he thought. Thankfully, we aren’t trying to change, we are leaning into who we are as a faith community and who we are as children of God.

If you come to church you will see our core values on the cover of our bulletin. These are the things that Bethel members shared as the most important principles that inform who we are:

• Christ Centered Community: Worship and Fellowship
• We Respond to Needs: Caring for the community and individuals
• Generosity: We share what we have to extend God’s Kingdom
• Hospitality to All: Welcoming all who come to Bethel
• Spiritual Growth: We strive to grow in faith and grow closer to God.

Maybe this doesn’t excite you… this makes my heart go “pitter-patter!” Why? When we can live into how God created us as a church we will grow in faith and foster a deep connection with God. That is why I won’t let this go! This is good for us!

Please join me over the next month to re-discover what makes us tick as a church family.

God bless,
Pr. Ben