I got a strange robocall this week,
saying Pastor, you need to urge your parishioners not to vote for Donald
Trump because of his pornography problem, his problem with infidelity, that he
does not have family values. It was some woman, a mother of 10 kids, who
homeschools them all… Never heard of her before. Was all of this true? Or was
it a ploy by someone to make sure that Trump didn’t do well in the caucus
yesterday? Apparently, it worked, here in Kansas. But it’s hard to know what is
truth and what is not, especially in this season of debates.
Many people
will tell you who to vote for. If you’re a Christian, they say, you’ll vote for
this person. But let me tell you, it’s important that you first understand the
overarching message of Christ’s word and teaching, and then vote in accordance.
I’m never going to tell you who to vote for. It’s your job to come here and let
the Word of God wash over you, transform your heart and mind… then go home and
search scriptures on your own, and understand it’s about how we bow down to our
God as the one and only, and how we treat our fellow humankind. All truth is
from God. There is some truth in many things, but only God is fully truth. And at
the heart of our beliefs is this: Jesus was and is the Son of God, not just
some good role model. He died on a cross, in our place, for our sins, a death
he did not deserve. And he was buried and he rose again. He came back to life.
And he lives, still. He ascended or went up to heaven, where he is seated next
to the Father. That is the heart of the Christian message. That is the Good
News, what makes us different from other religions. That is the way, the truth
and the life for us.
This week, I was thinking about all the
conflict in the world, both at home and abroad, and I thought, what if the Lord
has allowed all these differences in opinion, and culture, and language, and
skin color, and classes, and education levels—just to see how we will get along
with each other? Whether we will learn to coexist by wiping each other out, or
by listening and getting along, respectfully. By learning what’s important to
each other. By honoring the value of each other’s lives. By understanding how
much we have in common. At the end of our lives, will he ask us, So, how’d you
do? Did you learn to get along? Or were you fighting and bickering and finger
pointing, all the time?
We could bully each other, as the politicians
are doing. these days. Try to intimidate each other. Call each other names. I
wonder what God thinks of that. It’s sad when people feel the need to go down
into the gutter with someone, to get on their level. But that seems to be the
way of the world.
For some time, now, TV has been filled
with shows where people actually say what’s on their mind. There are no
consequences, because it’s TV, not reality. We’re confused about what’s
reality, and what’s TV. Reality shows are really very far from reality. Because
you can’t just go out into the world and say whatever comes to your mind. God gives
us a filter, called our conscience, and our brain, and hopefully we THINK
before we speak. Because our words have consequences. Just as much as our
actions do. I don’t see it anywhere in the Bible where it says, just blurt out
whatever comes to mind.
Likewise, we can’t just assume we know
what we believe, as followers of Christ. We’ve got to read scripture, for
ourselves. Or listen to it, on CD or tape. Because it’s not the most easy thing
to understand. Some things are straightforward. Others, are not. And we’ve got
to listen or read a BUNCH of it… whole books of the Bible, at a time. To get
the big picture. If we focus on one small part, one or two verses, we’re not
going to get the the full intent. We may just affirm what it is that we already
believe, on our own. Make God into our own image. Now that’s a dangerous
prospect. I believe that if we read scripture, and it’s not challenging?? if it
doesn’t stretch us, then we may not have not read enough. We need to keep
reading.
And don’t take someone else’s word for
it. Don’t just listen to someone on the radio, who tells you what you ought to
believe. Read it for yourself, then make up your own mind. Or rather, let God
make up your mind, for you. If you’re not convicted by it, if the Lord doesn’t
tell you what you need to be doing more of, and less of, then you haven’t read
enough. So keep reading. We’re never gonna know what it really means to believe
and follow, and what the truth is, until we read it for ourselves. And we
shouldn’t sit back and rely on what we read 5 or 10 or 20 years ago, because we
have surely changed since then, and the Lord may wish to show us something
different, this time around. There may yet be another way he wants to fine tune
our hearts.
So, don’t grow complacent and let your
mind be conformed to evangelists on TV and the radio; let it be conformed to
the mind and heart of God, of Jesus. For he is our way, our truth and our life.
Go to the source. And then when you hear and see these folks, you’ll be better
prepared and armed to say, now that’s not quite right. Now that sounds about
right, but this over here, this is just wacky. Become a better informed citizen
of the kingdom of God. Spend as much time on that as you do, figuring out who
you should vote for. And then you WILL know who best to vote for. You’ll possibly
see how far away many of these folks are, from the Truth, even though they might
say they are Christian, and of God.
This is why I don’t get too jazzed or
upset about politics. It’s necessary, and we ought to be informed, active
participants in the process. But so many times, the options we have, just come
up so short. And why do they? Because, as we heard last week, the kingdom of
God is not of this world. It’s up to us to seek and read God’s Word, to abide
in it, to let it take root in our hearts. To understand that this, and things
like Holy Communion are how God gives himself to us, through his Holy Spirit.
That the Holy Spirit desires to affect, and infect us, so that we can receive
it, and take it out into the world. We can’t be looking for the world to give
us what we need, folks. For only Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
Amen.