“What Is The Role Of The Church Today?”

Thoughts on the state of the church in today’s society

I am prompted to write the following as I continue on a study of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and think about what this all means to us today.

What is the role of the church in today’s society? Is it the moral authority of the world? If it is and it does nothing to condemn evil and injustice in the world, how good is that authority?

Can a church dictate to individuals how to live one’s life when it offers no alternative or refuses to see alternatives?

What is the individual’s responsibility in all of this?

If the church is the ultimate authority, then do individuals have any responsibility at all? On the other hand, if each individual takes responsibility for their own moral conduct, where does that leave the church?

“The Real Final Exam”

Meditation for June 29, 2014, the 3^rd Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)

Genesis 22: 1 – 14, Romans 6: 12 – 23, and Matthew 10: 40 – 42

To say that I am not a fan of the present teaching model would be something of an understatement. But, perhaps not for the reasons you might think.

I was not happy with the way that the Common Core Curriculum was “imposed” on the teachers of this country. It seemed to me that very little was done in the way of preparation for teachers, students, and parents alike. That there needs to be a common core should go without saying but you don’t change the curricula model without some sort of warning or preparatory system If there was such a warning or preparation period, I am not aware of it.

Personally, I didn’t have any problems with the curriculum but then again, I was working with my kindergarten age grandson and most of what we did was pretty simple stuff. I think the problem that most people had was simply with the fact that they had to think for themselves and weren’t able to adjust to the change.

Too many people today don’t want to take on new tasks, especially when it comes to learning. They are quite content to do it the way it was done when they were students and that is all they expect. And when a student, especially a college-age student, encounters a new way of learning, there is much rebellion. And that’s what makes it so easy to have a test-oriented curriculum; all you have to do is present some knowledge to the students, have them memorize it, and then test them on it. Once they are tested on it and they achieve a reasonable success level, then we move onto a new topic. That leads to the quote from “Teaching As A Subversive Activity”, written by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner way back in the good old days of 1969,

The Vaccination Theory of Education – English is not History and History is not Science and Science is not Art and Art is not Music, and Art and Music are minor subjects and English, History, and Science major subjects, and a subject is something you “take” and, when you have taken it, you have “had” it, and if you have “had” it, you are immune and need not take it again. (This and other sayings I have found interesting are at “A Collection of Sayings”.)

If we simply test our students, we don’t have to get involved in the learning process and that is the problem. Learning is an active and interactive process between people; testing is not.

Some of this saw this coming almost thirty years ago. When I was teaching in Missouri, the State Board of Education, in its infinite wisdom, created the Basic Essential Skills Test or BEST test. Now, the rationale and purpose for this test were valid; every student needs to have a certain basic set of skills for life after school. But the manner in which the BEST test was done required a response.

So we created the Scholastic Education Council on New Directions Basic Essential Skills Test – 1) I will let you figure out the acronym and 2) the actual questions are at “THE BETTER TEST”. Clearly, our response was satire but it went to the point of what students should learn, how they should learn, and how that learning should be measured.

There was an episode in the TV series, “The Paper Chase” that speaks to this point. It was the final exam in Contract Law and Professor Kingsfield had created an exam with 100 questions covering a myriad of law-based topics in areas such as real estate, medicine, theology, and probably a few areas that one would not relate to the study and practice of the law.

To get the answers required the students search not only the law library but practically ever other library on campus. And because the students were competitive to the point of insanity, when they found the answer to one of the questions, they kept the resources for themselves so that other students would not be able to answer the question.

You can imagine the chaos that ensued because students were unable to answer all the questions (certain in their own minds that completion of all the questions was necessary for success). In the end, the students or rather the various study groups began to work how ways to share the work that they had with other groups so that they could get the answers for the questions. In the end, they wrote a series of contracts.

And what you have to remember was this was a course in Contract Law. The purpose of the exam was not to obtain all the answers individually but work together and develop solid and viable contracts, which was the purpose of the course.

A second example occurred while I was a graduate student at Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis). The Memphis Fire Department had agreed to take away several 55-gallon drums filled with chemical waste that the Chemistry Department had collected over the years. But before they could take them, the contents of each drum had to be identified.

Chemistry graduate students at that time took a series of monthly exams that measured their knowledge and competency. The solution to the problem of identifying the contents of the drums was to give each student a drum and tell them to apply their analytical and organic knowledge to the identification of the contents. (Of course, while this solved the department’s problem, it may have created problems for the individual students.)

I am not entirely certain that our present model of teaching can do that. In the end, our students learn to solve problems that already have solutions but they are not capable of solving problems that haven’t been solved.

And what perhaps bothers me more than anything else is that there will be a point in our own personal lives where we are going to be faced with such a problem. We shall be asked a question for which we may not know the answer and then what will or shall we do?

There really isn’t a question in the Old Testament reading for today but it is quite clear that God is testing Abraham. It is as if God is asking Abraham to prove that he, Abraham, will fulfill his part of the covenant. This covenant is the promise that Abraham’s descendants will outnumber the stars in the sky and yet God has directed Abraham to take Isaac to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him.

What must Abraham have thought? After all, as far as I know, Abraham believes that his oldest son, Ishmael, is dead and now he is about to kill his other son. The promise, the fulfillment of the covenant is clearly at stake at this point.

How would we respond in such a case? How would we respond if we had to put our faith on the line and just hope, without a single piece of evidence that God would fulfill His part of the covenant. And that is the real final exam! It is the one question that we have no way to study for; there is no book in which we can find the answer.

We could, I suppose, not worry about it. As Paul pointed out, you could lead the life we want, do what we want and ignore God. That way you wouldn’t have to worry or bother about right thinking or right living. But what do you get for all of that? Not much and when that moment comes when you have to answer the question you have avoided all your life, you won’t have the time, let alone the ability to think about what to say.

In the end, what you do, what you say, how you think shows where Christ is in your life. Many years ago I taught a course in how to teach science (a methods course). Most of my students expected me to lecture them on the various ways that one could teach science and sometimes I did just that. But a lot of times, I used the method that was the lesson, having the students do what they were going to be doing later on in life. I thought it was more important to do the method than simply speak about it. Not all my students got the message.

I would like to think that this is what Jesus was doing, having his students, his disciples do that which He taught them. It wasn’t easy for them to learn (and we know that many dropped out over the course of the three years). But in the end, enough understood and when the Holy Spirit came to them on that first Pentecost, they understood what they needed to do and then went from there.

Are you prepared today to take all that you have learned and go out into the world to show others who Christ is? The class is dismissed and the course begins.

“Stranded In The Wilderness”

Meditation for June 22, 2014, the 2^nd Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)

Genesis 21: 8 – 21, Romans 6: 1 – 11, and Matthew 10: 24 – 39.

When I start writing something, I have a sense of what I want to say but I have also found that sometimes this changes as I am go along. For me, this is God speaking to me as I write. It is one way that I sense the presence of God in my life.

This may not be how you feel that it happens but that is the wonderfulness of God in each of our lives; what works for you is not necessarily what works for me and what works for me may not be the best for you.

But there are also times (and they have been plenty lately) where that sense of the presence of God in my life has not been there. Such times are times when I feel as if I am the middle of the wilderness, with no path seemingly available, no future in front of me.

In the times that I participated in teaching others how to prepare a sermon, I tell the students to look at the lectionary readings for the Sunday in question and go with that one. But I never took that course and when I began preaching on a regular basis I felt the need to use all three readings together.

And there are times when I struggled trying to find the common thread to the readings. Still, as I looked at the three readings, it came to me that I needed to look at not just the three readings but the direction they take the reader.

It would be very easy to use the Old Testament reading as the backdrop for a discussion of the politics of the mid-East and what happened to Ishmael and those that came after him. But to connect that to the other readings would be a stretch and one that I didn’t want to make.

But I also know that the skills that I have, the gifts that I have been given, and my ability to use them come from God. What did the writer of Genesis tell us about Ishmael, that God was on his side as he grew up? Is that not the case for each one of us? Have there not been times in each of our own lives where we have to wonder about the skills that we have and what to do with them?

The passage from Matthew speaks also of the conflict that will arise within families when one person in the family chooses to follow Christ. But doesn’t the same strife happen when someone in the family takes a path of their own choosing rather than one that would be, let’s say, more traditional or keeping with what the family wants?

Or, on a more personal level, what is the strife that comes within one’s self, when there is a conflict between doing what you love and what you think you have to do? Society, that most powerful of driving forces today, tells us that we need to focus on ourselves, getting what we can for ourselves and not worrying about others. And yet, there is that something inside us that tells us or pushes us to pursue things that may not have the same material gain but lead to greater rewards.

When I started writing my blog, it was with the intention of keeping in the habit of writing a weekly message. After all, I had just completed a seven-year period where I was doing that as the lay pastor for three small churches in Kentucky and New York. For awhile, I thought that I would be doing that again but it didn’t come to pass. Still, when you look at my preaching schedule over the past nine years, I have been, on the average in the pulpit twenty weeks out of the year. So writing the blog has served its purpose.

But now I think that I need to see if that is where I need to be going. One of the other things that I did with this blog was focus on chemistry and chemical/science education. And I think it is time that I look more in that area than I have been doing.

We as a people, a society, a nation, and inhabitants of this planet, are at a crossroads. The signs are appearing more and more frequently that what we are doing to this planet is doing more harm than good and we are fast approaching that time when it will be too late. We will find ourselves in a wilderness of our own making and without the capability and resources to make the corrections and changes. For me, one of the problems is that we have gotten lazy in our thinking; we, quite frankly, want others to do our thinking for us. We are unwilling to think independently and critically; we are fast approaching the time when we won’t be able to even do that.

I have said it before but it bears repeating but our students leave school today with the idea that if the material is not in the text book, then it isn’t going to be taught and that all the problems have been solved and are in the back of the text book (from The Age of Unreason by Charles Handy, 1990). But what will happen when we encounter a problem that hasn’t been solved or for which the answer hasn’t been provided in advance? What do we do then?

So I need to move my thoughts in another direction, perhaps back to from whence I came, the laboratory and the mind. But I will not leave my heart nor my soul to do so.

My concern has to be that one understands where science fits, along with faith and religion, in one’s life. And that is where I think I need to focus.

Paul writes about a life in sin and a life with Christ, two clear choices. Paul writes to the Romans that they have an option, one with hope. But he also writes or implies that you don’t have to take that option but that leaves you with sin. And throughout all of his writings, to live in sin is to live in slavery. There is a freedom that can only come from Christ and in terms of what Matthew wrote, it is a freedom to do your thing, the thing that your heart, mind, and soul direct you to follow.

We are stranded in this wilderness, wondering what will happen to us. But just as Hagar saw the well of water which enable her to save her son and go on to the future that was to be, so too can we look to God through Christ and find our freedom, our path out of the wilderness.

We have a choice to make today. The simplest thing would be to do nothing, but that leaves us where we are and as time moves forward, that means we shall be left behind (pun intended). On the other hand, we have the opportunity to follow Christ, out of the wilderness and into the future. What shall your choice be?

“A Particular Order of Things”

A Mediation for Trinity Sunday, June 15, 2014 (Year A)

The Scriptures for this Sunday are Genesis 1 – 2: 4, 2 Corinthians 13: 11 – 13, and Matthew 28: 16 – 20.

There is a certain degree of irony in the Scripture readings for this Sunday, at least for me. There is, of course, the Old Testament reading which I look at from one particular point of view and the Gospel reading for today and how I see it as well.

In another project that I am working on I write that believe that there are no three words that create more controversy in society today than the beginning words of Genesis, “In the beginning.” Intuitively, we know that there has to be beginning for everything, but for some reason, perhaps our own human frailties, we have a hard time understanding this.

It is very difficult to envision the creation of this planet and the life that exists, let alone the creation of the universe. In an increasingly complex and technologically oriented world, it seems far easier to accept the notion that God created the world and all that is here in a period of six days.

This is the view that we first learned in Sunday School and never adequately discussed in our science classes growing up. Perhaps it was not discussed because 1) it was too controversial and/or 2) it is a concept not easily demonstrated in the classroom as a demonstration or through experimentation. What we know from the development of the various science curricula in the 1960s was that understanding a rather abstract thought requires an approach that moves the student from a concrete viewpoint to an abstract viewpoint and this is not always easily done.

But we are by nature a curious creature, a creature created in the image of the same God that created this world and this universe. It is our curiosity that seeks to understand this world and this universe. To not ask questions about this world would be to deny our own creation.

Consider what Charles Handy said,

“Learning is discovery but discovery doesn’t happen unless you are looking. Necessity may be the mother of invention but curiosity is the mother of discovery.” (The Age of Unreason , 1990)

We can only begin to imagine what the author of Genesis might have been thinking when he or she recorded the words that chronicle the beginning of the universe and this world. I learned this morning of a possible theological reason but I don’t think it affects the scenario that follows.

Perhaps it was the end of the day and families were gathered around the fire. One of the children in the group may have very well asked one of the elders how it was that they had gotten to that moment in time and space. And the elder may very well have responded, “In the beginning” and the lesson began.

It was a story told from the heart as well as the mind and it reflected the knowledge and understanding of the world at that time. It was as much a story of how a group of individuals came to be and was an explanation of their relationship with God as much as with this world. That story, how we came to be a group of individuals in a relationship with God, is still a valid story today, some three thousand years later, and one which needs to be retold time and time again.

But to tell the story as it was told three thousand years ago would 1) effectively deny who we are, 2) deny the relationship that we have with God, 3) ignore all that we have come to know about this planet and this universe, and 4) turn a living story in pages in a dry and dusty old book.

Now, I recall reading or hearing somewhere that the order of creation outlined in the first part of Genesis mirrors the order of creation from the “Big Bang” to life today. And I have to wonder about that. I do not wonder if the elder who told the story some three thousand years ago had some magically insight into what took place,

Rather, it would seem that this elder took some time to think things through and place things in the most logical order. After all, you can’t have living things appearing on the planet before there was plants and things to eat. And you can’t have the plants appear before the land is established. And where the water and the air come from? So the story was laid out in a logical manner in the minds of the story tellers.

If this were the case, as I would think it had to be, then why is it that we don’t want to think today? Why is it that we are quite willing to let others think for us? As I see the world around us today, I see us going away from exploration and questioning and moving towards a state of inflexibility and closed minds.

We are not interested in what is around the corner, we do not care if there is life on other planets, and we are not prepared to answer questions that have not been asked because we do not teach curiosity and inquiry in our schools today. We want our students to memorize things without questioning what it is they are memorizing.

Don’t get me wrong, memorization is a very valid skill but it is 2^nd on the list of learning skills with analysis and other higher level thinking skills coming after that. You cannot simply stop at memorization; you must move upward if you expect new things to be created.

Creativity is a natural part of learning but it cannot be learned if it is not put into place. And when someone says to me that we are not to question things, such as the Bible, I have to wonder what their individual goal or thought process might be.

And that leads me to the Gospel reading for today. The passage from Matthew is often called the “Great Commission”, the challenge to bring people to Christ. In some translations, the challenge is to make disciples but The Message translates those words as “train everyone” and “instruct them in all that I have commanded you.” Clarence Jordan, in his Cotton Patch Gospels, says to make students and teach them.

You cannot do that if you beat them over the head with the message, which is how I have seen people interpret the command to make disciples of all the people. If you are not going to show me what it is that you want me to do, if you are going to tell me that this is the way that I have to do then 1) I am not likely to listen and 2) I will not be interested in the outcome.

Were it not for my own curiosity, I might have walked away from the church some fifty years ago and never looked back.

But my story is a little different; I came to Christ on my own and in answer to His call. Not everyone is like that, though they will come on their own. How then do we teach them? How then do we train them?

And this brings forth the 2^nd irony of this weekend. I just completed an on-line course in finding one’s spiritual gifts. I learned a couple of things; first, my present gifts are not what I thought they would be and second, I became convinced that knowing one’s spiritual gifts are important and necessary to the direction and mission of the local church.

If you have no idea what your gifts are, it becomes a little hard to do the things that you need to be doing if you don’t know if you can do them. And then we consider Paul’s words to the Corinthians as to how things are done.

So, today we have been charged and challenged to take the Word out into the world. We have been charged and challenged to do so in a way that expresses the love of God for all of his children, children born on this world that He created.

Just as there was only one order to the way the world can be created, there is only one order in which we can bring the world to God, through Christ and with love.

A Prayer for Today, This Society, and This World

Something inside was not comfortable at noon when I turned on the TV and then when I went to CNN I knew why.  I have been impressed by the prayer capability of this class and feel that we need to focus on praying that this epidemic of gun violence which is sweeping this nation and this world be stopped.  I know that guns are not necessarily the problem but they are the means by which so many people see the solution to their problem.

Let us pray that we find ways to peacefully resolve the issues between individuals, groups, and nations and that the use of violence as the means to solving problems be reduced and eliminated.  May the peace that is the Holy Spirit descend on all the people this hour and this day.

“A Convergence of Time, Place, and Ideas”

Mediation for Pentecost (Year A)

8 June 2014

The Scriptures for this Sunday are Acts 2: 1 – 21, 1 Corinthians 12: 3 – 13, and John 7: 37 – 39 (note in the text I that used John 20: 19 – 23 in preparing these notes).

I have noted on a couple of occasions in the past that June 6^th is an important date in my life because it is the birth date of my youngest daughter, Meara Lee. As I wrote on my Facebook page, “There are no words that I can write or say that express the joy she and her sister have brought to my life.”

But June 6^th has another meaning to me, one that I seldom thought about since I was more interested in the completion of the process that started on that date. Still, any process that is finished has a beginning and it was on June 6, 1966 that I began my college career by enrolling as a first quarter freshman in the High School Honors Program at Northeast Missouri State Teachers College (now known as Truman State University).

For the record, I was only 15 when this happened and just completed my sophomore year in high school. After the summer session was over, I would go to Memphis, Tennessee, where my family had moved while I was in school and begin my junior year in high school at Bartlett High School. I would return to Kirksville the next summer and then the summer after I graduated from high school to complete my freshman year and begin my sophomore year in college.

I had no idea what I would be getting myself into or what paths my life would travel when I went to Kirksville that summer day some 48 years ago, nor what would happen when I told Dr. Wray Rieger, Dean of Students and my adviser that summer, that I would major in chemistry.

What is interesting, at least in terms of today being Pentecost Sunday, is there never has been an occasion while I have been either preaching or writing blogs where Pentecost occurred on June 6th and only four times where there was a day or two difference between these two events.

And I suppose that I should wait until such time that does occur but the events of this day and age suggest that I should not wait. If June 6^th marks the beginning of a journey, so too is Pentecost.

Pentecost may be considered the birth date of the church, for it was on this day that the Holy Spirit came to the people gathered in Jerusalem per the instructions of Jesus Christ. But birth dates can quickly turn in counting mechanisms and that, if you will excuse the pun, make things rather old rather quickly.

But Pentecost was and is more than simply the birth of the new church. It was the beginning of a movement, a movement that would change the world in ways that no one could foresee or even imagine. And with all the talk in the church today, especially in the United Methodist Church, about the impending death of the church, perhaps we need to think about what we are doing for tomorrow rather than counting the days from last year or the years that have passed by us rather quickly.

If we are to look to the morrow and begin again the movement of the church and this denomination, we need to realize at least two things from the Scriptures for today.

First, no matter where the people came from, they were speaking a common language. They understood each other rather clearly and when you consider the tone of the words in the reading from Acts, they were rather surprised that they were able to do that. Differences between people in terms of nationalities and cultures quickly disappeared.

For me, the problem today is that we no longer speak a common language. Oh, we may all speak English but the words we use often times have multiple meanings. And I think at times, we stretch our sensibilities to get the words we use to mean what we want them to mean.

Second, there seems to be a movement to make everyone in the church identical, no matter what side of the issue each person may stand on. And if you don’t stand with me on this issue, then you stand against me and I don’t want you in my church. What was it that Groucho Marx said, “I do not want to belong to any organization that would have me as a member.”

Paul points out that the people of God have been given many gifts and the assumption that I get from that is that we need as many individuals as possible to insure that we have all the gifts we need. For it is only when we have all the gifts are we able to function as a whole community.

If we choose to cast someone out because they don’t have a special gift or perhaps because we already have that gift, then we risk causing the community of believers to fail.

In the Gospel reading for today (I mistakenly used John 20: 19 – 23 instead of the regular Gospel reading – John 7: 37 – 39), Jesus asks the disciples what they will do if they do not forgive the sins of others. What are we going to do if we say to someone that they don’t meet what we consider the qualifications of our little club?

I know where I stand as to the future of this church and this denomination. I also know that there are many people who do not feel the way that I do and I sometimes wonder why that is. I also know that many of the beliefs and thoughts about people that so dominated the discussions in this denomination almost two hundred years ago were wrong and we have changed. What bothers me is that we are doing the same thing today. And if our judgements prove to be wrong, what shall we say to those whom we rejected today?

Let’s look at Pentecost as it was some two thousand years ago – the beginning of a process, a movement and let’s go out and change the world as we are supposed to be doing.

24 Hours

Here is the message that a friend of mine, Cheryl Carpenter-Gomes, presented this past Sunday, June 1^st, at her church, the Goshen UMC, The Scripture for this morning is John 17: 1 – 11.

Taking a look at the gospel scripture for today, I realize it is probably one of the most amazing scriptures we have. It is one time that we actually hear Jesus praying to God the Father. The bible says He prayed often but this is the one time we can hear how He prays.

We know when the disciples asked HOW to pray he gave them the Lord’s prayer, however this IS the Lord praying himself. He knows the end is near; in 24 hours he will no longer be walking this earth so he prays to his Father. Now, if you learned that you were going to die within the next 24 hours, would you pray? What would you say? What would you ask?

I know I would be praying. I always have a sort of continual dialog going with God through out the day as my prayer but, if I knew that in 24 hours life for me is over, what would I say? Well, it would probably be something like this.

Um. Hey God it’s me, you know I’ve had a truly blessed life, a difficult childhood, I couldn’t “do” things other kids could do like ride a bike or run or even wear cool sneakers till I was 13 due to a bone structure problem, which made me be bullied a lot, but in retrospect, I turned out okay. I lost my dad at 60 and my sister at 36 really much too young, I helped my parents support my sisters kids until they were old enough to help themselves. That was not easy, but we did it. And I have no doubt that they are both with me in spirit daily.

I worked on Wall Street starting at 16, took the subway in to work after school and got mugged on it twice. I graduated at 17 and I was this close to going for my traders license, however in order to keep up with the street in the 80’s it took a lot of controlled substances to play that game and well that could’ve killed me,

I joined the Naval Reserves instead, and I thought for sure THAT WILL kill me, but I made it through and am proud of that accomplishment, unfortunately the only cruise I went on was on a really ugly battleship grey boat, and I spent most of that time swabbing decks, ( I do believe i became very adept at my painting skills however)

I got married and have a beautiful family, I had two kids, 1 boy and 1 girl best of both worlds. And while neither of them were born with instructions, I think they are turning our pretty good.

And for the last dozen years or so, I’ve been working here in the preschool, which I didn’t ever think was in my plans. I had a wonderful mentor for 3 years and then became a teacher, I love what I do, and i believe this is my calling. I have great friends in many walks of my life. heck, I’ve even been for a hot air balloon ride!! so yes, my life has been blessed.

BUT WAIT! I’m only 48! there is so much to do.. My children are only half grown. I want to see them grow older and be happy I want to hold a grandchild (or 2). I want to travel further west than Arkansas! I’m sure there are fine wines I have yet to taste, and sights of your creation I have yet to behold!! There are classic novels to read, great food to taste, more people to meet, I’m really not done yet. I need more time!!!!

Alas, Jesus said nothing like this in his prayer, could you imagine? Hey God it’s me Jesus, I haven’t met the right woman yet, the one in the mohair robe is kinda cute..I want to have a family.. I want to travel more .. No, he didn’t say any of these things. He knew his life was complete as it was. He was born for one reason, so he could die for us and he knew this his whole life.

When he prayed it was for his disciples, he prayed that God’s name be Glorified And Yes, he prayed for us. he was thinking of us way back them.

Jesus prayed that we might all be one. He prayed that the Christians who would come later — you and me — would all be one “so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (17:21). He was praying that we would be one so that his work on the cross wouldn’t be wasted. He wanted people to see our love for each other — and to be drawn to Christ.

A person’s dying words tell us what that person thinks is really important. Jesus’ dying words were a prayer for us — that we might be one so that the world would see our unity and be drawn to Christ. That’s what Jesus thought was really important.

So how are we doing? what can we do to make Jesus’ prayer come true? How can we start becoming one with each other and with other Christians?

The solution to our loving problem is to seek God’s help — and to seek each others help.

– With God’s help, we can get past the things that divide us. With God’s help, we can love each other.

– With God’s help, we can love our Christian brothers and sisters down the street — however different they might be — however strange their ways might seem.

– With God’s help, we can become less concerned with the labels and more concerned with what is in a person’s heart.

– With God’s help, we can begin to care about our Christian brothers and sisters who are experiencing persecution in many parts of the world.

– With God’s help, we can become one, even as the Father and Son are one — and then the world will see our witness and believe in Jesus –believe that he was sent by the Father– believe that he came to help them.

And then Jesus’ prayer — his dying request — will be answered. Amen