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6670 Vaughn Rd, Montgomery, AL, 36116 (334) 277-4213 |
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Sunday Worship Schedule · 8:00 am & 10:45 am · 9:15 am Sunday School .
Wednesday Worship · 6:15pm Service
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Pastor’s Message |
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Winter 2011 Message:
To all the Saints at Messiah: Happy New Year to you all, I pray that you will all have a safe, healthy, and prosperous year. I say that in the context of the shootings that took place this past week in Arizona. What are we to make of things such as this? As is usual the political pundits are having a field day with this event. The sheriff of Pima County Arizona said that in his opinion the vitriolic language that is presently being used in public discourse contributed to the shootings. Rush Limbaugh (please forgive me for this next line) in his finest voice of pomposity said the sheriff of Pima County embarrassed himself with his opinion. (Rush made the sheriff’s point in my view.) Anyway, there are those who are using this to call for further restrictions on gun sales, and there are those who dismiss the availability of guns as a problem here. I leave that argument to you, both sides have valid points on some level. In the end blame is being spread around by all, and no one is willing to take any sort of responsibility for their words or actions. So, what are we to make of this tragedy? Well for starters I have to agree with the sheriff; too much public language has become personal attacks upon people instead of challenges of peoples ideas. Of course none of this is new; it has been going on at least since Jefferson and Adams squared off against one another in their bids for the presidency. It is one thing to challenge someone’s ideas or policies as misguided or even wrong, but it is another thing to say that someone is a bad person because you don’t agree with their ideas. To vilify someone simply because we disagree with them is to judge them, and we all know that we are not allowed to do so. Jesus was pretty clear on this point, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” (St. Matthew 7:1-2) The sad fact of this whole matter is that many of the pundits and politicians who commit this sin are by their own confession Christians. If that is the case, then we have a responsibility to them to call them to task for their transgressions. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ and we have a responsibility to confront their behavior. St. Paul said, “we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” (Romans 12:5) What one of us does has an effect on all of us, and conversely what we don’t do has an effect on all of us. WE WHO CONFESS JESUS AS LORD MUST CONFRONT OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST ABOUT THIS! If you want to be politically active, then start by writing your congress person and express your displeasure with their attacks on others in Congress. Let them know that they are liable to the same judgment they have passed upon their colleagues. Let them know that when they profess Jesus as Lord, they can not act in this way. When you do this make sure you let them know that you chastise them out of a sense of love for them as a brother or sister in Christ, and then make sure you pray for them and let them know you are praying for them. As for the pundits, the nattering nabobs of negativism, stop listening to them. Take away their audience and they no longer have a reason to exist. In the end we all need to pray and confess our own sins in this whole matter because we (Christians) have for too long sat by silently. What we haven’t done is as sinful as what has been going on for too long. On Ash Wednesday we will confess our sins and in the midst of that confession we will confess “our false judgments, our uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us.” Finally we will beg God’s forgiveness as we say, “Restore us, O God, and let your anger depart from us.” Jesus was clear that we must first remove the log from our own eye before we can see to remove the speck from our neighbor’s eye so let these words be our confession.As we confess our lack of love for our brothers and sisters in the Congress born out by our silence, let us sharpen our pencils and uncap our pens. Write your Congress person and speak loudly in the name of Christ. Protest the vitriol and name calling that has become the standard for public discourse in this country and insist that instead they debate the issues in a civil and respectful manner. Speak my brothers and sisters in Christ; we have that right as a citizen of the US, and the responsibility to our brothers and sisters in Christ as citizens of the kingdom of God. In closing I offer this prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may nos so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
Shalom Pr. Randy |
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Email: Church Offices Email: Pastor Email or Phone (334) 277-4213 |
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6670 Vaughn Rd, Montgomery, AL, 36116 (334) 277-4213 |
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