A once often heard phrase in the black church is “The storm is passing over, hallelujah!”

The phrase was an indication that whatever difficulty the community may have encountered was no longer a threat. There was a return to a time of joy, praise and celebration that affirmed God’s goodness among the people.

Sometimes the phase was a reference to weather conditions that made agricultural life difficult when crops would not produce. Sometimes the phase was a reference to a political crisis that crushed their aspirations. Whatever the case, the phrase was acknowledgement that things had not gotten better by human achievement alone but God had gone to work on behalf of His people. God had heard their prayer and acted.

A prophet writing to a community in exile shared the same sentiments centuries earlier. The rebellion of a nation coupled with idolatry had led to Israel falling at the hands of its enemies. The nation was not just defeated but many were carried away in forced captivity. While in captivity the conquering nation benefited from their labor, skills and intellect. While in captivity their names were changed, their rituals forbidden and their young miseducated.

But the prophet tells them their time of mourning about their condition has passed. It is now time to sing aloud. Make a noise that the enemy can hear that speaks of your expectation of pending deliverance because God is in your midst.

The Lord has acted by taking away the sin that bring judgment among the people. The Lord will act as a warrior who gives victory. The people are called to shout before the battle begins because the outcome has already been determined. The Lord will give them the victory.

The prophet does not stop with the promise of victory but also declares the Lord will renew them in his love. The witness of renewal will be seen in the removal of enemies, the justice that will come to all those who oppressed the people and the change in condition of those without strength to change their condition on their own.

God will save the lame, bring back the outcast and alter shame in ways that makes praise possible.

What the prophet is providing is a model of restoration and how restoration is at the heart of the work that God does for us. We have a Redeemer who will restore us and restore our community. Singing while in exile is the way the people affirm their belief that it is true. God will do it.

The pandemic may not be over and the challenges that face our community have not all been met, but we know that we serve a God who is a Redeemer and a Restorer so we can sing now with a loud voice that victory will be ours.

“Victory will be mine. Victory will be mine if I hold my peace and the let the Lord fight my battles, victory will be mine.”

In every generation, people seek directions for their lives. We may all have some idea of what we should do and want to do but there beats within us the desire for validation. We want to know if we are doing the right thing, making the right choices, living a life that makes a difference.

Three distinct groups come to John in the wilderness near the Jordan River where he has set up a ministry that challenges the social, political and theological constructs of his day in Israel. The multitudes, the tax collectors and the soldiers all come to John with the same question--what shall we do?

Each group understood there were demands placed upon them in their position that helped uphold a system of oppression. Each group understood that they bore some responsibility for the community that had help to create this situation.

Although they may have not been involved in the policy decisions, the choices they made in their roles each day had helped to maintain polices that were not always just. In their search for direction, John provided a vision for their choices that was connected with God’s intent for humanity.

We should not live our lives concerned only about our welfare. We should not just keep our head down and do our job and hope for the best. We should be concerned about others in ways that we recognize their humanity. Every person we encounter rich or poor, Jew or Gentile, bond or free has been created in the image of God. Thus, John told the multitude to share what they had with those who were less fortunate.

John told the tax collectors to be fair and only take what was right. Finally, he told the soldiers not to abuse their power, not to commit unnecessary violence to people and not to make false charges against the people. Moreover, they were to be satisfied with their pay. They were not to use the lack of pay as an excuse to extort the people. What John made clear was there was no division in the secular and sacred and our lives are intertwined in ways that tell the truth about who we are.

John’s words need to be heard again in this current environment when politicians would risk the welfare of the economy and prevent needy families from receiving the assistance they need.

John’s words need a second hearing in the midst of police misconduct and an ex-president who pays no taxes when you and I are made to pay more than our fair share. We need the kind of direction that will tell us what is right and how we do not have to play by the rules of a world infested with sin.

The redeemed have something to say about the choices they make. So, let the redeemed say so.

There may be no gift that we receive from others more valuable than the gift of authentic concern for our well-being. When there are those who are concerned about us, they look for ways to express that concern in ways that alter our situation.

Authentic concern will not allow barriers to stand in the way of people showing their concern-- they find a way.

Paul is in prison and will never taste freedom again when he pens this letter to the Philippians. Paul is an old man whose youth and energy has been spent. There is very little that Paul can give or do in return for the Philippians. However, they do not allow these limitations to stand in the way of showing their concern for him. They send one of their own on a mission to find Paul and give him a gift of money that may assist him with his needs while in prison. Epaphroditus remains with Paul for some extended period of time to assist him in whatever way he could as a further expression of the Philippians’ concern for Paul. The concern that others had shown him was enough to move Paul to praise God, display humility and affirm his gratitude.

Paul immediately recognized that it was God at work in the Philippians that led them to show their concern for him. The bonds of Christians fellowship tied them together in ways that would not let them forget Paul or be dissuaded from helping him in any way they could. Paul rejoiced in the Lord that word and work are lived out within a church community willing to be led by the spirit. The Philippians response to the spirit’s leading is an indication that Paul’s service in the gospel among them had not been in vain. Praise to God is always due when the church is able to live up to kingdom expectations.

Paul’s gratitude comes coupled with humility. The gift from the Philippians does not come because of a request or command on Paul’s part. Paul tells them, “I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.” He knows what it is like to have little and he knows what it like to have much.

Contentment for Paul comes as a result of his belief that God can and does use him in whatever condition of life he finds himself. God’s glory was Paul’s ultimate aim and concern even when God’s glory caused hardship or inconvenience for Paul. The gospel is not the good news of our personal pleasure but the good news about a suffering savior whose sacrifice has secured eternal life.

Lastly Paul affirms his gratitude. It was kind of them to share in his trouble. Congressman John Lewis has told us the value of good trouble, the trouble we get in and share with others that can alter the course of our world.

Paul is grateful that he has partners in ministry willing to share not just the glory but the agony as well. The Philippians are not ashamed of Paul’s chains. In a world where shame and glory are the lens through which the world is viewed, this is not small matter.

In the days that we live in it is vital that we learn the lesson from the Philippians and show our concern for each other in ways that can be life changing. Send a card, make a call, whisper a prayer, carry a meal and do whatever God leads you to do to show others that the bond of Christian devotion is greater than any pandemic. Outdo one another in showing Christian love.

A critical part of Christian faith is our need to share our faith with others. The word and the work of God is to be passed down from generation to generation as well as shared broadly with the existing community. Paul calls upon Timothy to teach this vital lesson to the church at Ephesus in order that the work of God as well as the ways of God would be known.

There may be no greater need in our community today than the need for biblical literacy where there are persons who know the gospel story and know how to share that story with others. When there is a lack of biblical literacy, the void is filled by a lack of understanding that breeds selfishness and individualism in the name of freedom and religion.

Paul goes further to provide three examples for Timothy of why it is important to ensure the gospel is shared with faithful persons who will continue to pass the story on to others.

First, sharing the gospel is akin to a solider whose aim is to please his commanders by not becoming distracted. A solider has to be responsible because issues of life and death can be determined based upon how he/she responds with the responsibility given them. No matter what may be going on--the world pandemic or otherwise--we should not be distracted from our responsibility to share the gospel story.

Next, Paul uses the illustration of an athlete who has to compete according to the rules in order to win a prize. The athlete has to know the rules for the games he participates in and each game has its own rules. Thus, believers need to know the word of God in order to share the word of God. Remember, salvation is not because of our words but in the power of His word.

Lastly, Paul says it is the farmer who does the work who receives the first share of the harvest. Sharing the faith is work that requires patience and trust in the process. There will not always be quick results from our witness but the absence of results should not dissuade us from always being ready and willing to share the good news about Jesus Christ. We have a story to tell worth sharing and hungry people are waiting to hear where bread can be found.

As the old hymn makes clear, “Lift Him up for He still speaks from eternity. If I be lifted up from the earth, I’ll draw all men unto me.”

The time Israel spent in the wilderness was not wasted time. In the time of wandering, God instructed Moses on how the people were to live once they inherited the Land of Promise. The wilderness was transformed into a classroom where the expectations and demands of God upon his people would be made known.

At the heart of God’s instruction was a combination of compassion and justice. The people were to live out their lives demonstrating concern for one another so they were not to fully harvest the land once they arrived but leave the edges for the widows, strangers and those in need.

In this passage, the people were to establish cities of refuge. The city of refuge existed to provide a safe place for persons to flee in the event of the accidental death of another. The law provided that the next of kin of the victim could take the life of the murderer whether the murder was accidental or deliberate.

However, if the person could flee to one of the six cities of refuge, they would be free of harm. The person would have to remain in the city of refuge until the death of the priest. If they left the city of refuge they were no longer under protection and could suffer death at the hands of the avenging family member of the victim. The cities of refuge were safe spaces in what could be a dangerous world.

We need such places of refuge in our day, safe space in a dangerous world. The church has often been viewed as just such a place of safe space. The guilt of those who make up the church is not in question because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Yet, by grace through faith, we have found the safety that comes from being under His wings.

On a visit that I once had with Sister Kat Crosby before she moved away, she went to her piano and played and sang “Under His wings, I am safely abiding.” She was reminding me that no matter where she was, she had a refuge. I am glad that we all have one as well.

The idea to send out spies to perform reconnaissance in the Land of Promise comes from God to Moses. The plan calls for the selection of leaders from the twelve tribes, persons who have demonstrated responsibility and who the community would respect.

When the selection is made, no one selected pulled back from the dangerous assignment given and the length of time it would take to complete. These men accepted the responsibility to perform an important task but a task also filled with danger.

They should be admired for their courage and their willingness to complete an assignment that took them forty days. At the end of the forty days they came and gave their report of what they found. The spies admitted that God had not lied about the land he was leading the people to inherit. The land indeed flowed with milk and honey, the land was fruitful but the land also was occupied with persons who appeared like giants.

The spies--with the exception of Caleb and Joshua--gave an unfavorable report and caused the congregation to focus on their fears more than God’s promises. The spies were void of sacred memory that could recall what God had already done and allow that truth to serve as faith in what God could do in the present moment.

There are times when nothing is more powerful to help keep us moving forward than sacred memory.

When we are able to look back over our life experience and see what God has brought us through, it gives us the confidence to believe that God will do it again no matter what we face. Caleb spoke out against the report of the majority and called the people to arms by saying we are able to overcome them because he remembered what God had already done at the Red Sea.

Last week our nation participated in sacred memory as we remembered the attacks of 9/11. We remembered the best of our nation in the worst time as firefighters climbed the stairs of a building they knew they would not leave in order to save others. We remembered how a nation came together to support, comfort, aid and defend.

We have now been attacked by a virus that has become so political it has chipped away at the values that helped to make our nation a beacon of light. Now is the time for us to engage in sacred memory that remembers not just the actions of a nation but the actions of God. For we will be able to overcome this, too, if God be with us.

Go with God for He has promised to be with you always.

There may be no need greater at this moment than the need for patience.

The pandemic has lasted longer than any of us could have expected and despite the presence of a vaccine, infection rates continue to climb. Whereas the desire to return to our normal life’s pre-pandemic is great, we should not have a return to the normal at the cost of public health and the greater good.

Patience is more than a call to wait, to pause, to stand still. Patience is a distinguished Christian value. Patience asks of us to wait upon God to act as opposed to acting ourselves. Patience asks of us to think about the impact of our action upon others and not be hurried into unpruned responses to life situations. We often associate patience with a sign of maturity and indication that persons have learned lessons in life that equip them to better respond to their current reality.

When patience is mentioned in this text, it is spoken in relationship to believers having to endure some difficulty. In this case some form of suffering. In a world that is pain adverse, we can miss the benefit that struggle brings and what it means to have to wait upon God.

There are limits in our humanity and we cannot always do all the things we want to do as soon as we would like to do them. There are some things in life that can only be known through the experience of patience whether it is a farmer waiting on the rain or the world waiting for a pandemic to past.

During the season of waiting, if we wait patiently God will strengthen our hearts and give us what we need to endure until the end. Remember that even while we wait, we do not wait alone for God has promised to be with us no matter the hardship or difficulty. Never alone tells us whatever He brings us to He will bring us through.

The pandemic may be our Red Sea moment when we see God act in ways that can only be known when we are patient.

The prophet speaks of what will be in contrast to what is. Exile and difficulty may be the current reality but another reality is certain and it is a reality filled with hope.

A highway--not a path nor a road--is the metaphor used to describe what will be. The highway is what makes room for many. It is a broad way that leads to a particular place of an expected blessing when one arrives.

Already the prophet is speaking words of hope that engages those who hear them to anticipate even more what God will make possible. However, the highway comes with conditions and restrictions. It is reserved for the holy, those who have been set apart for God by God. It is a restrictive passage that requires something of the traveler. But at the same time God guides and keeps those who travel it so that not even a fool is lost.

The highway is free from danger of the things or people that could threaten the traveler. The safety and security of the highway make singing possible and the travelers are filled with joy. This is what will be, says the prophet, and it will come to pass not by our efforts but because of a way that God will make. How God will do it, the prophet does not tell the community. He only tells them that God will do it. The Lord will make a way somehow.

I do not know how long the pandemic will cause us to re-order our lives in ways that are strange. I miss public worship. I miss the sights, sounds and surroundings of a community in worship. Virtual worship has been different and doing ministry in a pandemic is a challenge.

But I know this--there is a highway called the holy way. The unclean shall not travel on it but it shall be for God’s people. Let us keep marching up the king’s highway.

There are some decisions in life that are born out of struggle. They are the decisions that did not come easy and often involved some level of hurt. Not every decision in life is easy. Not every decision is based upon logic, information nor popular acceptance.

In our verses, Joshua has fulfilled his mission. He has brought Israel into the land of promise. He has put down all enemies and ushered in the long-awaited day of peace and security. He is one of only a few that left Egypt for the Promised Land and has seen from beginning to end what it took to gain possession of the Promised Land. The mantel of leadership had passed from Moses the lawgiver to him and now he provides his parting words to the people.

Joshua recalls for them the journey they have been on, and the mistakes made along the way. He does not deny the frequent inability of the people to remain loyal to God despite all that the Lord had done. He makes one final plea to them to remain faithful to God, to put away the influence of idolatry that had been a part of their past. Neither were they to give in to the influence of new temptations toward idolatry in the present because of the influence of those near them.

Then he made a bold declaration that is part of a decision he had personally made when he said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua was committed to being a leader who would provide an example of faithfulness to God. Joshua used his position and influence not to serve himself but to serve God. He served not only as an example to the community what it means to serve God, he also mirrored it for his family as well. He taught his family what it meant to serve God.

We need examples in the moments we live to see what it means to serve God and remain faithful to him in the midst the pressures of life.

As young people prepare to return to school, too many leaders are using a public health crisis to garner political points. Wearing masks to prevent the spread of a virus that has killed millions should not have to be debated. Police reform does not mean eliminating the police. A new stadium should not have to come at the expense of affordable housing for those who live with no shelter.

If we are to be a nation that takes the demands of Christian faith seriously, we will have to make a decision about who we will serve and what interest will we serve--God’s or some other?

This particular psalm is classified as a royal psalm. It is a psalm offered by the king on behalf of the nation. There is an unspoken difficulty that the nation is encountering and the king offers this psalm as a means of both appealing to God and reminding the people of their faith.

Trouble may be the current state but the Lord answers in the day of trouble. God does not abandon us when trouble comes our way. God does not ignore the trouble that threatens us. God will show up for us in the day of trouble.

To remind the people of this truth, the psalmist makes reference to the patriarch Jacob. Of all the patriarchs the psalmist could have mentioned, he mentions the one known for his deception. He mentions the one who has to flee from home with nothing. He mentions the one who is a victim of deception. He mentions the one who is concerned about his brothers pledge to take out his vengeance on him if he gets the chance.

If there was ever a person who needed protection it was Jacob. God protected Jacob, provided for Jacob and blessed Jacob in the midst of his trouble. The same God that protected Jacob would protect Israel.

The psalm goes on to indicate how God will protect in the day of trouble.

He will send help from the sanctuary. God’s help is connected to the people’s worship of God. The help that comes from the sanctuary demonstrates what worship can make possible. When we worship God, we acknowledge our trust of him and our willingness to follow in the ways he leads.

God will give support from Zion.

Zion is an elevated place and the support that God will provide comes from above. God will remember all offerings and sacrifices. What has been offered prior to the moment of trouble will not be forgotten when trouble arises. Finally, God knows what you desire and is able to fulfill all your plans. We may make plans but we are dependent upon the help of God to see them come to past.

Our nation is clearly in a time of trouble and we need God to answer us in this moment. As the pandemic rages, Afghanistan collapses and the political divide grows wider, the church cannot be concerned about only individual needs. We need a sense of community that seeks God’s guidance for all of us.

Now is the time for us to look beyond our own affairs and to see how God might use us in this moment to be a part of the answer that comes when the church is salt and light. Our world needs both.

One of the great deceptions of life is thinking that we have control, are in control and are capable of bringing things under our control.

The reality is there is very little we have control over--if anything at all. Our infatuation with control grows from our desire to be independent and on our own. We may quote Invictus but Henley was wrong. We are not the masters of our fate nor the captains of our souls.

The story of the demon-possessed man at Gerasene provides a lesson about our inability to be in control. The story starts with a man who has no control of his life. He lives in a place that only gives the witness of death in the tombs. He participates in self-mutilation and cries uncontrollably in anguish because of his condition.

The community attempts to address his problem by controlling him since he cannot control himself. Their efforts are reflected in the chains they used to subdue him. Binding him is their best solution so they put chains on his hands and feet. However, the chains were no match for the source of his problem. Thus, the chains were broken over and over again.

The demons that tormented the man thought they were in control but discovered that when Jesus appeared they had no control at all. Even the demons had to ask permission of Jesus to be banished into another living thing, swine, as opposed to being cast into nothingness.

The only person with control in the story who had the power to order affairs and events was Jesus. Jesus used the power that he had of control not to bind but to liberate and set free.

Whenever control is seen as a power that we hold over or use against others, we do damage to divine intent. The work of liberation is to be our focus because each time we do the work of liberation we are tearing down the images that the powers that work against us would have us to bow down and worship. Control is never to be our aim but using the power that God has given us to tear down the strongholds that would have us to live beneath divine intent.

The pandemic has taught us a lot and the variations of the virus keeps telling us we are not in control. But we can do the work of liberation by addressing the disparities the pandemic has highlighted. We can look for new ways to work together in collaboration that uplift the entire community and not just segments.

There are still lessons for us to learn and I pray that we will learn them and not try to control what cannot be controlled but do the work of liberation.

This section of Ephesians provides Paul’s prayer for the church at Ephesus.

Paul’s prayer is insightful on many fronts and provides insights to his theology. Particular attention should be given to what Paul does not pray for the Ephesians. Paul does not pray for health and prosperity because he is aware of the temporal nature of our bodies and the fleeting position of riches. Paul does not pray for success in their personal endeavors. Nor does Paul pray for the avoidance of persecution because of their faith in Christ.

Paul makes the focus of his prayer what the Ephesians will come to understand about God. What Paul desires most for the church to understand is the power of God.

Living in a world of Roman domination where the seal of Rome represented the world’s strongest power, Paul wants the church at Ephesus to know there is a power greater than Caesar. Rome does not have the last word in the affairs of human history. God’s power is greater than the power of Rome. Paul says three things about God’s power that he wants the church to always remember and know.

First--God’s power is at work for those who believe in hHm. God’s power is not just some abstract principle of physics. God’s power is at work manifesting itself to those who believe in Him. God’s power is working on behalf of the church doing for us what would be impossible to do without His power. The angel’s words to Mary are still true for with God nothing is impossible.

Second--God’s power is stronger than the power of death because God’s power raised Jesus from the dead. Understanding that God’s power is stronger than death takes the fear out of death and robs the grave of its victory. We are free to live out the meaning of our faith even in times of persecution because if we fall in battle living for Christ, God will raise us up again because he did it before for his son Jesus.

Third--God’s power has placed all things in subjection to Jesus Christ and has given Him this authority for the benefit of the church. The church is the representation of God’s authority in the world to provide a moral and spiritual compass that will point all persons to God. The church is to use this authority for the glory of God. It is God’s glory that is to be our aim and desire. The desires and visions of humanity are to take a backseat to what God desires that we may do using His authority to accomplish what He wills.

When we understand the place, the role and the function of God’s power we are different and prepared to yield to whatever claims God may make upon us--even if it means doing ministry in a pandemic--because we are not without power.

The passage for today’s devotion provides two great themes--kindness and struggle.

Jacob had left home years ago to escape his brother’s wrath after stealing the family blessing. Now he is about to meet with the brother he had fled to escape so many years ago. The same brother that vowed to kill Jacob the next time he saw him.

 Jacob’s servants reported to him that Esau was coming with 400 men, nothing short of an army. During the night Jacob struggled with what to do to avoid Esau’s wrath. Then the unexpected happened while alone with his thoughts--a divine presence appeared to Jacob.

The purpose of the presence is not altogether clear but what is clear is that anytime we encounter the Divine it is an act of kindness on God’s part. Divine presence showed up to a cheater, liar and deceiver who had not demonstrated repentance. God’s kindness came in the form of one that could change Jacob’s perspective of who he was and what he could be. It was solely the kindness of God that altered the course of Jacob’s life.

Further reading of the narrative tells us about the kindness of Esau who did not take the promised revenge but forgave his brother and sought to start a new relationship with him based upon the bonds of family.

Kindness is what is always in the power of another to decide to give or withhold. Our lives are always made better when there are those who decide to give kindness.

The second theme in the passage is struggle. There is Jacob’s struggle with what to do about the anticipated meeting with Esau. How would he survive and what steps did he need to take to secure his family?

Then there was the struggle with the divine presence that Jacob refused to let go of until receiving a blessing. This struggle left Jacob marked in ways no other struggle had left him. Jacob was physically impaired and walked the rest of his days with a limp.

There is a cost associated with struggle and those that enter the struggles of life must be prepared to pay the cost. The struggles are the things that change us and helps us to see what has real value. The struggles are the things that mark us and remind us of the grace that has kept us and brought us thus far.

We need both kindness and struggle to emerge and become what God desires most of us. It is only through kindness and struggle that a crawling caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly. It does not appear what we shall be but when we see Jesus but we will be like him. Amen.

There are times when operating under the best of intentions, we can harm ourselves and others.

A community is threatened by a famine and in the famine has become dependent upon resources they are. not fully accustomed to for survivalo. In a famine there is a limited food supply, the lack of rain makes it impossible for most vegetables to survive. Livestock can also become victims of a famine and die because of the lack of water. However, there are some things that can survive in a famine--wild plants that do not need much water, wild berries that grow even in extreme heat and even insects that can serve as a food source when necessary.

Elisha has gone to visit the school of the prophets, a sort of seminary, if you will, to prepare persons for ministry. What becomes clear to Elisha is that students have not been eating and needed food. Elisha instructs one of the servants to make some stew for the students. The servant goes out and collects wild gourds that are similar to squash or small melons but possess an extremely bitter taste. The servant collected the gourds to use for the stew not knowing what they were. The servant seeking to provide a meal for the company of prophets and Elisha did so unware of what he was using for the meal.

Once the people tasted the stew they declared that there was death in the pot. The bitter taste of the stew led the prophets to believe that it was dangerous.

We always put ourselves and others at risk when we are willing to use things that we have no knowledge whether they are good or bad. Even when trying to help others, our intentions should be mixed with discernment. We should always be careful not to put others at risk by our efforts to help them.

Elisha took some flour and placed it in the stew and the flour helped to purify the stew and no harm came to the people. Unlike the servant, Elisha knew what to do and the effects of the flour on the stew.

We need not just good intentions but wisdom and discernment to match our intentions in order to have an outcome that benefits everyone.

Dr Gardner Taylor once told me to never forget that the Lord is in love with his people. He is so much in love with them that He has called us to serve them. In essence, as clergy we are the embodiment of God’s faithfulness to His people by always sending someone to serve them, care for them and lead them in His name.

It has been more than thirty years since Dr. Taylor and I had that conversation on a Detroit street after dinner. It came at a critical time in my ministry as I pondered the possibility of leaving the church I was currently serving. I was frustrated by my perceived lack of progress and wondered if the grass could be greener in other pastures.

Dr Taylor’s wise words took the focus off ministry serving the preacher’s interest instead of the interest of the people and God.

Jeremiah’s ministry was anything but productive by the standards of his day or ours. He did not have a growing congregation, and his words were often met with ridicule and rebuke more than affirmation and acceptance.

Although Jeremiah’s sermons often spoke of pending judgment because of rebellion, idolatry and oppression, his words were always delivered with the hope of repentance and change because Jeremiah had a heart for the people.

In today’s passage God contrasted the shepherds that serve their own interest versus the shepherds that serve God’s interest. Self -serving shepherds scatter the sheep and refuse to care for them, they see the sheep as the means to an end. The shepherds that God rises up will tend to the sheep in ways that the sheep will feel secure.

When I have counseled churches that were searching for a pastor, I have told them the most important question is not training, education or experience in ministry. The most important question is will he/she love the congregation? Do they have the ability to look beyond your flaws as well as their own desires and love you?

To be the shepherd that Jeremiah speaks of in this passage that God will use requires not only a love for God but a love for God’s people as well. Besides, it is the only reason we pastors have a job because God is in love with his people.

The world we live in is a far different world than the world of our parents. Technological advances have improved our quality of life and modern tech genuises are making electric cars, solar energy and tiny houses a current reality, not just a futurist hope.

I, for one, am glad that I no longer have to spend my hot summer days in search of a cool breeze because of air conditioning. I do not worry how warm the summer heat may become. However, there are places in our lives outside the reach of technology that require us to do things the old fashioned way of spending time and doing hard work to get it done.

When David attempted to move the Ark of God to Jerusalem, he used the technology of his day--a cart pulled by oxen. It was a lot faster and more efficient to transport the Ark by cart but it was not the way that God had determined.

God had determined the Ark was to be transported by particular persons carried on special poles. When the ox stumbled and the Ark began to move, a person reached out to keep it from falling off the cart. A good thing but because a person touched the Ark that was not supposed to be touched, he was struck dead. The transport of the Ark was placed on hold for months until David could get the right people to carry the Ark the right way.

As much as we can benefit from change and technological advances, we should never jettison the things that take time and the things that sustained generations before us. Things such as prayer, fellowship, worship and hard work.

The pandemic has opened us to technology in ways that kept us connected and working while the world was on pause. Yet, technology is not a substitute for a life of faith that expects us to do God’s work God’s way. A way that still requires people, time, energy, patience, love and faith.

There is no rapid way to develop a prayer life or a life of faith--it takes time. We have to be willing to make ourselves available to the Spirit and wait on him to act

A common word that is a part of the Christian vocabulary is the word wait. As believers we spend a lot of time waiting. Waiting for a word from the Lord, waiting on direction, waiting on an answer.

Waiting is not wasted time but waiting is a counter witness to those who would have us to believe that we must always be busy doing something. Waiting is bearing witness to the belief that we are not the masters of our faith or the captain of our soul. Waiting expresses our dependence upon a power outside of us that will aid us if we are willing to wait.

Waiting also gives us the opportunity to rest, to relax and to replenish.

The prophet Isaiah writing to a nation living in exile informs them that deliverance will come but there will be a season of waiting. It is important that they wait not in anger over their condition but in trust that God will act.

Thus, the prophet tells his community that while they are waiting on the Lord they will be renewed and find strength to thrive in every situation. The community’s ability to thrive will be the sign of God’s presence and power in their midst. Persons will be able to do more than they could have imagined possible because God is with them. However, to experience the power they will have to wait.

We have been doing a lot of waiting during the pandemic. Our waiting has taught us valuable lessons about partnerships, new possibilities and the role of faith.

Our waiting has made us more sensitive to the things of the spirit and more grateful for the things we often took for granted. Our waiting has reshaped us and reshaped our world.

The wait seems to be almost over as the nation reopens and plots a course to the new normal. Now may we come out of a season of waiting with the witness of power that God has promised to those they wait on him.

There may be no single thing that believers struggle with more than the things God puts upon us, places before us, inflicts us with to teach us humility and dependence upon him.

Our high-achiever world values performance, measurable outcomes and signs of success. We are always aware of how well we are faring based upon our comparisons to others.

There was no one that struggled with this more than the apostle Paul. If there was ever a person driven to succeed in whatever he set out to do, it was Paul. He was born into the loyal tribe of Israel as a son of Benjamin who provided Israel’s first king. He studied at the feet of the leading religious scholars of his day and quickly moved up the ranks as a person of influence. He became one of the select few that met the requirements to become a Pharisee.

When Paul was converted to Christianity he was just as driven and determined to succeed. However, what he learned was that the old standards of success could not be used. God would use his weakness--not his strength.

Therefore, God placed some affliction upon Paul to keep him humble. It was not an affliction that Paul was willing to easily accept so three different times he prayed and asked God to move it but God never did. Paul had to learn to live with it and in the living with it discover deeper depths of God’s grace. Paul learned that God’s grace could and would help him handle what he could not handle alone. Paul discovered the power of weakness that comes from reliance upon God.

We all encounter from time to time things we have to live with that we would rather not have to do. Covid-19 is something we have been living with for more than a year. Many of us are anxious to move on and get back to normal, but our new normal just might be learning to live with the things that will not go away and yet not lose heart.

Let’s commit ourselves to seeking deeper witness of God’s grace in this moment to find our strength through weakness. For his grace is sufficient in all times and in all places for all persons.

Today we are marking the 100-year anniversary of the worst racial massacre in American history. On May 31 and June 1,1901, a white mob descended on a prosperous African-American community in Tulsa, OK, and killed hundreds of innocent people and destroyed black-owned businesses and homes.

The only structure that survived was the basement of the Vernon AME Church that had just been built two years earlier. On June 2nd, a group of survivors met in the basement to pray and pick up the pieces of their lives.

The Bible is filled with stories of hardship and how a people’s faith was their sole sustaining possession. Israel was overthrown by its enemies, Jerusalem burned, homes destroyed, places of worship torn down.

Many of the people were even shipped into exile and forced to live in a strange land. Their captors knew about the stories of their faith and the music they sang as a result of their faith. Thus, their captors mocked them and told them to use their faith to entertain them, sing to them one of the songs of Zion.

The exiles did not stoop to using personal faith as a means of entertaining others. How could they sing the Lord’s songs in a strange land? There were things that not even captivity could force them to do.

They would not sing but they would remember. They would remember Jerusalem and the places that taught them faith in God. They would remember that God is the ultimate equalizer in life. Just because they were in exile did not mean that a day wouldn’t come when they would return home.

Human power is always fragile and the ground under us is always shifting. Those who are captors one day may find themselves held hostage on another day.

The exiles refused to let their faith die and chose to remember--to remember God.

As we remember all that was lost 100 years ago today, may we also remember God. When we remember Him, we find the power to press on and bear witness to a faith that refuses to die.

This Sunday marks what the church refers to as Ascension Sunday. It is the day Jesus returned to heaven and took his seat on the throne by the side of God.

For 40 days since the resurrection, Jesus had been spending time with the disciples, popping up in unexpected moments and in unusual ways. His time with them had made clear that the power of death had been defeated. His time with them reinforced his love for them. His time with them made clear there was work he was leaving to their hands that must be done.

Now the time had come for his departure.

Jesus left the disciples on a cloud while they were watching. It was difficult for them to let go knowing it would be some time before they would see him again. They still had so many questions. Questions about how long they would have to wait to see Israel restored to its former glory and all oppressors driven out. Questions about how long they would have to wait before the promise of power would come and how would they know when they had it.

But their questions would receive no answers. They would have to trust that in time that Jesus would fulfill his promises and answer all questions.

While they were watching as Jesus ascended into heaven, they were reminded that the time of waiting required work to be done. There was no more time for gazing, thinking about the past. This was the time to focus on the present and the future. The present would be a moment for returning to the promised place of power and the future would be a time to bear witness for Christ.

An angel told the disciples that Jesus would return the same way he departed. He was coming back but, in the meantime, there was work to be done. So they needed to get busy.

The challenge for the church in every generation is to not waste time waiting for Jesus to return. It is the church’s role to bear witness for Christ in the present moment.

There are countless ways we can bear witness from worship to service. Every believer is to use the gifts and opportunities that God provides them with as a means of bearing witness to their faith in Jesus Christ.

So, let us not waste time focused on the wrong things when there is ample opportunity to focus on those things that allow our lights to shine for Christ. Let your light shine so persons may give glory to God the father.

W.E.B. Dubois spoke of a double consciousness that Negros lived with in America. One, of what it meant it to be an American, to live in a land that supposedly valued democracy. And, two, of what it meant to live in that reality as a Negro limited by one’s color. There was no way of getting around living with the dual consciousness of both realities.

Dubois was not the first person to speak of a double conscious reality. The Apostle Paul had the same thing in mind when he wrote to the Romans. Paul was aware of the effects of sin in the human condition and how sin should always be resisted and submitted to the will of God.

He told the Romans about the good that he wanted to do and that he often could not do it with the level of consistency he desired. The evil he did not want to do is what he found himself doing too often and the cycle of wanting to do right but choosing to do evil handicapped him and kept him from being the person he desired. This was not just Paul’s life but everyone’s life--until Paul says he found the key to liberation from the human dilemma.

Jesus Christ and the power of forgiveness in him has freed us to start over again each time we fail. In fact, the power of forgiveness means there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. To be in Christ is to know the potential for life to be lived differently.

For Paul, the measure of being in Christ was to no longer be ruled by the flesh but to be guided by the Spirit. Those in the flesh are guided by their personal desires. Those in the Spirit are guided by God. The challenge to being in the Spirit is to be willing to submit to the power, plan and purposes of God. When the Holy Spirit lives in us, we are able to yield to the claims of God and allow our lives to bear fruit for him.

During the pandemic we had to learn lessons of submission such as wearing a mask, practicing social distancing and limiting the size of crowds we were exposed to. Our willingness to submit played an important role in reducing infections and preparing us for a return to a pre-pandemic world.

Submission opens the door to renewal and a fresh start. As we prepare to re-engage the world, let’s not forget the lessons of submission we learned and the blessings that can come when we yield to those who know best what works for our good.

Josiah became one of Judah’s youngest kings when he started his reign at the age of seven. He was blessed with a godly priest who counseled him in the ways of the Lord. It is said of Josiah that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord.

One of the things that Josiah did that was right was to restore the house of the Lord and start a revival in the nation. When Josiah discovered the laws of Moses, he organized the priests and Levites to engage the people in the work of restoring the temple and the rituals taught by Moses.

Josiah used his office as king to marshal the people and the resources to work together to restore the worship of God to a nation that had drifted away from God.

When the Levities did not act quickly to carry out the necessary work of restoring the temple. Josiah had a chest made and set it outside the gate of the house of the Lord to have the people to come and give so that the work of restoring the temple and the service of the temple could be completed.

Because of a king’s leadership and the cooperation of the nation, the people filled the chest each day and the proceeds were used to restore the temple. Day after day the people contributed to the work of restoration because of a leader and because of a people engaged in the work of restoration. So those who were engaged in the work labored and the repairing went forward and they restored the house of God to its proper condition and strengthened it.

This story provides a beautiful picture of cooperation when the people know what they are to do. Each group had a vital part to play in the restoration of the temple and a return to the worship instructed by Moses.

Restoration is never a one- person job but requires the commitment of many working under a clear vision.

The church will go through a period of restoration once we return to public worship after the pandemic. The church will look different and be different than it was pre -pandemic. We now have a clearer understanding of the value of the church in a community to be a difference maker no matter the size of the building or the number of members a church may have.

The mission focus discovered in the pandemic cannot be lost with a return to public worship. We need even greater cooperation and a determined focus to restore the church to being defined by its worship, mission, evangelism and call for justice. So that we might be salt and light making the world better because we are here.

It never was supposed be about us but it is all about Him. We know that now.

There may be no task more difficult in the life of the church than that of holding believers accountable.

The church possesses a uniform theology that is based upon the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The life and ministry of Jesus provided the church with its understanding of its mission in the world and how the church is to relate to each other and the broader world.

However, as members of the church we are called to perform this task amidst the pressure to conform to the standards of the culture or to the temptation to do what is convenient and pleases us. The witness of the church is weakened when its theology is compromised. As members of the body of Christ we are called to be different as Christ was different. Different not by thinking outside of the box but being different because we are informed by the cross of Christ.

When Peter came to Antioch to visit the work of a growing Gentile church movement, he celebrated the success of the gospel until other Jews came down from Jerusalem to investigate the work as well. When Peter saw other Jews, he pulled away from fellowshipping with the Gentile Christians at Antioch. This was an affront to the claims of the gospel and how Jesus had died for Jews and Gentiles.

Paul--a Jew himself--knew this was wrong and called Peter out. Paul made it clear publicly that Peter’s conduct was inconsistent with the claims of Christ. Paul was willing to hold Peter accountable regardless of how uncomfortable it was and regardless that Peter was looked upon as the leader of the Christian Church.

Paul reminded Peter that as believers in Christ we do not live by law but by grace. Grace is available to both Jews and Gentiles. Grace places nothing over what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Grace has replaced the law and by grace we are saved through faith in him.

Accountability is what helps to keep the church strong. Accountability is never to be done in an effort to injure but always with restoration in mind. Accountability is a witness of love at work because it says I care enough about you to correct you when I see you going wrong. Accountability is not just the responsibility of church leadership but the role of the congregation as well to ensure the values and theology of the Christian Church are upheld to the glory and honor of our God.

If there is anything that Americans struggle with it just might be patience.

The modern society, with all of its advancements that save time and energy, has made us unwilling to accept almost anything that does not come quick and in a hurry. We just got a special pot that will cook pinto beans in 30 minutes, the same beans my grandmother cooked all day.

Whereas quick and in a hurry may help to manage time demands of a crowded life, it will not work for a life of faith. There are still things that require patience. Thus, the psalmist tells his community to wait on the Lord be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait on the Lord.

Waiting on God is the ultimate act of faith because it recognizes there are things outside of our control. There are some things that can only be done by God. I know people are growing impatient with the restrictions caused by the recent pandemic. However, we are not out of the woods and Covid-19 is still infecting people and claiming lives.

We need to rediscover the value of patience and what it means to wait on the Lord. God moves in his own time and as persons of faith we are to discern the times and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us even if it means we have to wait.

Waiting is what David did between the time of his anointing and the time he took the throne.

Waiting is what Jesus did between the cross and the resurrection.

Waiting is what the disciples did when they returned to Jerusalem in anticipation of promised power.

Waiting is what you and I have done for the last twelve months in hopes of a return to public worship.

Our time of waiting serve as a means of strengthening us for the day of our return. So, on that day it will not just be another day but it will be the day that wait is over. For now, be strong, take courage and wait upon the Lord.

One of the most important lessons in life is knowing what not to accept from others. It was a lesson that Peter learned the hard way.

Peter--warming himself by the fire of the opposition--forgot who he was. It was a cool night in Jerusalem when Jesus was arrested and to Peter’s credit he had attempted to defend Jesus in the garden when the soldiers came to arrest him. Peter even followed Jesus after his arrest as other disciples scattered. However, by the fire of the opposition this once brave defender of our Lord denied that he knew him.

Those around the fire are certain that Peter had been with Jesus in spite of his denial. Some may have seen him with Jesus. Others heard something in his speech that gave him a way. A person who was a relative of the man whose ear Peter cut off in the garden was certain Peter had been with Jesus.

The old preacher used to say that you can tell who has been with Jesus because they bear the mark. There is an indemnifying symbol that tells the world you have been with Jesus.

In spite of what others said about him, Peter denied time and time again that he had been with Jesus because he was warming himself by the fire of the opposition. Peter had forgotten what not to accept from others if it threatens your values.

After Peter’s third denial the cock crowed and Peter was reminded of what Jesus said about him. “Peter, you will deny me three times before the cock crows.” Peter leaves the court yard and weeps bitterly knowing that he had accepted what he should not have received--warmth by the fire of the opposition.

Beloved there are some things in life that come with too high of a cost--the denial of faith, the compromise of values, the lost sense of purpose.

May we be always mindful of what we are willing to receive from others even if it has possible temporary benefits for us. For nothing means more than be fully devoted to the master. I’d rather have Jesus more than anything this world can afford.

For the writer of Hebrews, his concern was that the constant witness of sacrifice in the Temple had reduced sacrifice to a ritual that had little value to those who participated. The writer also wanted to point the community to the higher meaning of sacrifice as reflected in what Jesus did and accomplished on the cross.

Jesus is the better high priest and the better sacrifice because he is the priest who is also the sacrifice as well. Jesus does not take an animal to the cross to die a substitutional death. Jesus died for us. In doing so Jesus is the single sacrifice for the sins of all of humanity.

What Jesus did on the cross settled all accounts. Now Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father making intercessions for us. The right to make intercessions on our behalf did not come without sacrifice.

Each time we ask God for forgiveness we should be remained of the debt paid for us to receive the forgiveness. Sacrifice that Jesus made for us should strengthen the bonds of our relationship with him.

He loved us so much that while we were yet sinners he died in our place. We have been redeemed by the power of sacrifice. May that knowledge inspire us to live for his glory until he comes again.

This is psalm was written by David after his affair with Bathsheba. The king had taken the wife of another man and fathered a child, as well as planned for the husband’s death in battle.

The prophet Nathan confronted David over his sin and to David’s credit he repented and sought forgiveness. The consequences of the sin resulted in loss but God, in his grace, heard David’s cry for mercy. David believed in spite of his sin and failure as a king that God would hear his plea for mercy.

At the heart of biblical faith is the conviction that we serve a God who is rich in mercy towards us. God’s mercy is an expression of God’s faithfulness, the determination not to give up on us no matter how much sin may mar our lives. Part of what it means to be human is to know the possibility for restoration and redemption when we acknowledge our sins, repent and turn in a different direction.

So much of what Lent is about is repentance, our willingness to confess our sins, not cover them up or attempt to hide them. For it is in confession that we acknowledge the harm of our deeds to others as well as ourselves. It is in confession that we unburden ourselves of the guilt that can poison life. Confession prepares us to receive mercy and forgiveness that provide cleansing and a fresh start. This is the restored joy that David longed to receive, the joy of knowing that God’s presence and fellowship were available again.

There is much that we need to confess as a church, as a community and as a country. There are many things we have been wrong about and there are ways we have wronged others. May we find the courage that David found to confess our wrongs and to seek God’s mercy. For in doing so we can experience the cleansing that brings back joy.

The Ten Commandments that serve as the basis for this scripture are a set of rules given to guide a community’s interaction with God and with one another. The rules provide a moral compass that is centered in justice and the fair treatment of others. There will be no separation of religion from civic and political responsibility informed by faith in God.

What the Ten Commandments make clear is that we are not free to simply do as we choose or how we feel. The people are reminded that their freedom from bondage did not come as a result of their effort but was because of the power of God working on their behalf.

Just as God cared for them, God is concerned about others who may be oppressed as well. Therefore, Israel was to adapt rules and polices that would help to prevent oppression within the community.

Many of the rules told the community what not to do. Do not create an environment that takes advantage of persons. Do not build gods in your image that are easier to serve and less demanding. Do not let work completely define your life robbing you of opportunities of rest and worship.

The rules were given for the good of the community and to provide an example of what God expected from a people who bear his name. In a world that champions personal freedom, rules are often seen as obstacles. However, without boundarie,s the picture that we color is distorted. Without boundaries, the waters overflow us and gravity would not be able to hold us.

We need rules just as we need grace, for the rules help us to see the other side of grace. It is the side of God telling us what he expects of us in advance.

The season of Lent gives us another opportunity to ponder the place of rules and how we might choose to follow a moral compass centered in a God who expects us to conduct ourselves with justice.

There are occasions in life that drive us to look for sources of assistance and aid outside of own ability. There are moments in life that bring us face to face with human limitations no matter our station or standing.

It was in just this sort of moment that the psalmist turned his attention toward God.

The psalmist begins be declaring that he lifted his soul toward God and put his trust in God. But before asking God to intervene in any way with the condition of need that he faced, the psalmist begins his engagement with God in an expression of worship. If we are not mindful of our need to worship God, we may skip worship and be moved to bring our petition to a God and never stop to take time to worship.

Worship should always be our entry point with God, the time we take to acknowledge him for who he is--not what he does.

Worship reminds us that God makes us a relational being in order to enjoy a relationship with him designed to last an eternity. The season of Lent slows us down from the hectic pace of life that can makes us seekers of benefits without ever fully knowing the security of being sons and daughters of God.

When we understand and value our positions as sons and daughters of God, we know there will be times we will have to wait on God to act. Waiting is not a pacifying act. According to the psalmist, waiting is a militant act that is bold enough to believe that God will act in our favor at the right time.

No one knows for sure how long the current pandemic will last. But while it lasts, we are to worship, to wait and to work with the conviction that God will not put us to shame. He will vindicate our trust in him.

In the words of the old timers, he may not come when you want but whenever he comes, he is always on time.

This month is set aside as Black History Month in our nation. It is the time of the year when the entire nation is attuned to the contributions of Black Americans.

It was no easy task getting our nation to A place of celebrating the contributions of people of color. For years the stereotypes and false history told a story that blacks had made no significant contributions to our national welfare. However, through the tireless efforts of trailblazers in history such as Carter G. Woodson and W. E. B. Dubois, to name a few, the truth began to come out.

The unknown writer of Hebrews provided his community with a truth about Jesus that needed to get out.

Jesus did not come into the world because of his concern about angels. Nor did Jesus come into the world absent the limitations of humanity. Jesus our savior and deliver was made like us in every way. Jesus did not pull back from what it meant to be like us. He accepted what it meant to be like us in order to endure our trials and every test we would encounter, but remain true to God’s will. Being like us is what allowed Jesus to conqueror death and the grave. We now have a high priest who is not unfamiliar with our needs, our trouble and our sorrows.

Because he was like us, it was the shedding of his blood that provided the covering for our sins and opened the door to our acceptance with God. The Hebrew writer is putting an end to the false notion that Jesus did not share our humanity. Jesus was never so divine that he was out of touch with human needs. He knew what it was like to cry as he wept at the grave of Lazarus. He knew what it was like to feel the sting of disappointment when his closest friend abandoned him. He even knew what it was like to question God--why have you forsaken me.

Having gone through all that we go through in our own journey means that Jesus is able to help us and all of those in need during our time of testing. He was not ashamed to be made like us in order to save us. May we never forget that truth.

Jesus was clear about his purpose and mission to be sin offering for all humanity. Whereas there are many good things he did to point persons toward the love of God, his ultimate purpose was to die in our stead. He who was rich became poor for us that by his poverty we might be made rich.

Luke records the determination of Jesus to move toward his destiny at Calvary with a visible look. Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. The look that Luke records is a determination that could be seen by all of those who came in contact with Jesus.

Disciples, friends and foes could all clearly see the determination of Jesus to move in the direction of his destiny. Jesus would not allow himself to be side tracked by well-meaning disciples nor admiring crowds that wanted to hold onto him. He was determined to meet destiny with a cross maker.

Determination is the inner drive to keep going toward a goal, a direction, an achievement or the thing that has assigned value that one will not give up on. Determination is why slaves risked everything to follow the drinking gorge. Determination is what made domestics walk to work as opposed to riding a segregated Montgomery bus. Determination was why a group of believers gathered at 1020 Church Street and for 13 years labored with their hands to build their house of worship.

The Christian journey is one that calls for determination. The world will offer every possible lure to distract us, to cause us to become disillusion with the faith and draw us away from God.

The season of Lent--the 40 days to Easter--has been used for generations to remind us that a journey of faith demands determination. Lent invites us to faith not through the lens of celebration but through the lens of struggle, sacrifice, surrender and service. Lent removes us from the ideas of a God that exists solely to bless us. And brings us into contact with the God who invites us to journey with him and in so doing discover a world of what is possible when we are determined.

The song of the Civil Rights Movement heard most was not We Shall Overcome but I Ain’t Going Let Nothing Turn Me Around And March Up Freedom’s Way. May we mirror their determination. 

A vital witness in scripture is the role of social justice. The Bible is filled with stories of persons who acted to change the course of wrong regardless of what the wrong may have been.

In this lesson the action comes from a most unlikely source. Ebedmelech is an immigrant and outsider living in Judah. But he is not a man that is afraid to speak out against what he believes to be wrong. Ebedmelech provides a witness from a person of color in scripture who comes from the land of Cush on the continent of Africa.

What Ebedmelech choose to speak out about is the mistreatment of the prophet Jeremiah. Ebedmelech the foreigner tells the king the truth that Jeremiah did not deserve to be put in prison and his life placed in danger for telling the truth about the nation. Jeremiah had informed Judah that they would be driven into exile by a foreign power because of their idolatry and because of their abuse of the poor.

The king, however, preferred to listen to those who told him that Jeremiah was a threat to national security and should be put away. The king believed it would be a lot easier to get rid of Jeremiah than for the nation to change and become more just in its dealings with one another.

Ebedmelech would not remain silent and dared to speak up.

The voice of a single man was enough for the king to change his mind and spare Jeremiah. However, for the prophet to survive it would require additional work on Ebedmelech's part. He also took a group of men with him and acquired the necessary resources to recuse Jeremiah.

It is not always enough just to be willing to speak up. Sometimes what we need are those who will speak up and take the necessary action to bring the justice sought into being.

Ebedmelech is an African in the mold of other persons of color who would follow him and who were willing to speak up and take action. Persons like Medgar Evers, Reginald Hawkins and Clara Hawkins Jones. Our own Mrs. Jones—who recently passed--not only told young people what was possible in life but she helped them to achieve it through music, scholarships, sponsorship and a host of actions that gave them the confidence to produce even a sitting judge.

May the tribe of all those who work for justice grow so there will always be someone who will stand for justice.

The story of Samuel’s call to ministry reveals how age nor experience are factors in who God can use. However, the story does reveal that because of Samuel’s age and inexperience, there were some things he missed.

Samuel could sense someone calling him, but he did not possess the discernment to know it was God calling him. Each time Samuel heard his name called he went to Eli because he believed it had to be Eli calling him. No one else was at the temple with them. Samuel could hear but he did not know what he was hearing. Samuel needed someone to guide him, to help him be able to respond to God the next time he heard God’s voice.

Although Eli no longer heard from God, he knew enough to know when God was speaking. So he told Samuel what to do the next time he heard the voice calling his name. Eli told Samuel to simply say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” Eli told Samuel not to just settle for hearing the voice of God but to be prepared to act when God spoke.

When God speaks it is often a call to action on our part. There is something that God wants us to do for his glory and the good of creation.

A new year provides an opportunity for a fresh start and the ability to do some things different this year. This may be our time to listen to God instead of telling God what we want. As opposed to asking God to bless us and our efforts, this may be the time to listen and hear what God wants from us.

The tempter would have us believe that there is nothing that God wants from us and there is nothing we can do for God. The continued call of God in our lives dispels that myth and tells us of the potential that lies within us to do the master’s bidding--if we pause to listen.

Let’s join in with Samuel in a newfound commitment to listen to the voice of God. Then may our listening lead to action that makes the world know that God is working, because he is working through us.

The birth narrative of Jesus is only recorded in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Each place its focus on the birth of Jesus differently. Luke tells the story from Mary’s view. It is Matthew that tells us the story from the eyes of Joseph.

Each has plans that have been altered by the presence of an angel. An angel appeared unto Joseph and repeated the words that the angel had said a lot during this season of the year… do not be afraid. The presence of an angel was often thought to be a sign of pending judgment but it is not judgment that God has in mind.

It is good news.

It is news of how God is reaching out to humanity in the gift of a child who was also the savior of the world. It is news of God choosing to enter into divine and human partnership to redeem creation.

Just as Mary has a role to play, Joseph has a role to play. Mary will give the child birth but Joseph must give him his name. The naming of a child in Jewish culture was a religious ritual that included the community. When the father gave the child his/her name, it was the act of the father that gave the child standing in the community and told the community this child belongs to us. Joseph had the responsibility to give Jesus his name, to tell the community and the world who he was.

Although Joseph had other plans, when he woke from his dream he did what the angel told him. Joseph took Mary as his wife and he named her first born son Jesus. Joseph accepted the responsibility thrusted upon him and by his example invites us to look to ways we may accept the responsibility that God places upon us. For in doing so we make the Christmas story come alive not because of gifts but because of deeds that are life altering that can only happen when you are not afraid.

Fear not do not be afraid for God may be reaching out to you to make a fresh witness of grace possible in our world.

If there is a single question that comes to every believer in every generation it just might be: Is serving the Lord worth it?

So often as believers we encounter the difficulties of living in our world that does not honor our God or recognize his presence among us. So often the forces that work against unity, harmony and peace seem to win the day. So often we are called upon to defend the faith we confess to those who do not see its values. So often it appears that those who pervert justice and deny the claims of God upon his creation are the ones who prosper and escape accountability.

When that question comes to mind it is important to remember that we are not alone. God has placed us in a community of fellow believers that we call the church. Within the confines of the church we find the support of others as well as God’s promise to be with us always. God will not forget about us nor our efforts to bear witness for him.

God remembers because there is a book of remembrance of the faithful. God keeps record not of just our failures but also every act of faithfulness as well, even when being faithful is hard. God remembers and from that memory promises a day of redemption and reward. So much of what the Bible has to say to us are reminders that God remembers.

Because God remembers promises made long ago, a child is promised to an elderly priest and his wife. Because God remembers, a prophet comes to prepare the way of the Lord. Because God remembers, unjust and oppressive empires do not last always. The act of God remembering comes to assure a day when every wrong will be made right, every crook place made straight and the glory of the Lord will reign forever and ever.

Advent is the season that calls us into anticipation of what God may do when he remembers. May we live in anticipation filled with hope and kept be love. For there is a difference between the righteous and the wicked. Between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. One living in anticipation of God remembering ,the other hoping God will forget. I am trusting that God will remember.

The passage today is the first gospel reading for the season of Advent, that season of anticipation and expectation. The way God communicates in this season is not through a grand miracle but through a simple man. John the Baptist is sent by God to preach the word of God to the people of God. John came preaching a particular message and it was one of repentance.

J.B. Phillips asked a question in his book “Whatever Happened to Sin?” Has sin ceased to exist and is sin no longer a concern for the church? John makes it clear there are things that we are prone to do that are against the will of God and put us at odds with our Maker. Each time we defraud someone. Each time we oppress someone. Each time we use privilege as a weapon against the disadvantaged, we wound the heart of God.

The blessing of God in the preaching of John did not come without repentance and our willingness to change and place our interest behind the interest of God.

Repentance is always hard because it forces us to be honest with ourselves, not about what we see but agree with what God says about us. Repentance is hard because it is not the work of reclamation that we do by sheer determination to change. Repentance is the work of the Holy Spirit that convicts us and causes us to see what we cannot see without the Spirit’s aid. The preaching of repentance as preparation for the coming of the Messiah was crucial for without repentance the message of Jesus would be missed and the kingdom of God would be manufactured in the image of me--not the master.

Before the babe in the manger, before wise men and shepherds, before angels singing, there is a lone voice of a single man send by God with a particular word--repent. May the Holy Spirit fall on us in this season of Advent and bring us to repentance and thereby make us ready to receive the gift of God coming our way.

We are a week past the election, and we have a new president-elect in Joe Biden. If the current electoral college map holds up as most think it will, President-Elect Biden will have the same number of electoral college votes as President Trump did when he defeated Hillard Clinton four years ago.

When it became clear that Secretary Clinton would not win the presidency, she did what others before her have done. She acknowledged the will of the voters and wished the president the best because he would lead the whole nation, not just parts of it. Whereas a concession speech and best wishes for the president-elect are not required by the Constitution, our nation has come to expect it and as result it has always helped to heal the partisan divide that elections can bring.

Expectations flow from past experiences that define what is normal in a society. Expectations provide a sense of hope of what can be and what should be in a world that does not always get things right. Expectations are what the world has of the church even for those who do not claim allegiance to it.

So, a man brings his sick son to the disciples of Jesus with an expectation they would be able to help him. The disciples were seen as those who shared company with Jesus and from their proximity to him are expected to have some of the power Jesus possessed. The disciples are perfectly willing to accept both the expectation that the man had of them and the responsibility to do something about the son’s condition.

The disciples put forward the effort. The disciples do the best they can. But the disciples fail in the expectation that others had in them.

Their failure may alter future expectations that persons have about the church. Their failure could cause others to see the church as powerless to deal with the hurt and pain of our present age. But the day is saved because Jesus showed up. When Jesus appeared, the father conveyed his disappointment with the disciples. He brought his son to them for them to heal him, but they could not.

However, Jesus did not disappoint the father. Jesus healed his son and reminded the disciples that whereas there may be limits to the church’s power, there is no limit to God’s power. Our hope is not in institutions that sometimes let us down. Our hope is in a person who loves us and desires the best for us. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

Today is election day and many are feeling uneasy about what the day may possibly hold.

We have watched as the democratic norms that guide our democracy have been shredded. We have witnessed new forms of voter suppression as well as old tried-and-true forms targeted at minority communities that make us wonder if we have entered a time warp.

In spite of all that makes us uneasy, we are encouraged by the record vote turn out in early voting that tells us persons are overcoming whatever barriers are placed before them to vote. Young and old, rich and poor, urban and rural are all casting their ballot. Yet this is the first national election where we question if there will be a peaceful transfer of power.

The psalmist has a word for us in these uneasy moments. He was a person who knew something about the fragile nature of governments. Although not denying his civic responsibility, he tells us of the importance of a higher hope than that provided by politicians.

He says “I have seen your power in the place of worship.” What the psalmist is saying is that he recognizes the power of God to regulate and to make right. He knows something about the power of God to fix what is broken and to mend what is ruptured. “I have seen your power in the place of worship and I know that your power is not confined to places of worship alone.” God’s power can transcend any barrier or limitation and make its presence known. “I have seen your power in the place of worship” is what gives the psalmist confidence in the present moment in spite of the uneasiness in the atmosphere.

The psalmist’s response to what he sees leads him to praise. “You Lord mean more than life to me and I will praise you.” The psalmist puts his focus not upon what makes him uneasy, but on the God who means so much to him. This is not the mindless praise that ignores certain realities and tries to wish them away. This is the praise that says God means more than the condition that I am in and I will choose to praise him even if my condition does not change. Praise is the opportunity for the faithful to respond to God through faith. Praise is the way trust in God is lived out in the choices we make.

Finally, the psalmist says “I will pray to you.” There is a recognition of just how little in life is in our control. Whereas we should do what we can do by voting and advocating for what we believe is right, we should never forget to pray. Our right to vote only came after years of struggle and prayer.

When we pray we garner God’s attention. When we pray we open ourselves to receive something from above. Sometimes it takes something from above to move things below. May it be so this day as we pray… because we have seen His power.

A central belief in the Christian Church is that Jesus is a healer. The confidence in Jesus' ability to heal has provided hope and strength for persons to keep pressing on against sickness and disease in spite of the difficulty.

The healing power of Jesus is displayed as being all encompassing in the gospel of Matthew through the crowds that came to Jesus and the various sicknesses Jesus healed. Jesus healed the lame, the blind, the mute, the maimed and many others. The many others had no specific desription of the nature of their illnesses but Jesus healed them all. Jesus willingness to heal reveals how God wants to make right in the world what has gone wrong.

It was never God’s intention for creation to be marred by sickness and pain. However, in a world of sin, greed and decay, people will always suffer. What Jesus shows us is how the things that restrict life, make life difficult and that rob us of life do not have the last word. Healing is always near in the presence of Jesus. In His presence, we can be restored, renewed and redeemed.

The healing power of Jesus not only gives us hope but gives us a reason to praise God. Our praise of God is our protest against sickness and disease. Our praise is our affirmation to what the presence of Jesus can mean in a world of sickness. The current pandemic has introduced us to new forms of sickness: sickness in a virus that continues to take lives around the world, and sickness in our body politic where the needs of American families and businesses are made to take a back seat to the agenda of career politicians.

Now more than ever we need to rediscover the faith that believes that Jesus is a healer and make our way to His presence to seek His healing power for both THE people and the land. What the Bible makes clear is that when people came to Jesus and surrender their needs at his feet, Jesus cures them.

Let’s decide to bring our needs to the feet of Jesus and surrender ourselves to His power, plan and purpose. Remember, Jesus is a healer. There is healer for all that afflicts us. Lord send a healing.

There may be nothing the church is reminded of more in scripture than the need to be generous.

When we are generous it becomes one of the ways we display the grace of God at work in our world. When we are generous, we build a hedge against the temptation of greed and selfishness that is at the center of a broken world.

When we are generous, we become like Christ who from his generosity made new life possible. He who was rich became poor for us that by his poverty we might be made rich. It was an act of generosity for Christ to come into the world and die in our place for the sins of all of humanity. Generosity is central to the church and it is one of the many things that makes the church different and Christian witness different.

Paul reminds the Corinthian church of its need to be generous. The church at Corinth had an abundance of gifts, resources and people but it lacked in its willingness to be generous. The Corinthians were quick to take note of what they had but gave little attention to what they gave away.

Paul has been collecting gifts to assist the church at Jerusalem that was going through a famine. Paul believed it was only right for the churches that he had planted in the faith to give. The Corinthians were lacking behind in their gift and were resistant to the idea of helping persons they did not know.

We can always find an excuse not to be generous. If there was ever a time the church needed to be generous it is now in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. Countless persons are unemployed, suffering from food insecurity and mental health needs. Politics has prevented Congress from passing an economic aid bill that could have been a lifeline for many.

The church is able to be a beacon of light that shines in the darkness by its commitment to generosity. The rendering of generosity not only meets the needs of others but overflows as a witness of thanksgiving to God. Generosity can be symbol of hope that says what is possible in our world when people choose to be generous.

As much as you possibly can, be generous. Tip service providers, provide a meal for someone, provide an unsolicited gift. Do the things that tell others that grace is alive in a pandemic because grace is leading you to be generous. For Christ’s Sake, be generous.

When I was a boy growing up in my rural church it was not uncommon to hear the saints sing about going to the judgment. The only song I remember hearing my grandmother sing was a song about the judgment—"Judgment Bound.” Pastor McLaughlin would sing “Have You Anytime for Jesus.” The course of the song declared that soon the summons from the portal from that great mansion in the sky may be sounding your departure, you must then take time to die.

Those songs often led to outbreaks of praise and thanksgiving to God for the judgment. The judgment was the place where God would settle all accounts and those who had been marginalized, taken advantage and wronged would be vindicated. The judgment was also a place where those who had taken advantage of others, wronged others, destroyed others would receive their just due.

The parable in this passage is a judgment parable told by Jesus. The focus on the parable is upon just how outlandish the situation was described by Jesus. There is a man who has taken special effort to make a piece of property fruitful. He has planted a vineyard, built a fence to protect it from wild creatures, constructed a winepress nearby to produce wine from the fruit of the vineyard and employed tenants to work the operation. The owner had made every investment necessary to see the operation produce and only expected from the production a percentage of his investment back.

However, what occured is the tenants treated the operation as if it belonged to them. They refused every effort by the owner to collect only a small percentage of what rightly belonged to the owner. The tenants went further to commit murder--even the murder of the owner’s son. Those listening to the story know that there is only one outcome for the tenants and that is they have to be brought to justice, they must give an account for what they have done.

The parable is told to shine light on how God’s grace in Jesus Christ had been rejected by the religious leaders and many of the people. The ways in which our lives bear fruit are determined by our response to Jesus. Without him our lives our fruitless and we are driven by greed and power. This is a lesson in what we should NOT DO because we have time to respond to God’s love toward us in Jesus Christ. If we fail to respond, rest assured the judgment is coming and it will be a day of dread--not a reason to shout.

The pivotal event in the life of faith for Israel was the crossing of the Red Sea. The Red Sea crossing was not the first time that God had acted on behalf of his chosen but the Red Sea crossing displayed a unique way God acted by fighting for one group and fighting against another group.

The Red Sea crossing was more than liberating Israel from their oppressors. It was God showing Israel He could be counted on in the hard moments of life. God would not leave His people in a place of hopelessness but God would show up with power to turn the tide.

The way God showed up for Israel was by making a way through the barrier that blocked them. God divided the Red Sea and allowed Israel to walk over on dry ground. When the Egyptians attempted to follow Israel, two things happened that spelled their doom.

First the Egyptians were thrown into a panic. They encountered mass confusions on what to do and which way to go. In essence they were leaderless in a crisis moment. The current crisis that engulfs our nation is causing some persons to experience panic. The protests in the streets, the pandemic that is still present and the economic shutdown that has left many struggling to survive cause us to wonder is there anyone that can lead us out of our situation?

The second thing that happened to the Egyptians as they tried to follow Israel through the Red Sea is their chariots got clogged in the mud and turned with difficulty. The very thing that represented the power of the Egyptian army was rendered useless in the mud of the Red Sea. Whenever we count more on the things we have than the God that has made us, a day will come when we will see those things let us down. Things--no matter how powerful--are no substitute for God.

Only the people who trusted God and followed God made it through the crisis safely.

The way we trust in God in a crisis is to follow His word, stay in community and follow proven leadership who are clearly following God. The Red Sea crisis was not Moses’ first crisis and he had proven himself in prior crises that he could be trusted. So, Moses raised his hands and God parted the sea and Israel walked over on dry ground. There is no crisis we cannot survive when we trust God to guide us through it. He is the Great Way Maker.

There may be no feeling like the feeling of being all alone. Because we have been created to be both spiritual and social creatures, we thirst for belonging and connection. However, there are times when the choices we make and the stands we take isolate us from others, particularly those who do not share our views.

Israel had come under the influence of a leader that had abandoned all norms. The very nation that was to be an example to others through its faith tradition and commitment to justice had become perverted. A lone prophet challenged the false prophets to a contest and saw his God prevail.

Yet the victory is shorted lived and did not lead to mass repentance but a death warrant. The prophet escaped to a remote desert cave and alone he begins to ponder how he arrived at this place in his life. It seems that all he stood for and all that he tried to do to make his nation live up to their calling has failed. Depression and anxiety have him in survival mode. There are no thoughts of prophetic utterances, no stands against present injustice. He just wants to escape from it all.

But in the mouth of the cave where the prophet feels alone, God shows up. God shows up not in the acts that represent him such as fire, wind and earthquake. God shows up in a small still voice with a question of engagement-- why are you here?

The prophet quickly makes his case about what he has done to stand up to the onslaught of injustice but concedes he is only one person. The implication is that his efforts where not enough and no one else can help because they are all gone. He is the lone survivor. God quickly informs him that his work is not over and that work involves engaging others that God has already prepared to take up his fight.

The pandemic has made all of us feel isolated and alone at moments but we are not alone. There are others that God has prepared that stand ready to service and aid us in this moment of crisis. There are neighbors making calls to check on neighbors. There are churches placing worship services on websites. There are nonprofits providing meals. There are the prayers of the faithful that call your name in prayer.

You may feel alone but you are not alone. There is a God who has promised never to leave us alone and He is faithful to His word.

This passage of scripture is most often referred to as the call narrative of Moses by God to liberate Israel from bondage.

The call reflects God’s initiative in the lives of His people. What prompted God to call Moses and use him as an agent of liberation were the cries of the people. God heard the cries, the mourning and groans of His people, and God acted.

Moses is not called by God to the task of liberation because of his gifts or ability. There is nothing in Moses that causes God to be attractive to him. God is moved solely because of His love for His people and His desire to bring them freedom. The witness of leadership begins with the right understanding of the leader to the people, that the leader only has a job because God is in love with His people. The people who are the object of God’s love are far from prefect but they share the bond of covenant promise and unfailing love.

Every leader is made better when he or she understands that the leader is present for the people as a sign of God’s love for them. Moses’ leadership ability evolved and in time the people recognized Moses for his leadership ability even when they were not on the same page. What the people saw in Moses was a leader shaped by God’s call and how God was in love with His people. It is this fundamental fact that guided Moses’ actions and caused him to seek to reflect God’s love for the people.

A day even came when Moses placed himself between the wrath of God and the people’s disobedience to remind God of His unfailing love. We need leaders who will think more about the people and their needs as opposed to the leader’s needs. We need leaders who can grow in their leadership ability but remain fastened to the principal of what it means to be faithful to God through faithful service to the people of God.

Leadership carries both a blessing and a burden. There is the blessing of being used by God to help people realize the plans God has for their lives. There is the burden of balancing strength and humility in ways that ego does not occupy the place in the leader’s heart that is reserved for God. For all leaders work for Him--those who realize it as well as those who do not.

The epistle of Romans provides what most scholar believe is the Apostle Paul’s greatest theology work.

In Romans we hear the way to salvation if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart you shall be saved. In Romans we hear that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. After Paul tells the community what God has done, he pivots and tells the community what their responsibilities are as believers in Jesus Christ.

Whereas it is true that we are saved by grace through faith, believers are not without responsibilities that reveal how they are to live out their faith. Paul first urges his community to use their bodies as witness to their faith through the choices they make. Christians are called to be living sacrifices where worship is not confined to ritual but reveal a way of life when God is placed at the center of our lives. Our bodies are to bear witness to what we believe. There is much that we can tell the world with our bodies by the choices we make. During the pandemic we have been told the importance of facial coverings and social distance as means of reducing the spread of the virus. But many they have chosen to ignore medical advice under the guise of freedom.

Paul not only urges his community to use their bodies as witness to their faith by the choices they make, Paul tells them to change their thinking as well. Their thinking is not to be informed by the culture but by the Spirit--be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Paul believes that it is possible for change to occur when the thinking of humanity is informed by the Spirit. With right thinking, persons will be able to make choices that honor God, build community and provide a witness of cooperation instead of competition.

Once our thinking is right, we will be able to see our need for one another and how the gifts and abilities of others should not be the things that threaten us but the thing that helps each of us to see our place in the world and the plan of God. Paul believes that God has given gifts to all of us and our gifts are to be used for God’s glory and our good. The recent pandemic has made us aware of how the gifts of God are at work in his people, meeting needs because they have yielded their bodies as living sacrifices.

The passage for today’s devotion provides two great themes--kindness and struggle.

Jacob had left home years ago to escape his brother’s wrath after stealing the family blessing. Now he is about to meet with the brother he had fled to escape so many years ago. The same brother who vowed to kill Jacob the next time he saw him.

Jacob’s servants reported to him that Esau was coming with 400 men, nothing short of an army. During the night Jacob struggled with what to do to avoid Esau’s wrath. Then the unexpected happened while alone with his thoughts--a divine presence appeared to Jacob.

The purpose of the presence was not altogether clear but what was clear is that anytime we encounter the Divine it is an act of kindness on God’s part. Divine presence shows up to a cheater, liar and deceiver who has not demonstrated repentance. God’s kindness comes in a form that could change Jacob’s perspective of who he was and what he could be. It was solely the kindness of God that altered the course of Jacob’s life.

Further reading of the narrative tells us about the kindness of Esau who did not take the promised revenge but forgave his brother and sought to start a new relationship with him based upon the bonds of family. Kindness is always in the power of another to decide to give or to withhold. Our lives are always made better when there are those who decide to give kindness.

The second theme in the passage is struggle.

There was Jacob’s struggle with what to do about the anticipated meeting with Esau. How would he survive and what steps must he take to secure his family? Then there is the struggle with the divine presence that Jacob refuses to let go of until receiving a blessing. This struggle leaves Jacob marked in ways no other struggle has left him. Jacob is physically impaired and walks with a limp the rest of his days.

There is a cost associated with struggle and those that enter the struggles of life must be prepared to pay the cost. The struggles are the things that change us and helps us to see what has real value. The struggles are the things that mark us and remind us of the grace that has kept us and brought us thus far.

We need both kindness and struggle to emerge and become what God desires most of us. It is only through kindness and struggle that a crawling caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly. It does not appear what we shall be but when we see Jesus we will be like him. Amen.

Last week our nation lost two moral compasses on the same day. C.T. Vivian and John Lewis both were preachers, both fought in the struggle for civil rights, both shed blood for the nation with hope that America could live up to what was put forward in the nation’s founding documents. Both men experienced the heartbreak of a nation that continued to fall short of their hope but neither man gave up on that hope or the nation.

In many way C.T. Vivian and John Lewis were like the prophet Hosea who lived the experience of a nation and a family that fell short of his hopes for them but would not give up on them.

Hosea went as far as the slave market to buy back the wife who had deserted him and the children. Hosea placed nothing over the importance of getting his wife back even if it meant losing everything he had of economic value. He paid some in grain, some in money and some in wine. Hosea did not say a word to Gomer about what she had done to bring her to the auction block nor did he blame her for what it cost him to get her back.

Hosea provided what the Hebrews call lovingkindness. Lovingkindness is never an emotion, it is always a deed that tells the story of what we will do for love’s sake.

By going home with his wayward wife, Hosea told the nation to return to the Lord. Although the nation had suffered for its rebellion, God was waiting to heal her if she would but return to him. The healing that God offers is complete. The Lord will bind up, revive and raise up in order that the nation might live and live in ways that are fruitful and joyful.

But it can only happen when we return to him. Hosea is calling upon the nation to repent, for in repentance they will find healing, help and hope.

C.T. Vivian and John Lewis called upon their nation to repent as well, for in repentance there is healing, help and hope. May we heed their call as they rest in peace.

The world today is need of truth tellers, persons who speak truth not for the purposes of proving a point, nor for the sake of injuring another with their speech, nor for the cause of political or popular gain.

We need truth tellers who demonstrate their concern for the community and those who suffer because of a lack of truth. What makes truth powerful is that truth is knowledge that can change perspective, change attitudes and change a community. Truth is more than someone’s opinion. Truth is a declaration about reality whether we like the reality or not.

The truth is that the current pandemic is not under control. The truth is that if something is not done to mitigate further spread of the virus, more people will become sick needlessly and the economy will continue to suffer as consumers choose to stay home whether there is a stay-at-home order or not.

To tell the truth always calls for courage because the truth is not in high demand. The truth about confederate monuments in town squares near courthouses has nothing to do with heritage but everything to do with a sign that minority communities need not expect equal justice. The truth is our current nation’s economic policies are exploding the federal debt and placing a hardship upon generations unborn to pay back.

Zephaniah was a truth teller. Although he was born into loyalty as the grandson of King Hezekiah and is part of the royal court, he is still willing to tell the truth about what he sees. He sees a government that has gone rogue. A government filled with people with more interest for what they could get for themselves and not how they would serve the people and provide a witness of loyalty to Yahweh.

Zephaniah declares that the city and religious officials are woeful. The lack of a moral compass has sent the entire city into a stage of rebellion. Oppression is everywhere and greed is the most common practice.

As bad as things are in the city, Zephaniah sees another truth. Although the city is bad and rebellious, God is still in the city. The righteous Lord has decided to reside in a place filled with rebellion. God resides in the city for one purpose and that purpose is to make himself known in the chaos.

God does no wrong. God applies justice. God does not fail. This is the truth of hope. We have hope because God is still in the city. No pandemic, no racism, no violence, no greed, no corruption can drive God out of the city. He is still here with us and his presence makes hope, mercy and grace possible. Now that’s the truth.

Paul’s letter to the Romans reflects what most scholars believe is his best theology work.

By the time Paul writes the Romans he has years to think through the meaning of being in Christ. Paul by now has spent years establishing churches, developing church leaders and building an infrastructure that allows churches to have a model for ministry that could be duplicated anywhere.

There are two driving points behind Paul’s theology that he does not want the church to forever forget.

The first is that Jesus is a crucified Savior. Jesus died on the cross to pay the sin debt that all of humanity owed. Jesus died in our stead so that we might have life. The cross of Christ is what makes forgiveness possible and grace visible.

The second point Paul wants the church to always remember is the role of the Spirit. It is in Romans 8 that Paul speaks of the role of the Spirit that serves as a bedrock for Christian faith. Paul begins by saying that the Spirit removes all condemnation from us. Paul admits that we still sin and that we still fall short of God’s glory even with our best efforts, but the presence of the Spirit removes all condemnation and we are free from guilt. The Spirit has set us free.

Then Paul declares the Spirit changes our focus. We are no longer concerned with the things in life that simply feed the flesh, but we now want to please God. The Spirit helps us to set our affections on the things that have eternal significance. The Spirit empowers us to live by more than the present moment. Next Paul says the Spirit lives within us. No longer is the Spirit confined to a temporary presence that aids only for a time, but the Spirit is now with us and in us. It is the reality of the Spirit being with us and in us that makes it possible for the Spirit to lead us. This is what makes us the sons and daughters of God, that we have God’s Spirit residing in us.

The role of the Spirit in our lives is what gives peace, no matter the times, for we are certain as to who we belong. We are children of a loving father who has not left us alone and provided a guide, a keeper and a deliverer to be with us always. No pandemic can change that truth because it was settled at Calvary’s cross.

There was once a train that was running down a track out of control. What made matters worse, another train was headed down the same track in the opposite direction. The passengers were all in panic with one exception--a little boy who continued to play with his toys as though nothing was wrong. Finally, the crisis was adverted by a skillful engineer who regained control of the train and switched tracks to safely bypass the impending danger.

A passenger asked the little boy why was he not afraid and how could he continue to play during the crisis? The lad responded, “My father is the engineer and he knows I am on this train. I do not have to see him to know that he is looking out for me.”

One of the realities of life is there is no escaping having burdens to carry at one time or another. We all know what it means to have a load that we struggle to handle.

Sometimes the load is life because of moments when we feel overwhelmed. Sometimes the burden is a situation where every option is less than favorable but we know we have to do something. Sometimes the burden is bad health and we have to navigate through life the best we can with limited ability.

The entire world is dealing with the burden of a health pandemic that has claimed the lives of thousands around the world. People of color living in America have to deal with the burden of race.

In a world known for burdens and the toil they take upon persons, Jesus says come unto me all ye that are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Jesus offers an exchange where we give him our burdens and he gives us his yoke. The burdens are what we have been struggling with to carry alone.

However, the yoke comes with the promise of one who will be with us always. The yoke comes with the promise of help. The yoke equally distributes the weight and allows us to make progress not possible under the burden carried alone. The rest that Jesus gives is the rest that comes from a yoke that makes burdens light.

Jesus does not promise that there will be no weight in life that we have to labor under. What Jesus promises is that he will make the burden light. The burden will not inhibit our progress or hold us back.

The good news is that no one has to struggle under the weight of a burden they carry alone. We have a Savior ready and willing to help us when we come to him and exchange our burden for his yoke that makes all burdens light.

The impact of COVID-19 is causing many persons and communities to concern themselves how they may be able to aid and assist others impacted by the virus. The suffering of our neighbors has made us aware of the need to do something especially by those who have the means and ability to be of assistance.

What we are discovering is that assistance can be found in all kinds of ways both large and small. Sometimes the assistance comes in the form of a community fund that provides dollars to non-profits who help with rent assistance, medical supplies, food, and a host of essential needs. Sometimes the assistance comes in the form of individuals who set up Zoom accounts to keep those in nursing homes connected to their loved ones, or phone calls to those who live alone to break the sense of isolation.

Each time there is an act of assistance it is our way of relearning the old biblical practice of hospitality. Hospitality is not the private possession of any faith group. But it is one of the ways we practice what it means to be human. To be human is to see a need that you can meet and chose to do so without being asked.

Today’s text begins by reminding us the woman who showed hospitality to the prophet Elisha does not share his ethnic make-up nor his faith tradition, but she did not allow their differences to stand in the way of showing him hospitality. The woman shares with her husband why she believes they should show hospitality to Elisha because she perceives that Elisha is a man of God. Whatever God is doing in this man who constantly passes her way, she wants to be able to assist in whatever way she can.

The way she chooses to provide assistance is by opening her home to him and providing a place to rest, a bed, a place to eat, a table, a place to work, a chair. The offer of hospitality makes Elisha's journey less stressful and frees him to focus on other matters as he serves as God’s mouthpiece in the land.

Hospitality can be a difference-maker because of the witness of grace that it makes known. The Bible even tells us some of us have entertained angels without knowing it through the act of hospitality. So, let us go out and show hospitality in both small and large ways to the glory of God and for the betterment of our community.

This week we learned of another tragic death of an unarmed black man by his local police. We also learned of the second of three men found hanging from trees in the land of the free and the home of the brave. We are now in the third week of protest since the death of George Floyd and still too many are dying for no apparent reason at the hands of those who are to protect and serve. Public policy makers as well as business and civic leaders are looking for ways to hold back the tidal wave of black anguish that is flooding our nation even while a pandemic continues to take lives.

The words of the psalmist are informative for us for his is a plea to God while being overwhelmed by his enemies. Show me a sign of your goodness my enemies will see and be put to shame because you Lord have helped and comforted me.

The psalmist is not questioning the goodness of God in his life in spite of his difficulties. What he does ask is for his enemies to see the goodness of God in his life. If his enemies see him as a person valued by God and claimed by God’s grace, it may change how his enemies respond to him. His enemies may no longer see him as a problem that needs to be dealt with but as a human being with all of the complexities of life that his enemies share. He too has a family that loves him, depends upon him and gives him a sense of purpose. He too has friends that laugh with him, weep with him and encourage him. He too is prone to making bad choices but those mistakes should not be life altering.

God help my enemies see your favor and blessing in my life and be put to shame. The reason for their shame is because of how the enemies treated him and that shame may be the seed of change to where the enemies understand this is not right.

While the psalmist waits for God to act, he declares that the Lord has helped and comforted him. God has helped him by giving him the strength to stand in the face of enemies. God has comforted him when the enemies have won the battle of a given day. But God’s help and comfort assures the psalmist that it will not be this way always. A day will come when God will act decisively. It is his hope that day may come soon.

A dear friend has a saying that he often uses that declares you cannot be saved unless you confess. His point was the reluctance of persons to accept responsibility for being wrong. We live in a world of denial and coverup where persons will do almost anything to avoid accepting and saying they were wrong.

The original sin of America is a sin that the nation refuses to say it was wrong. America has constantly done everything it can do to deny racism, make us think that racism is something of the past with no bearings on the present and that people just need to forget about it and move on.

The problem is that each time we attempt to move on racism rises its head again and like the snake that it is, when it rises its head it bites. It bites in the re-segregation of school systems that lock minority students in failing schools. It bites in the uneven impact of COVID-19 in black and brown communities. It bites in a wealth gap due largely to the ways that blacks have been kept from access to capital for housing, businesses and health care.

However, there is no way that the snake bites more than in the policing of black communities and especially black men.

The deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd are the names of the most recent victims whose toll exceeds the Holocaust. In spite of all that we know that is undisputable, the nation refuses to repent and the snake is free to keep biting.

Peter the chief apostle tells his community in his first letter that they must be clothed with humility and their dealings with one another for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. God stands in opposition to those who insist they are right when they are wrong and know it. God works against those who would allow pride to become a source of rebellion.

Much has been said about the recent protests in the streets of America but too little has been said about the snake and the pride of a nation that refuses to repent. Grace is what we need to restore our nation and our communities. Trust is what we need to work together to ensure the welfare of our land. Justice is what we need so peace can have a chance.

But none of these things will come until we cloth ourselves in humility in our dealings with one another because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

There may be no word besides love that Paul speaks more of than suffering. Sometimes it is suffering in relationship to the cross of Christ. Sometimes it is suffering because of his missionary efforts as he encounters dangers on the highway, dangers on the seas and dangers in the wilderness.

Suffering is not something Paul seeks but he is willing to embrace suffering when it comes his way. Paul believes that suffering for the believer is sometimes part of the plan of God. The Patriarch Jacob suffered as he labored another seven years for the wife he desired when he had already worked for seven years for the wife he was given by deceit. Joseph suffered being sold into slavery by his brothers, and forgotten in prison.

Suffering may not be desirable nor sought but there is no denying that God uses suffering to prune us and reshape us to his image.

So, when Paul is going through suffering, he declares that the present suffering cannot compare to the glory that is going to be revealed to us. Paul places his focus not on the suffering but the coming glory because he is certain that in the suffering, God is up to something. Suffering forces us to wait on God and not get ahead of him. For God has His own timing for when He will bring to flourish all that He has planned and prepared for our good.

There is a rush to get back to what we believe to be normal: sporting events, work, summer fun and dining with friends at our favorite restaurant. For some of us, all we want to do is get back to church. However, the pandemic invites us to not rush back to normal whatever normal may be but to reflect upon how loss and suffering may be the things that God is using in this moment to reshape us as persons and as a nation.

The suffering--although necessary for the moment--cannot be compared to the glory waiting to be revealed to us. The glory is not of our making but the glory comes from our God who is working for our good. I do not know when the glory that is waiting to be revealed will be made known. All I know is that suffering paves the road to glory.

May we be willing to hold on and hold out even in the midst of suffering as we wait on the glory. Because it will be worth it.

Recently a group of clergy in North Carolina filed a lawsuit against the Governor of North Carolina and his Stay At Home Order for the good of public health. The ministers, along with several other groups connected by stated religious principles, said the reason for their lawsuit was to protect their religious freedoms and that the governor’s order violated freedom of religious as a protected constitutional right.

Religion as an expression of Christian witness is never about individual rights but a call to community responsibility where we demonstrate our concern about God’s creation. Christian religion is a justice issue that calls upon believers to make sacrifices, to submit to authority, and even at times to suffer in order to do good. It is always an indication of the enemy at work whenever we are urged to places our rights over responsibility. The brother of Jesus makes this point in his brief epistle. James 1:27 tells us pure and undefiled religion before God is this--to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Christian faith calls us to act. Act not for ourselves but to act for others and especially those who have no one to act on their behalf. The current pandemic has revealed just how divided our nation is but also just how so many in our nation suffer because of a lack of resources whether those resources are access to quality health care or internet services for children who are compelled to be educated through virtual learning. The summer slide that educators often speak about may be replaced by a technology gap that locks many students out of learning opportunities.

James would have us to place our efforts not in lawsuits about religious rights but in advocacy and service that ensures that the least are not always left out. Because they too are God’s children deserving all that God’s world can provide for them when the church does not see mission as something we do somewhere else in the world and never in our back yard. Let’s decide to be God’s agency for the change that is on God’s heart--the widows and the orphans and all of those who are marginalized. For this is pure religion.

When the church was filled with the power that Jesus promised, they immediately encountered opposition from religious authorities. The claims of the church about Jesus and the resurrection ran counter to the position held by those in power. Those in power were willing to do whatever they needed to do to remain in power, including jailing disciples and threating disciples with violence.

Those in power always think that intimidation is a reliable tool and that is why they are so quick to use it. However the religious leaders quickly learned that the disciples would not be intimidated. The disciples would not remain silent about what they know to be true.

They knew that Jesus was killed because the religious leaders plotted against him and turned him over to Pilate. The disciples knew that Jesus had risen from the grave conquering death and its power over humanity. The disciples knew that Jesus has given them the responsibility to tell the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ. So once released from prison, the disciples went and told the young church about their experience and then they did what the church has done since its inception--they prayed together.

The cooperate prayer of the church is most insightful because it revealed what was on their heart. And what was on their heart was not safety from persecution but courage to be bold in the face of opposition.

There may be no challenge for the church greater than the challenge to be bold and show courage when safety might seem to be the logical choice. It requires boldness for the invisible institution to find its place in the brushes and back woods where blacks told Jesus their whole hearts. It took courage for the church to participate in the Underground Railroad, the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter. It will require courage for the church to lead the community out of the pandemic and into a world that will be vastly different than the one we knew. Courage and resurrections go hand and hand, so let’s be courageous so we can live again.

The church is always confronted with how it would use the power that God has given us. For the church is never without power. It may not be all the power that the church wants, it may not be the kind of power the church wants, but the church always has power. What the apostle shows us is that the power of the church works best when it is used to meet human needs, particularly when those needs cannot be met anywhere else or when those needs have to settled for something less than the real need.

The current pandemic has brought the church an opportunity to meet needs. Those needs may be meals, may be a place to come get tested, may be a call or card to someone living under quarantine or may be a financial gift to help someone out of work. Peter and John did not cure everyone who was sick and neither did Jesus. But the healing they did do spoke to what was possible and there was something that could be done to meet human needs if we are willing to use the power God has given us.

The lame man that had spent his life begging outside the temple had his life changed because he was not ignored and found out God has more in store for us than simply surviving off the sympathy of others. God wants to use others to change our lives forever through the power He has given them to make a difference.

Let’s decide to be difference makers in the pandemic because we have the power, the power that God has given us to be light, hope and help in his name for his glory.

Ideas about the power that humanity has to harness the environment and change it to our own will are not new as seen in the Egyptian Pyramids and the Great Wall of China. Now that is a wall. Yet the psalmist brings us back to reality and reminds us just how limited our power truly is. There are things that are beyond our control. Sometimes it is oppressors that are stronger than us. Sometimes it is natural disasters that catch us unaware. Sometimes it is the invisible that wreaks havoc by way of germs that invade our bodies and make us weak and vulnerable.

The point the psalmist is making is that there is always something. Our lives are never lived in an utopia. In those moments the psalmist offers sound advice, he tells his community to trust, to delight, to commit, to be silent and to wait. All of these things go against our natural inclination to take matters into our own hands.

Yet the psalmist sees a different path that is possible, one that brings us to a deeper abiding relationship with the Almighty. The psalmist sees how the difficulties of life may become the pressure that the Almighty uses to remold us and make us better. Better to ourselves, better to our families and community and better to God. What makes us better is we have unmasked the deceit of human ability and recognized our deep need of God. The God we are called to trust, the God we called to delight in, to commit, to be silent before and the God we are to wait upon.

Because what we truly learn about God is not in what we do but in what we see God do for us. While we were weak and without help, Christ died for us. In his death and resurrection that we celebrate each Sunday we affirm our need of God and wait upon God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. So while waiting, make sure you trust, delight, commit, be silent and see the salvation of God.

Jesus informs the disciples their focus is in the wrong area because it is impossible to know the time that God will choose to change the power arrangements of foreign rulers. Jesus tells them rather than being concerned about what cannot be known, to wait in the city until they are endowed with power from on high. “When the Holy Spirit comes you will have power, power to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” Real power is not defined by where you sit but by what you do. When you receive the power of the Holy Spirit, go and be my witnesses. The word and work of the Lord is dependent upon witnesses who will spread the news. The news is not just the possession of Jerusalem but it is to make its way to city after city until the whole world knows the good news that sin has been defeated and that death has been robbed of its victory.

The power of the Holy Spirit comes to a group of believers who are shut in by a stay-at-home order not from Rome but from heaven. So, in an upper room they wait. While waiting they pray, they encourage one another, they renew the bonds of fellowship and commitment to a cause greater than themselves.

May we learn from their witness as we too are shut in, seeing the shut in not as inconvenience but an opportunity to receive new power from on high. The prophet did say, “They that wait on the Lord will renew their strength.”

The single most common theme after Easter is disbelief. Whereas the disciples, the soldiers, the religious leaders all know that Jesus’ body is not in the tomb, they still refused to believe that he was alive. The soldiers accept pay to change their story. The religious leaders are willing to serve as accessories to fake news. The disciples would not believe the testimony of the women nor those Jesus appeared to on the road just outside the city.

Disbelief not belief is the major theme after Easter. It is disheartening to see and hear of how disbelief was not just the case with the enemies of Jesus but disbelief was prevalent among the friends of Jesus as well. No one seems to be willing to accept the testimony of eyewitnesses that declared they had seen Jesus.

The good news in this dark witness is that the truth of our testimony is not based upon whether others believe us or not. Our task is not to convince non-believers but to simply tell what we have seen, heard and know from our lived experiences. Our task is just to tell it.

When we tell it, we assault Satan’s kingdom and make others aware there is another way. We do not have to live in defeat and despair. We do not have to be controlled by fear. We have the power to stand up and say what we know whether others believe it or not. Each time we tell our testimony about what we know about Jesus from our own lived experience it empowers us, it deepens our faith and harnesses our commitment. Each time we tell what we know about Jesus it stirs sacred memory within us that moves us to praise when we think about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

It is the woman who Jesus cast seven devils out of. It is the woman who Jesus rescued from an abusive relationship. It is the woman who knows what it is like to have to be silent in a man’s world. This woman will not be silence and whether or not they believe her, she will not keep from telling her testimony that “I have just seen Jesus and he is alive.“ Do not allow the disbelief of others to silence you. Go now and tell what you know about Jesus because of what he has done for you.

The reading this week provides us the location where Jesus will celebrate the Passover for the last time with his disciples. Again, unnamed disciples are dispatched to a location without the benefit of address, only that they will find a man carrying a jar of water. Ask him where is the room where my master may eat Passover with his disciples? True to the words of Jesus, the disciples find just such a person and he shows them a larger Upper Room and the disciples finish the work of preparation there for the Passover.

The Upper Room is a key place in Christian history and theology. It is a particular location of Jesus choosing to do what he would do the last time with those who had left everything to follow him. In the Upper Room they are made aware that their time together as they have known it over the last three years was coming to an end. There is sadness in the room as well as uncertainty. What will it mean for them to have to go on without the master? How would they make it? They still have not grasped the meaning of sacrifice nor understood they were walking in the shadow of the cross. The church does a disservice if it does not remind us that we walk in the shadow of the cross. Every day is not a high day of celebration but there are days that are solemn and call for thoughtful contemplation.

There is hurt in the room because they hear that one of their own will betray the master. There seemed to always be those who lurked close by that wanted to use Jesus for their purposes. Jesus requires of us hard commitment that often stands in the way of aspirations. There are those that believe Jesus is not enough and that one has to hedge their bets for the unknown. There are always those that are willing to buy from us what God has given through grace and gifts. In those moments we need to declare "not for sale." Our integrity, character, witness, hope and affection are not for sale.

There is anger in the room. The leader of the group, Peter ,is told in front of his peers that he would deny Jesus three times. This is a smack in the face of the one who felt that he had proved himself to Jesus. Surely Jesus' words about Peter in the Upper Room lead the other disciples to have conversations about Peter and may have lowered his standing as the leader of the group. Peter seeks to rescue his honor by declaring that he is better than everyone else--"Even through all will desert you, I will not." When Jesus pushes the point, Peter pushes back that if necessary "I will die with you before I deny you." This back and forth reveals a man whose emotions are becoming frail.

In spite of the sadness, hurt and anger in the Upper Room, it is space that is transformed because Jesus is present. It is the presence of Jesus that makes the difference even in our sadness, hurt and anger. The presence of Jesus is enough to hold us together in certain as well uncertain times. May he hold you in the space that you are in now because he is present. For in times like these we need an anchor.

The healing of blind Bartimaeus is the last miracle Jesus performs before entering Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover where by week's end he will be the paschal lamb to take away the sins of the world. The healing is important for several reasons:

First, it informs us that Jesus, even when enroute to an appointment at Calvary, could still hear and see the needs of others. As important as Jesus' destination was leaving Jericho for Jerusalem, Jesus was not deaf to the cries for mercy. The lone cry of a single man at the lowest end of the social ladder was enough for Jesus to stop and perform one more miracle.

Second, the story tells us that Jesus will not be controlled by the crowd. It is not an easy thing to say no to the crowd when there is a mass of people hanging on your every move. The crowd can have a narcotic effect and make us crave the crowd and its approval more than God’s approval. The crowd wants Jesus to keep going. They have been in Jericho long enough. They have wasted enough time in Jericho. Jerusalem is their destination. The crowd told blind Bartimaeus to be quiet and the crowd told Jesus to keep going, do not brother to stop for him, he is not worth the effort. Jesus put more stock in the cry of the blind man than the urges of the crowd. The isolation of the stay-home order may be what we need to be weaned from the voices of the crowd that we may hear the single voice that calls our name.

Finally, the story offers a challenge to us as to what will we do once we have received the things we desire most.

What blind Bartimaeus wanted more than anything was to be able to see again. He had not always been blind, there was a time when he could see and he wanted to see again. When Jesus healed him, he had a choice as to what he would do now that he could see again. The choice seemed simple to him. He followed Jesus on the way to Jerusalem.

Following Jesus is always a choice. And Lenten is the season that invites us to make the choice and journey with Jesus to celebration, grief, betrayal, death and resurrection. For in the journey we discover the joy that comes with being with him.