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Luke 6:26-37

I didn’t know they tracked this kind of statistic, but it really doesn’t surprise me, because they have stats for all kinds of people. Apparently the number of hate groups in the US rose to its highest level in 20 years in 2018, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. This civil rights organization has labeled 1,020 active groups as espousing hate.  Included on the list are white supremacists, black nationalists, neo-Nazis, neo-confederates, Also included are Catholic Family Ministries, the Conservative Republicans of Texas, the Ku Klux Klan, American Nazi Party.  There are 24 right here in Indiana. “We monitor hate groups and other extremists throughout the United States and expose their activities to the public, the media and law enforcement,” they say.  Fighting hate, seeking justice, teaching tolerance. Continue reading “Your Kind of Love Is Different”

1 Corinthians 12:12-21, 26-27

 “United we stand, divided we fall.” This phrase has been used by poets and revolutionaries, by presidents and politicians. If you’ll recall, Jesus said something similar. When accused of being in league with the devil, Jesus counted that ridiculous accusation by pointing to his own driving out of demons and saying, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Rather than division, the Bible rejoices in cooperation and unity. On many occasions, Paul urged the members of the churches to “keep the unity of the Spirit…” and to love because love “binds them all together in perfect unity.” Jesus also prayed for unity. In his high-priestly prayer, he asked his Father in heaven to give unity to his disciples. He said, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” God tells us that unity is a good thing and that it will bring blessings. It’s no coincidence then, that among the songs the Israelites would sing whenever they would come together for the great feasts, like the Passover, was Psalm 133. “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. For there (in that unity) the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.” Continue reading “One Body in Christ”

Polycarp of Smyrna
1 John 3:16-20

Today the church remembers Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. He is known as a disciple of John the Evangelist and an early martyr of the faith. Polycarp is an important historical link between the apostolic age and the early church. First, he confessed the orthodox Jesus. This fights against the theory that the Christology we confess today was a late fabrication by certain strains of Christianity in a power struggle against competing groups. Second, he quotes or alludes to many books of the New Testament cannon providing us historical evidence of the vetting process of the early church. Finally, he serves as a link to John the Evangelist, an apostle of Christ. Polycarp lived into the 150s AD. This means that mid-second-century Christians could be sure that the church’s teaching was orthodox and apostolic because they had a living link to the apostles. This is extremely helpful for the Christian apologist today in the defense of the authenticity of the New Testament testimony of Christ. Continue reading “Polycarp of Smyrna”

Matthew 20:1-16

All the workers in the vineyard were standing in the unemployment line the day the owner hired them. Any of you who’ve been unemployed know what that is like—the uncertainty, the anxiety, the seemingly loss of identity, the hardships it can cause a family. Continue reading “When God’s Not Fair”

Luke 11:37-52

This past month, CBS brought together a group of fairly famous individuals to compete for a $250,000 prize. CBS aired it so that viewers could waste time with some mindless entertainment. The program was called “Celebrity Big Brother”. The goal of the show is to avoid getting evicted by a majority vote of the other houseguests. Along the way they hold grudges, make and break alliances, pretend to be friends, cry in a diary room, compete at mental and physical challenges, stab each other in the back, kick each other out of the house, and then all smile and celebrate after the winner is crowned. What caught my eye (and DVR) this time around was that I knew who some of these people were. For most of them, they had some sort of life challenge in the past. Some examples: one individual had a public battle with cancer, one was fired from the White House staff, one was a key witness in “the OJ trial”, one had been through an ugly divorce, one wasted a career in the NFL for other activities, and another man had tarnished his reputation as a gold medalist because of a scandal he was part of at the Summer Olympics in Brazil. They had some “woes” in life. And then there was another guy. He had some “Whoas” too.  Except they weren’t like cancer, divorce, or a public scandal. It was his famous phrase from an early 90s sitcom. When something caught his attention on the program, he with a look of amazement would cry “Whoa!” in a unique high pitch sort of way. And it would bring laughs to the audience. This phrase has stuck with him ever since. In fact, it’s stuck with him to the point where now 25 years later he refuses to say it. Continue reading “Whoa!”

Thank you to Pastor Kiecker for this meditation upon these readings for the commemoration of Martin Luther, who fell asleep in Christ on this day in 1546.

2 Kings 24:18-25:21; 1 Corinthians 15:20-34; Psalm 120

“So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.”

What value is there in hearing this? What’s the ‘moral’ of the story? What can be gleaned and learned, lest we find ourselves in the same place? After all, they say that those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. Continue reading “Commemoration of Martin Luther”