alt-Center

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Friday, August 18, 2017

Never pay back evil with more evil…Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.  Romans 12:17, 21^(NLT)

Our Shih-Tzu, Wellington the Wonder dog takes out his hostility on his toys.  Whenever he is frustrated, or if we have missed his feeding time by 18 seconds, the little monster heads for the toy box and throws them everywhere.  He will grab one, shake it and hurl it like an Olympic javelin champion.  His toys end up all over the room, and he just won’t put them away when his “fit” is done.  Picking up the toys is what his slaves (Mrs. Preacher and I) must do. 

What Wellie does after the carnage is done is rest his weary body. 

Anger does that to all of God’s creatures; it wears us out!  And with due respect to all that is holy and right, it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference which side of an argument you choose; anger is going to wear you out. 

In this country we have watched anger and its expressions of violence break out like volcanic explosions.  In Charlottesville this past week the (so-called) alt-Right ultra conservatives, neo-Nazis and white supremacists came face to face with the (so-called) alt-Left, anti-fascist liberals[2]; the clash of these groups’ anger resulted in three dead and 20 more injured, and un-ending news coverage and political wrangling.

I will not presume to hold-forth a solution to the woes of a nation divided as we are; I’m not that clever (or that stupid).  This is as complex as it gets.  

This morning I would simply offer a comment on the nature of how our culture’s mood has (and is) missing the mark by a wide margin.  Scripture shows us alt-Good and its evil twin alt-Evil.

David’s Psalm suggested an alt-good national mood:

How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!  Psalm 133:1^(NLT)

Paul’s statement on human nature reveals the alt-Evil fly in harmony’s ointment:

And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.”  Ephesians 4:26a^(NLT)

When anger enters the picture the body count grows.  All you have to do is look at Wellie’s toys to figure that out!  Our national sin is the anger, vitriol, and violence thrown at each other like water on a grease fire; it won’t cease raging…ever!  And with that image comes a cry for some kind of hope…how can we put out the fires of our discontent? 

There is no easy answer to that…certainly not in a three minute devotional thought.  But there is a direction today’s scripture from Genesis suggests:

Joseph named his second son Ephraim, for he said, “God has made me fruitful in this land of my grief.”  Genesis 41:52^(NLT)

Joseph was ripped violently from his homeland, sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused by his owner’s wife of rape, betrayed by people he’d helped, and yet remained without anger.  He named his son Ephraim – fruitfulness in grief.  This is much like Paul’s statement to the church at Philippi: 

…for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.  Philippians 4:11^(NLT)

In the worst and best circumstances of his life Joseph celebrated being useful in the conditions life threw at him. 

And now look to the best example; in the midst of extreme hatred and undeserved evil, there was One who gave his life on a cross to make a way of reconciliation with God for those who despised him most.

For You Today

We all need to remember, and spread the word, that anger never resolves injustice; rather it clouds the issue at best, and, at worst, results in the carnage of retaliation, blood, and death.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy Pixabay.com & Russell Brownworth (own work)

[2] For definitions of alt-Right & alt-Left see NY Times article

Scriptural A.D.D.

Thursday July 11, 2013

Dr. Luther Dorr, my preaching professor in seminary used to like saying that preaching is foolish enough; it’s the preacher’s goal to not make it any more foolish than God intended.  Perhaps Dr. Dorr hoped to save us from making the mistake of taking the “power of salvation” out of the preaching event.  Either way – there is something powerful about the message of the Gospel, whether presented with words or deed.

The late comedian, George Burns, is quoted as saying, “The secret of a good sermon is having a good beginning and a good ending.  And having them as close together as possible.”[1]  

A quick check of John Wesley’s sermons from the late 18^th century reveals that he wrote approximately 5500 words in a sermon.  Typically, those sermons took a good bit more than an hour to preach.  Today’s attention-deprived minds prefer shorter; MUCH shorter.  My average sermon is about 4 typed pages, or 1500 words (less than 1/3 of Wesley’s), taking 20-30 minutes to preach.  Even this is long-ish by some standards.

I Wonder

If the foolish/powerful/very long messages of the 18^th century propelled the Wesleyan movement in America, spreading scriptural holiness across the land like a grassfire, what is the “Scriptural A.D.D.” 10 minute “sermon-ette” doing to our culture?

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[1] http://www.faithandleadership.com/features/articles/quiz-how-long-o-lord-sermon