Author: Rev. Wells

Greetings and welcome to Corona Sabbath. This is one of the ways the church is endeavoring to offer spiritual support during these challenging days of COVID-19. We appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

This post focuses on considering our loyalties in fractious times. There is a scripture reading, a reflection, and music from Hilton Jones. Barbara Donohue reads Matthew 22:15-22. In this story, religious leaders want to bait Jesus into saying something controversial that he will regret. Kind of sounds like a political debate or a judicial confirmation hearing which we are very familiar with at this moment in contemporary American life. But Jesus avoids the trap and his challengers retreat, stunned.

Video from Barbara Donohue.

Scripture Matthew 22:15-22

Then the Pharisees went off and began to plot how they might trap Jesus by his speech. They sent their disciples to Jesus, accompanied by sympathizers of Herod, who said, “Teacher, we know you’re honest and teach God’s way sincerely. You court no one’s favor and don’t act out of respect for important people. Give us your opinion, then, in this case. Is it lawful to pay tax to the Roman emperor, or not?”

Jesus recognized their bad faith and said to them, “Why are you trying to trick me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin which is used to pay the tax.” When they handed Jesus a small Roman coin, Jesus asked them, “Whose head is this, and whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

At that, Jesus said to them, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.”

When they heard this, they were astonished and went away.

Video from Kim

Reflection from Kim

Back in Jesus’ day, separation of church and state, religion and empire, was not a thing. The Roman Empire, the state, the government required worship of gods and cultic worship practices to entrench its influence and power. Caesar was seen as a god, and people were to worship Caesar, among a pantheon of other gods. This was the civic duty of those living in the Roman Empire. The Jews got a bit of a pass and were allowed to practice their own religion, albeit with restrictions. For Jewish people, their ideal was a territory where their religion dictated the laws of the land. Religion and civic life were seen as one, just as they were in the Roman Empire. So religion and government were seen as a whole, a package, mutually reinforcing.

So, there is this question, about the preeminence of Caesar and God. If Jesus says flat out that God is more important than Caesar, he is committing treason against the Roman Empire. If he expresses support of Caesar and the Roman Empire, he is betraying his religion. And he’s talking with religious leaders. So, Jesus gives an answer that leaves the inquisitors stunned. And, like a good Jewish teacher, his answer is open to multiple meanings. And the listener is not just handed an easy fix but has to do some sorting.

Here is how this helps me in my walk of faith today. What is God’s? Everything. Everything is in God. God is in everything. God is reality. So for me, that means the values and commitments I associate with God, as I see them in Jesus, are the energy field that hold my life and my reality together.

When everything is God’s, everything falls into place. It gives you a way of seeing everything including government and politics. I get the values that I live out as a citizen from Jesus. So, in a way, we are back to no separation of faith and civic engagement because it is all in God. Indeed, civic engagement can become an expression of faith. It should be an expression of faith for those who are followers of Jesus.

Are there conflicts and compromises along the way? YES!!! And everything gets more complicated when the issue involves money, and money is part of just about everything, especially in politics!

But Jesus is very clear. What is God’s? If we don’t say everything and everyone, then who is the judge? Are we to judge? To play God? It is not up to us.

In February, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a passionate statement about the relationship between faith and governance. In a hearing, she said:

“I know and it is part of my faith that all people are holy and all people are sacred unconditionally. . . We love all people. There is nothing holy about rejecting medical care for people no matter who they are. . . There is nothing holy about turning someone away from a hospital. There is nothing holy about rejecting a child from a family. There is nothing holy about writing discrimination into the law. And I am tired of communities of faith being weaponized and being mischaracterized because the only time religious freedom is invoked is in the name of bigotry and discrimination. I’m tired of it. . . . because you are not to be denied anything that I am entitled to, that we are equal in the eyes of the law and we are equal in my faith in the eyes of the world. . . It is not up to us to deny medical care. It is up to us to feed the hungry, to clothe the poor, to protect children, and to love all people as ourselves.”

AOC is clearly well-schooled in the teachings of Jesus and that has led her into politics and public service.

Give to God what is God’s. It is all God’s, in God. No compartmentalizing. No areas of life that fall outside the scope of our faith commitment. Everything is in God: Our work lives. Our relationships. Our engagement as citizens. Our sexual activities. Our bank accounts and economic activity. Our consumption and food. Our activities and pursuits. All of it is of God. Sacred. Holy. Universal, unconditional love encompassing all of reality. Each one of us it to live our lives accordingly, in our circumstances, in our situations, with our unique gifts and talents and experiences.

I am reading a book about arctic exploration, and there is discussion of the avid faith of Lieutenant William Edward Parry was part of polar expeditions in the 19th century. Apparently, Parry was known for his strong evangelical faith. We’re told: “To Parry, a man without religion was like a clock without weights or a mainspring. He himself prayed constantly, day and night. His sense of the infinite, already well developed, was certainly deepened and strengthened by the Arctic. In a later remarkable declaration Parry announced that he would give up his wife before he would give up his God.” [From Arctic Grail: The. Quest for the Northwest Passage and the North Pole, 1818-1909, Pierre Berton, p. 28] Oh, dear. Well, since his commitment to God was so sincere and complete, then I think his spouse had nothing to worry about. She had a loving, caring, faithful partner.

Jesus’ words do not leave me stunned or perplexed or confused. They give me a center. They root me. God. In all. Everything of God. Holy. Sacred. This illuminates everything else. This is the lens which enables us to see life clearly and honestly. And the right to live out our faith, in God/Spirit/Divine Love, as made known in Jesus, that right is protected and respected by the law of our land. Taxes? They can be seen as a way of supporting the common good, an expression of faith. Some people of faith are very willing to pay more taxes so that everyone can have access to affordable housing, food, clothing, higher education, and, yes, healthcare. If only those were the main functions of government spending! So, we are reminded to stay grounded in God first and foremost – pray, read the Bible, help others, and be sure to vote. Amen.

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Greetings and welcome to Corona Sabbath.  This is one of the ways the church is endeavoring to offer spiritual support during these challenging days of COVID-19.    We appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

This post focuses on the process of change.  There is a scripture reading, a reflection, and music from Hilton Jones.  Colleen Coughenour reads Exodus 32:1-14.  This is the story of the golden calf.  While Moses is away praying to God on the mountain, the people take matters into their own hands and, Moses’ brother, Aaron, left in charge, is quite willing to placate his base.  A golden calf.  Sure.  No problem.  

Video from Colleen

Exodus 32:1-14

Moses was an extremely long time in returning from the mountain, and when the people saw this, they turned to Aaron and said, “Come and make a god for us, someone who will lead us.  We don’t know what has happened to that Moses, who brought us up from the land of Egypt.”

Aaron replied, “Remove the gold earrings you are wearing – wives and husbands, sons and daughters alike – and bring them all to me.”  All the people brought their gold earrings to Aaron.  Aaron took the gold, melted it down and cast it in a mold, and made it into a calf, a young bull.

Then the people said, “Israel, here is your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before the idol, proclaiming, “Tomorrow we will have a feast in honor of Yahweh!“

In the morning the people rose early, sacrificing burnt offerings and bringing communion offerings, and then they sat down to eat and drink, and lost themselves in debauchery.

Yahweh said to Moses, “Go down, now!  These people whom you led out of Egypt have corrupted themselves!  In such a short time, they have turned from the way that I have given them, and made themselves a molten calf.  Then they worshipped it and sacrificed to it saying, ‘Israel, here is your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’”

Yahweh then said to Moses, “I look at these people – how stubborn they are!  Now leave me to myself so that my anger may pour out on them, and destroy them!  But you I’ll make into a great nation.”

Then Moses soothed the face of Yahweh, his God.  “But why, my God, should you let your wrath pour out on these people whom you delivered from Egypt with great might, with a strong hand?  Why should the Egyptians say, ‘Their God intended to destroy them all along, to kill them in the mountains, to erase them from the earth?’  Turn your back on your rage; reconsider the disaster you intended for your people.  Do not forget Sarah and Abraham, Rebecca and Isaac, and Leah and Rachel and Jacob, your chosen ones, to whom you promised, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; I will give to you all this land which I have promised – I will give it to your descendants, and they will enjoy its inheritance forever.’”

So Yahweh relented, and the disaster that threatened the Israelites was forestalled.

Reflection from Kim

Ok.   This reflection is not going to be about the election.  From what I hear, people are so saturated and inundated with election news that it would not be of spiritual succor to talk about the election.  I get it.  

What I am going to talk about is change.  Transformation.  The emergence of social values and norms.  

We are in a time of major transition in human history/human emergence.  And accelerating climate change is a big component of this time of transition.  We’re in a radical turning – like the transition to settled agriculture, or the use of fire as a tool, or the invention of the wheel.  This transformation is technological, biological, and social/spiritual.  Things are changing.  Maybe not in the way we would like sometimes.  Maybe not fast enough at times.  But things are changing.

And as with previous major human transitions, we don’t know just where we are going or how long it will take to get there.  That will only be known from hindsight.  

And here we turn to the Hebrews wandering in the wilderness.  This grand Biblical epic.  The Hebrews migrated to Egypt during a drought to find food.  Then they become enslaved.  The story tells us that God hears their cries under the burden of their oppression and liberates them from slavery in Egypt.  Then there are 40 years of wandering in the wilderness before settling in the land of milk and honey.  

There are many chapters in the Hebrew scriptures devoted to those years of wandering.  The group is led by a cloud in the day and fire at night.  There are stories about needing water.   Stories of hunger and manna and quail.  

There are stories of the giving of the law – the 10 commandments.  Twice.  And many other directives regarding daily life, religious observance, a judicial system, a priestly system.  Extensive directives on many, many matters.   All aimed toward creating a model society of justice and peace.  

In Exodus 23, we find these directives:

“When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.” 

We could see this as a statement about animal rights.

And, “You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”

That is certainly a message that still needs to be heard by all church-going Americans today.  You were once an alien, an immigrant, a transplant.   

And, “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits.”  

Yup.  It actually says that in the Bible.  Don’t screw the poor in the legal system.

I wonder if the president has ever read the Bible he waved around outside the church in Washington, DC?

And there is this instruction in Deuteronomy:

“If you come on a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, with the mother sitting on the fledglings or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young.  Let the mother go, taking only the young for yourself, in order that it may go well with you and you may live long.”  [22:6]

There’s surely a conservation message there.

And there is the specific directive: “You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.”  [Ex. 20:23]

Ah.  That was one of the rules that was forgotten as we heard in the story of the golden calf.  The ideal is set forth, but it takes a long time to get there.  With many fits and starts along the way.  

We are told of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for forty years.  That’s a long time for a society to be nomadic immigrants.  But change takes time.  Re-creation can be a slow process.  The people leave Egypt and must adjust to being out from under the Egyptian boot.  They must learn to let go of fear.  They must heal from the internalized oppression.  They must regain their agency.   They must figure out how to organize themselves.  Set up social structures to embody their commitment to justice and compassion.   Create a system of religious observance that keeps their life together focussed on this ideal community that is the expression of the dreams of God.  It takes time.  It takes the passing of generations.  Moses sees the promised land but does not enter it.  His life ends and Joshua takes over leading the people into their new forever home.  

The process of transitioning from slavery to a model community takes time and it is by no means a smooth, well-marked path.  The story of the golden calf is only one of the many hurdles to be overcome.  Challenges that required Moses to de-escalate God’s wrath and mobilize the re-commitment of the people.  Change is not easy.  

And in a sense we are still wandering in the wilderness, trying to make our way to a social order that is characterized by peace, justice, and well-being for all.  As Americans we say, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.  It is a long process.  Significant change takes time.  There is stumbling along the way.  There is back sliding.  And there are glorious leaps forward.  Like the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960’s.  We must continue the journey.  We must band together and recommit again and again and make our way toward Shalom, the beloved community, the commonwealth of God.  

We are part of a long process in our faith tradition and in the emergence of human history.  And right now we are in the midst of a significant transition in the human drama.  And yes, there is an election.  And yes, it matters.  But there is still a long road ahead and I am glad to be on that journey with the Lakewood UCC community!  Amen.  

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Greetings and welcome to Corona Sabbath. This is one of the ways the church is endeavoring to offer spiritual support during these challenging days of COVID-19. We appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

This post focuses on the Christian call to love self and neighbor.

I want to share with you a scene from Toni Morrison’s incomparable novel, Beloved. If you haven’t read it, download it or order a copy as soon as you finish this post. If you have read it, consider reading it or listening to it again. The story takes place in the United States when there was legalized slavery:

“When warm weather came, Baby Suggs, holy, followed by every black man, woman, and child who could make it through, took her great heart to the Clearing–a wide-open place cut deep in the woods nobody knew for what at the end of the path known only to deer and whoever cleared the land in the first place. In the heat of every Saturday afternoon, she sat in the clearing while the people waited among the trees.

“After situating herself on a huge flat-sided rock, Baby Suggs bowed her head and prayed silently. The company watched her from the trees. They knew she was ready when she put her stick down. Then she shouted, ‘Let the children come!’ and they ran from the trees toward her.

“Let your mothers hear you laugh,’ she told them, and the woods rang. The adults looked on and could not help smiling.

“Then ‘Let the grown men come,’ she shouted. They stepped out one by one from among the ringing trees.

“Let your wives and your children see you dance,’ she told them, and groundlife shuddered under their feet.

“Finally she called the women to her. ‘Cry,’ she told them. ‘For the living and the dead. Just cry.’ And without covering their eyes the women let loose.

“It started that way: laughing children, dancing men, crying women and then it got mixed up. Women stopped crying and danced; men sat down and cried; children danced, women laughed, children cried until, exhausted and riven, all and each lay about the Clearing damp and gasping for breath. In the silence that followed, Baby Suggs, holy, offered up to them her great big heart.

“She did not tell them to clean up their lives or go and sin no more. She did not tell them they were the blessed of the earth, its inheriting meek or its glorybound pure.

“She told them that the only grace they could have was the grace they could imagine. That if they could not see it, they would not have it.

“‘Here,’ she said, ‘in this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard…’” [From Beloved by Toni Morrison]

To me this scene expresses the essence of Christianity and of Jesus. Love. Loving our full humanity. Our flesh. Our blood. Our being. Right here. Right now. We see this kind of love demonstrated over and over again in the life of Jesus. Jesus loves everyone. Those who are distasteful. Those who are considered disreputable. Those who are cheats and scoundrels. Those who are manipulative and violent. Those who are abused and abusers. Those who are lost and forgotten. Those who are puffed up with privilege. Those who are debased and devalued. Those who are afraid and ashamed. Those who crave power. Those who are confused. Those found by trouble. It doesn’t matter. Jesus sees everyone as a child of God, created in the Divine image. Holy. Sacred. Beloved.

In the gospel story when Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment, we are told that he replies, “‘You must love the Most High God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all you mind.’ That is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’” [Matthew 22:37-38]. So Jesus tells us, love your neighbor as yourself. As yourself. He calls us to love ourselves. We hear that echoed by Baby Suggs. Love yourself. You. A beautiful, unique, enfleshed holy sacred being. Called to life.

In these Covid days, when we cannot meet together safely for worship, when we cannot dance and laugh, and sing, and cry together, we can think about loving ourselves. Embracing our humanity in all of its richness. And how we can love our neighbors near and far as ourselves.

When we take a look at the world around us, at the news, and the rancor of the political campaigns this election season, and the divisions over the response to the pandemic, and the racism endorsed and incited from the highest office in the land, it is clear that we are not doing a very good job of loving our neighbors or ourselves.

Well, I’m a pastor, so one of my responses is, ‘If only more people would go to church. . .’ Because the church is intended to be a community in which we experience the love of Jesus and learn how to live in that love and live from that love. Love for ourselves and for every single precious child of God. Church is the school where we are taught to love ourselves and our neighbors. As we are. Beloved. Holy. All recipients of Divine grace. Committed to the common good.

Sadly, sometimes the church is known more for judgment, punishment, and exclusion than for all embracing love, acceptance and mercy. Well, it’s easier to control people through intimidation and fear. It’s easier to maintain power through dependency. All of the judging makes people afraid, insecure, hostile, and greedy.

And this punishing, judging distortion of Christianity encourages dishonesty. It encourages half truths and lies. It obstructs us from loving fully and freely, as we are. Accepting who we are. Engaging with others in sincerity and empathy. Jesus loves us as we are. He accepts us with our strengths, short-comings, achievements, mistakes, character flaws, personality traits, proclivities, patterns, biases, talents, tastes, weaknesses, beauty, imperfections – all of it. He loves us because we are who we are as we are. Jesus teaches us to love with a healthy sense of honesty. Not a facade of goodness or perfection or false righteousness. And he teaches us to love ourselves and others with that same honesty and authenticity.

Each individual precious; no two alike. We’re not like mass produced products from a factory assembly line subject to quality control that are all supposed to come out exactly the same and meet a specified criteria. The way of Jesus teaches us to love and respect ourselves and others just as we are. And through that love and acceptance, we find ourselves drawn toward who we might be, our more loving selves. We learn to treat ourselves and others as sacred, holy, amazing, unique, invaluable, beloved.

In recent weeks, I had minor surgery for bone spurs on my heel. Then an infection developed at the incision site and this has turned into a much more extensive ordeal complete with IV antibiotics for two hours twice a day for two weeks. Understandably, I find myself thinking about how my body developed a staff infection from my own skin. The threat posed by that infection. And the drug, dripping in the IV that is killing the infection. Driving out the danger.

I’m thinking about the church like the IV. Infusing us with love, self love, love for others, love for the world, love for God, driving out the infection of judgmentalism, hatred, insecurity, fear, deception, distraction, and numbness. The church bringing us to the health of our full humanity as beings created to love. I think of the church driving out what kills us, what diminishes our lives, what takes us down, and filling us with the power of love, acceptance, empathy, honesty, and community.

This World Communion Sunday, as we seek to be in communion with ourselves, our communities, the human community, and the community of nature, we are invited to cultivate the capacity to love, including loving ourselves, with the unconditional love of Jesus. And accepting others with that same kind of love.

I remember years ago, a colleague, the pastor of an African American church here in St. Petersburg, who, whenever there was some kind a gathering, had us do what he said they did at his church every Sunday morning: Turn and greet one another saying, “I love you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Well, we’re not having church so we can’t turn to each other and use that greeting. But today I encourage you to look in a mirror and say, “I love you and there’s nothing you can do about it.” I invite you to look at an enemy, even an image of an enemy, and you may even find yourself looking in the mirror again, and say, “I love you and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Take a look out of the window or step outside and say to our dear Mother Earth, “I love you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

I love you and there’s nothing you can do about it. Isn’t that Jesus’ message in the giving of his life for the good of others? Isn’t that what we celebrate with bread and cup? A God of love “and there’s nothing we can do about it.” Amen.

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Greetings and welcome to Corona Sabbath. This is one of the ways the church is endeavoring to offer spiritual support during these challenging days of COVID-19. We appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

This post focuses on a story associated with Jesus that may speak to us about voting in this contentious election season.

Sue Sherwood reads Matthew 21:23-32.

Video from Sue.

Jesus entered the Temple precincts and began teaching. The chief priests and the elders of the people came to him and said, “By what authority are you doing what you do? Who gave you this authority?”

“And I,” replied Jesus, “will ask you a single question; if you give me the answer, I will tell you my authority for these actions. What was the origin of John’s right to baptize? Was it divine or was it human?”

They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘divine,’ he will respond, ‘Then why did you refuse to believe him?’ But if we say ‘human,’ we have the people to fear, for they regard John as a prophet.” So they replied to Jesus, “We don’t know.”

Jesus said in reply, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

Jesus continued, “What do you think? There was a landowner who had two children. The landowner approached the elder and said, ‘My child, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ The first child replied, ‘No, I won’t,’ but afterwards regretted it and went. The landowner then came to the second child and said the same thing. The second child said in reply, ‘I’m, on my way,’ burt never went. Which of the two did what was wanted?”

They said, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “The truth is, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kin-dom of God before you. When John came walking on the road of justice, you didn’t believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you didn’t repent and believe.”

Reflection from Kim on video

It’s an election year. A presidential election year. Have you noticed? When the COVID pandemic started back in March, I thought, Well, at least now we don’t have to hear about the election constantly. But as the date draws nearer, we are hearing about the election all the time.

And while I may bash the campaigning, make no mistake. Elections matter. I hope everyone seeing this post will VOTE, and encourage everyone they know and come in contact with that has breath and blood in their bodies to vote!

But, oh this electioneering! All of these claims and counter claims. Boasting and bashing. And worst of all, fearmongering.

Today we heard a story in which Jesus addresses the issue of authority. Who has authority? To whom should authority be given? Whom should we trust? How do we decide? These are the concerns swirling among the religious leaders, Jesus, his followers, and the community for whom the gospel was written. And these kinds of questions continue to confront us, especially in a presidential election year.

In this context, we are told of Jesus telling a story about two brothers. This is a story that is supposed to be enigmatic and have multiple meanings. That’s how teaching was done in that setting.

So there are these two brothers. And the father wants them to go work in the field. One brother says, Yes, of course, no problem, and then doesn’t do it. The other brother says No, I don’t feel like it, got other plans, and then rethinks things and heads out to the fields to work.

So, Jesus says, who is the better one? Whom do you trust? Who deserves authority? Well, the religious leaders stand with the brother who went out to work. The determination is made not by the promises spoken but by the action taken. So behavior, action, deeds, are the determinant. Actions speak louder than words, as we say.

So in this election season, filled with lots and lots and lots of messaging, words, words, and more words, we can think about voting for, giving authority to, placing our trust in, people who have done things for the common good. Taken action, been involved in making a difference for the betterment of all. People who have a track record of self giving service to the community. The ones who have been working in the fields.

In choosing who to vote for, we can base our decisions not on what the campaigns are saying but on the actual actions of the candidates. And, thanks to the internet we have access to that kind of information. What has the candidate actually, factually, done?

And there is something else about this story that relates to elections and voting. These two brothers. One says he will go work in the fields and then doesn’t do it. Maybe he says it just to placate the parent, get the old man off his back, look like a good son. But he doesn’t do it. That is certainly is not what we would call good character.

Then there is the other brother. He says he won’t help. Maybe he doesn’t feel like it. He’s busy. He’s mad at the dad about something else. Who knows. But then he goes out and helps in the field. Yes, he does do the right thing, but he isn’t exactly exemplary either.

So, in this story, really neither son is perfect. The ideal. A pie in the sky version of virtue. And that is something very important to keep in mind relating to voting. Despite what is said, about the candidates, boasting and bashing, they are all human. And that means none of them are perfect. None are the virtuous ideal. All are a mixture. They are all capable of doing good things as well as capable of messing things up. All are fallible. All are imperfect. All have made mistakes. They are all human. No more. No less.

I got campaign email this week from someone who is in office and would like to remain in office. And in the email, he says, “they IMPEACHED me earlier this year for being a PERFECT PRESIDENT.” [sic] Remember that story attributed to Jesus about the two brothers. No one is a perfect president. Period.

I like this story of the two brothers. While it sheds some light on voting, this story is also about the authority that we give to religion and religious leaders. The situation was a challenge to the authority of Jesus. And what comes out of it is look at what is happening. Look at what is being done. Look at the actions. In another gospel story, Jesus is asked about his standing, and in the story he says look at what you see, then decide. In the story of Jesus recruiting some fisherman to join him, he says, come and see. With Jesus, it is about looking at what he does. It is about actions, behavior, treatment of others. It’s about incarnating unconditional, universal love.

With Jesus, it is not about presenting a theological treatise or a set of rules. There is no self promoting speech to entice adherents. It’s not about a slick, packaged image and a promised pay off. Jesus simply says, look at what I am doing. See for yourself. Then decide. Decide if this is a way of life and love and joy for you and for the world.

Jesus teaches us to decide who to trust and who to give authority to based on behavior and actions not promises and propaganda. Jesus knew that who we trust matters. The consequences can mean life or death for us and for others.

So make sure to vote.

Amen.

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