"I will not allow my life's light to be determined by the darkness around me" - Sojourner Truth

The great African American evangelist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, and author, Sojourner Truth, was acclaimed for the quote. This hero of the faith was born into slavery before escaping to freedom in 1826. After gaining her freedom, Truth preached about abolitionism and equal rights for all. In 1843, at age 45, with what she believed was her religious obligation to go forth and speak the truth, she embarked on a journey to preach the gospel and speak out against slavery and oppression.

Sojourner Truth embodied bravery and courage, as she traveled around the country speaking up and speaking out – fighting for good, and she did not do it alone. She is but one example across the history of time of people, named and unnamed. who were so tired of the wrong that she felt the call not to complain, but use their skills, gifts, abilities, and influences on the Fight for Good!

I believe in the times in which we live the clarion call for Good seems prevalent, particularly as we find ourselves at tension with one another, be it in society or in the hollow halls of holy places, simply because we have allowed our differences to overshadow what we agree upon, which is the common good! 

It appears that we have allowed good to lapse in this world. But the need for Good is necessary because the life of the unwanted is cheap, where children and the aged are expendable, and where people sit silently while injustices and inequalities take place. We are so bent on being belligerent with one another that we are not fighting the gross inequities of domestic abuse, or the expanses of food deserts, or the illumination of sub-standard education, or the impact of those experiencing homelessness, and the strong imbalance between the have and have nots There is a dire need for champions of the good to rise and begin FIGHTING FOR GOOD. 

As receivers of God’s grace, how may we share in the fight for Good? How might we in our daily lives find ways to offer good by our thoughts and actions? What can we do to share in God’s good fight?

​Dr. Aleze Fulbright

The passage from the Book of Deuteronomy speaks of God’s as it communicates the promises of God as the people of Israel cross from the wilderness and bondage and move into the promised land and freedom. In doing so, they receive from God the promises of God when they settle in Canaan.

We learn in this text that this chosen people has a special mission: to teach each other and their children about what God expects and about how God wants them to act, to be a light unto the nations (Isaiah 11:1). The people have one basic thing to do: to love the Lord their God with all their heart, and with all their soul, and with all their strength (6:7). This basic affirmation is what will guide them into being the kind of community God wants them to be.

There is a strong intergenerational component at work here: there are commands, decrees, and laws to obey, rules to follow, if you will, to share with the children what God wants; and each Sabbath when the people gather to worship, they will recite these words, remembering who they are and what they are to be about – generation after generation. 

In Hebrew, this passage is called the Shema, and it means literally to listen up or to hear. It is a prayer that constitutes Israel as a community, and it sets them apart, obeying God and honoring God and one another. Put another way, the Shema aims to keep the eyes of the people – us – fixed on God, which then moves us to live out our love for God and others in the knowledge of God’s unconditional love for us.

In Jesus’ day, he would have shared these words as a kind of creed, or an affirmation of faith. In fact, when Jesus talks how the law and the prophets are summed up in this commandment, he is very much in keeping with what Moses was communicating: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Matthew 23:22-24)– and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Leviticus 18:11). That is to be the posture of a follower of Jesus. It is why it is the greatest commandment.

We might ask what this has to do with pickleball, and that is a good question: the connection has to do with community, and with the kind of community God wants us to be. Here, we learn what is important. That’s a connection worth pondering, and it is a lesson we want to share as we move into the future.
​
Pastor Andy Kinsey

In The Message version of Galatians 6, these words are shared, “Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore them, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law… let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.”

Did you notice the word, “restore”, in that version?  The phrase, “forgivingly restore”?  Take a moment to consider how that could prompt a ripple effect, where the restored turn around and become “restorers” for others.  I love that thought. 

At the time this was written, and regrettably, in modern times as well, the desire to maintain a strict or severe attitude toward sin oftentimes translates into callous or even cruel treatment toward those who have stumbled along their faith journey.

The Interpreters Study Bible poses these questions, “what does a follower do with another follower who has [fallen]? What is our attitude toward those who [make mistakes]? What is our obligation to the one who has failed? What is the responsibility of the corporate fellowship of the church?”  It goes on to say that, “The Apostle Paul seems to suggest that we are to feel on a level with the one who falls. We are to regard ourselves as fellow sinners. Regard ourselves as no better, no worse.”  It’s an even playing field.

I’m reminded of the statement attributed to John Bradford in the sixteenth century, as he watched a group of prisoners being led to execution, “Therefore but by the grace of God go I.”

Luke 22:32 finds Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed, sharing these words with Peter, “32 but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.’
 
When you have turned back, strengthen the others. What powerful words.  There is no more effective way to do this than to share with others what Christ has done for us.

This is why community is so important, because sometimes we just can’t bear the burden alone. And we may know with our minds that God is with us but we just don’t feel it.  To bear one another’s burdens goes a step further than saying an encouraging word.  It involves stepping out, recognizing that we can fall just as easily as the next person.  It includes compassion and grace.

One of my favorite illustrations of this is about a little girl who was late getting home from school.  Her mother was starting to worry and had just opened the door to go and look for her, when she saw her daughter coming up the steps.  She asked her child, “Where have you been?!”
“Mommy, Janie dropped her art project and it smashed into pieces.”
“Oh… okay.  That makes sense.  You stopped to help her pick it up?” her mother said.
“No,” said the girl. “I stopped to help her cry.”
 
This little girl inherently knew something that we as adults often forget. Simply being present may help to lighten a burden and help a hurting individual to meet another hour, another day, another season.
May today find us opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit in order to help meet others in their need and in doing so, share the love of Christ for the glory of God.  Amen.

​Pastor Susan Nyquist

In the lesson from the Gospel of Luke, from Chapter 14:23, we read these words at the beginning: “Now great crowds accompanied him.” It is a small indicator that folks were taking a strong liking to Jesus. He was popular. Life was good.

But then there is a noticeable shift in tone in the next verse when Jesus says, “Now, if you don’t hate your father and your mother, your wife and your children, your sisters and your brothers, indeed, your life itself, you cannot be my disciple…if you don’t sell all your possessions, you cannot be my disciple.”

Where did that come from? That is about as hard a “saying” as it gets! Is Jesus saying this sarcastically? Did he fail his class on church growth?

Thank goodness, we can temper it a bit. That is, we can place these teachings in a larger context and see what Jesus is doing. For example, we can see that the word “hate” here is a loaded word, an unfortunate word, but it is a word that we might call hyperbole, or exaggeration. To hate something in Jesus’ day meant to love something less than what you currently do.

Therefore, what Jesus is doing is making a point to a large crowd by using a Jewish idiom or form of language; after all, he doesn’t have time to conduct a research seminar; he is heading to Jerusalem. What Jesus is saying here as he is walking along is holding up a sign that helps us consider what we are getting into if they follow him.

The reason this is important is because in first century Israel – kinship and family and possessions had the highest loyalty; in many ways family determined a person’s station in life, or what a person would do. Possessions were a sign of status and stability.

What Jesus is teaching upsets all of that; to be his follower means that you will need to let go of certain things of value and join something larger than your family, something more important than mere possessions – indeed, you are becoming part of a much larger community, nothing less than God’s kingdom.

Hence, the word “hate” here is not an emotion. Rather, as suggested, the word means a “ranking of priority.” It is naming of what you are willing to let go of. If you hate your family, you are willing to see that there is something more than family, or something more than possessions in life; that something more, of course, is what we call God’s rule in our lives; there is something much bigger, more encompassing.

Therefore, if we are to come to grips with this passage today, we might ask what do we value the most? What do we see as demanding our ultimate loyalty? Family? Material possessions? Job? Self-importance? What is it that entangles us in our walk with God?

These are questions for self-examination. They help us to understand the kind of life Jesus is calling us to share.

Rev. Andy Kinsey