Jesus Has A Dream

 Hello Church,

On this Martin Luther King Day, I am reminded of my personal desire for simple and decent equality.  The key word here, for this blog, is 'simple'.

It isn't a complicated matter.  Jesus was very obvious about unconditional love for all.  Though you might argue He didn't love the religious leaders all that much, He particularly focused on their behavior of treating others...well... unequally.

Unfortunately, today, it isn't a simple matter.  Combine the multiple layers of political agendas (i.e. pork barrel spending that turns a relatively simple bill into a 6,000 page document) with the national media who chooses to forego objective journalism and suddenly the simple concept of equality gets lost.  So what hope is there to get back to the simple matter of equality?

The Church

I'm a big fan of simple, straight forward sermons.  I'm also a fan of teachings that ignore all unspoken subtleties and undercurrents and hidden agendas.  It makes sense, then, that I'm a big fan of Jesus.

Theoretically, if the Church was in charge, we could get back to simple and decent.  It's only theoretical because the Church is made up of humans who tend to complicate matters (please read the 3rd paragraph again).  Even if we are able to scrape away multiple man-made agendas, the history of the Church isn't without it's pitfalls.

That said, authentic religious institutions who stick to Jesus can bring a purer and more straightforward approach to peace and justice and equality.  It takes strong leadership, for sure.... and an intentional desire to study Jesus and only Jesus.

So I don't believe it an accident that one of the biggest civil rights activists in our history was a leader of a church.  MLK, for sure, wasn't perfect.  History also uncovers his flaws.  However, that is the beauty of what we remember today because it was not MLK to whom we listened.  He was able to allow just enough of Jesus' agenda to be heard through his complicated and flawed life to bring a simple message to a complicated world.  

So be the Church.  Let enough of Jesus' simple agenda flow through your words and actions that it is what other people see and hear.  You'll have a much better chance to make someone's day much better.

God is Good,

Pastor Joe