Hearing the Music

The Right Politics

You may have already heard, but in roughly five weeks our country will hold an election that will put men and women into offices ranging from the President of the United States to township commissioners. While I do not talk a lot about politics per se from the pulpit or in other public forums, I do have thoughts on the political process and on how particular policies impact our life together. But what I am more concerned about as your pastor is the place that our American politics has come to occupy, either intentionally or by default, in the hearts of Jesus' people.

Our current cultural moment would have us believe that everything that happens in our world is downstream of politics. That whoever gets elected in November will determine the course of the future.  That if you do not vote this way, or if you do not vote that way you will be letting down yourself, your children, and your nation. Now, we all should participate, as much as we feel called, in our nations' politics. It is a gift for us to be part of this republic and I would encourage you to engage the processess around you. Vote. Support specific candidates. Trumpet causes that you believe in and reflect Christian commitments. Run for office if you feel so called. These are good endeavors for believers to throw themselves into, as Christians, operating out of the mind of Christ (cf. Phil 2:5), bearing the fruit of the Spirit (cf. Gal 5:22ff). But....

But what we can never forget, is that our ultimate politics are not of this world (cf. Jn. 18:36). While in America we may belong to a Republic, as Christians we serve a King. We serve a King whose Kingdom is the cosmos. Our geographic and historical presence in this Kingdom is tiny against its immensity. The power and absolute sway of our King puts all other rulers to flight. He does reign and his purposes will come to be. Nothing that popes, peasants, princes or politicians conjure can thwart the coming of his Kingdom in his time and in his way. If we believe the above is an accurate transmission of the truths of scripture, then I would posit to you that the most important political thing we do each week is go to public worship on the Lord's Day, submit to our King, and proclaim his Kingdom as he leads us in worship. As we participate in the liturgy, pray for our enemies, confess our sins, join with Christians throughout the ages in confessing the creeds, pray the Lord's Prayer ("Thy kingdom come"), sit under the authority of the Word, partake of the Lord's Supper, and remember our baptisms; we are engaging in the politics of THE one Kingdom that truly matters. As we plant ourselves in the Gospel, things that might otherwise take hold in our lives - fearful anger, anxiety, depression, pride, disdain for others who think differently than us - begin to lose their power.

So read your Bibles. Pray. Examine your hearts. Examine the candidates. Vote. But remember, there are some ways in which the election in five weeks matters. But in most of the things that are most important, its outcome doesn’t really matter at all.

And one final thing, regardless of who you might vote for, regardless of what happens on November 5; my call to you as as your pastor on November 6, my care for you all as this particular flock of Jesus, will still be the same: let’s keep following Jesus together.

I Need Jesus

Why is it that we have such a hard time loving people that we disagree with? These people could be close friends or family, they could be leaders in the company we work for or of the country we live in. However these people come into our lives we often experience them as our enemy, rather than as someone with whom we share a bond. What do I mean by that? What kind of bond do we share with "these people"? This answer is not original to me, but when we experience another as our enemy, part of the problem, perhaps the core of the problem, is that we believe that they need Jesus more than we do. We forget the basic tenet of the Gospel that all are equal at the foot of the cross. This is the bond that we share with all humanity: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. When we properly account for this fact, only to find ourselves gloriously rescued, the result can never be a prideful looking down on another, but rather, as Paul puts it in our text for Sunday, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Romans 12:3). This sober judgment is the heart of Gospel living and will change our churches and our world! Singer songwriter Nathan Partain puts it this way: 

"Now I say, “Glory! Hallelujah!”, I’m so glad to be redeemed!
To be so desperate for Jesus and so gloriously weak,
I do not ever want to stray from the Community of Need,
O may I never leave dependence or forsake my Food and Drink,
I need Jesus. Oh, I need Jesus. I need Jesus. Oh, I need Jesus."

And so, we belong to the Community of the Redeemed. It is amazing how much God has entrusted to this community and the extent of the gifts that he has given to his Church. We will be looking at these more closely on Sunday (Romans 12:3-8). We will also be experiencing the receipt of one of these gifts as we install Addison as an associate pastor. I know for some this is kind of confusing. Addison is already one of our pastors. Why are we installing him? The answer is that in our ecclesial policy, as we have called him as an associate pastor, his relationship to the church has changed. As an assistant pastor he was basically an employee of the Session and not a member of the Session. Now he is called by the congregation and is a full member of the Session. We mark this with an installation and invite you to be a part of it (at our 6 pm service) and certainly invite you to continue to pray for Addison and Lynnette as they continue their life among us with this new relationship to Christ Church.

Don’t forget to sign up for one of our services this week. Please continue to be in prayer for the many dynamics involved with our moving inside. As you can imagine, folks at Christ Church fall along a spectrum of comfortability with being inside, wearing masks, etc…. Once again we come back to that central truth, we all need Jesus as we navigate the fraught nature of these days.

_{Photo by Nico Smit on Unsplash}

Transitions

As we continue to make our way through the fall season, I want to note a couple of transitions with you. First, this Sunday will be the last for Pastor Bryant & Jennifer with us! He will be opening God’s Word to Philippians 1:3-11. There is a light refreshment time scheduled for following the 10:30 service. I know that you will want to share your well wishes with them and commemorate this transition together.

Second, as the weather transitions and our beloved outdoor services become more unstable, indoor services will resume in the evening (6:00pm) on Sept. 27 and then in the morning of October 4 with a full slate of four services that day (8:30AM, 10:00AM, 11:30AM and 6:00PM). These services--all the same--will be by registration. While we are excited to return indoors, it has been good to have been reminded that church is more than a building and worship happens in many different forms. We have also been reminded that loving our neighbor means to seek their physical safety as well as to pursue their psychological, relational, and emotional well being. Worship and continuing to come together are important parts of loving one another.

So how do we do this? Currently the best practices to maintain a healthy environment are to wear masks indoors and maintain social distancing. Borrowing from regulations being used in higher education we have determined that the square footage of our sanctuary allows for around 120 worshippers with appropriate distancing. In order to continue to be welcoming for visitors we will be reserving seats for visitors and for CC folks who forgot to register or had a change of plans. People will be strategically seated to maintain distancing, and ushers will be available to assist with seating needs. You are encouraged to bring your own PPE – there will also be face masks available at the door. We are designating our 8:30AM service as especially appropriate for immunocompromised and/or vulnerable individuals and ask that everyone who attends that service to be particularly conscientious about mask wearing. As noted above, these "best practices" are currently being followed by other congregations and higher education institutions gathering large groups.

While we are confident in our ability to worship safely, we understand that not everyone has the same needs. To accommodate as many as possible, we will continue to prepare and post the Home Worship Guide on the website. In addition, we are also planning to transmit a worship service that is being conducted inside the building to the parking lot via FM 90.1 for those who wish to remain in their cars. The Session encourages everyone to follow their conscience, respect the consciences of others, and take responsibility for your own health needs. As we move forward, we will continually assess how best to call the congregation to worship and provide the means for us all to respond to that call.

Transitions are not always easy. I am grateful for the numbers of people that have contributed to thinking this particular transition through. You can find a whole list of Q&A here. I encourage you to check it out.

_{Photo by Oliver Hihn on Unsplash}