Month: January 2021

It is time to Repent

~ Everydaystories ~ 47 Comments

My Column for The Elgin Review was rejected this week by the paper. In fact, the opportunity to continue writing a column for The Elgin Review has been revoked. The editor wrote today saying,

“Rebecca, First, let me say thank you for your past column submissions. We have made a decision this week to go in a different direction. As a result, we will no longer be publishing your column.

Sincerely,

Dennis Morgan, Owner/Publisher”

I am publishing my column for this week here on my blog. I invite you to follow my blog, and share it widely as my voice is being silenced locally.

There was nothing of Jesus in what took place at the US Capitol on Epiphany. In amongst the “don’t tread on me” banners and Confederate and Trump flags, there were also crosses and banners and signs carrying Jesus’ name, but he was not there. Not with the zealots who stormed our Citadel of Democracy equipped with zip ties for restraining our elected representatives, not with the hooligans who smeared feces and peed in its historic hallways, not with the mob chanting to hang the Vice President and not with the deluded dopes who have been so brain-washed by years of Breitbart and Fox and church leaders who long ago climbed into bed with crooked politicians, that they mistakenly and naively believed they were being “patriots” promoting a righteous cause that day.

There is nothing of Jesus in the frenzied waving of flags bearing one man’s name. There is nothing of Jesus and nothing pro-life about a politician and his minions who whip-up a crowd in a rally and then point them in the direction of the Capitol where five people lost their lives in the violence, including a police officer. Do not be deceived, Jesus was not any part of that. His name has been desecrated just as clearly as our nation’s Capitol has been desecrated. Those who participated in Wednesday’s despicable debacle were called “special people” by our President who has curried the favor of racists and bigots and extremists throughout the four years of his term in office. He was wrong. He has been wrong all along. They are not special. They are wrong. They are certainly loved by God, but they are wrong, and what they did was sin. Those who continue to support President Trump after this are not special, either. They too, are wrong, they too—though loved by God, are sinning.  

The majority of voters in our state voted in November in support of President Trump. It is time for the scales to fall from the eyes of any among us who sincerely seek to follow Jesus. The direction in which the President and his people are going does not point the way to the reign of God. It misses the mark. Like the wise men from the east who turned their backs against Herod and went home by a different way after paying homage to the baby Jesus, it is past time for those who love Jesus to turn away from this madness and seek a more excellent way. It is past time for those who love God and have supported this president to repent. To repent means to make a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. There is nothing of Jesus in what has become of this man’s presidency. Turn away.

“Not by might and not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of Hosts”—Zechariah 4:6 (NRSV). Jesus was not part of the mob last Wednesday. Jesus’ law is love. Jesus’ gospel is peace.

**

I am the Pastor of Park Congregational United Church of Christ west of Elgin and First Congregational Church in Neligh. What I write in my columns, and what I preach from those pulpits may be views that are not fully shared by all the members of those congregations. I appreciate that they grant me freedom of the pulpit to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ as I, through years of study and faithful service, understand it. 

Truth as a Guiding Light

~ Everydaystories ~ 1 Comment

Column The Elgin Review

1.6.2021

January 6th on the church calendar is the Feast of the Epiphany. It’s the day that brings the season of Christmas to a close. It’s a day that celebrates the visit by Wise Men to the Holy Family. It’s a day for enlightenment, a day for remembering the wisdom of following a star—for staying true to our guiding light.  It’s a day to be reminded that Herod’s words were not to be trusted. Though he was King, the Wise Men did not acquiesce to his request to return to him with news of the newborn-King Jesus’ whereabouts. Herod falsely proclaimed that he too wished to pay tribute to the baby, but the Magi, with the help of angels who visited them in their dreams understood clearly Herod’s motives and went home by a different way.

This January 6th is not only Epiphany, it is the day the Congress of the United States of America gathers to ratify the election of Joseph R. Biden as the 46th President of the United States. Since the election in November sixty-one lawsuits have been filed on behalf of President Trump challenging the results in different states. Sixty of the suits have failed in courts of law presided over by justices appointed by both Republicans and Democrats. There have been no instances, verified by evidence in any court of law, of voter fraud on a level that would change the results of November’s election. In recent days our President has called for protests in the streets of Washington D.C. and has cajoled and pressured and leaned on Republican leaders across the country to do something to overturn the results of the election.

In the midst of this, we would do well to follow the lead of the Magi who made their way to visit baby Jesus; the one whom scriptures affirm is the way and the truth and the life. Truth matters. When they could tell that King Herod was not truthful with them, the Magi found a better way. It’s time for us, as a nation, no matter our political affiliations, no matter how we’ve voted in recent elections, to reclaim truthfulness as a guiding light. It’s time for us to find a better way. For those of us who are Christian, it’s time for us to reclaim what the eighth of our Ten Commandments teaches us, “Do not Bear False Witness.” It’s time for us to refuse to support the machinations of those whose methods and motives play loose with the truth.

Politicians and pundits lie freely on all sides of the political aisle in the press and in the media where there is no cost to them for misleading the public. Lies uttered to save one’s hide and to further one’s causes carry little cost in our culture. So, how do we know what’s true and what isn’t?

In our country one way to gauge the truth is in our courts of law. Lawyers and witnesses certainly lie in court, but if it is proven they have lied, they are held accountable—sentenced to prison, or stiff fines, or both. Lawyers proven to have lied in court lose their licenses to practice law in the future. And in sixty out of sixty-one cases, lawyers representing the President have failed to make their case, because there have been no cases to be made without perjuring themselves.

My prayer is that on January 6th our nation will not descend into violence because some of us have been misled by politicians who put their self-interest above the best interests of our nation. My prayer is that people from across the political spectrum will choose to follow the way of our Savior, which is the way of truth and that by doing so we might have life.