So, Let’s Not Fear

Yolanda Adams in her smash hit song Open My Heart cries out to the Lord saying… “So, show me how to do things your way don't let me make the same mistakes
 over and over again.”   
 
God through the prophet Jeremiah cries out “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” 

In our secular world a covenant is a promise. However, with God a convent is an iron clad pledge of God’s goodness, grace, and forgiveness.  It is that goodness, grace, and forgiveness that is evident in Jeremiah’s decree, for God is making a new covenant because we keep breaking his previous covenants.  

Yes, as Yolanda Adams reminds us, we make the same mistakes over and over again. 

During this Lenten season, let us reflect and be thankful that we serve a God that is good, a God that has grace and a God that is forgiving.   Let us reflect and be thankful that we serve a God that will give us a new covenant despite the fact that we make the same mistakes over and over again.  

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The Book of Revelation was written to show the servants of the Lord what must soon take place.  

Revelation 7:9-10 chronicles a great multitude, more than anyone could number.  The multitude comprised of every nation, all tribes and people and languages stood before the throne and before Jesus.  

Clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, the multitude cried with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. 

As servants of Christ, we can take great hope and comfort that what must soon take place is the second coming of our Lord.  And when it takes place, the people singing the praises of the Lord will be diverse.    

These verses from Revelation reveals that God ordered and ordained diversity.  And despite the elimination of diversity and inclusion programs.   The abolishment of black and brown history departments on colleges campuses, and the white washing of the narrative of the minority experience.  

Diversity will never go away for the Lord has shown us what must take place.

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This has been a traumatic week for the University Of Georgia community, as we mourn the death of two young students.   

The devastating news penetrates the soul of the vibrant campus testing our resolve.  As we as ask why and question can we be safe, in the place where we learn and live? 

Answers as they always do will come in time however until then let us take solace in the wisdom of Romans 14:8-9 where Paul writes: “If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.   

As untimely, senseless, and shocking as these deaths are Jesus is Lord!  And in this moment of sorrow and grief let us be strengthen in the knowledge that Christ died and was returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

For the two students who have died this week Jesus is with them.  For those who remain Jesus is with us as we pray to our Lord and savior for comfort, guidance, and peace in the days and weeks ahead.  

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Genesis 2:7 tells us that God created man out of the dust of the ground.  When God breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, the man became a living creature. 

Yesterday, I learned of the passing of a family friend Gloria Johnson, who died of a heart attack while working out at the gym.   Her death is a reminder that at some point each of us will no longer be a living creature.  Which begs the question, then what? 

 Right now, the answer to the question “then what” is mourning.  We mourn because Gloria was a wonderful parent, a tremendous grandmother, and a fabulous friend.  As a living creature, she lived with joy, kindness, and faith in a God who guided and ordered her steps. 

2nd Corinthians 5:7 tells us that we walk by faith and not by sight.  Now that Gloria is no longer a living creature, let us who mourn her continue in her memory and honor God by walking with faith.

 For when we do, we can be confident that when the day comes when we are no longer a living creature, we will be like our dear Gloria.  Absent of the body but present with the Lord as we enjoy our new and better reality of no longer being a living creature. 

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In The Sermon on the Mount, beginning in Matthew 5, Jesus both reinterprets the old law and offers a new law. In essence the new law is about worship not rituals.   

As Ash Wednesday approaches, let us follow Jesus and beware of practicing our “piety” during these 40 days is not a ritual, it is an act of worship to the honor and glory of the Lord.  

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We find a busy Jesus in Mark Chapter 8, he feed thousands from a few loafs and fishes, he healed a blind man at Bethsaida, Peter, declares him the Messiah, Jesus foretells his death on the cross and challenges his disciples saying: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

Six days later in Mark Chapter 9, Jesus Peter, James, and John go up a high mountain.  There he was transfigured before them, his clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them, Elijah, and Moses, appear to talk with Jesus.

The voice of God comes from a cloud saying “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

Transfiguration is defined as a complete change of form or appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state.   Jesus as holy, pure, complete, and busy as he was still able to be transformed to a more beautiful and a more spiritual state.   

Like Jesus the chapters of our lives are busy, work, children, meetings, travel, concerns about our health and so much more that take our time our attention and our energy.  God is telling us to listen to Jesus, for Jesus understands the busyness of our lives, Jesus understands the hunger we face, the blindness we experience, and the crosses we must bear. 

Despite all these things going on, Jesus offers us Transfiguration.  The complete change our appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state.   Let us follow the voice of God and listen to His Son.  

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What are you doing to spread the fame on Jesus?  This is the question asked in a sermon from Mark 1:21-28 entitled, “Fame!”

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Psalm 100 tells us to make a joyful noise unto the Lord.  For 99 years Sister Annie Mildred Hill made a joyful noise.  Keeping God’s promises of Psalm 100. 

Sister Hill answered the call of Psalm 100 to serve the Lord with gladness.  A faithful wife to her late husband James, a cherished mother to her sons Jimmy and Michael and an outstanding grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother.  She was always there, always loving, always praying. 

Sister Hill obeyed Psalm 100 for she knew the Lord. Joining The Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church at an early age.  She served the Lord with all of her heart all of her soul and all of her mind. Serving as a trustee, a member of the pastor’s aid ministry and for half a century our church musician. Taking over for her mother, and in an environment where musicians can command top dollar Sister Hill refused to be paid. 

Psalm 100 tells us of God’s wonderful gate which Sister Hill has now entered with thanksgiving.  As we pay tribute to the joyful noise Sister Annie Mildred Hill made on her nearly 100-year life journey where it is crystal clear that she knew the Lord the question for you and me is this: I am saved.

If you are not saved pray with me: 

Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins and surrender my life. Wash me clean. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That he died on the cross for my sins and rose again on the third day for my Victory, I believe that in my heart and make confession with my mouth, that Jesus is my Savior and Lord. It is in Jesus name that I pray let all of us say Amen, Amen and Amen.  

If you prayed that prayer with me, you are now saved.  However, your salvation is strengthened when you make it real and active as Sister Annie Mildred Hill did.  So, in her memory and to God’s glory follow Psalm 100 and make a joyful noise to the Lord.  

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Powered by Evangelical Christians Donald Trump has won the Iowa Caucus.  

For these Evangelical Christians immigration was the major issue as they supported a candidate who says God’s children at a border are poisoning the blood of America 

Agriculture is a major part of Iowa’s economy. The state farms produces nearly 20% of U.S. soybean, corn, and pork.  Meat processing plants dot the landscape contributing greatly to nations supply of Polk and beef.  

Ironically almost all the workers in the plants, and in the fields are immigrants of color. Working in the low wage nonunion jobs that was the staple of employment for white immigrants, a century ago. 

These immigrants many of them who have entered the country illegally, are the lifeblood of agriculture not only in Iowa but throughout the nation. 

They do the jobs that the white native population will not do. The giant companies that employ them have conspired in an elaborate scheme of don’t ask don’t tell. 

For they know without them, crops would not be harvested, meat would spoil, and money would be lost. 

Nevertheless, Evangelical Christians have bought into the lie that God’s children simply by entering into the county are poisoning the country.  

Leviticus 19:33-34 commands “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.  

The United States is a land of immigrants.  Without question many of the Evangelical Christians who Caucused for Donald Trump descended from immigrants who entered the county illegally. 

Those descends worked in the same fields, those descents worked in the same plants and those descents came to United States for the same reason as those who at the border now for the opportunity for a better life.  

Comprehensive immigration reform will allow America to use it’s God given bounty to greatly change the lives of God’s children around the world.   

Perhaps it is the name Evangelical that makes the difference.  However, for this Christian the path forward is clear, we must love the immigrate as we love ourselves, and reject the poison that is coming out of Iowa. 

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There is a paradox on this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  While many of us will reserve this day for reflection, celebration, and service.  In Iowa the first step in coronation of Donald Trump a man who stands in stark contrast to the Beloved Community, Dr. King and generations have marched, fought, and died is taking place.   

Into this paradox comes the liberating power of God’s love.  Colossians 3:14 reminds us that above all love binds everything together in perfect harmony.  Dr. King tells us that Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.  

I am under no illusion that Donald Trump and his followers will ever become my friend. However, I am confident that because of the liberating power of God’s love the paradox of this day does not depress me.  The paradox of this day does not distress me. The paradox of this day does deflate me.  

Rather the liberating power of God’s love energizes me as it should energizes you. As we depend on the promise of Act 10:37 which declares God anointed Jesus with the power of the Holy Spirit to heal the oppressed.  

To be Black in America is to be oppressed.  But take heart God is on our side.  And on this paradoxical day when the oppression of white supremacy is on fully display as the GOP and the media allows lily white Iowa to take center stage. Dr. King still speaks telling us that "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.  It is the liberating power of God’s love that will sustain us as we continue to fight, strategize, and toil as we do the work of justice.  For we shall overcome.   

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