Almighty God, our heavenly Father, on this day when we celebrate our independence from an oppressive king, we acknowledge our complete dependence on You, without whom we would have neither daytime or night, neither sunshine nor rain, neither seedtime nor harvest, nor our very lives. Inspire us to seek Your kingdom and Your righteousness. Bless our leaders with wisdom and insight, that they may govern us in accordance with Your will. Move us to genuine thankfulness for all Your provision in our lives, and lead us to truly help those who are in need. Turn our eyes also heavenward, where true treasures are to be found. Help us this day and always to use our freedom, not as license for lawlessness, but as an opportunity to walk willingly in Your ways. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
On Independence Day, Dependence on God
This was my invocation today at the 107th reading of the Declaration of Independence from the steps of Van Wyck Hall in Fishkill, New York:
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Dear Governor Paterson
I just sent the following email to Governor Paterson:
The bottom line, I suppose, is this: If we are being told that religion has no business defining marriage for the state, then the state has no business being involved in the weddings of my church.
I urge you not to redefine marriage. The laws of every state also forbid siblings from marrying — why should this be? If a brother and sister claimed to be in love, would it be a violation of their civil rights to deny their marriage? Of course not. Scanty and dubious evidence that homosexuals are "born that way" should not be allowed to turn sexual preference into a civil rights issue.There is certainly more that could be said on this issue; I kept my remarks brief in the hope that the governor might take the time to read them.
I am a pastor in Dutchess County. If marriage is defined in New York State to be between any two persons regardless of gender, I regret that my conscience will not allow me to solemnize marriages in New York any longer. I will instead perform a purely religious ceremony in which a man and a woman pledge themselves to each other before God; whether or not they seek the legal status du jour for their union will be a separate matter for them to decide.
The bottom line, I suppose, is this: If we are being told that religion has no business defining marriage for the state, then the state has no business being involved in the weddings of my church.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Love Your Mother [?] (!)
from the May 2009 “Herald”
Watching TV in the waiting room of the auto shop on April 22, it was easy to get the impression that I was the only American not celebrating Earth Day along with a reported one billion people around the planet.
I am certainly not opposed to responsible stewardship of God’s Creation, of which we are caretakers and not owners, even as Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden to tend it. (The Garden apparently needed tending even before the fall into sin.) But we also must take care not to slide to the extreme of excessive reverence of the Creation in place of the Creator, as may be indicated by the bumper sticker urging you to “Love Your Mother” beside a picture of the terrestrial globe.
It is worth noting that the phrase “Mother Earth” does appear in Christian literature. Francis of Assisi (1181–1226) wrote Canticle of the Sun (also known as “Praise of the Creatures”), in which the Lord is praised through many aspects of His Creation (sun, moon, fire, water), each personified as either “brother” or “sister” according to its grammatical gender in Italian. About halfway through, it reads: “Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth, who feeds us and rules us, and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.” Still, “she” is our “sister,” part of Creation as we are.
The inclination to worship the earth as the source of life reaches back far into human history. The ancient Israelites were warned against practicing the fertility religions of their neighbors, which included ritualistic prostitution in the hope that the procreative act would encourage the ground to be fertile and productive. Modern “neo-pagan” movements often refer to the earth goddess as Gaia, an ancient Greek name.
Yet the true Source of life has been around longer. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” There would be no “Mother Earth” to feed us and rule us, producing various fruits with colored flowers and herbs, if it were not for the Lord, the Creator of it all. He is the one who deserves our worship and praise.
Each of us has had a human mother, as we especially remember each year on the second Sunday of May. Through her, the Lord gave us life and nourished us. Many of them also modeled the Christian faith to us. Indeed, you should “love your mother,” not only because the commandment dictates that we honor our parents, but because you are grateful for what she has done for you.
Not unlike our human parents, the earth is also used by God as a means through which He provides for our needs. We should respect the world in which we live, be grateful for it, and be careful not to trash it. We can even “love” the earth — as long as our highest love and devotion (all our heart, soul, and strength [Deut. 6:5]) is to the Lord, who made it all. To Him be all glory, honor, and praise!
Watching TV in the waiting room of the auto shop on April 22, it was easy to get the impression that I was the only American not celebrating Earth Day along with a reported one billion people around the planet.
I am certainly not opposed to responsible stewardship of God’s Creation, of which we are caretakers and not owners, even as Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden to tend it. (The Garden apparently needed tending even before the fall into sin.) But we also must take care not to slide to the extreme of excessive reverence of the Creation in place of the Creator, as may be indicated by the bumper sticker urging you to “Love Your Mother” beside a picture of the terrestrial globe.
It is worth noting that the phrase “Mother Earth” does appear in Christian literature. Francis of Assisi (1181–1226) wrote Canticle of the Sun (also known as “Praise of the Creatures”), in which the Lord is praised through many aspects of His Creation (sun, moon, fire, water), each personified as either “brother” or “sister” according to its grammatical gender in Italian. About halfway through, it reads: “Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth, who feeds us and rules us, and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.” Still, “she” is our “sister,” part of Creation as we are.
The inclination to worship the earth as the source of life reaches back far into human history. The ancient Israelites were warned against practicing the fertility religions of their neighbors, which included ritualistic prostitution in the hope that the procreative act would encourage the ground to be fertile and productive. Modern “neo-pagan” movements often refer to the earth goddess as Gaia, an ancient Greek name.
Yet the true Source of life has been around longer. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” There would be no “Mother Earth” to feed us and rule us, producing various fruits with colored flowers and herbs, if it were not for the Lord, the Creator of it all. He is the one who deserves our worship and praise.
Each of us has had a human mother, as we especially remember each year on the second Sunday of May. Through her, the Lord gave us life and nourished us. Many of them also modeled the Christian faith to us. Indeed, you should “love your mother,” not only because the commandment dictates that we honor our parents, but because you are grateful for what she has done for you.
Not unlike our human parents, the earth is also used by God as a means through which He provides for our needs. We should respect the world in which we live, be grateful for it, and be careful not to trash it. We can even “love” the earth — as long as our highest love and devotion (all our heart, soul, and strength [Deut. 6:5]) is to the Lord, who made it all. To Him be all glory, honor, and praise!
Friday, February 13, 2009
Everyone Else Thinks You're ...
I’m sorry — I can’t help it. The bumper sticker just caught me in such a way that I can’t stop thinking about it. It said:
I wonder, however, whether the driver of that car realizes that he is actually advancing the Christian message! (See Philippians 1:17-18.) Even if everyone else thinks you’re a jerk, Jesus does love you. The Lord loves the unlovable.
In fact, for the opposite case, Jesus says, “Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for that is what they did to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). If everyone thinks you’re great from a worldly perspective, you’re probably not living a God-pleasing life. (See also Luke 6:22-23.) You’re also likely to trust your own righteousness instead of confessing the sin that you do have in your life and seeking God’s forgiveness.
On the other hand, if everyone thinks you’re a jerk, you’re probably not living by the Golden Rule. You should treat others the way you would want to be treated. But Jesus still loves you. Biblical love is more about what you can give rather than what you can get; it desires the best for someone, regardless of feelings.
The Lord loves you and wants the best for you. “The best” includes giving up selfish ways that are alienating others. But even if it feels like the whole world is against you no matter how hard you try, know that Jesus gave His life for you so that you could live forever with Him, and it doesn’t depend on what you do, but on what He has done for you.
This Valentine’s Day and always, there’s no better love than that!
Jesus loves you. Everyone else thinks you’re a jerk!I am sure that the bumper sticker was an attempt at a wry twist on other bumper stickers of Christians trying to share the Gospel with a message of “Jesus loves you.” People who think that those Christian bumper stickers are silly would certainly delight in this dig.
I wonder, however, whether the driver of that car realizes that he is actually advancing the Christian message! (See Philippians 1:17-18.) Even if everyone else thinks you’re a jerk, Jesus does love you. The Lord loves the unlovable.
In fact, for the opposite case, Jesus says, “Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for that is what they did to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). If everyone thinks you’re great from a worldly perspective, you’re probably not living a God-pleasing life. (See also Luke 6:22-23.) You’re also likely to trust your own righteousness instead of confessing the sin that you do have in your life and seeking God’s forgiveness.
On the other hand, if everyone thinks you’re a jerk, you’re probably not living by the Golden Rule. You should treat others the way you would want to be treated. But Jesus still loves you. Biblical love is more about what you can give rather than what you can get; it desires the best for someone, regardless of feelings.
The Lord loves you and wants the best for you. “The best” includes giving up selfish ways that are alienating others. But even if it feels like the whole world is against you no matter how hard you try, know that Jesus gave His life for you so that you could live forever with Him, and it doesn’t depend on what you do, but on what He has done for you.
This Valentine’s Day and always, there’s no better love than that!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
If Evolution Is True
Assume for the moment that evolution is true. Then, ironically, it has produced a result — homo sapiens — that innately believes in supernaturalism. Over the course of thousands of generations, spanning hundreds of thousands if not millions of years, natural selection has favored those hominids (the most intelligent of the primates) who believed that the world is larger than what the senses can perceive. According to evolution’s own tenets, there must have been some survival advantage in living one’s life as though actions had consequences through unseen forces, since every group of human beings on the planet has had some form of religion, mythology, animism, or superstition.
Thus adherents to evolution should not expect our species to give up belief in supernaturalism so quickly. It has been only 150 years since Darwin’s Origin of Species — much less than what is routinely described in textbooks as “the blink of an eye in geologic time.” This is hardwired in our genes! If it is to be eradicated, then belief in naturalism will have to provide some survival advantage over supernaturalism: “survival of the fittest.” And there has been nowhere near enough time for random mutations to overpower the genes that have been selected through the millennia.
Or are we bound to our genes? A survey published just in time for today’s 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin revealed that only 39% of Americans believe in evolution; apparently 25% disbelieve it, and fully 36% stated no opinion. When correlated to education, the pollsters found that the more education you have, the more likely you believe in evolution. The strong implication: smart people believe in evolution; you’d have to be dumb not to. I offer an alternate explanation: since evolution is the only thing taught in school, the longer you are exposed to it, the more likely you are to accept it. Thus, even if we are hardwired to believe in the supernatural, enough conditioning can overcome it. (So much for the “born that way” argument!)
But even if we could convince the whole world that evolution is true, should we? Can the human race survive such knowledge? Do we want a society in which the weak and sick are cast aside as “unfit” and in which “only the strong survive”? Does not a conscience and a fear of divine retribution (or “karma,” or whatever it may be called) provide a necessary check against the unbridled oppression of the weak by the strong? Can we remove these restraints of the “animal instincts” of human behavior without suffering grave consequences? Or have we not grown so powerful as a species that we would destroy ourselves if we were allowed to believe that there is no higher authority to which we are accountable?
But I began by assuming that evolution is true. If evolution is true, it has created us to believe that it is not true, and it forces us to live as though it is not true. If, on the other hand, God has created us in His image, then He has made us to acknowledge this, and He desires that we live as though He does exist and is important. I submit that only one of these positions is internally consistent and coherent.
Thus adherents to evolution should not expect our species to give up belief in supernaturalism so quickly. It has been only 150 years since Darwin’s Origin of Species — much less than what is routinely described in textbooks as “the blink of an eye in geologic time.” This is hardwired in our genes! If it is to be eradicated, then belief in naturalism will have to provide some survival advantage over supernaturalism: “survival of the fittest.” And there has been nowhere near enough time for random mutations to overpower the genes that have been selected through the millennia.
Or are we bound to our genes? A survey published just in time for today’s 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin revealed that only 39% of Americans believe in evolution; apparently 25% disbelieve it, and fully 36% stated no opinion. When correlated to education, the pollsters found that the more education you have, the more likely you believe in evolution. The strong implication: smart people believe in evolution; you’d have to be dumb not to. I offer an alternate explanation: since evolution is the only thing taught in school, the longer you are exposed to it, the more likely you are to accept it. Thus, even if we are hardwired to believe in the supernatural, enough conditioning can overcome it. (So much for the “born that way” argument!)
But even if we could convince the whole world that evolution is true, should we? Can the human race survive such knowledge? Do we want a society in which the weak and sick are cast aside as “unfit” and in which “only the strong survive”? Does not a conscience and a fear of divine retribution (or “karma,” or whatever it may be called) provide a necessary check against the unbridled oppression of the weak by the strong? Can we remove these restraints of the “animal instincts” of human behavior without suffering grave consequences? Or have we not grown so powerful as a species that we would destroy ourselves if we were allowed to believe that there is no higher authority to which we are accountable?
But I began by assuming that evolution is true. If evolution is true, it has created us to believe that it is not true, and it forces us to live as though it is not true. If, on the other hand, God has created us in His image, then He has made us to acknowledge this, and He desires that we live as though He does exist and is important. I submit that only one of these positions is internally consistent and coherent.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Happy New Year!
I hope 2009 is going well for you so far.
There are two things wrong with getting a fresh start each January 1. First is that you have to wait an entire year in between, and second, it might not seem like a fresh start. Can you really put the past behind you? Even if you're in school and have begun (or will begin) a new semester, can you really put the past behind you?
The good news is that our Savior offers us a fresh start every day! Since Christ died to take away our sin, all the junk of our lives is really gone in God's eyes. It might not seem like it to us, but we need to learn to see ourselves from God's perspective. He makes us new in Christ and gives us a fresh start! (See 2 Corinthians 5:17.)
Questions to think about:
1. What is something from your past that you'd like to forget about?
2. How does Christ's death on the cross make a difference?
3. Now that you have a fresh start, what would you like to strive for?
There are two things wrong with getting a fresh start each January 1. First is that you have to wait an entire year in between, and second, it might not seem like a fresh start. Can you really put the past behind you? Even if you're in school and have begun (or will begin) a new semester, can you really put the past behind you?
The good news is that our Savior offers us a fresh start every day! Since Christ died to take away our sin, all the junk of our lives is really gone in God's eyes. It might not seem like it to us, but we need to learn to see ourselves from God's perspective. He makes us new in Christ and gives us a fresh start! (See 2 Corinthians 5:17.)
Questions to think about:
1. What is something from your past that you'd like to forget about?
2. How does Christ's death on the cross make a difference?
3. Now that you have a fresh start, what would you like to strive for?
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