First in a sermon series to the Chino Valley school board (5/6/2010)
Good evening.
In your biographies, four of you declare your faith in Jesus, and you tell us what you do in church. One of you advised me to talk about Jesus here. To learn, to do, and to teach the word of God is indeed the real deal, so I’m taking your advice. Here then are some Bible basics, which I’ll apply to district business.
The good news is that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Jesus asked, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don’t do what I say?” so if we’re not doing as he says, we’re not really calling on the Lord, but instead taking his name in vain, and that’s no help.James agrees with that, reminding us that faith without works is dead. It follows that faith which is not dead is not without works, which is why all we need is faith, as Paul also wrote. A car without wheels and an engine is dead, but a car that runs includes these.So what are the wheels and engine of real faith? Micah 6:8 says, “Man, what does the Lord want from you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”Closing the three schools because you and Heatley judged those people too weak to resist – taking his advice when you knew what an unprincipled liar he was - did you do justice to those people, or love mercy? When you walked in the counsel of your crooked lawyers to pick an unjust fight with Lewis, did you walk humbly with your God? When you aid and abet injustice to Megan Higgins and to so many others, reasoning that if you do them justice you might then have to do justice to others - God forbid - are you doing the word of God that you claim to believe? When special ed robs kids, not even saving money but just being mean, and you back them up, carefully hiding your eyes from their malice, is that justice and mercy to the abused? What if it were your own kids? Mr. Joseph has written that we should forget all this and move on, but the past is not past until you forsake it in repentance, and have you even considered doing so? When we hurry to forget the past, we repeat it by way of reminder.Aiding and abetting injustice, enabling merciless and cunning abuse, and walking complacently with your clever lawyers has been expensive trouble. Learning to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God might work better. What you teach in Sunday School, learn again to do it here!
In your biographies, four of you declare your faith in Jesus, and you tell us what you do in church. One of you advised me to talk about Jesus here. To learn, to do, and to teach the word of God is indeed the real deal, so I’m taking your advice. Here then are some Bible basics, which I’ll apply to district business.
The good news is that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Jesus asked, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don’t do what I say?” so if we’re not doing as he says, we’re not really calling on the Lord, but instead taking his name in vain, and that’s no help.James agrees with that, reminding us that faith without works is dead. It follows that faith which is not dead is not without works, which is why all we need is faith, as Paul also wrote. A car without wheels and an engine is dead, but a car that runs includes these.So what are the wheels and engine of real faith? Micah 6:8 says, “Man, what does the Lord want from you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”Closing the three schools because you and Heatley judged those people too weak to resist – taking his advice when you knew what an unprincipled liar he was - did you do justice to those people, or love mercy? When you walked in the counsel of your crooked lawyers to pick an unjust fight with Lewis, did you walk humbly with your God? When you aid and abet injustice to Megan Higgins and to so many others, reasoning that if you do them justice you might then have to do justice to others - God forbid - are you doing the word of God that you claim to believe? When special ed robs kids, not even saving money but just being mean, and you back them up, carefully hiding your eyes from their malice, is that justice and mercy to the abused? What if it were your own kids? Mr. Joseph has written that we should forget all this and move on, but the past is not past until you forsake it in repentance, and have you even considered doing so? When we hurry to forget the past, we repeat it by way of reminder.Aiding and abetting injustice, enabling merciless and cunning abuse, and walking complacently with your clever lawyers has been expensive trouble. Learning to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God might work better. What you teach in Sunday School, learn again to do it here!
posted by Peter Attwood at 5/09/2010 11:17:00 PM
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