culture

Aug

2026

The voice of a prophet

Zechariah’s words for today

by David Sellnow

If a prophet were to arise in our country today, what would you hope he would say?

Maybe you hope for a prophet to speak out against the immorality and lies and corruption that prevail all around us. The powerful call what is evil good, and what is truly good they say is evil. You’d like a prophet who would set the record straight, who speaks up for godly values—for loving our neighbors, for walking in righteousness, for mercy and justice.

Maybe you hope for a prophet who would speak to the sluggishness and indifference that exists even inside God’s church. The people of God seem to have given up in defeat, or given in to worldly concerns, or given out in exhaustion. They just want to sit in their own comfortable homes, live out their lives, stop working so hard for God’s priorities in a world that doesn’t seem ever to align with God’s priorities anyway. You’d like a prophet who would speak to godly people who are tired, who are weak, who are worn, a prophet to the weary and frustrated.

Maybe you hope for a prophet who would speak out against the nations (including our own) that pursue wars and aggression and claim they are doing so with God’s approval—as if God wants war and will bless them for inflicting violence. You wish someone would challenge the bullies and grifters who increase their riches and advantages at the expense of everyday people and then dare to claim that their greater wealth and power is a sign of God’s blessing. You hope for someone to expose the false preachers and misguided philosophies that battle against genuine Christian hope and faith.

You want a prophet who will speak for you because you don’t know what to say, a prophet who reminds you that you have a Savior, that Christ will bring you more life and truth and fullness than this world can offer … and that waiting for him is worthwhile, no matter how long you have to wait. You hope for a prophet who would remind you that you are not forgotten, that the LORD remembers his promises, and he has promised you salvation.

About 2500 years ago, a prophet arose in the nation of Judah and reminded God’s people that God does remember his people and his promises. The prophet Zechariah’s own name was a reminder; his name meant “the LORD remembers.” Zechariah ministered after God’s people had gone through centuries of history, had been carried off into exile and back again, and had returned to a pattern of life in their home country that was nothing special, quite mundane, not at all glorious. It was not the high-powered kingdom of David and Solomon anymore. It was a leftover kingdom, a remnant, an afterthought. They needed to be renewed in hope that God indeed still was remembering his promises. And Zechariah provided that reminder.

Often in our lives under God today, we need the same sort of reminder. We need reminders and promises for our own souls. We are so easily entrapped and enslaved in our own sinfulness. We keep on doing evil, even if we don’t want to or try to avoid it. We keep failing to do good, even as we try to be good (cf. Romans 7:15-20). Our pride gets in the way, because we’re confident that we can do the things God wants us to do… but we really can’t. We do not do the good we want, but the evil we do not want is what we keep on doing (Romans 7:19). We need God’s deliverance and forgiveness through Jesus Christ (Romans 7:25).

We need reminders, too, about our country and world. We get tired, frustrated, discouraged. The world seems to be in chaos. Our country seems to go from one crisis to the next. Our leaders’ supposed solutions seem more often to make things worse. We find ourselves wondering if we’re going to be ok. We wonder if the ultimate kingdom of our LORD will ever come in answer to our hopes. The word of a prophet like Zechariah—indeed the Word of our LORD through all his prophets and apostles and from Jesus himself—is what we need to reawaken our hopes, reinspire our confidence, and spur us on in faith.

Prophetic voices like that of Zechariah remind us that the LORD remembers. No matter how much our hopes are challenged and burdened—by what happens in our history, in our nation, in our world—we can know that God does not renege on any of his promises. The Messiah is real, not imagined. The promises are true. The day of the Lord will come. And when that day comes, the LORD will remember us as his own.

The fact is, we are in the last days, the end times, the final chapter in human history. How do I know that? Because Jesus has appeared on this earth once already. The events of his birth, life, death, and resurrection were the inauguration of “these last days” (as the Bible terms them). Everything that has been happening since the Son of God became a man is a part of the final chapter of the human story.

The history of time essentially consists of two chapters. There was the old testament, the beginning chapter, the ancient time in which people who hoped in God looked forward to the coming of the Anointed One, the Messiah that God had promised. Humanity had no answer to its own sin and problems, to death and isolation from God. Only God himself could solve the human condition. Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, the incarnate God, came and fulfilled the ancient word, living and dying in the place of frail humanity, rising out of death and ascending again to heaven as the hope of our future.

Now we live in the new testament era, the concluding chapter, the days in which we wait for Christ to come again. We know he is the Savior, the King, the Lord of all things. Before he ascended into the clouds, he promised us, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). Jesus is Lord over all things that happen—even when it appears to us that he couldn’t be further away and this world couldn’t be more of a mess.

Before he ascended into the clouds, Christ also commissioned us: “You will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We have a calling, a purpose, to extend the promise of Christ’s name to others while we can, while this earth still endures in its broken state.

Zechariah spoke of the last days in the way that prophets of old saw the time Christ would come to the world. They saw the arrival of Christ and the end of time like mountain peaks in the distance, appearing as if they were very close together. Zechariah’s prophecy wove images of Christ’s first coming—such as his Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem—together with images of Christ’s second coming—his judgment of all nations. Zechariah encouraged the people to rejoice because their true King and Savior was coming to them. When he first arrived, the Messiah would come in humble fashion, yet at the same time triumphant and victorious. The coming of Christ’s kingdom cuts off the horses and chariots and weapons of war. His kingdom extends over all the earth and he calls for peace. He promises to those who have placed their hope in him will be set free from bondage and restored to strength in double measure (Zechariah 9:9-12).

Zachariah’s book of prophecy also includes messages of Judgment Day. At Christ’s second coming, those who have opposed the Lord will be caught in his judgment like persons caught in a lightning storm. They will be destroyed like Goliath was brought down with a stone from David’s slingshot (Zechariah 9:14-14). At the same time, there is peace and hope for God’s people. When Judgment Day comes, Jesus is bringing redemption to those who have struggled and suffered. “On that day the LORD their God will save them, for they are the flock of his people” (Zechariah 9:16).

God gives great beauty and glory forever to his people, who are his in Jesus. They—we—will sparkle like jewels for eternity. No matter how oppressed we may feel in our days of earthly existence, no matter how many enemies we encounter who oppose God and the faith we have in him, God is our rescuer. The kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.

And so meanwhile, in these last days, what do we do? We proclaim the message that Christ himself proclaimed. He proclaimed peace to the nations. He breaks the battle bow and takes away chariots and warhorses. He is the King who came to his people in lowly fashion, riding on a donkey—indeed, on a colt the foal of a donkey. The sword our King has given us with which to fight battles in his name is not a weapon of war, but rather the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). “The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12 NIV).

In these last days, we yearn for and lean on the word of the Lord, which empowers and strengthens us, lifting us up out of hopelessness. In this world of uncertainty and sin and confusion, we rely on our humble, gentle-of-heart Savior to be with us. “Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens,” he said, “and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). That’s the word of our Lord on which we rely. And we go forth with his goodness and promises, trusting that he indeed is the Lord and is in control, confident that he, the LORD, remembers his promises and will safeguard his people … all the way to the very last day, all the way into eternity.

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

May

2022

Love for all, good news for all

A message for the 5th Sunday of Easter

“Love for All, Good News for All”

Readings to consider: Acts 11:1-18, John 13:31-35

All along, God had made his mission clear. While God had chosen the nation of Israel to carry his promise until the promised Messiah came, his promise always was for everyone. All people were to be told his good news and welcomed into God’s family through faith, hope, and love. God described, through the prophet Isaiah, that it was too small a thing for the Messiah to be just for tribes of Jacob, the people of Israel. Rather, the Savior would be given as “a light to the nations,” for God’s salvation to “reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). God’s people in Christ never have been defined on the basis of the blood running through their veins, but rather on faith in the promises of Christ that lives in their hearts.

The earliest group of New Testament believers—the church that had gathered around Jesus’ message in Judea and Galilee—was a Jewish church. As they shared the message of Jesus–how he had fulfilled all the long-awaited promises—their natural tendency was to share the message with other Jews, people like themselves. But the Lord showed Peter, one of the key leaders of the early church, that they needed to expand their vision.

Peter’s vision by Domenico Fetti (1619)

God gave Peter a profound experience in a vision, then brought Peter to the household of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, to see faith in action there. Peter said to Cornelius and those with him, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. … All the prophets testify about [Christ] that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:34,35.43). Peter witnessed a strong outpouring of God’s Spirit on the members of that Gentile household. They were people so different from Peter and his colleagues culturally, but they were united by faith as one in the name of Jesus.

If those early Jewish Christians, so deeply rooted in their unique customs and traditions, could begin reaching outside of their cultural community to people very much unlike themselves … what does that say to churches like ours today? We are people who have had the gospel for a long time, who have been blessed richly in our faith community. But have we been a bit slow, a bit reluctant, a bit hesitant, about speaking of salvation outside of our comfort zone, outside of the rather narrow circles in which our paths usually run?

Think about the vision God gave Peter–a vision of all kinds of animals for food that would be unthinkable for a Jewish person observing a kosher diet. The vision was about much more than cultural diet laws, though. Peter came to understand God’s essential point–“What God has made clean, you must not call profane” (Acts 11:9)–meant that we should not call any person profane or unclean (cf. Acts 10:28). Do we tend to think of some persons as unclean, unsuitable, unwelcome alongside us in God’s family? Do we look at people whose ways are different from ours, or whose background is different from ours, or whose lifestyle is different from ours, and completely overlook them as souls with whom to share God’s love and hope and truth?

God wants us to reach out more boldly, more widely with his good news—not just to people like ourselves, but also to people dramatically different from us. Otherwise we are putting limits on the love of Jesus. When Jesus said, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34), he wasn’t telling us to love only those already inside our fellowship within the church. Jesus’ call to “have love for one another” (John 13:35) encompasses every other person around us, every fellow human being. Jesus emphasized, as one of the greatest commandments: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). And do you recall how a religious lawyer tried to wriggle away from that responsibility by saying, “And who is my neighbor” (Luke 10:29)? Jesus responded with the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-35), referring to a people group that Jewish lawyer detested and would have gone out of his way to avoid. Jesus made quite clear that someone who shows mercy to his fellow human beings–every fellow human being–is the one fulfilling the law of love as a true “neighbor” (cf. Luke 10:37, Romans 13:8-10).

Allow me to share a couple of examples that illustrate how we can be too inclined to limit ourselves and our outreach with the gospel.

A number of years ago, I did a ministry internship in one of America’s largest cities. The congregations of the metro area were planning expansion, looking at locations for planting additional churches. I was assigned to do demographic research, to find out which portions of the urban sprawl were projected for population expansion. This would give cues about where future church work might be warranted. I didn’t really know the city yet; to me, the research was simply a matter of maps and statistics. The area I suggested deserved immediate attention, because of swelling numbers of residents, turned out to be a section of slums. Others on the planning committee looked at me incredulously. “Put a church where?” Their pattern had been to put churches in the suburbs, in affluent neighborhoods, so that the ministry efforts could be paid for by offerings from the people who came. The mission planners asked, “How could we afford to start a ministry where the people had no money to support it?” That seemed to go against the spirit of what sharing God’s grace and goodness is meant to look like.* Yes, as we bring others to the gospel, we will urge them to become supporters of gospel ministry themselves. But when the apostle Paul was doing outreach and starting new churches, he made a point not to accept money from people. As he put it, he and his missionary colleagues did not want to put any “an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:12). A policy of doing outreach only where it seemed the efforts could be financially self-supporting was a form of structural discrimination, neglecting poorer populations who needed gospel love as much as anyone. Such a policy risks Jesus saying to us, “Just as you did not help the least of these who are members of my family, you did not help me” (cf. Matthew 25:40,45). Rather than viewing prospective audiences for the gospel from a worldly point of view, we are called to be “ambassadors for Christ” (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:16-20), reaching out to all persons, without making distinctions.

Or another story.** A church had just had summertime Vacation Bible School (VBS). One young mother had brought her two boys to VBS. She also babysat another boy who lived in the same apartment complex. She had asked that boy’s mother if she could bring him to the VBS too, and so she did.

That little boy, who was 5 years old, enjoyed VBS so much that he went home and told his mother, “I want to go to school there all the time!” [The church had a Lutheran elementary school, starting with kindergarten.] So the boy’s mother asked about enrolling him for the fall.

The boy’s mother—we’ll call her Sally—was a working mom. Her profession was the oldest one around, as they say. She had made her living as a prostitute; had made enough, in fact, to buy the business from … well, we’ll call him the ‘previous owner.’ So now Sally was the proprietor or “madam” for a number of “working girls.”

The church had a policy that any parents who wished to enroll children in its school needed to enroll themselves in a Bible study course. Sally agreed with that; she said she’d be glad to take the Bible course if they could work it around her schedule. So, at the next meeting of the congregation’s board of education, the pastor and the ministry intern brought forward the recommendation for Sally’s son to be enrolled in the school … and told them what the woman did for a living.

The school board members panicked. They erupted with questions:

“Pastor, do you really want us to enroll this child in our school?”
“Are you sure the mother actually will take the Bible classes?”
“What effect will this child’s presence in our school have on the other children?”
“Won’t this cause worries for other parents?”
“How can we expect support at home with Bible homework or principles of Christian living when the mother’s life is so at odds with our church’s moral principles?”

The members of that church’s school board were faithful, believing Christians. But their gut reaction was not from an attitude of new life in Christ. The pastor reminded them of how Jesus’ own ministry reached out to prostitutes and other public sinners. Still, though, they struggled to get past their aversions. Each of us typically has the same aversions. Our thought process is something like, “Well, yes, I know prostitutes and drug addicts and alcoholics and ex-convicts all need to hear the gospel … but do they have to do it in our church?”

Eventually, the Christian love in the hearts of the members of that church committee rose to the occasion. They talked about the spiritual welfare of the child and how it was unthinkable to turn him away from the gospel he so loved when he heard it at VBS. They talked about a mother who, in spite of her personal history, was willing to listen to Bible teaching—and about trusting the dynamic power of the gospel’s teaching. So Sally’s son was enrolled in school, and Sally was enrolled in a Bible information class. Long story short, not only was Sally’s son nurtured in the good news of Jesus, but also Sally herself was brought to faith and made changes in her life.

May our attitude as Christians be inspired by the goodness the Lord has shown to us. May we be big-hearted and open-armed and opportunistic when it comes to declaring the praises of him who has called us “out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). May we not be content declaring God’s name only to persons with whom we feel a sort of safeness, people who look like us or act like us or come from the same sort of background as us. May we be bold to extend our hands and express our beliefs also to those very different from ourselves—whether that means different racial or ethnic backgrounds, or different religious backgrounds, or different moral backgrounds. Because, in the end, as human beings, we all came from the same background of needing God in our lives. We ought not think of ourselves as somehow better than others, somehow more deserving than others, somehow more inherently righteous than others. We all do well to say, in a paraphrase of St. Paul, “There, but for the grace of God, go I” (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:9-10). Or, to quote Paul directly from one of his epistles, “There is no distinction [between us], since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God [and] are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:22-24).

That is the message we seek to share, across every human barrier that exists. God’s love is for all. Christ’s good news is for all. We will share that love and good news with all. May God give us eagerness and energy to extend his grace and support the spread of his Word to everyone everywhere.

Prayer: “Lord speak to us, that we may speak in living echoes of your tone. As you have sought, so let us seek your straying children, lost and lone” (Evangelical Lutheran Worship 676:1). Amen.

*This story was previously published in Faith Lives in Our Actions by David Sellnow, available on Amazon.com.

**A version of this story, expanded from the actual events, was included in the book, The Lord Cares for Me, by David Sellnow, available on Amazon.com.

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Dec

2019

The Christian and cultural celebrations

Originally published on The Electric Gospel on December 30, 2014.

The holiday season is full of traditions. A lot of cultural traditions attach themselves to Christian holidays … and there are cultural holidays and traditions unconnected to Christian themes also. That’s true not only in the United States but in other countries as well.

This edition of The Electric Gospel comes from Joyce Christmas, who talks about one of the cultural traditions in her country — and the freedom Christians have to participate in cultural events in a wholesome way. We need not turn away from all things within our culture that are not themselves a part of the Christian tradition. We have freedom to enjoy life in our communities and display our “good behavior in Christ” for all to see (1 Peter 3:16).

***********************

Christian Freedom

by Joycelyn Christmas

Every year in Antigua and Barbuda, the country celebrates a cultural event called Carnival. The historical idea behind this event is celebration of the abolition of slavery in the 1800s. It is said that upon emancipation, freed slaves took to the streets with pans and drums and celebrated by beating them and dancing freely and wildly. Nowadays, many islanders have come to the conclusion that Carnival has lost its true meaning and people use this time as an excuse to party and get drunk. Based on the society in Antigua, Christians are told not to go to Carnival celebrations. Some view participating in the steel pan music competition or Calypso competition as excessive revelling. They think that the Bible has an unwritten law which forbids people from dancing to cultural music or playing the steel pan to secular music. These people think that Carnival celebrations do not honour God and therefore are sinful.

How can people with this mindset say this is God’s word? The Bible does not say that a person must refrain from cultural celebrations. It is similar to the fact that the Bible does not tell us what we should eat. Instead, what the Bible informs us, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). There are areas of our life where God has not given a command to do something; neither has he given a command that forbids us. Such areas are known as adiaphora. We are to exercise Christian freedom in our daily lives. People who do not understand the idea of adiaphora do not understand why we can go to watch the Carnival parade of people dressed up in colourful costumes dancing in rhythm to sweet soca music.

Essentially, the reason why we are able to participate in the celebration of our rich culture– namely, Carnival–is as a result of the ultimate freedom we have in Christ. Christ’s death on the cross did not only free us from the bondage of sin, death and the devil but it also freed us from the old covenant. As a matter of fact we were not even bound by the Old Testament cultural laws because they were intended for a different audience, namely the chosen nation of Israel. Christ came to fulfil the law in our place (Matthew 5: 17). Obedience to laws or rules does not make us righteous. Those who rely on a legalistic system by obeying laws or rules to win God’s favour are in for a rude awakening. The true law of God reminds us that we can never meet God’s demands. This does not imply that we are to disregard God’s will and do as we please. What it means is when we practice our Christian freedom we are to remember our justification and sanctification. A sanctified life will make decisions which bring glory to God.

In exercising our Christian freedom, we are to be open-minded in thinking about our neighbours and how our actions will affect them. We consider new converts and how weak their faith might be, so we proceed with care that we do not cause them to stumble in their faith. At the same time we explain the concept of Christian freedom to those who are ignorant of it. The purpose of this knowledge will give insights into God’s Word and steer people from making laws where there are none.

A Christian can participate in Carnival without going against God’s will. One might question such a statement as Carnival is often associated with revelry. Arguably, that is true for some people; but it is not so much as where you go but how you act or the manner in which you conduct yourself. How is a person bringing dishonour to God by going to listen to steel pan music or by being part of a steel pan group which plays cultural songs? When did God say that persons cannot celebrate their heritage? The situation is different if a person goes to Carnival and gets caught up in the drinking so much that they become consumed with alcohol. Although the Bible does not forbid drinking of alcohol we are reminded by Paul that we should not want to be “mastered by anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12). Excessive drinking leads to intoxication.

In matters of adiaphora, it also is the case that we think not only of ourselves but of those around us: “‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say – but not everything is beneficial” (1 Corinthians 6:12). We are considerate of our brothers and sisters in Christ because we do not want to create a stumbling block for them. So we limit the amount of alcohol consumed during festive activities and in that way honour Christ, who said, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Basically, you can have a good time with some clean fun without bringing disgrace to God’s name. Indeed, you may well be shedding light on the way one truly lives in Christ and celebrates a cultural event in a proper way.

God help us to share the knowledge of the freedom we have in Christ—even freedom in our daily life activities—so that the society we live in can understand rather than make judgments about us.

Zechariah’s words for today

A message for the 5th Sunday of Easter

“Love for All, Good News for All”

Readings to consider: Acts 11:1-18, John 13:31-35

Christian Freedom

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