faith

17
May
2026

“What you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23)

This message is based on one of the readings from this past Sunday (Easter 6, year A)
– David Sellnow

So many beliefs. One truth to proclaim.

You’ve probably heard the statistics about Christianity and religious participation in America. The statistics, in one sense, show religion in decline. In 2007,  78% of U.S. adults identified as Christians of one sort or another. By 2024, it had fallen to 62%. Two decades ago, an average of 42% of U.S. adults attended religious services every week or nearly every week. Now that number is at 30%. Half of Americans seldom or never attend religious services in person. Meanwhile the percentage of Americans who say they have no religious affiliation has grown from 9% in the early 2000s to 21% today. 

Don’t think, though, that people are becoming more unspiritual in general. What seems to be happening is that our society is becoming less religiously active while still having all sorts of spiritual beliefs. Other studies show that:

  • 86% of U.S. adults believe they have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body.
  • 83% believe in God or a universal spirit.
  • 79% believe there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we can’t see it.
  • 70% believe in an afterlife.
  • 30% say they have personally encountered a spirit or unseen spiritual force.*

There’s still a lot of spirituality out there in the communities around us. We are a society with all sorts of religious (as well as antireligious) ideas, all sorts of gods and idols, all sorts of beliefs full of all sorts of inconsistencies and contradictions.

Greek society in the first century was like that. Greek civilization and culture had various religions and beliefs. Greek thought was divided and unsettled, a myriad of moral and philosophical perspectives. On the far end in one direction were the Epicureans. Epicureans said there is no God. For them, the highest good in life was personal comfort. Seeking the most happiness and contentment one could find—that was the meaning of life as far as they could see. On the other end of the spectrum were the Stoics. Stoicism put forward virtue as the highest value in life. Be patient, endure pain, discipline your own body and mind, they advised. Stoics believed God was in everything—an impersonal force, the logic of the universe, a part of every creature and object around us. In the middle fell the rest of the Greeks. The common crowd still held to the old Greek religion. They were polytheistic. They trusted in many gods: Zeus, Hermes, Athena, Aphrodite, and more. They envisioned a god or goddess for every earthly need. But in all Greek thought, no god, no philosophy, was really there to help you beyond this life. Their perspective of the afterlife was that all went to Hades—the gloomy abode of the dead—without much hope beyond the grave.

When the apostle Paul traveled to Athens, the cultural melting pot of Greece, he could see that people were very religious, believing in many things. But they did not have a strong connection to who the real God really is. Paul wanted to speak to as many of them as he could, telling them about the Lord God who came to us in the person of Jesus Christ, about Jesus’ resurrection and our hope of resurrection with him, about the faith that the Spirit of God produces by his word.

Paul’s activity in the city attracted the attention of the city’s leaders. That’s how Paul came to stand before the Areopagus. Areopagus is a Greek name meaning Ares’ Rock or Ares’ Hill. Ares was one of the gods of the Greeks—their god of bravery and battle, the god of war. Ares’ Hill became the common name for the Council of Athens, since they originally met on that hill. At the time of the apostles, the Areopagus mainly dealt with major trials such as murders, plus the censorship of religion and education in the community. Since Paul was preaching a religion strange to their ears, the leaders of the city felt they had better hear him out.

Paul gave them an earful. He commented on the fact that religious thought of all kinds abounded among them. He pointed out their monument to an unknown God. “This is the God,” Paul said, “that I’d like to tell you about it. This God whom you don’t know is the true God.”

Paul explained who God, the Lord of all, really is. Paul said, “The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth. … He himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:24,25). 

The Athenians, who thought their ancestors had sprung up out of the ground, did not know the full truth. Their profound philosopher, Aristotle, too, was mistaken, when he proposed that humanity simply always has been, is eternal. The Epicureans theorized that all life started with a simple atom and eventually grew to be more complex. These people made up their own ideas about divine origins, and how human beings came to be, not recognizing the greater truth about their creator. People still do this today, trying to make God in humankind‘s image—as though we could fit him into our minds and understand him, as though the creation could grasp the vastness of the creator. God is too great for that. God’s ways are higher than our ways as much as the heavens are above the earth (Isaiah 55:9). He is the source of life for us. As Paul described to the Athenians (Acts 17:28), “In him we live and move and have our being,” quoting their own poets who sensed that larger truth, saying, “We are his offspring.”

Worshiping the real God begins with acknowledging him as our creator and preserver, the one who truly governs this universe and guides all life in it. He is the Lord of our history. The lives of all people are in his hands. As Paul said to the Athenians, “From one ancestor he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God,” seeking to find him (Acts 17:26,27).

The true God is not just some impersonal force, as the Stoics believed. He is a living, thinking, personal being, very much invested in what happens to our lives. History is his story. Nothing happens without his awareness of it. He is personally involved with his creation. He knows you and wants you to know him. He loves you and wants you to love him. He reaches out to you and wants for you to be held by him.

He is not far from any of us, as Paul said (Acts 17:27). He is right there, overseeing our lives. But though God is so close, you can’t see him or find him on your own. You can’t make a statue and call it God. He “does not live in shrines made by human hands” (Acts 17:24). You can’t just speak prayers and hope somebody hears you. God, in truth, invites you to call him by name, approaching him in the name of Jesus Christ. That name is God‘s saving revelation to people. All of God‘s plans for human lives are intended to guide people toward the discovery of his name—the name of Jesus—and bring us toward repentance and salvation in him. On our own as human beings, we “fumble about” in our search for God (Acts 17:27). But God is leading us toward the day when Jesus Christ is revealed as judge of all the world. On that day, he will show us that he is truly the God in whom we find our being.

As Paul proclaimed, “God has set a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed” (Acts 17:31). Jesus is the one who provides saving justice; God has given assurance of this to all by raising Jesus from the dead (Acts 17:31). Trusting in Jesus—the living, resurrected, Lord—we have life in him and will be resurrected ourselves. As Jesus himself promised us, “Because I live, you also will live.  On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (John 14:19-20).

When Paul spoke of his faith in Jesus’ resurrection and ours, many in the Athenian audience were skeptical, “When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’” And some did hear him further and became believers (Acts 17:32-24). 

Believing in resurrection—that there is life beyond this present life—is hard. It’s not something we can see evidence of when we stand in a cemetery or go to a wake at a funeral home. Yet it is our greatest hope. As Paul said on another occasion in his ministry, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. … If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died” (1 Corinthians 15:17-20). That core truth of Christian faith is what Paul sought to share most of all. And that core truth of Christian faith is still what enlivens and invigorates us today, giving us the hope and strength to get through days of our lives on this earth that are dark or difficult. 

Like the Athenians, we also live in a country where knowledge of God is often clouded and people follow misconceptions. We ourselves are tempted to look in the wrong directions for help and hope so many times. But while there may be all sorts of paths to worldly success and wealth and prestige, the real truth, the real hope, the real blessing, is in Jesus Christ. His life-giving message that extends to eternity.

Yes, the world is already full of religion and belief of all sorts. Everyone has some god or gods that they follow, some hopes or philosophies that they think will give them reassurance. But so many have not found the confidence and comfort that is found in Jesus Christ. The God we have come to know and trust is a God who, throughout time, has done miracles for those who have trusted in him. He has put bread on the table when people had no idea where their next meal was coming from. He has brought healing of sicknesses when everyone thought there was no possible cure. He gave children to parents who thought they could not have children. And even with so many miracles that he has done, Jesus said you will see greater things than these (cf.John 1:50). The greater miracles that God provides for us are the love he brings us into together as families, the hope that he provides for us when hope seems lost, the forgiveness and grace he showers on us when all we could feel was guilt and shame, the life that he promises that overcomes death and will never end.

Those are truths that we know in Jesus, that we can speak about in our present day and age, rooted in the good news of his resurrection from death. Those are the truths in Jesus that inspire us to act in love to our neighbors. 

 

*Sources of statistics:

Scripture quotations 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.

Posted by David Sellnow, 0 comments
10
May
2026

Mother’s Day thoughts

I had the opportunity this morning to lead a children’s devotion at church, and will share it with you here.

The faith of our parents

Do you know the story of our first parents, back in the Garden of Eden? It was the most beautiful place, and everything was wonderful. But then everything changed, and things weren’t wonderful anymore. They weren’t in the Garden of Eden anymore. Life was going to be fragile and often difficult. Having children and getting through life in this world would come with pain and sweat and all kinds of challenges. And they’d face death someday too. 

But even though they knew all that, do you know what they did? The man gave his wife the name Eve. That name means “life”—because, as the man said, “She would become the mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20). The man we call Adam. That was a word in Hebrew that means man. He was the first man. Eve was the first mother. They are our first parents.

It took a lot of faith for Adam and Eve to believe that they would keep living and that bringing children into the world would be a blessing.  They believed something God would later say to his people: “Surely I know the plans I have for you—plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). Adam and Eve trusted that God was still with them and would watch over them. They believed God’s promise that a child one day would be born that would be their Savior, someone to rescue them from their troubles in this world. They held onto hope and clung to God’s promise with faith. 

What you see here is a picture of my parents, from when they got married. My parents had five kids—I was the middle one. It took a lot of faith for them to raise a family and get through all the bumps and bruises and bigger difficulties that we all went through. The same is true for your mom and dad. Faith is what keeps them going—trusting God to keep them and you safe, and to get you through life when things don’t seem safe.

Of all the influences on you in this world, do you know has the most influence on your faith—on your spiritual life and beliefs? Surveys consistently show that it’s your mother.*  That’s something to give your mom a hug for today on Mother’s Day. It takes great faith to be a mother, bringing up children. And along with your moms, your dads are guiding and shaping your faith day by day too. More than what you read in books or see on TV, more than your friends, more than teachers at school or other people you know—more than pastors, even—it is your parents who shape your faith. They share God’s love with you and help you to trust in the promises of God. 

This is something God told us to do in our families—telling parents that they are to take the words and promises he has given and impress them on their children. God wants us to talk about his truths when we sit at home, when we go for walks together, when we go to bed at night and when we get up in the morning (Deuteronomy 6:6-8). So, keep doing what you’re doing at home in your families, talking about God’s promises and growing in faith. 

God bless you and your mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers on this Mother’s Day and every day.

For additional thoughts on this topic, see this previous post: https://theelectricgospel.com/eves-faith-and-ours/

* S. Joseph Kidder and Natalie M. Darisme, Who Has the Most Influence on Your Spirituality? Andrews University Faculty Publications 2024

Posted by David Sellnow, 0 comments
25
Apr
2026

The Lord leads me to life that lasts forever

On the church year calendar, this Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday. I’ll share here a story that I wrote to illustrate a truth from the Good Shepherd psalm—Psalm 23. If you’d like to read more, you can find additional commentary and other stories in The Lord Cares for Me: Stories and Thoughts about Psalm 23.  The book is available in Kindle e-book edition or also paperback.

The LORD is my shepherd. He gives me everything I need.  (Psalm 23:1)

**********

 The story of Larry

 Larry struggled in school. He had a hard time remembering things. He passed his classes in high school, but his grades were below average. Larry’s parents were in poor health and did not have great jobs. They struggled to make ends meet. Larry could not have afforded university tuition, and he doubted he’d get accepted by most colleges.

Larry ended up at the community college, where classes were cheaper. He got a two-year degree which helped him get a job with a heating and air conditioning company. That went well for a while, but during a slump in the nation’s economy, the company went out of business. Larry found himself out of work. He had a series of odd jobs over the next few years. Most were temporary or seasonal positions. Finally, he landed a full-time job at the local meat-packing plant. The work was a chore, but the pay was good. Larry was able to save up for the down payment on a house.

Larry never got married. He was awkward and shy about talking to people. He lived alone in the small house he had bought … until his father died. Then his mother came to live with him, and Larry cared for her. A year or so later his mother also died. So now, in his forties, Larry was alone and barely keeping ahead of house payments and medical bills that he had taken on for his mother in her last months.

Then the meat-packing plant got new owners. The new owners had new ideas on how to run the plant. They fired a large number of the full-time workers and hired people for part-time and temporary positions instead. The new bosses were great at cutting costs to the company—but this also cost people like Larry their jobs and security. Larry had no success finding another solid job.  He collected unemployment checks for as long as he could, but eventually that money ran out.

Larry lost his house. He couldn’t make the monthly payments anymore. He rented a small apartment, but soon couldn’t even afford that. Larry was now 50 years old and homeless. He found a sheltered spot under a railroad bridge where he set up camp for himself. He wondered what he would do when winter came.

An old stray dog kept coming around Larry’s campsite. Though he didn’t have much food, Larry always shared some with the dog, whom he decided to call Rufus. Larry was glad to have the little bit of companionship that Rufus provided. It was about all he had left.

Larry did have one other thing left—something which he’d had with him through all the years, in good times or bad. Larry had his Bible. It was nearly worn out from daily use over the years. Larry treasured the book and kept it wrapped in plastic when not using it, to keep it from getting wet or damaged.

Larry read a chapter in the Bible every day. Lately he’d been reading several chapters a day. He marked verses that really grabbed his heart. He held onto God’s promises with all his heart. He believed the Bible’s promises that God was watching over him no matter how life looked. He knew God was preparing a place in heaven for him and for all those who trust in Jesus.

Sometimes Larry would flip through his Bible and reread favorite verses that he had marked, verses like  …

  • Come to me, all of you who are tired and are carrying heavy loads. I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).
  • The LORD gives strength to those who are tired.  He gives power to those who are weak (Isaiah 40:29).
  • Can trouble or hard times or harm or hunger separate us from God’s love? … Nothing at all can ever separate us from God’s love because of what Christ Jesus our Lord has done (Romans 8:35,39).
  • “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said.  “There are many rooms in my Father’s house. … I will take you to be with me. Then you will also be where I am” (John 14:1-3).

Larry longed to go and live with Jesus in the Father’s house in heaven.  Life on earth was hard.

Winter came, and Larry hadn’t found steady work or a place to live. He slept in homeless shelters at night, but would go back to his campsite during the day to check on Rufus and bring him food that he collected from garbage cans. Larry had built a doghouse for Rufus out of stones and old bricks, lining it with torn blankets.

One afternoon, Larry brought Rufus some steak bones he’d found in the trash behind a restaurant. The temperature that day was in the low 40s, so Larry spent the afternoon with Rufus. While the dog chewed happily on the steak bones, Larry sat reading his Bible and praying for the Lord to see him through, no matter how hard things got. Rufus snuggled up next to Larry. Larry was tired and fell asleep. As night fell, a cold front blew harsh winds. Temperatures dropped into single digits. Rufus crawled into his doghouse to get out of the wind. Larry didn’t wake up. He froze to death that night.

The Lord whom Larry loved had not abandoned him.  Larry had prayed for the Lord to see him through life, and that’s just what Jesus did. Jesus carried Larry through all the days of his life, holding him extra close on the hardest days.  And he carried Larry on into eternal life when life had worn him out.

Larry’s most favorite Bible verse of all was Psalm 23:6 — I am sure that your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life. And I will live in the house of the LORD forever. Surely God’s goodness and love had been with Larry every step of the way. And now he is living in the heavenly Father’s house. Never again will Larry be homeless. He is forever at home with Jesus.

**********

Additional commentary on the story available in The Lord Cares for Me: Stories and Thoughts about Psalm 23. 

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL READER’S VERSION®.Copyright © 1996, 1998 Biblica. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of Biblica.

Posted by David Sellnow
27
Oct
2025

All of God’s people are saints through faith

This week, people’s attention is focused on Halloween. Halloween, or All Hallows’ Eve, was the evening before the Christian celebration of All Saints’ Day, or “All Hallows” in Old English. All Hallows’ Eve was sometimes called “Mischief Night,” when folks would “get together, have some fun, tell stories and have opportunities for bad behavior, a sort of licensed misrule.” However, English Heritage notes that All Hallows’ Eve also was a socially acceptable time “for poorer members of the community to visit their richer neighbors asking for charity.”[1]

Here on The Electric Gospel, I’d like to focus our thoughts this week on the festival of All Saints—and the understanding of who we are as saints. We are called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified together with the whole Christian Church on earth, united by faith in Jesus Christ.

We believe in the communion of saints

by David Sellnow

The Bible tells us that the “prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective” (James 5:16). With that being true, do you suppose a prayer said by Jesus, God’s own Son, is an effective prayer, obtaining the blessing which he asked for? Most certainly the Father answers Jesus’ prayers!

So what about this prayer, which Jesus offered while gathered with his disciples on the night before he died?  Jesus prayed for the future church, the church of believers which would come into being by means of the apostles’ writing and preaching. Jesus said:

  • “I pray … that they all may be one, even as you, Father, you are in me and I in you, that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved me”  (John 17:20-23).

Jesus prayed for all the church to be one, for all believers to be brought to complete unity.  Has this prayer of Jesus been answered?  Has this prayer of Jesus been powerful and effective? …  Does it seem sometimes that this prayer of Jesus has been ignored or denied?

One encyclopedic source lists approximately 300 branches of denominations within Christianity and adds, “This is not a complete list.”[2] The Center for the Study of Global Christianity breaks down the data more narrowly, to each individual group within those various branches and estimates as many as 47,000 specific denominations across the globe today.[3] Over the course of its history, Christianity has undergone various divisions and subdividions.  If Jesus’ prayer for unity has been heard and answered—if a prayer for Christian unity by the very Son of God was powerful and effective—how is it possible that Christianity can be divided into thousands of subgroups and splinter groups?  Is there indeed unity?  Are we any way one, as Jesus and the Father are one, as Jesus prayed?

If we are thinking that all Christians on earth must come together outwardly in one visible organization, one ecumenical church body, we miss the point of Jesus’ prayer. The unity for which Jesus prayed goes beyond anything our eyes can see. He wants us to be one in faith, which is deep within us. He wants us to be one in him and one with the Father and Spirit, which is a matter of the heart. Certainly it is a blessing too when visible gatherings of believers can be one together in their confession of faith, but the truest form of fellowship happens at a level even deeper than our outward expressions. The Lord knows those who are his, and assures us that there is indeed a body of believers that share one hope, one calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one  God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:4-6).

Here is a miracle: In spite of the fact that in this world we struggle to walk together and are torn and tempted and often divided, yet we have the Lord’s promise. All who, by his Spirit, are brought to believe in his name are united in that one name, and it is a perfect unity. It is a unity that goes beyond what is outer and surface and seen to what is inner and of the soul, unseen.  It is a unity whereby God can look upon a Lutheran and a Baptist and a Catholic and Russian Orthodox believer and—within all those whose hearts trust in Christ—God can and does create a unity that transcends anything we ever realize fully on this earth.  As much as we can realize it on earth, it is a witness to the rest of the world of the power of God’s message. Yet even when we find ourselves divided from one another by a number of different barriers between believers, we are confident that God is working his miracle of unity in our hearts. In the Apostles’ Creed, we confess that we believe in the holy, catholic (universal) church—the communion of saints. It is a miracle to believe it because we can’t so readily see it in the here and now. Yet we know it exists, for our Lord has promised it. And upon the last day, what has remained elusive to our eyes here will become vivid and glorious in the light of heaven. As Jesus put it in his prayer, “Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).  As believers, we will one day see Jesus in glory with ALL fellow believers, from whatever denomination they may come, as we join together in the heavenly circle of praise.  That choir will be as the apostle John later saw it in a vision:

  • “I looked, and behold: a great multitude which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. They cried with a loud voice:  ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:9-10).

By God’s grace, and only by God’s grace—not by our doing or our denominational affiliation or by any other human design or detail, but solely by God’s grace—we will be among that great throng of saints arrayed in gleaming robes and singing that never-ending refrain. Salvation belongs to God. Salvation comes from Christ. The prayer of Jesus, which we know is being answered already now, even though we have such a hard time seeing it, will become a prayer finalized in joyous fulfillment when all his people stand hand in hand, recognizing one another and praising their same Savior, one with each other and one with the Lord.  We press on earnestly today in faith, and await that fulfillment of faith together with all the saints.

Prayer:

  • Lord Jesus, gather the hearts of all your people on earth in unity with you and the Father, already today, even when we don’t see it well. Help us to be more united and unified as your people on earth, not at the expense of your truth but rather through your truth. Sanctify us by your truth; your word is truth. Keep all your believers—those whom you know are yours, those whose hearts are joined to you by faith—keep us all by your Spirit until the day we see one another in glory in your presence. Jesus, as your own bride, we your people long to be brought to our heavenly home, where we will stand in joy beside you. Amen.

From The Large Catechism of Martin Luther (1529):

  • There is upon earth a congregation of pure saints, under one head, Christ, called together by the Holy Spirit in one faith, one mind, and understanding, with manifold gifts, yet agreeing in love, without sects or schisms.I am also a part and member of the same, a sharer and joint owner of all the goods it possesses, brought to it and incorporated into it by the Holy Spirit by having heard and continuing to hear the Word of God. Until the last day, the Holy Spirit abides with the holy congregation (or Christendom), by means of which he fetches us to Christ and which he employs to teach and preach to us the Word, whereby he works and promotes sanctification, causing this this community daily to grow and become strong in the faith and its fruits.[4]

 

Bible quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain).

[1] https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/halloween-saints-souls/

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations

[3] https://omsc.ptsem.edu/the-annual-statistical-table/

[4] https://bookofconcord.org/large-catechism/apostles-creed/

Posted by David Sellnow
21
Jul
2025

The miracle of faith

A message for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost 

If something happens regularly, routinely, we don’t call it miraculous. The miraculous is when it goes beyond our understanding, beyond our finiteness. That is where the word of grace comes in … and the strength that grace gives to our hearts.

The Miracle of Faith

Do you believe in miracles?

One day this summer, I had gone to the grocery store, about two miles from my house. When I’d opened the liftgate and was putting groceries in the back of my vehicle, I set my cell phone down on the back bumper’s step pad. As I was arriving back at my house, it dawned on me that I’d never picked up my phone. I parked, with the prayer in my head: “Please, please—somehow let my phone still be sitting on the bumper pad.” I walked to the back of the vehicle and, amazingly, there the phone was, exactly where I left it.

Okay, that may not have been a miracle. Maybe I should thank the manufacturers of my cell phone case and the step pad on the car bumper for good friction and grip. We tend not to think of day-to-day fortuitous events as miracles in our lives. Then again, we often fail to acknowledge that the very fact of our lives—that we live and move and have our existence at all—is a constant miracle of God’s providence, as the apostle Paul pointed out (Acts 17:28).

I once knew a couple with two young children. The wife and mother was a devout churchgoer, who was teaching faith also to her children. The husband/father was an atheist, unwilling to acknowledge any invisible God overseeing all things. One night, after his wife led the children in prayer before supper as she always did, his pent-up frustration got the better of him. After they’d said their prayer, he said, “I don’t know why you insist on thanking some God out there for the food on the table. I’m the one who works and sweats to earn what we need. I’m the one who puts a roof over our heads and food on the table. You should be thanking me.” Billy, his son (about five years old at the time), looked at him with a child’s innocence and wisdom and said, “Yeah, but Dad, if God didn’t let you, you’d be sick or dead and you wouldn’t be able to work.” His dad didn’t have an answer … except that he started to come to church with his wife and children. And that was a miracle. The fact that a father listened and responded to the faith expressed by his child is nothing short of miraculous.

In my years in ministry, I came to serve a church that was badly in debt. (Something I found out after I got there.) They were perpetually behind on payments on their church building. They had not been paying anything on the principal of the loan, and many months weren’t even paying the full interest amount owed. The loan was from the national church body, not a bank, or they’d have been foreclosed on. We decided it was time we talked about faith and finances (including our obligations to Christian brothers and sisters from whom funds were borrowed). We started with a Sunday workshop. We followed with cottage meetings organized in member homes. As we were in the midst of our stewardship efforts, one of our members, a man named Richard, called to tell me he just won a sizable prize on a state lottery ticket. That wasn’t the miracle. Lotteries are the luck of the draw. Richard’s attitude and response was the miracle. He wanted to discuss how he could use the funds he was receiving for various charitable causes. He intended to use some in regard to our congregation’s debt, but didn’t want to become the “sugar daddy” of the congregation. We were making good progress in faith building with the membership as a whole, and Richard did not want to impede those overall efforts. He wanted recommendations of other places of need, beyond our own congregation, where he could send support. In a world where money drives the mindset of so many people, this gentleman was focused not simply on himself or ourselves, but on how he could benefit many others. That was a miracle of faith. Faith is always the most powerful miracle, wherever God is turning hearts to his way, his truth, his life.

Let’s talk about Abraham and Sarah and the mighty miracle that happened for them. Your first thought might be the miracle of bearing children in their old age. When the LORD announced to Abraham that he would have a son and that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:4-5), Abraham and Sarah were already past the point of fertility and childbearing (Genesis 18:11). It was indeed going to be a miracle that they would conceive and have a child of their own. The bigger miracle, though, was that they believed what God promised them. Yes, I know that Abraham and Sarah both struggled to believe when months went by and there was no pregnancy. They schemed that maybe Abraham was supposed to father a child with Sarah’s younger handmaid, Hagar—that somehow that’s what God meant. That was (obviously) not an ideal situation. And then, after more years went by—and more challenges in their lives occurred—the LORD came to Abraham’s tent in person with two angels and repeated the promise. In the midst of their doubts, the LORD said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son” (Genesis 18:14). Now, yes, I know that Sarah laughed, because it seemed so impossible. But the LORD asked them, “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”—calling on them to continue believing, because faith is maintaining conviction about things not yet seen (Hebrews 11:1). Ultimately, through all their experiences, and even through times of doubt and uncertainty, Abraham and Sarah did keep believing the LORD. And the LORD did keep all his promises to them. They did have the son of their own that God promised them. They did become the parents of a whole nation of descendants—though that part of the promise, and receiving the homeland God had promised for those descendants, were things that would happen after Abraham and Sarah’s lifetime. They weren’t always flawless in their faith, but they held onto faith, and the LORD held onto them as his own, counting them as righteous in his eyes. 

Our experience of faith is like that too. Sometimes we are ready to give up hope. Sometimes we may even laugh out loud—or cry out in pain—because God’s promises to us seem so far off, so hard to believe. As one wise pastor has said, too often our idea of faith is that it should give us wins here and now, keeping us comfortable and well off. But the Bible’s message is that Christ will overcome the world, not that we “win” in this world.  Faith is trusting that through pain and discomfort, God will hold onto us.

We’ve heard God’s promise, “I know the plans I have for you … plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV). But we have difficulty hanging onto hope for our futures when the circumstances we see in the present fill us with worries and concerns. We  are all like the man who struggled in asking Jesus for a miracle, saying, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24 NIV).

We tend to pray for miracles when we find ourselves in trouble, but we don’t always have faith even as big as a mustard seed, maybe not even as big as a grain of salt. Or we can be a bit like Martha in the Gospel reading (Luke 10:38-42)—ever so busy, doing what seems important in the moment, stuck in a mindset of how things are supposed to happen in this life. Whether burdened by life’s many anxieties or distracted by life’s many duties, what we need most is simply to listen for our Lord’s voice—to listen hopefully, faithfully, with a desire for inspiration and growth. We probably miss many miracles of faith because we are too lost in our own worries or too caught up in everyday obligations. We may notice nature’s miracles but not acknowledge the miracles God is working in our own hearts and lives. As a Minnesota author expressed it in a story, “We see a newborn moth unwrapping itself and announce, Look, children, a miracle! But let an irreversible wound be knit back to seamlessness? We won’t even see it, though we look at it every day” (Leif Enger, Peace Like a River, 2001). 

When I read that line in that book, about “an irreversible wound knit back to seamlessness,” my thoughts went back to an experience of my own years ago, when playing racquetball. In a fast-paced match, I raced up to the front wall of the court to make a play on the ball. Then, as I turned, my opponent had fired his return, and the ball smacked me directly in the ear. In addition to the pain I felt, immediately everything in that ear sounded very muffled. I had ruptured my eardrum. The doctor told me it was fully ruptured and not likely to heal on its own, that surgery would be required. He allowed that we’d wait a couple weeks to see if healing did progress, but he was not optimistic. I was a young father at the time, and we were on a very limited budget. The thought of what copay costs would be for surgery scared me. I prayed, “Please God, let this heal on its own!” But like a lot of our prayers, I asked yet doubted at the same time. Like a Bible writer described, I was more a doubter than a believer, “double-minded and unstable in every way,” and ought not to have expected to receive anything from the Lord (James 1:7,8). But lo and behold, my eardrum did heal “on its own.” Or really, I prefer to say, God’s kindness toward me allowed the ear to heal without a surgery I couldn’t afford. Like my little incident with my cell phone, I cannot prove to anyone that God’s invisible hand or a guardian angel was protecting me. But maybe that is a sign of how little faith I have. If I struggle to believe that God could and would do even the littlest of miracles in my life, what of the far greater miracles of life that God has promised to you and me?

Ultimately, the Lord is calling us to the  miracle of a place at his side. Even if we don’t see immediate miracles in the day-to-day now, the greater miracle is what God promises us at the end of life. The greatest miracle on which we stake our faith is resurrection to eternity with God. We believe that in the end our Redeemer will stand upon the earth, and even after our bodies have decayed, yet in our flesh we shall see God. We will see him on our side with our very own eyes (Job 19:25-27). We haven’t seen that happen with our own eyes yet. It defies all principles of the natural world. Things that are dead don’t come back to life. People that are dead don’t get up and resume their lives. But the promise of faith in Jesus is that the dead WILL rise. “The dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52). Our perishable bodies will put on imperishability; our mortal bodies will put on immortality, and death will be swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:53-54). That is our faith, our hope, our reason for living. Because – “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:13,14). Without Christ’s resurrection, there’s no promise for our resurrection, and then any faith we’d have would be futile. We’d still be stuck in our sins with nothing but death to look forward to. As Christ’s apostle has said, “ If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:19,20). By his life and death and resurrection, Jesus has become the firstfruits of resurrection for all of us and for all those who have died, promising us he will take us to be forever with him. That’s a promise even more miraculous than God telling Abraham and Sarah they’d have a son in their old age (and they did). That’s a promise God is telling all of us, that we will have life beyond what we know in this world—and we will. 

Sometime after the visit we heard about in the Gospel account—where Martha busied herself with too many chores trying to be the perfect hostess when Jesus just wanted to sit with her and speak to her heart—Jesus had come to visit Mary and Martha again. It was when their brother Lazarus had died. Martha wasn’t worrying then about daily, ordinary tasks—about whether or not dinner was on the table. She went out to meet Jesus as he was arriving, and asked him for a miracle. Let me share with you what was said that day:

  • Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”  Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world” (John 11:21-26).

Lord, give us such faith as Mary and Martha had—faith that was there even on days they may have seemed distracted or in despair, faith that trusted Jesus when it mattered most.  Lord, give us such faith as Abraham and Sarah had—faith that struggled through years when they did not see how the promises made to them possibly could be fulfilled, but hanging onto hope and trust still that whatever you said, Lord, would come to pass.

Lord, we DO believe in miracles. Help us on the days when our faith is shaken and it’s hard to believe. You are our help and our friend and our Savior always.

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.

Other quotations from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
29
Jun
2025

Sharing our light with the world

“Do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:5).

  • The topic of evangelism is on my mind this summer. (I’m involved with the outreach committee at church.) I rediscovered an article I wrote for publication a number of years ago. I’ll share a version of it here as June’s blog post.

Sharing our light with the world

I sat among the spectators at a high school track and field invitational. Behind me sat students from a Christian high school, intermingled and interacting with peers from public schools. These teens were abuzz with conversation—but not about the jumps or hurdles or races taking place. They talked about body parts and bodily functions. They made coarse jokes. They engaged in crude flirtation.It seemed the church kids were doing their best to show they weren’t too religious. They were fitting in.

I’m sure those young Christians have had better days as witnesses of their faith. I know I’ve had days when I’ve done much worse. As salt of the earth and light to the world, all of us could be much more flavorful and lots brighter. We don’t need to be oddballs or prudes in relating to those around us. We do want to leave a positive impression.

Jesus commissioned us: “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). Did he mean that to apply in the bleachers at hometown sports events, in the aisles at the grocery store, on the assembly line in the factory? Respectfully, we don’t force faith conversations in public places. At the same time, we don’t want our faith to be hidden from view in our day-to-day lives. People don’t “light a lamp and put it under a basket.” Jesus said, “Let your light shine” (Matthew 5:15,16). Often we think of evangelism and outreach as activities of the church, done with planned and programmed methods. But God urges us to see gospel-proclaiming as an everyday believer’s way of life. 

Peter counseled people of faith: “Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). Our witnessing is not limited to special, occasional, institutional efforts. Each of us has opportunities to “proclaim the LORD’s salvation from day to day” (Psalm 96:2). 

I once was secretary for a floor committee of a national church convention. Our committee recommended a resolution encouraging faith sharing by members of local congregations. We proposed it as a simple idea: If we are not mission-minded in our own neighborhoods and towns, we are not likely to be zealous about missions on the other side of the world either. 

The resolution was passed. Coming out of the convention, the national church organization then began promoting a “North American Outreach” publicity campaign. (Not exactly what the original committee had in mind.) There were press releases and video vignettes and magazine articles.There were district conventions that followed up on the theme. At the district convention I attended, 449 pages of print were put into our hands. There was a book of reports, and there were reports on the reports.. 

As churches and church organizations, we have convocations and publications and programs to emphasize outreach, but how much do we genuinely engage in outreach? Personally, individually, are we having spiritual conversations, talking about matters of faith? We don’t want merely to be “playing church,” discussing amongst ourselves the importance of preaching the gospel. We want to be speaking good news in Christ to one another and to the persons around us. 

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis imagined a demon’s glee at getting a Christian focused on church fervor rather than spiritual substance: “Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours—and the more ‘religious’ (on those terms), the more securely ours.” 

It is a far-reaching undertaking that Jesus has assigned to us, to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). It cannot happen if we are selfish. Are we sometimes selfish with the gospel? Do we seek to insulate ourselves from the world more than prepare to bring testimony to the world? If you counted up all the dollars and hours we expend as congregations and area associations and as a church bodies, it would be interesting to see how much of our attention is given to edifying ourselves and how much is truly devoted to reaching and serving our neighbors and our communities.

Please don’t misunderstand—we are to be faithful in proclaiming God’s name in the assembly of believers and to teach our children the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. I am not suggesting that we do less inreach to our own members. But if we spend 90 percent or more of our time and efforts on those who are in the church, are we giving a proper balance of our attention to the many others who have “no hope and are without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12)? 

Sometimes the lost come looking. Some persons wander into your sanctuary on Sunday morning seeking… something… exactly what they have no way of knowing. How do we react when there are guests in our midst? Is the world welcome within our walls? If we are ready to go with good news to all, we will be ready also to receive all who arrive on our doorstep. We will realize that we are united by Christ, not by common ethnicity or customs. We will be willing to incorporate and accept all creation into our congregations. We won’t cluster in a corner exchanging German potato salad recipes when newcomers might have entirely different interests and tastes. 

In our lives as Christ’s witnesses, everything we say and do sends a message to those around us about what Christ means in our lives. That is true on the sidelines at a track meet, in the gathering spaces within church buildings, and anywhere that we interact with others in our daily lives.

Scripture references are from the World English Bible Update (WEBU)

Posted by David Sellnow
11
May
2025

Mother’s Day / Good Shepherd Sunday

A parent who does not forget us; a shepherd who walks beside us always

Thoughts on Mother’s Day / Good Shepherd Sunday


Mother’s day is not a joyful holiday for everyone. For some it is uneasy, or complicated, or painful. Some have had difficult relationships with their mothers—or mothers with their children. Some have lost their mothers or have lost a child. Some have wanted to become mothers and have been unable to do so. Some have never known their mothers and have been raised in foster care or group homes. Even for those in traditional family structures, mothering isn’t easy.  

Writing on Medium, Lauren H. Sweeney says, “Mother’s Day is hard for me because I am a mother and I have a mother. And we’re both inadequate. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, it wasn’t the plan. I was going to be everything she wasn’t. … The thing that makes mothering so hard (and consequently, a day about celebrating mothering so hard) is knowing that I don’t do it right, just as I wasn’t done right by. I mean, my mother tried. And I try.”  But life is hard and things don’t go painlessly.

Scripture says (Isaiah 49:15): “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?” In the next breath, that same scripture acknowledges that human parents may forget and neglect their children. I work in a human services agency, where child protection services and child support enforcement are ongoing concerns. We celebrate Mother’s Day for all the good that comes from mothers. We celebrate Father’s Day for all the good that comes from fathers. Yet we also acknowledge that there are no perfect parents in this world, nor any perfect children, and family life is frequently problematic.

Our heavenly Father assures us that even though earthly parents may fail to be mindful of their children, he will not forget us.“See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands,” he says (Isaiah 49:15-16). We wonder about that, though. We often cry out to God, “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me” (Isaiah 49:14). We seek God, we thirst for him, wanting to know he is with us. We are like souls in a dry and weary land where there is no water (cf. Psalm 63:1). We feel like a man named Job felt long ago when his life fell apart. Whether we look ahead or behind or to the right or the left, we cannot perceive God’s presence. It seems God is hiding or has abandoned us (cf. Job 23:8-9).

Often, our problem with sensing God’s presence in our lives is we expect to find him only in obvious blessings, in pleasant and happy times, when we see signs of success. More often, God’s most noticeable presence with us is during times of strain and hurt and hardship. The LORD promises us, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you” (Isaiah 43:2). God does not promise that floods and fires and turmoil will not come our way. Rather, when the troubles of the world plague us, that is when we draw closest to him. 

Today is not only Mother’s Day. It is also Good Shepherd Sunday—a day to be reminded of how God cares for us and carries us. As the shepherd psalm (Psalm 23) assures us, even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need no fear evil because the LORD is with us and comforts us (Psalm 23:4). In a sermon this weekend, a pastor echoed that word to congregation members, saying. “Our Shepherd walks with us and has always walked with us. No place is foreign to Jesus. All things are present to him, because he has defeated death.” Christ was and is and will be with us always—through life’s every trial, through death, and into eternity.

We will walk through troubles in this life. That doesn’t mean that God our Father has forsaken us. Rather, in times of trouble especially the Lord’s word rings true, telling us,  “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted” (Isaiah 66:13). We are assured that the Lord keeps track of all our sorrows, as if collecting all our tears in a bottle. He has recorded each one in his book (Psalm 56:1). We can take comfort in times of suffering, “knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5). 

It is best not to get too absorbed in our own pain and problems, but to connect with our fellow human beings in faith and hope. In a deeply personal book about the struggles of his own soul, Henri Nouwen wrote: “You will deceive yourself into believing that if the people, circumstances, and events [of your life] had been different, your pain would not exist. This might be partly true, but the deeper truth is that the situation which brought about your pain was simply the form in which you came in touch with the human condition of suffering. … Real healing comes from realizing that your own particular pain is a share in humanity’s pain. … Every time you can shift your attention away from the external situation that caused your pain and focus on the pain of humanity in which you participate, your suffering becomes easier to bear. It becomes a ‘light burden’ and an ‘easy yolk’ (Matthew 11:30). Once you discover that you are called to live in solidarity with the hungry, the homeless, the prisoners, the refugees, the sick, and the dying, your very personal pain begins to be converted into the pain [shared with all human beings], and you find new strength to live in it. Herein lies the hope of all Christians” (The Inner Voice of Love, 1996 – p. 103-104).

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

  • For whatever reason God chose to make humans as we are—limited and suffering and subject to sorrow and death—God had the honesty and the courage to take his own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from humanity that he has not exacted from himself. He has himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile. 

-Novelist and Christian writer Dorothy Sayers

The Greatest Drama Ever Staged & The Triumph of Easter (1938)

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.

Posted by David Sellnow
20
Jan
2025

Living in hope, loving our neighbors

Thoughts for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 2025

It doesn’t happen often that a president is inaugurated on the day dedicated to honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. The only two previous occasions were 1997 and 2013. The next time the inauguration and King’s birthday observance coincide will be 2053. 

I’ll admit I have mixed feelings about the overlap of events this year. The incoming president has invited many billionaires to his inauguration events and plans from day one to begin mass deportations of many immigrants. Martin Luther King, Jr. was known for the Poor People’s Campaign and his efforts on behalf of the disenfranchised and those discriminated against in society.  

It seems the country currently has mixed feelings about where we’re heading. CivicScience data shows that 46% of U.S. adults report feeling at least somewhat optimistic about the future (compared to 38% saying so a year ago). The positive outlook, though, depends on who you ask. 63% of Republicans are feeling optimistic right now, while only 32% of Democrats feel that way—and 28% of them are strongly pessimistic. (Cf. CivicScience, 12/2/2024).

Maybe we need something more than optimism and politics to shape our outlook on life. We would do well to commit ourselves to what the apostle Paul called the three things that “will last forever—faith, hope, and love” (1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT). Rather than harboring suspicions about persons who look different than us or have different beliefs than our own, as people of faith we are called to love every neighbor and bring hope to our communities.

Hope is not the same thing as optimism. Hope can look at a situation that is bleak and commit to actions that will build up what is good. When things aren’t the way they should be in our world, with faith we “will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope,” as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said (I Have a Dream, 8/28/1963). Hope is resilient. Hope keeps going. Pointing to Dr. King’s example, a psychology professor from Hope College and her research team define “‘virtuous hope’ as striving toward a purposeful vision of the common good—a hope often shaped by hardship and strengthened through relationships” (The Conversation, 4/2/2024).

A book recommended to me recently emphasizes this same point. In Embracing Diversity: Faith, Vocation, and the Promise of America, authors Darrell Jodock and William Nelsen assert: “Hope can exist even when there is no evidence of progress, even when the storm clouds are dark. Hope is built on the confidence that God is present—that God is at work behind the scenes opening new possibilities and bringing good gifts to humans. Hope includes the confidence that God is fostering shalom, even when we are discouraged and confused” (Fortress Press, 2021, p.124).

Let’s move away from “glass half full” and “glass half empty” estimations of whether it’s a time for optimism or pessimism. As God’s people in this world, we are called to make the most of all our time, even when the times may be hard or evil (cf. Ephesians 5:16). In any and every circumstance, we will devote ourselves to hope and the common good in relation with our fellow human beings. Our “vocation knows no boundaries,” as Jodock and Nelsen remind us. “A sense of vocation involves the realization that, as a human being, I am not an isolated unit but am nested in a larger community and that my highest moral responsibility is so to act in all areas of my life as to benefit that community and the individuals in it” (p.105).

As a new administration takes over in Washington, may our main concern not be primarily with what’s happening in politics on the national level. [Although we acknowledge, along with Dr. King, that “the habits if not the hearts of people have been and are being altered every day by legislative acts, judicial decisions and executive orders from the President.”] Let’s focus on what we can do ourselves to live in love and hope toward our neighbors—of every race and creed—and how we can live in community beneficially together. 

Let us listen to the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. on this subject. In his draft notes for a sermon on Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan entitled “On Being a Good Neighbor,” King wrote:

  • The good Samaritan will always remain the conscience of mankind because he was obedient to that which could not be enforced. No law in the world could have made him do what he did. No man-made code could have produced such unalloyed compassion, such efflorescent love, such thorough altruism. The ultimate test of a man’s goodness is whether he is obedient to the unenforceable. …
  • Today more than ever before men of all races and men of all nations are challenged to be neighborly. …We cannot long survive living spiritually apart in a world that is geographically one. … My friends, go out with the conviction that all men are brothers, tied in a single garment of destiny. In the final analysis I must not ignore the wounded man on life’s Jericho Road, because he is a part of me and I am a part of him. His agony diminishes me and his salvation enlarges me.
  • In our quest to make neighborly love a reality in our lives, we have not only the inspiring example of the good Samaritan, but we have the magnanimous life of our Christ to guide us. … He lived his days in a persistent concern for the welfare of others. His altruism was universal in that he saw all men as brothers. He was a neighbor to the publicans and the sinners. When he addressed God in the Lord’s Prayer he said “Our Father” which immediately lifted God above the category of a tribal deity concerned only about one race of people. Christ’s altruism was willing to travel dangerous roads in that he was willing to relinquish fame, fortune, and even life itself for a cause he knew was right. … His death on Calvary will always stand as history’s  most magnificent expression of obedience to the unenforceable.

[See draft version of “On Being a Good Neighbor”
at Stanford University’s Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute.]

For previous Martin Luther King Jr. Day posts on The Electric Gospel, see this tag:

Posted by David Sellnow
05
Jan
2025

The secret of life is found in Christ

Readings for Epiphany festival, January 6th

Isaiah 60:1-6, Ephesians 3: 1-12, Matthew 2:1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising,and have come to pay him homage” (Matthew 2:1-2).


God works in mysterious ways – leading us to his grace

How did Eastern magi know to go to Jerusalem when they saw something unusual in their stargazing (Matthew 2:1,2)? What we call the Star of Bethlehem may have been miraculous in its appearance. It may have been a manifestation of the glory of the LORD—such as when the LORD led the Israelites through the wilderness, going “in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light” (Exodus 13:21). Perhaps the wise men were led by the same glory of the LORD that shone around the angels who appeared above the fields near Bethlehem heralding Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:9).

However, many of God’s miraculous dealings with us are in and under and through things we tend to see as normal occurrences. We apply water to a person in God’s name, by Christ’s instruction, and that person is connected to Christ and made a child of God. We receive bread and wine by Christ’s instruction, and we are connected to his sufferings and death and filled with God’s grace. God’s most profound miracles often are hidden under things that seem ordinary. What the wise men saw may have been viewed by others as something natural, as no big deal. A modern astronomer who gives credence to the Bible’s story suggested that the bright object in the sky could have been a special alignment between planets and stars—a conjunction occurring when celestial bodies appear to meet in the night sky from our vantage point on earth. Astronomer Michael Molnar pointed to an alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, the moon and the sun in the constellation of Aries that occurred around the time when Jesus was born. “This conjunction happened in the early morning hours, which aligns with the Gospel’s description of the Star of Bethlehem as a rising morning star” (Space.com, 12/22/24).

Magi were scholars and advisors to the rulers in ancient Babylon and Persia. They were astronomers and astrologers who studied the skies diligently. These particular magi likely studied the Hebrew scriptures too. The magi were a class of intellectuals that once had included the brightest minds among the Jewish people taken captive by the Babylonians. In 605 BC, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah and others were among Israelites of noble rank, “versed in every branch of wisdom, endowed with knowledge and insight,” who were deemed “competent to serve in the king’s palace” (Daniel 1:3,4).  Daniel’s name as a member of the magi in Babylon was Belteshazzar. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were given the names Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Daniel 1:7). It seems that Daniel’s wisdom and writings—and other Jewish prophets’ writings—were things these magi, 600 years later, had in mind along with whatever they saw in the skies. Daniel’s prophecy had included a cryptic timeline about how long it would be between “the time that the word went out [for the Israelites] to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of an anointed prince”—-when the “anointed one” or Messiah would come (cf. Daniel 9:24-27 and ReasonForHopeJesus.com). 

Because of the testimony Daniel gave centuries before, the wise men who traveled to find Jesus may have been searching the skies for a sign around the very time Jesus was born. We don’t know exactly what they saw. They may have seen an unusual alignment of planets and stars and understood it as an indication of the Messiah’s arrival, in keeping with prophecies about the brightness of the dawn at his coming into the world (Isaiah 60:1-3). And they may have seen a supernatural manifestation of the glory of the LORD in the skies—pointing them to the specific house where Jesus was when they went to look for him in Bethlehem. 

We don’t need to belabor ourselves trying to explain exactly what the phenomenon of the Star of Bethlehem was. It’s okay to confess it as a mystery. Our faith is grounded in confessing that the workings of our God are full of mystery and wonder. As the heavens are higher than the earth, God’s ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). As a hymn writer famously described, “God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.”

We don’t always like that. We want things to be obvious. We want to see signs that point directly to us and point us in a specific direction. I’ve known people who looked for signs from God to determine if they should accept a new job or stay in their current position. Others interpreted everything they saw as a message from above—such as seeing every little coincidence as a sign that the person they just met was their soulmate, destined to be the love of their life. In doing so, they rushed the relationship, not building deep connections. They ignored or downplayed frictions, convincing themselves they were meant to be together … and then they fell apart. They had seen only what they wanted to see and missed the many red flags that kept popping up all along the way.

I knew a woman who struggled over even the smallest daily decisions. She constantly wanted a sign from God to show her what to do. She asked our church’s lay minister for help knowing what God’s will was. As they talked, she put two pens on the table in front of her and asked, “Like right now, how do I know which pen God wants me to use?” We needed to encourage her to walk each day’s path with confidence that whichever thoughtful decisions she made, God would be with her.

In the daily course of our lives, God leads us in everyday ways more so than by spectacular signs or miraculous moments. He leads us by reminders of what his word has taught us. He leads us by the Christ-like actions of others who help us when we need help. We don’t want to miss those clear messages from God while we’re looking all about for some elusive supernatural signal.

We wish we could know how our story will unfold, seeing clearly what lies ahead. God asks us to trust him, confident that he knows our needs and will be blessing our futures. The apostles and prophets spoke of God’s doings and dealings with us as a mystery. Paul described how the mystery of Christ was made known to him by revelation. “In former generations,” he said, “this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” A part of that mystery was that God’s promise was not limited to just some people. All people, Jews and Gentiles alike, were to be “fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Those of us who have come to know “the boundless riches of Christ” have a role in helping others “see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things,” so that through us, the church, “the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known” and we and others may have boldness and confidence through faith in Christ (Ephesians 3: 1-12).

Maintaining faith in God continues to confront us with mystery, as much of what we experience in life seems at odds with the goodness and peace we want to have. Mary and Joseph’s early days with Jesus had bright moments. Shepherds came to the stable where the child was born, telling of a visit by angels. Later, wise men came to worship and brought expensive gifts. But Jesus’ family had been uprooted from their home in Nazareth by a government order requiring that they be in Bethlehem for census and taxation purposes. Immediately after the visit by the magi, Joseph and Mary needed to use value from their gifts to flee for their lives. The regional ruler, Herod, felt threatened when court officials from far away inquired where to find the child who had been born king of the Jews (Matthew 2:2) When the magi did not report back to him the child’s location, Herod ordered all baby boys in and around Bethlehem be killed, determined to get rid of any supposed new king by butchery (Matthew 2:16). By God’s intervention, Joseph and Mary and Jesus escaped to Egypt, remaining there until Herod’s death (around a year or so later). Things were not easy for them.

Our lives have bright moments, but also many fears and tragedies and turmoils. It is good for us to confess, “God works in mysterious ways,” rather than looking only for immediate and obvious signs of blessings. We get that phrase about God’s mysterious ways from the hymn I mentioned earlier. The hymn writer, William Cowper, had bright moments in his life but also dire struggles of heart and soul. After William was born (in 1731), his mother lost five other children in their infancy. Then, when William was six years old, his mother died while giving birth to his younger brother John—the only sibling that survived. William was traumatized by losing his mother. He was sent to boarding school, where he was severely bullied. He managed to go on to become a successful student and writer. When he was 31 years old, he was offered a prestigious position as Keeper of the Journals in the House of Lords. But his appointment was challenged and he was to undergo a public examination at the Bar of the House. His fragile psyche could not handle that, and he had a breakdown. He made attempts at suicide. He went to be treated for two years at a mental health asylum. He was befriended by faithful people and became connected to evangelical churches. In reflection on his life’s journey—including especially his bouts with suicidal thoughts and depression—William Cowper wrote these lines in a poem he originally entitled, Conflict: Light Shining out of Darkness:

God moves in a mysterious way,
    His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
    And rides upon the storm.  …

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take,
    The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
    In blessings on your head.*

When you are struggling to see hope in your life, bear in mind the experience of Mary and Joseph. They lived in a world where they had to make difficult journeys from Nazareth to Bethlehem and then from Bethlehem to Egypt. But God made his blessings known by visits from shepherds and wise men. Keep in mind the life of Jesus, which culminated in suffering and scorn and pain and death. But God made his victory known in Jesus’ resurrection and ascension as King of kings and Lord of lords. Keep in mind the experience of God’s people throughout the course of history who have battled stresses and strains—such as the life of William Cowper—and yet can confess that God works in mysterious ways and is with us through the storms. 

When life is shrouded in mystery and difficulty, we may cry out to God like Job did long ago, “Why? Why? Why?” (Cf. Job chapter 3). We may not see obvious signs that God is still with us, watching over us. But we know that our Redeemer lives, “and that at the last he will stand upon the earth,” and we will “in our own flesh see God on our side” (Job 19:25-27). We will have a home with him. 

Our hearts yearn within us for the final revealing of all God’s mysteries, “Now we know only in part; then [we] will know fully, even as [we] have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).  In the meantime, we confess: “Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am” (Philippians 4:13 The Message). Our God “will fully satisfy every need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). That is our confidence in Jesus, born at Bethlehem, crucified at Calvary, raised to life and ascended on high. He has promised, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3). That is the culmination of the mystery of Christ, in which we have our hope. 

Life’s greatest mystery has been revealed to us in the gospel—the good news of God’s grace in Jesus. That news, the revealing of that mystery, is the truth we hold dear in our hearts and the grace we share with others.

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.

* Sources: Cowper & Newton Museum, Poetry Foundation,  Wikipedia biography and poem page

Posted by David Sellnow
10
Nov
2024

Widows, weakness, and walking in faith

God is with those who are suffering – he has suffered with us and for us

Readings for the 25th Sunday after Pentecost:

When I lived in the South, I had an acquaintance in our neighborhood who was an airplane pilot. He was working for a large televised ministry, piloting the private plane used by the ministry’s leadership. His mother watched the televangelist’s broadcasts. She was a devout believer in God, and felt that the ministry was doing God’s work. She was on a fixed income. Her Social Security benefits were not large. Nevertheless, she regularly sent in large portions of her income as gifts to the ministry—more than she could afford. She had been doing that for years, since before her son started as private pilot for the ministry. The longer her son was working for the organization, the more her habit of donations bothered him. He was fine with supporting her from his own income with anything she needed. But from the inside of the ministry, he was seeing how the mail-handling staff was tasked to go through bags and bags of mail quickly and pull out the checks. The checks were directed for deposit to the ministry’s accounts. The letters sent with them mostly were ignored. A handful of prayer requests were plucked at random from the hundreds of letters, so the preacher could feature those on air. The rest of the letters and prayer requests were thrown away without being read by anyone. 

The pilot’s mother had a heart devoted to Christ, and surely the Lord was with her and loved her—whether or not she was sending in donations to the TV ministry. The duplicitous  ministry, on the other hand, was veering away from truth and integrity and love. As the Book of Proverbs advises, “The Lord hates it when people cheat others” (Proverbs 11:1 NIrV).  “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight” (Proverbs 12:22). 

Eventually, the pilot walked away from his job with that ministry organization, because the arrogance and affluence of the top people—and their dishonesty—was so at odds with the trust and hopes of the people they were supposed to be serving. It’s not unlike the situation that existed when Jesus observed the way things were at the temple in Jerusalem many years ago. Jesus pointed out the contrast between the high and mighty religious leaders and the ordinary folks who came to express their faith. In that temple environment, Jesus publicly said to watch out for those who make themselves the center of attention in matters of religion. Beware of those, he said, “who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces” (Mark 12:38-39) and yet devour widows’ houses—taking their property from them, “exploiting the weak and helpless” (Mark 12:40 The Message). Jesus focused his attention on a poor widow who came and put into the temple offering two small copper coins, worth the equivalent of a penny. “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury” with amounts they could afford from the abundance of their wealth. Out of her poverty, this faith-filled widow was putting in “everything she had, all she had to live on” (Mark 12:42-44).

The people who looked like they were the most important in the goings-on at the temple in Jerusalem were really only self-important. They were proud. They were puffed up. As Scripture has said in another context: “Their spirit wasn’t right in them. … Wealth is treacherous; the arrogant do not endure” (Habakkuk 2:4,5). “But the righteous will live by their faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).

Let’s take another example, going back about 900 years before Jesus’ ministry in Judea and Galilee. A king named Ahab had come to reign over Israel, with fortresses/palaces in the cities of Jezreel and Samaria.  King Ahab enhanced his power by marriage to a Phoenician princess named Jezebel. Jezebel made her country’s worship of Baal and Asherah (fertility deities) a prominent part of her reign with Ahab (cf. 1 Kings 16:31-34). Ahab and Jezebel sat in the power positions and seemed like the important ones in Israel.

Bernardo Strozzi, Elijah & The Widow of Zerephath, 17th century

But that’s not how our Lord saw things. Through Elijah, the LORD announced that the opposite of fertile harvests and abundant blessings would be happening for them. Elijah prophesied, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives …there shall be neither dew nor rain these years” (1 Kings 17:1). Elijah became public enemy #1 of the Ahab and Jezebel regime. During those years, Elijah took refuge at the home of a widow in the coastal city of Zarephath, which was actually located in Jezebel’s home territory. It wasn’t where you’d expect to find an ally for the LORD’s prophet, but the LORD told Elijah, “I have commanded a widow there to feed you” (1 Kings 17:9). And indeed she did. She had almost nothing left when Elijah encountered her. She was gathering a few sticks for a fire. She planned to use her last little bit of flour and oil to make one last meal for herself and her son before they succumbed to starvation. Elijah offered her a promise from the LORD: “The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the LORD sends rain on the earth.” (Cf. 1 Kings 17:10-16.)  Later in their time together, the widow’s son became severely ill and died. Elijah prayed, “‘O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.’ The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived” (1 Kings 17:21-22). The widow’s faith was strengthened further in the LORD God of Israel (1 Kings 17:24). Life was not easy for them, but the LORD was with them.

Where was God in Elijah’s day? Was he with the rich and powerful, the high and mighty? No. Those at the top may have thought they had it all—but it was not by God’s blessing. An unassuming widow found favor with God. A faithful prophet found favor with God. They were the ones actually experiencing God’s blessing.

Where was God in Jesus’ day? With society’s policy makers and self-satisfied religious leaders? No. A worshipful widow, trusting God to meet her needs, was noticed by Jesus and held up as an example. 

Where is God today? Do we look for God’s presence and signs of God’s blessing in the wrong places? Do we revere the wrong people or look in the wrong direction for what it means to have a blessed life? We give TV coverage to a billionaire doing the first-ever civilian spacewalk (in a flight he paid for on another billionaire’s rocket ship) and think, “Wouldn’t that be so cool if I could do that?” (See BBC story, 9/12/24.) We heap our adoration on rock stars and pop stars and country stars and sports stars and movie stars and dream of living a life like theirs. 

But where does God truly show up and make his presence known in our world? “This is where God shows up: in the confessing of our sins, and the bearing of one another’s burdens, and being there in solidarity with those who are bearing crosses. That’s where God shows up” (Tripp Fuller, Faith-Lead, 2024). Another insightful writer has said, “God is more likely to be found in the lives of people at the bottom of the ladder where life is messy, than at the top where life is comfortable and secure. These hurting places are the arenas where Jesus lived, worked, and taught, and this is the arena to which his followers are called” (Kurt Struckmeyer, FollowingJesus.org, 7/1/2018). 

Think of what it was like when Jesus himself was on this earth. Who seemed important then? At the time of Jesus’ death, who seemed like the winners and who seemed like the losers? Didn’t it seem like the Roman empire and the Roman governor and the mobs who screamed against Jesus had all the power? That Jesus and his followers were nobodies, rejects, worthless? Where was God when Jesus was suffering? You could even hear Jesus cry out in anguish and abandonment, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)  But his Father was not abandoning Jesus forever. The divine Spirit would invigorate him again. Jesus was doing what he was doing—suffering and dying—for us, to redeem us. He came to us in our world because our world is full of misery and death. As human beings, we have flesh and blood and are subject to death. So Jesus came and “shared the same things, so that through his death he might destroy the one who has the power of death … and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14, 15).  Christ offered himself once, for all time, to bear the sins of all humanity. And the resurrected Jesus, having dealt with human sin and misery by his own suffering, promises us that he “will appear a second time … to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:28).

Pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, while he was imprisoned by the Nazi government that later would put him to death, wrote in a letter from prison:

  • God allows himself to be edged out of the world and onto the cross. God is weak and powerless in the world, and that is exactly the way, the only way, in which God can be with us and help us. Matthew 8:17 (He took up our infirmities, and bore the burden of our sins) makes it crystal clear that it is not by his omnipotence that Christ helps us, but by his weakness and suffering.
    This is the decisive difference between Christianity and all religions. Man’s religiosity makes him look in his distress to the power of God in the world [wanting God to show up with some miraculous, immediate solution.] … The Bible, however, directs us to the powerlessness and suffering of God; only a suffering God can help. … The God of the Bible conquers power and space in the world by his weakness. …
    Humans are challenged to participate in the sufferings of God at the hands of a godless world. … It is not some religious act which makes a Christian what he is, but participation in the suffering of God in the life of the world. … One must abandon every attempt to make something of oneself … [and take] life in stride, with all its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its experiences and helplessness. It is in such a life that we throw ourselves utterly in the arms of God and participate in his sufferings in the world and watch with Christ in Gethsemane. That is faith, and that is what makes a human and a Christian.

(Letter from 1944—see D.Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 1997)

Let me close by saying this:
You might be a widow struggling with loneliness and limited resources.
You might be a common laborer, figuring out how to make a living and make ends meet.
You might be a farmer, navigating the uncertainties of unpredictable weather and an unpredictable economy.
You might be a parent, at wits’ end trying to manage family life and all its worries and difficulties.
You might be a child, not sure yet where or how you fit in or where life is going for you.
You might be a neighbor or friend, seeing other neighbors and friends who are hurting and wanting to help them—even though you may be hurting too and wondering why life is so hard.
You might be anybody, facing shortages, facing sickness, facing loss, experiencing all manner of the things that go wrong in this world. But you have one certainty: Jesus has experienced all these things and more, and he sees you. He knows you. He is with you. We do not have a Savior who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, our troubles, our struggles, our feelings of unimportance and helplessness.  “We  have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).

As people of God, we carry one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), and together we all carry our burdens to Christ, who indeed does give rest to our souls (Matthew 11:29). 

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.

Posted by David Sellnow