Let Love be Genuine

I am a spiritual counselor at a local rehab center. About every 2 months I get the opportunity to talk to a group of people about the "higher power" they need to surrender to so they can begin their recovery and live life fully. I tell them that I am a Christian pastor and I claim God and Jesus his son, and the Holy Spirit as my higher power. However, I tell them that they are free to chose their higher power that works for them. I talk about about three guidelines for them to help guide them that they are choosing the right one. The first one I talk about is behavior: Does your higher power make you treat other people and yourself gentler or kinder? Out of our Judeo-Christian heritage, we have Jesus who sums up all the laws and the prophets in this, "Treat others as you want to be treated." I posit that no matter what higher power they claim, even when it is Christianity, if they are not loving their neighbor or worse, if they are hating or fearing their neighbor, then they have chosen poorly and they will not be healthy. If we are hating or fearing our neighbors, we are probably also hating ourselves. Every major religion boils down to this: how we treat, view, and love one another.

In our society right now, in our country right now, we are not treating each other very kindly, we are not being gentle with one another. Whether we are debating about wearing a mask or not, sending our children to school during the pandemic, Black Lives Matter, or who should be our next President, we are armoring up, we are attacking, we are filled with hate and fear. We, who are supposed to be a Christian nation, who are supposed to be a nation who trusts in God, and who are supposed to be a united nation, are a nation that seeks to be right, to have power, and to defeat, not win over, those who are opposed to our beliefs.

Paul is writing to a new church start, one that he didn't start, though be created many. Paul is helping this early, new church that has no history, no building, no by-laws, and even no Bible, no Gospel has been writing yet, though many of the Jewish/Hebrew books are floating around, but there is no official Hebrew Bible at this point. The letter to Romans is a good primer to any church, to any Christian. For all the theology, Christology, history, and thesis on sin and salvation, Paul breaks it down to where the rubber meets the road. What does all this mean? Let love be genuine! Let love be genuine! Let love be genuine! This little Roman church, even if it has 1,000 members, was swallowed up by a city of over 5 million people who believed there were many gods, many spirits, and many ways to live. Paul doesn't write to them about how to increase influence, how to win over the nation, or how to increase power, he writes about love, rejoicing, patience, and perseverance. Share with the saints, welcome the strangers, rejoice, weep, harmony, befriend the lowly, and do not return evil with evil, be overcome evil with good. Nothing about rights and privileges and prosperity and conquering and living the good life and loving our country.

We, as a nation, are failing this text. We, as a church, are failing this text. Almost everyone single one of us is failing this small paragraph in this nation. The good news is that Paul writes we all have sinned and fall short and God still loves us. That hard news is that we have to do better. If God's love truly takes hold in our hearts and lives, then we are to take up our cross and follow Christ. It's not about power, revenge, or even our or God's honor. It's about treating each other compassionately, even our enemies, even those who persecute us.

If we wait until the pandemic is over, if we wait until the election is over and our side wins, if we wait until the protestors and rioters go home to start trying to repair the breach, then we have already lost. If we continue to unfriend, avoid, and hate each other and not recognizing the face of God in each other, then we have already lost. But we worship the God whose love is infinite, whose grace is unconditional, and who has shown us that even death itself cannot stop the purpose and kingdom of God.

Let us allow the God of love to transform our hearts and lives so that we may live in harmony with our brothers and sisters of our nation and of the world. Let us treat each other kindly, this the is true way, the best way to share the gospel, the good news, and the kingdom.

Contribute to the needs of God's People

On Aug. 28, 1893, Sen. James Kyle of South Dakota introduced S. 730 to the U.S. Senate to make Labor Day a legal national holiday on the first Monday of September each year. President Grover Cleveland signed the bill on June 28, 1894. By then, a fall holiday called Labor Day was already being observed. Beginning in the late 19th century, parades, picnics and other celebrations took place to support labor issues such as shorter hours, better pay and safer working conditions, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In introducing the legislation, Kyle said that labor organizations were united in asking that the first Monday of September be set apart as a holiday in order to make the observance uniform. This would result in workers enjoying vacation privileges on the same day, according to the Dec. 1, 1965, issue of “The Wi-Iyohi,” a monthly bulletin published by the South Dakota State Historical Society. Prior to serving as a U.S. Senator, Kyle served as pastor at the Congregati...

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