Saundra and I eat out about once a week; we go on different days, but like to go at 2 pm because few people are in the restaurants at this time. The lunch crowd is mostly gone and the dinner crowd hasn’t shown up yet – no crowd means good service and few COVID germs lurking about. So we arrived and waited a few minutes for my Mom to arrive. The three of us had a great lunch and finished up around 3 o’clock. And it was soon after that that I began to realize my nicely polished sermon on the baptism of Jesus just wasn’t going to cut it for this Sunday.
[For the audio and visual versions of this, click here.]
Just like many of you, I was appalled at the wild behavior of some of our fellow Americans. And just like many of you, I listened to the reporters, the talking heads, and the anchors. And then I listened to the words of Senators and Congressmen, the words of the President and the words of the Vice-President. Here are my thoughts and reflections on wisdom, maturity, how our speech creates realities, and ways to find truth.
Many of the anchors and commentators expressed surprise that this riot had happened. I heard this surprise expressed by people from all the networks. After a while, I must admit that I yelled at the screen. When another talking head expressed surprise, I said, “Then you are a fool!” For during much of my adult life I have followed politics closely, and met many people who are politically involved with both major parties, as well as some of the small parties, and I can tell you that this riot was not a surprise to me. For some small percentage of people in every large group are bored and looking for excitement and unable to control themselves.
You see, for a certain group of Americans, politics is a religion. Some of these people who follow the political religion are Democrats. Others are Republicans. Still others are Socialists, Libertarians, Communists, or Anarchists. They live their lives in such a way that the outcome of each election is the most important thing in their lives. They often worship a particular man or woman as a liberating god – and they also point to a particular man or woman or group of people as devils.
And make no mistake – I have seen this on all sides of the political spectrum. This particular disease where ordinary men or women get caught up in the political religion is equal opportunity, and it can strike almost anyone, including clergy.
The Bible deals with this. At the time of Jesus’ birth, the land around Jerusalem was ruled by a man known as King Herod the Great. To his credit, he began the renovation and reconstruction of the great Temple of God in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, to accomplish this task, he decided to raise taxes across the kingdom to a new, high level, for his goal was a huge, beautiful Temple, with decorations of gold, silver, and beautiful gems, and that cost much money. Herod’s people bore the brunt of the taxes.
Eventually, Herod the Great died, and his sons and grandsons ruled. In particular, about ten years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus under Herod Antipas, Herod Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great, became the king of most of what is today modern Israel. In Acts 12, Herod Agrippa persecuted the Jerusalem church, had the Apostle James killed, and imprisoned Peter – who escaped with the help of an angel.
The book of Acts and the writings of Josephus, a Jewish and Roman historian, then record that Agrippa then went to Caesarea, a city on the coast where he held games in honor of the Roman emperor Claudius. He wore robes which were made with silver – when he gave his speech in the early morning at the west-facing amphitheater, his robes reflected the early morning sun back at the crowd, glistening and glowing. His flatterers began chanting that this was not the voice of a man but of a god. He did not calm the crowd, but may have actually encouraged their worship. At that point, in the middle of his speech, he was struck by a tremendous pain in his stomach, which continued. He lay in agony for five days and died, apparently because of worms.
The second lesson is that worshipping a man or woman will always lead us to disappointment, for men and women are flawed. It has been said that all of our heroes have feet of clay. And so it is with our political leaders – and our clergy leaders. For there is something about having too many compliments, too much adoration, any degree of worship which takes a person down a road where they begin to believe that they never make mistakes they can’t fix, where they believe they are always right, and where they think the rules are for everyone else except themselves. Compare that thinking to being a god. For God is all powerful, able to fix anything. God possesses exceptional intelligence and wisdom, so God is always right, and God makes the rules – and knows when and how to break the rules. That is wonderful when we are talking about God – but that is evil when we are talking about a man or a woman.
For the last twenty years, I have a made a point of trying to keep a balanced outlook on our politics. That’s why I read articles each day from both National Public Radio (NPR), which has a heavily liberal slant, and from Drudge Report, which has a heavily conservative slant. I figure the truth lies somewhere between the two. I also read Science News, which is focused upon just reporting scientific discoveries. In times of crises, I check the Associated Press, the BBC, as well as news services from India, Taiwan, and France. For, you see, I want to get as many viewpoints as possible. And Saundra and I and our son Andrew discuss events as they relate to biblical history.
Over the last few years, our country split into three groups of people. First, there were and are the people who have hated President Trump, who have seen him as the devil incarnate, and who have joined an army to disparage everything about him, as if saying a kind word from time to time about him was betraying all that is right and good. I used to joke to Saundra about the constant slant of articles from NPR that “NPR just ran an article about solar flare headed our way and blamed it on Trump’s policies.” For a while, every bit of news had negatives blamed on Trump. And for a while, conservative news blamed everything negative on Nancy Pelosi.
I listened to Trump haters vow to block everything done by the administration, beginning before the election. And his crime? At first, it was apparently the fact he was not a politician. And then it was the fact that he had won the election. And then it was the fact that he said outrageous things. And then it was the fact that he actually implemented changes that he had said he was going to implement. Then, his crime, according to many people, was that stupid people supported him and he had orange hair. Anyone who said something good about Trump or his policies was also attacked as a devil.
The second group of people were the people who loved President Trump. He would save the nation; he would fix everything that was wrong in the nation and in each person’s life. He would destroy the enemy; he would fight the battles of the people against evil. He said the things no one else would say. For these people, Trump had become the second coming of Christ, a savior, a messiah. And they made Hilary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, then Bernie Sanders, and finally Joe Biden and Kamala Harris into devils.
You know…both groups had made the other side’s leaders into their devils and had made their leader or leaders into their god. In reality, nobody could have that much power, either to do evil or to do good. No President, no Congressman or woman has the power that their political followers and opponents explain that they have.
And the third group? These were people who looked beyond personalities and looked toward policies. Many of these people voted for Trump because the two sides had rock-solid positions either for or against abortion. And it wasn’t just abortion, but a fair number of other policy positions. Many of these people did not like President Trump’s personality, but could not support the policies of Hillary Clinton or much of the Democratic party. A couple of percent who hated Hillary Clinton in 2016 felt they could support Joe Biden in 2020, and this is ultimately why the election results changed from a tie which leaned toward Trump in 2016 to a tie which leaned toward Biden in 2020.
Folks, let me give you an analogy. The standard wisdom is that when a pastor comes to a new church, he or she should not make any changes for the first six-months to a year. So I arrived at this church in the midst of the COVID crisis back in late June and began on July 1. Because of the crises, we HAD to make changes – we simply couldn’t function the way we had in 2019. We were faced with changing the way were worshiped – or no worship, which was unacceptable, or worshiping the way we had worshiped for years. But if we had not changed, lots and lots of people would have died if they worshiped. So we adapted, but still managed to do the basics of church – we prayed, read scripture, did sermons, even attempted Bible study for a while, and we figured out a way to sing and communicate all of this to most of our people most of the time. Things were different, but those changes were necessary.
If you will remember, when the primaries rolled around, many places were faced with the choice of going to mail-in voting – or no voting, which was unacceptable – or continuing to vote the same way, in which case many people would have been faced with the personal choice of voting and dying or not voting. So most states changed their laws for the primaries and then, learning from that, adjusted things again for the general election. And the courts went along with these changes because leaving people with the choice between not voting or voting and dying was unacceptable.
And this also goes back to something I learned years ago about our tendency to make institutions impersonal, stripping away the people who make up the institution.
I was watching a live press conference with Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger. Some reported asked a question, “What is the administration’s position on such-and-such. “ Weinberger stopped the reporter and said, “First of all, there is no such thing as ‘the administration’. We are individuals. The President has his view, the Secretary of State has his view, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has his view, and I have my view.”
I realized that day that most people look at anything associated with government or political parties, or, for that matter, with a church as this faceless thing, like the administration. But all of these entities – government, parties, the church – are made up of individuals. Each individual person has his or her own opinions and motivations. The tens of thousands of election officials nationwide are not suddenly bound into a grand conspiracy which cannot be broken on election day.
I know many of these people – you probably know the people who work at your local precinct, you may know the people at the county offices. And here, as in everywhere around the country, people are put in these jobs because you trust that they’ll be on the look-out for shenanigans and that they’ll be honest enough to say something. And individual reporters around the nation are just waiting to win a Pulitzer Prize by investigating, getting the facts, and writing the story about the man who rigged the election. With tens of thousands of people working these jobs and hundreds of reporters – don’t you think that somebody would crack to get their name in the newspaper and get back at their co-workers or boss?
If you don’t trust your local poll workers, tell the county clerk you want to work a precinct next election. They are always looking for precinct workers. And they’ll pay you for a day or two of work.
And you know what? Every election, out of those tens of thousands of election officials nationwide, mistakes are accidentally made and corrected. Try, for example, to add up a hundred different figures fifteen times and see if you do it correctly every time. That’s what we ask of our election reporters. And out of those tens of thousands of election officials nationwide, only 3 or 4 people are actually tried and convicted of intentionally doing something to change election results, usually involving a hundred or so votes. And believe me, it’s not because everyone is trying to hide it, because the counts and recounts and lawsuits fly every election – but over the last hundred years in particular, the systems have been developed to catch the mistake, accidental or on purpose, and those systems work.
Which brings me up to Wednesday afternoon, January 6th.
I have spent much of my adult life around politicians and would-be politicians. Some are very independent – and some are lockstep with the party leadership. Some are smart and others are foolish, like most groups of people. Most people like to participate in politics by voting – that’s all, thank you! A few hundred in a county like to participate by going to dinners and hearing celebrity politicians. A couple dozen like to run for office. And then, there are those who don’t have the wisdom, patience, or stamina to run for office, but want to change things in Charleston or Washington. And of those, some are hard-working, sane individuals who operate within the rules – and some who don’t like the rules so much and are so bored with life that they are willing to break the law for change.
You will notice that at Washington last Wednesday there were supposedly about a hundred thousand people who listened to the President speak at the Ellipse. A few percent, a few thousand entered the Capitol grounds – the rest went directly home or back to their hotels or a late lunch or visited the Smithsonian museums. Of those few thousand who entered the Capitol grounds, it appears about a hundred broke into the Capitol, with maybe another few hundred walking in later.
This is about the way things were last summer when the mass protests and riots erupted in our major cities – a handful of bored people caused most the damage, the remainder chanted and marched – and went home.
Folks, in every group of people there are a few people who have no purpose in their life – and want to find that purpose by the excitement of breaking the law with a group of friends. One day when I was attending WVU, I came home to find a live Christmas tree on our dormitory floor. I briefly noticed it and went to my room. The next afternoon, when I came home, a Resident Assistant told me I had to pay $20 for a fine – as did every one of the 50 guys on the floor – or everyone on the floor would go to jail. I paid. It seemed that about four of the guys had cut down a tree they’d found growing on campus, and this was the cost of replacing that tree. They had got together and decided to have some fun by cutting down the tree and smuggling it back to the dormitory floor. We all paid for their fun. And $20 was my weekly expense budget at that time. It was irritating.
After Wednesday, my wife called up our children and just confirmed, “Did we teach you that if a door is locked, you shouldn’t break it down unless you know for a fact that someone is in extreme danger inside that building? “ And our kids said, “Actually, no, but we kind of figured it out from all the other things you taught us.” For, you see, they have the wisdom and maturity to understand these things, as do most adults.
Jesus told His followers that we are to be salt and light for the world, a special group of people that would improve the flavor of the world around us. And so, as salt and light, we should conduct ourselves in such a way that what we say commands respect, so that people listen to us, think, and in turn improve the world around them. We can’t control the rest of the people – and we aren’t asked to control them. But we are asked to set a good example, and explain what and how and why we live as we live.
Part of living right means should always consider the people we are talking with. I can be much less guarded in what I say with my wife, for we have over 30 years of back and forth communication. She understands the words I use and what they mean. But when I am talking to a large group of people, like I am now, I am more careful what I say, for I know that there are bound to be at least a couple of people who are looking for excitement and purpose in their lives and do not have the wisdom or maturity to control themselves, especially when they are with a group of other people looking for excitement and purpose.
On Wednesday evening, we watched as the leaders of the House and Senate spoke about the events, and as various Senators and Congressmen and women spoke in debate. And it was clear, at least to Saundra and I, which were the mature, wise people – and which were still immature, somewhat foolish, still looking for personal gain from the events.
We were impressed by Vice-President Pence, who gamely controlled his anger at the situation and set the tone for the Senate’s debate, despite the pressure that the President had put upon him. We were impressed by Speaker Pelosi, who knew that the day was Epiphany, the day that Jesus was recognized by the wise men and related it to her hope that the various players would draw together as Americans instead of splitting into Republicans and Democrats. And we were impressed by other leaders and not so impressed by some of the speakers. But, for the first time in years, we had the chance to see who these men and women are who lead Congress, beyond the ten-second angry soundbites that the networks play on the evening news, for the network editors create realities by what speech they let us see.
Wednesday Evening
Like many of you, we began watching television news early Wednesday evening. At first we watched NBC, then switched to CBS, then Fox, then back to NBC. I pulled up news reports from both Drudge Report, Associated Press, and National Public Radio – for I have found over the years that no single source can be trusted to give a truly balanced view of things.Just like many of you, I was appalled at the wild behavior of some of our fellow Americans. And just like many of you, I listened to the reporters, the talking heads, and the anchors. And then I listened to the words of Senators and Congressmen, the words of the President and the words of the Vice-President. Here are my thoughts and reflections on wisdom, maturity, how our speech creates realities, and ways to find truth.
Many of the anchors and commentators expressed surprise that this riot had happened. I heard this surprise expressed by people from all the networks. After a while, I must admit that I yelled at the screen. When another talking head expressed surprise, I said, “Then you are a fool!” For during much of my adult life I have followed politics closely, and met many people who are politically involved with both major parties, as well as some of the small parties, and I can tell you that this riot was not a surprise to me. For some small percentage of people in every large group are bored and looking for excitement and unable to control themselves.
You see, for a certain group of Americans, politics is a religion.
You see, for a certain group of Americans, politics is a religion. Some of these people who follow the political religion are Democrats. Others are Republicans. Still others are Socialists, Libertarians, Communists, or Anarchists. They live their lives in such a way that the outcome of each election is the most important thing in their lives. They often worship a particular man or woman as a liberating god – and they also point to a particular man or woman or group of people as devils. And make no mistake – I have seen this on all sides of the political spectrum. This particular disease where ordinary men or women get caught up in the political religion is equal opportunity, and it can strike almost anyone, including clergy.
The Bible deals with this. At the time of Jesus’ birth, the land around Jerusalem was ruled by a man known as King Herod the Great. To his credit, he began the renovation and reconstruction of the great Temple of God in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, to accomplish this task, he decided to raise taxes across the kingdom to a new, high level, for his goal was a huge, beautiful Temple, with decorations of gold, silver, and beautiful gems, and that cost much money. Herod’s people bore the brunt of the taxes.
Eventually, Herod the Great died, and his sons and grandsons ruled. In particular, about ten years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus under Herod Antipas, Herod Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great, became the king of most of what is today modern Israel. In Acts 12, Herod Agrippa persecuted the Jerusalem church, had the Apostle James killed, and imprisoned Peter – who escaped with the help of an angel.
The book of Acts and the writings of Josephus, a Jewish and Roman historian, then record that Agrippa then went to Caesarea, a city on the coast where he held games in honor of the Roman emperor Claudius. He wore robes which were made with silver – when he gave his speech in the early morning at the west-facing amphitheater, his robes reflected the early morning sun back at the crowd, glistening and glowing. His flatterers began chanting that this was not the voice of a man but of a god. He did not calm the crowd, but may have actually encouraged their worship. At that point, in the middle of his speech, he was struck by a tremendous pain in his stomach, which continued. He lay in agony for five days and died, apparently because of worms.
Worship only God
There are several lessons to be learned from this. The first lesson and most important lesson is to remember that only God is worthy of being worshipped. For only God – and God’s Son, Jesus Christ – reserve for themselves the honor of being placed first in our thoughts, words, and deeds. Herod Agrippa let the crowd’s worship go to his head – and he was destroyed, painfully, by worms. Coincidence? Or God’s punishment? Both the Bible and Josephus are clear that the worm attack at the time Herod Agrippa was being worshiped as a god was no coincidence.The second lesson is that worshipping a man or woman will always lead us to disappointment, for men and women are flawed. It has been said that all of our heroes have feet of clay. And so it is with our political leaders – and our clergy leaders. For there is something about having too many compliments, too much adoration, any degree of worship which takes a person down a road where they begin to believe that they never make mistakes they can’t fix, where they believe they are always right, and where they think the rules are for everyone else except themselves. Compare that thinking to being a god. For God is all powerful, able to fix anything. God possesses exceptional intelligence and wisdom, so God is always right, and God makes the rules – and knows when and how to break the rules. That is wonderful when we are talking about God – but that is evil when we are talking about a man or a woman.
For the last twenty years, I have a made a point of trying to keep a balanced outlook on our politics. That’s why I read articles each day from both National Public Radio (NPR), which has a heavily liberal slant, and from Drudge Report, which has a heavily conservative slant. I figure the truth lies somewhere between the two. I also read Science News, which is focused upon just reporting scientific discoveries. In times of crises, I check the Associated Press, the BBC, as well as news services from India, Taiwan, and France. For, you see, I want to get as many viewpoints as possible. And Saundra and I and our son Andrew discuss events as they relate to biblical history.
Over the last few years, our country split into three groups of people. First, there were and are the people who have hated President Trump, who have seen him as the devil incarnate, and who have joined an army to disparage everything about him, as if saying a kind word from time to time about him was betraying all that is right and good. I used to joke to Saundra about the constant slant of articles from NPR that “NPR just ran an article about solar flare headed our way and blamed it on Trump’s policies.” For a while, every bit of news had negatives blamed on Trump. And for a while, conservative news blamed everything negative on Nancy Pelosi.
I listened to Trump haters vow to block everything done by the administration, beginning before the election. And his crime? At first, it was apparently the fact he was not a politician. And then it was the fact that he had won the election. And then it was the fact that he said outrageous things. And then it was the fact that he actually implemented changes that he had said he was going to implement. Then, his crime, according to many people, was that stupid people supported him and he had orange hair. Anyone who said something good about Trump or his policies was also attacked as a devil.
The second group of people were the people who loved President Trump. He would save the nation; he would fix everything that was wrong in the nation and in each person’s life. He would destroy the enemy; he would fight the battles of the people against evil. He said the things no one else would say. For these people, Trump had become the second coming of Christ, a savior, a messiah. And they made Hilary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, then Bernie Sanders, and finally Joe Biden and Kamala Harris into devils.
You know…both groups had made the other side’s leaders into their devils and had made their leader or leaders into their god. In reality, nobody could have that much power, either to do evil or to do good. No President, no Congressman or woman has the power that their political followers and opponents explain that they have.
And the third group? These were people who looked beyond personalities and looked toward policies. Many of these people voted for Trump because the two sides had rock-solid positions either for or against abortion. And it wasn’t just abortion, but a fair number of other policy positions. Many of these people did not like President Trump’s personality, but could not support the policies of Hillary Clinton or much of the Democratic party. A couple of percent who hated Hillary Clinton in 2016 felt they could support Joe Biden in 2020, and this is ultimately why the election results changed from a tie which leaned toward Trump in 2016 to a tie which leaned toward Biden in 2020.
A Stolen Election?
And the question of changed laws, stolen votes, a stolen election?Folks, let me give you an analogy. The standard wisdom is that when a pastor comes to a new church, he or she should not make any changes for the first six-months to a year. So I arrived at this church in the midst of the COVID crisis back in late June and began on July 1. Because of the crises, we HAD to make changes – we simply couldn’t function the way we had in 2019. We were faced with changing the way were worshiped – or no worship, which was unacceptable, or worshiping the way we had worshiped for years. But if we had not changed, lots and lots of people would have died if they worshiped. So we adapted, but still managed to do the basics of church – we prayed, read scripture, did sermons, even attempted Bible study for a while, and we figured out a way to sing and communicate all of this to most of our people most of the time. Things were different, but those changes were necessary.
If you will remember, when the primaries rolled around, many places were faced with the choice of going to mail-in voting – or no voting, which was unacceptable – or continuing to vote the same way, in which case many people would have been faced with the personal choice of voting and dying or not voting. So most states changed their laws for the primaries and then, learning from that, adjusted things again for the general election. And the courts went along with these changes because leaving people with the choice between not voting or voting and dying was unacceptable.
And this also goes back to something I learned years ago about our tendency to make institutions impersonal, stripping away the people who make up the institution.
I was watching a live press conference with Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger. Some reported asked a question, “What is the administration’s position on such-and-such. “ Weinberger stopped the reporter and said, “First of all, there is no such thing as ‘the administration’. We are individuals. The President has his view, the Secretary of State has his view, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has his view, and I have my view.”
I realized that day that most people look at anything associated with government or political parties, or, for that matter, with a church as this faceless thing, like the administration. But all of these entities – government, parties, the church – are made up of individuals. Each individual person has his or her own opinions and motivations. The tens of thousands of election officials nationwide are not suddenly bound into a grand conspiracy which cannot be broken on election day.
I know many of these people – you probably know the people who work at your local precinct, you may know the people at the county offices. And here, as in everywhere around the country, people are put in these jobs because you trust that they’ll be on the look-out for shenanigans and that they’ll be honest enough to say something. And individual reporters around the nation are just waiting to win a Pulitzer Prize by investigating, getting the facts, and writing the story about the man who rigged the election. With tens of thousands of people working these jobs and hundreds of reporters – don’t you think that somebody would crack to get their name in the newspaper and get back at their co-workers or boss?
If you don’t trust your local poll workers, tell the county clerk you want to work a precinct next election. They are always looking for precinct workers. And they’ll pay you for a day or two of work.
And you know what? Every election, out of those tens of thousands of election officials nationwide, mistakes are accidentally made and corrected. Try, for example, to add up a hundred different figures fifteen times and see if you do it correctly every time. That’s what we ask of our election reporters. And out of those tens of thousands of election officials nationwide, only 3 or 4 people are actually tried and convicted of intentionally doing something to change election results, usually involving a hundred or so votes. And believe me, it’s not because everyone is trying to hide it, because the counts and recounts and lawsuits fly every election – but over the last hundred years in particular, the systems have been developed to catch the mistake, accidental or on purpose, and those systems work.
Which brings me up to Wednesday afternoon, January 6th.
Life purpose
Remember when I said that individual people form political parties?I have spent much of my adult life around politicians and would-be politicians. Some are very independent – and some are lockstep with the party leadership. Some are smart and others are foolish, like most groups of people. Most people like to participate in politics by voting – that’s all, thank you! A few hundred in a county like to participate by going to dinners and hearing celebrity politicians. A couple dozen like to run for office. And then, there are those who don’t have the wisdom, patience, or stamina to run for office, but want to change things in Charleston or Washington. And of those, some are hard-working, sane individuals who operate within the rules – and some who don’t like the rules so much and are so bored with life that they are willing to break the law for change.
You will notice that at Washington last Wednesday there were supposedly about a hundred thousand people who listened to the President speak at the Ellipse. A few percent, a few thousand entered the Capitol grounds – the rest went directly home or back to their hotels or a late lunch or visited the Smithsonian museums. Of those few thousand who entered the Capitol grounds, it appears about a hundred broke into the Capitol, with maybe another few hundred walking in later.
This is about the way things were last summer when the mass protests and riots erupted in our major cities – a handful of bored people caused most the damage, the remainder chanted and marched – and went home.
Folks, in every group of people there are a few people who have no purpose in their life – and want to find that purpose by the excitement of breaking the law with a group of friends. One day when I was attending WVU, I came home to find a live Christmas tree on our dormitory floor. I briefly noticed it and went to my room. The next afternoon, when I came home, a Resident Assistant told me I had to pay $20 for a fine – as did every one of the 50 guys on the floor – or everyone on the floor would go to jail. I paid. It seemed that about four of the guys had cut down a tree they’d found growing on campus, and this was the cost of replacing that tree. They had got together and decided to have some fun by cutting down the tree and smuggling it back to the dormitory floor. We all paid for their fun. And $20 was my weekly expense budget at that time. It was irritating.
After Wednesday, my wife called up our children and just confirmed, “Did we teach you that if a door is locked, you shouldn’t break it down unless you know for a fact that someone is in extreme danger inside that building? “ And our kids said, “Actually, no, but we kind of figured it out from all the other things you taught us.” For, you see, they have the wisdom and maturity to understand these things, as do most adults.
Jesus told His followers that we are to be salt and light for the world, a special group of people that would improve the flavor of the world around us. And so, as salt and light, we should conduct ourselves in such a way that what we say commands respect, so that people listen to us, think, and in turn improve the world around them. We can’t control the rest of the people – and we aren’t asked to control them. But we are asked to set a good example, and explain what and how and why we live as we live.
Part of living right means should always consider the people we are talking with. I can be much less guarded in what I say with my wife, for we have over 30 years of back and forth communication. She understands the words I use and what they mean. But when I am talking to a large group of people, like I am now, I am more careful what I say, for I know that there are bound to be at least a couple of people who are looking for excitement and purpose in their lives and do not have the wisdom or maturity to control themselves, especially when they are with a group of other people looking for excitement and purpose.
Speech Creates Realities
For the words we speak have consequences, whether in person, in the form of a law, in a speech, or on Facebook. God created the Universe with speech: “God said” And we create realities when we speak, for we are created in the image of God. Our speech creates realities. Be sure that you speak what you want created. And when you speak to many people, be especially careful in what you say, for you will be creating new realities.On Wednesday evening, we watched as the leaders of the House and Senate spoke about the events, and as various Senators and Congressmen and women spoke in debate. And it was clear, at least to Saundra and I, which were the mature, wise people – and which were still immature, somewhat foolish, still looking for personal gain from the events.
We were impressed by Vice-President Pence, who gamely controlled his anger at the situation and set the tone for the Senate’s debate, despite the pressure that the President had put upon him. We were impressed by Speaker Pelosi, who knew that the day was Epiphany, the day that Jesus was recognized by the wise men and related it to her hope that the various players would draw together as Americans instead of splitting into Republicans and Democrats. And we were impressed by other leaders and not so impressed by some of the speakers. But, for the first time in years, we had the chance to see who these men and women are who lead Congress, beyond the ten-second angry soundbites that the networks play on the evening news, for the network editors create realities by what speech they let us see.
Did anyone else see Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester crouching in the House Gallery, praying her heart out and lifting her hand in praise of God, inviting His protection? 
We saw that for once in their lives, these five-hundred plus people were forced by God to sit together in a small room for hours in a shared experience of personal danger, that their bubble of protection had collapsed and they found that they were all in it together instead of fighting against each other. While I doubt that God wanted this situation to happen, I am constantly amazed at how God takes bad situations and uses them for God’s purposes. It amazed me the unity in leadership shown after the event by both parties.
So I say to you: If you are looking for excitement and purpose in your life, there is a right way to change the world and a wrong way. The right way is first to find out what the God Who created the world wants done, to accept that Jesus is the Son of God, to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit into your heart, to listen to that Spirit and read Holy Scripture, and to make sure you are learning the right lessons by attending a local church every week.
For breaking and burning and rioting and encouraging others to do so is only a way to spending days and months and years in a cold, dark cell in prison. But spreading the Word of God is the best way to change people, one heart at a time. Create realities that you and God will be proud of by what you speak of.
Amen?
We saw that for once in their lives, these five-hundred plus people were forced by God to sit together in a small room for hours in a shared experience of personal danger, that their bubble of protection had collapsed and they found that they were all in it together instead of fighting against each other. While I doubt that God wanted this situation to happen, I am constantly amazed at how God takes bad situations and uses them for God’s purposes. It amazed me the unity in leadership shown after the event by both parties.
So I say to you: If you are looking for excitement and purpose in your life, there is a right way to change the world and a wrong way. The right way is first to find out what the God Who created the world wants done, to accept that Jesus is the Son of God, to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit into your heart, to listen to that Spirit and read Holy Scripture, and to make sure you are learning the right lessons by attending a local church every week.
For breaking and burning and rioting and encouraging others to do so is only a way to spending days and months and years in a cold, dark cell in prison. But spreading the Word of God is the best way to change people, one heart at a time. Create realities that you and God will be proud of by what you speak of.
Amen?
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