Richard Pedersen
Doomsday ?We are now at a crossroads of pandemic fatigue and pandemic anger,? said Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. ?Basically the public has said they are done with the virus. Unfortunately, this virus isn?t done with us. I think the next 12 weeks in particular will be the darkest days of the pandemic.? Such doom and gloom shifts my thoughts to the prophets. From Jeremiah 13, ?Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings the darkness, before your feet stumble on the darkening hills. You hope for light, but he will turn it to utter darkness and change it to deep gloom? (v. 16). As much as we wince at such movement from God, we must admit, if we?re honest, that suffering, hardship and failure?the things that expose our weaknesses? are the very things that emphatically display God?s power and recalibrate our affections. Even the most cynical skeptic will cry to the Lord in deep trouble. Yet once God comes through, we?re through with God until next time. Nothing dampens faith like getting prayers answered. As long as the Israelites wandered the dry desert, they earnestly relied on the Lord for daily bread. But once they reached the promised land with bakeries on every corner, God took a back seat to self-serving idols. In Luke?s gospel ten lepers pleaded to be healed of their leprosy, but as soon as Jesus did it, nine of them disappeared without so much as a word of appreciation. God knows that whenever the weak get strong, power gets corrupted and grace gets abused. Corrupted power and abused grace are a constant theme of the prophets. The abuse of grace doesn?t end with them, of course. History repeats like a broken record. As churches find themselves on the viral ropes and wondering whether to throw in the towel, a surrendering of strength and stepping out of the ring may be what it takes for us to find our true strength in Jesus. It?s long been argued that the church cannot make a difference in the world unless it is different from the world. Jeremiah?s answer for the enculturated Israelites was exile; expulsion for the sake of embrace, failure for the sake of faith. Israel?s exile opened their eyes to how far they had capitulated to worldly affluence and entitlement which as God?s people they had been redeemed to resist. The most significant work of the gospel happens when the church refuses to seek celebrity limelight and political power, when it takes counter-cultural risks, when it refuses to buy into the things that can be bought. God goes so far as to make himself a humble and impoverished working-class carpenter, crucified on a cross in order to save the world. The church, as the embodiment of Jesus, must abide according to the cross-shaped, Christian pattern of humility and failure, ironic power and radical grace, subversive righteousness and justice with love. The church makes a difference in the world when we are different from the world.
Richard Pedersen
This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, ?It is through faith that a righteous person has life.? Romans 1:17 NLT
Romans 1:17 This Good News tells us how God makes…
Richard Pedersen
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice?the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Romans 12:1 NLT
Romans 12:1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I …
Richard Pedersen
So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God?s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. Hebrews 10:35?-?36 NLT
Hebrews 10:35-36 So do not throw away this confid…
