Pat Robertson and Love

I read a few days ago a few posts about Pat Robertson's comment regarding a man who wanted to divorce his wife because she had Alzheimer's. In case you did not hear, Pat Robertson (supposedly, I did not hear the comments myself) said that the man should go ahead and divorce her.

When his co-anchor asked if this broke his wedding vows, Pat responded that vows were "until death do us part, and this is a kind of death."

Does this bother anyone? While I am sure Pat took some heat for this, is this just a non-issue for most folks. Isn't Pat just stating what our itching ears want to hear? Isn't he just stating what most of us practice in some form or another? Isn't he just stating our truth. When the going gets tough, the tough find a loophole or a justification for their actions.

• We live in time of economic crisis. Will borrowing more money really get us out of this mess?
• We see the poor and afflicted. What do we do to help them in Jesus' name? Not even a cup of cold water?
• We make vows to our spouses. We tell them we love them. But when that beauty fades or they are no longer of service to us, we cast them aside. Was not the person we loved really ourselves? As long as we get what we want, we love and stay together. Was that the vow we took?

It is no wonder that non-Christians are not affected by us. We don't clothe ourselves in Christ, we just put on a t-shirt that says, "I love Jesus because saying so gets me into heaven." Problem is, we have never read the back of the shirt. It says, "I wanted to go to heaven, but all I got was this lousy t-shirt!"

That's been my experience...

I was listening to a Matt Chandler sermon. If you are not familiar with Matt, he has a less that positive view of most of what is done in the name of evangelicalism.

In this particular sermon, he mentions how many churches are about confirmation. We confirm that what the minister says is good and right, and he confirms us through his distortion of the word. Has Matt been to my church?

I did not confirm the minister, but I questioned what he said or at least how he said it. Did he really say that good deeds plus the gospel = Jesus follower? Yup, and I have the outline to prove it. Now I am not opposed to good deeds. But they are not in needed in addition to the gospel, are they? Are they not rather a response to the gospel. I guess what bothers me most is the fine line that is walked. I cannot say that he is wrong. In some ways he is right. Faith without works is dead. But taken in context, that is not how I see him meaning it. Not when you take all of the other statements and see a bigger picture.

I can't confirm that message. But he won't either. I find it sad.

I still haven't found...

Things continue to be busy at work. It seems that shortening our day by 30 minutes actualy makes for more work, as I try to figure out how to get everything done  that needs done. Add to the the new "fixes" they have incorporated into our teaching, and it is amazing I have time to sleep at all. Hence, the blog has taken a back seat lately. But sometimes I just need a break from grading papers, like now.

Tomorrow will be the 4th Sunday away from UCC (which I pronounce phonetically as Uck!) We have had an elder stop by to encourage us to return, but not another sound. I am sure that many do not even realize we are gone.

We went to a Presbyterian church last weekend. Not the place for us, although I had such hopes. So much of their service was consumed by their upcoming building project. It made me uncomfortable. They asked when we signed in if they could contact us...(silence)

So we will worship at home tomorrow. Sing a bit, listen to a sermon (tomorrow will most likely be a Tim Keller sermon), share communion and pray. We will talk about how we can give back to God some of what he has given us.

I want a church home, but I don't want to play church. I can't pretend all is well and paint a smile on my face. I pray God will lead us somewhere soon.