Recently I joined my two brothers to clear out my parent’s home to sell their house. My mother Gloria died this past October, and my father Jake has moved into the Meridian at Westwood. When I was growing up, my family moved from house to house. My parent’s last house was not the home in which I was raised. Yet, in each of these houses, my mother put familiar paintings, etchings, and photographs on the walls. The recent process of packing up these pictures was not easy, but the process brought back many good memories.

I still heard my mother speaking to me through words written in her bible and through notes written by her throughout her home. For example, my mother had a wooden plaque on her desk with her name on the front and the following words written by Martin Luther taped on the back of the plaque: “This life therefore is not righteousness but growth in righteousness; not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished but it is going on; this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.” There is a lot of grace in these words.

We are heading towards Easter, the day when we affirm that the crucified one, the despised and rejected one, the one who took the form of a humble servant, is the one whom God has glorified above all else. Jesus was glorified when he was raised up on the cross, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. He wants to share his glory with us—that is, he wants us to shine with his love, light, goodness and grace so that we reach our full, glorious potential. “All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.” This is our hope that sustains us.

In Christ,

Scott

Back in 2017, the musician Bruce Springsteen did a solo show on Broadway where he played some of his songs and told the stories behind them. You can listen to this show on his album Springsteen on Broadway. Near the end of the show, Springsteen introduced his final song Born to Run, and he began talking about going back and standing in the shadows of his old church building where he was raised. And then he says that the words of a benediction came to back to him. And then Springsteen began to recite the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

This is a prayer that people who go to church know and it is a prayer that people who don’t go to church know. People say this prayer on Sundays. People pray this prayer during a crisis. People pray this prayer at night, in the morning. When his disciples asked Jesus how to pray, Jesus taught them the Lord’s Prayer. During the Sundays of Lent, we will explore the Lord’s Prayer.

Our sermon series during Lent is called Hallowed. Each Sunday we will talk about a different part of this prayer. Because here is the point of this series: God forms us through the Lord’s Prayer to become more like Christ. God gives us this prayer so that we can become more like Jesus. But what do we mean when we say the Lord’s Prayer? How does praying the Lord’s Prayer change us?

For example, what do we mean when we pray, “Hallowed be thy name”? Hallowed means “holy.” And holy is one of the attributes of God. Holy is an attribute of God on the moral level: God is fully good, and God is completely just. But holiness is not just an attribute of God on the moral level. It is an attribute also about God’s very nature: God fills all creation, and God transcends creation. God is infinite in power and glory. God is eternal. Even though God revealed God’s self to us in the person of Jesus Christ, there is lots about God that is beyond our comprehension. God is not us.

When you read the Bible, you see that God’s presence could fill people with fear. That’s why in the Old Testament, the temple—the building that signified God’s presence with Israel—had barriers to keep people from getting too physically close to God, because getting physically close to God was like approaching a downed, hot powerline or, as one commentator, “a blast furnace.” Physically approaching God could be dangerous, not because God wants to hurt people, but because God is holy—infinite and mighty.

Here is another thing. Objects and even people were set apart for God’s good purposes, and that made them holy. The clothes the priests wore in the temple, the lamp that lit up the sanctuary, all these became “holy” and couldn’t be used for everyday purposes, because they were set apart for God.

God wants to make us holy. In Leviticus 19:1, God says to the people of Israel: “You must be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” This part of Leviticus contains instructions on how the Israelites are to live so that they will represent God well in this world. The Israelites are to live in ways that set them apart, ways that make them different from the way the world is.

Today, we are also God’s people through Christ Jesus. Many of these rules in Leviticus no longer apply to us: rules like eating certain foods or wearing certain clothes. But the moral rules in Leviticus—the rules about loving our neighbor as ourself and rules about treating others fairly (read Leviticus 19:1-18) still apply to us, because as followers of Jesus, we are to live in ways that are different from the world’s way of living. We are to live in ways that give glory to God. As followers of Jesus, we are set apart for God’s good purposes, to love as God loves. We are to be holy as God is holy.

Of course, we can’t be holy in the sense of becoming infinite and eternal as God is. But we can embody more and more God’s love and grace. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he told them to say, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Our names matter. Our names are about our identity, and praying “Hallowed be thy name” means that we want God’s identity to be glorified and honored.

The opposite of making something holy is to profane it, to treat it with disrespect. We don’t want to profane God’s name. We don’t want God’s name to be treated cheaply, as too many do whenever people use God’s name as a cuss word. We want God to be loved and respected throughout the world. That’s why we pray, “Hallowed by thy name.”

Thus, we have to ask ourselves, “What am I doing to honor God? Am I living in such a way that I am treating God’s name with respect? Or am I acting in ways that discredits God’s name or even bring shame to God? In a recent episode of his podcast The Bible for Normal People, the Old Testament scholar Peter Enns compared bringing shame to God to children bringing shame to their parents. You know how kids embarrass their parents at times. When they are toddlers, they can throw tantrums in the aisle of the supermarket, screaming and refusing to get up. You’ve seen parents embarrassed, haven’t you? As children grow older, parents at times are called to the principal’s office because their child did something bad. That’s embarrassing for a parent. Imagine how parents feel when they see a mugshot of their adult child on the front page of the newspaper.

Now, God doesn’t get embarrassed. God is beyond being embarressed because God never worries about losing face. God is God. But God’s still heart breaks whenever we act in undignified ways. Therefore, when we pray to God, “Hallowed be thy name,” we are not just asking God to do something. We are committing ourselves to do something, to act in ways that bring honor to God.

So how are you honoring God’s name? I heard an interview with the church historian Justo Gonzalez in which Dr. Gonzalez pointed out how praying the Lord’s Prayer changes us. It forms us, because as we pray this prayer, we have to ask ourselves, “Am I doing the things for which I am prayer?” I mean, what’s the point of praying “Hallowed be thy name” and then acting in ways that dishonor God? Whenever we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we make the commitment to live a certain way, to put our lives in line with the request that we are making.

When we ask God to do those things that bring God glory and honor, we, too, agree to do the best we can to represent God well. Thus, God changes us as we pray the Lord’s prayer.

1.28.2021

When we practice our faith, we rightly ask, “How are we to live? How does God intend for us to be? What will our actions and attitudes be when we are at our best? These questions are aspirational. These questions reveal our goals and clarify our longing for how we want to be when we are fully freed from the destructive pull of sin.

I was encouraged as I listened to President Joe Biden’s inauguration address because he expressed his desire to work with all people and serve as president for both those who voted for him and those who voted against him. Biden’s speech was aspirational. He talked about us being led by our nature's better angels to treat one another with dignity and respect and to disagree with one another in charitable ways. He said, “Together, we shall write an American story of hope, not fear. Of unity, not division. Of light, not darkness. A story of decency and dignity, love and healing, greatness and goodness.” This is an aspirational speech! This is not describing how we often are but expressing how we may be with God’s grace. My prayer for President Biden and all of us is for God to help us live into these ideals so that these aspirations become lived realities.

The book of 1st and 2nd Chronicles is aspirational literature. The writer of Chronicles retells King David's story and of David’s descendants, the successive kings of Judah. As the Old Testament scholar Bernard Anderson points out, the Chronicler is guided by faith in the covenant that God made with David—the irrevocable covenant that God would bless the world through Jerusalem’s throne and temple. The Chronicler retells King David's story from 1st and 2nd Samuel, but he chooses not to include any of David’s flaws or sins. He wants to portray David as the ideal king, the kind of ruler the world needs, the kind of person we all should aspire to be. Sadly, we too often fail to live into our ideals. As Paul says in Romans 7:19, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” At times David failed to be his best.

However, the good news is that God proved faithful to the covenant that God made with David. God blessed the world through David’s descendant Jesus Christ, and Jesus fully lived in a sin-free, flawless way. Jesus showed us how human life looks when we are at our best. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus “breaks the power of canceled sin,” and he empowers us to live into our ideals. We keep striving with God’s grace to be the best we can be, and confidently, we say with Paul, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, called this moving onto Christian perfection, which for him meant maturing in Christian love. United Methodism is an aspirational faith.

Therefore, we refrain from cynically dismissing aspirations to become better. We believe that people can be transformed. We willingly give others the benefit of the doubt. We work at building bridges. We respond with grace. And when we do this, we live into being the people whom God calls us to be. With God’s grace, our aspirations will then become lived lives.

In Christ, Scott

December 8, 2020

This season of the Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing has reminded me of the importance of Christian community.

God never intended for us to walk the journey of faith by ourselves. Instead, God joins us with brothers and sisters in Christ. Together, we help and encourage one another to grow in our relationship with Christ. John Wesley said that there is no holiness but social holiness, which means that the Christian faith cannot be a solitary religion, because there is no growing in grace apart from our connection with fellow believers.

One of the wisdom books in the Bible, Ecclesiastes, affirms the support we get from others. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone. Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Not only are we strengthened through the support we receive from fellow believers, we, in turn, become a source of strength for them.

I experienced this recently through the cards that many of you sent me and my family, letting us know that you are praying for us after my mother Gloria’s death. Your letters have encouraged me during a time of grief, and God has used these letters to assure me and my family that we are not alone. I am grateful for all your prayers.

In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray “our Father,” not “my father.” Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we affirm our connection to one another. I grieve that Covid-19 has kept many of us apart from one another physically, but I rejoice in how we have maintained connection through other means.

During this time of social distancing, if you have slipped out of the habit of connecting with fellow believers, I encourage you to reach out to your sisters and brothers in Christ. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “ Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Christian community is a means of grace.

In Christ, Scott

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, affirmed the importance of service, the act of stepping forward to help others in Jesus’ name.

This past Sunday, we’ve started our stewardship emphasis. Our sermon series is called Cultivating Generosity. We are talking about how God grows us to be as generous as Jesus Christ is. Stewards manage what belongs to someone else. All that we have and all that we are is a trust from God. We are caretakers and managers of all that God has entrusted for this brief season of our earthly lives.

During our stewardship emphasis, we often focus on being stewards of our financial resources. But we are stewards of more than just our money. We are stewards of all our lives, including our time and talents. Giving your time in service to others is an act of stewardship. I am grateful for all the ways that you have given your time to serve Trinity UMC.

The Acts of the Apostles tells the story of some of the growing pains in the early church. Acts chapter 6:1-6 tells what happened when certain widows were neglected during the daily service of food distribution. No one was trying to hurt anyone, but sometimes, in a growing church, important tasks can get overlooked. When the 12 apostles became aware of this problem, they immediately called together a meeting of church leaders, and they came up with a solution: they appointed seven people to be deacons, to be those tasked with the responsibility of service and to make sure that the widows received what they needed. The apostles laid hands on these 7 people, prayed for them, and commissioned them to be deacons (a word that means “servants”).

This tells me that God gives us opportunities to serve and that service is an important practice for followers of Jesus. At Trinity, we have many opportunities to serve. We have a disaster recovery team that works to help people recover from Hurricane Sally. We have a security team that makes sure people remain safe when we gather at the church for worship or when people come to eat lunch at our Daily Bread ministry. We always need more servants to help with these ministries. If you are willing to serve (and I ask that you prayerfully consider this), will you contact our coordinator for Disaster and Safety ministries, Barry Ratcliffe, at disaster@trinityfwb.org. or at safety@trinityfwb.org.

In Christ, Scott

August 26, 2020

There is a big difference between transactional relationships and transformative relationships.

A transactional relationship is a relationship where I give something to you, and then I expect something in return. I don’t have to change. I simply pay you for something, and then I receive from you the service for which I paid. Compare this with a transformational relationship. A transformational relationship is one that changes me. When I join in relationship with you, I don’ receive a product. I become a different person.

Our relationship with God is transformational, not transactional! We don’t receive God’s grace by paying God. We don’t give something to God and then expect to get something in return. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works so that no one may boast.” God’s grace changes us. It makes us new creations. This is why Paul says in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” We don’t barter with God. Instead, we receive God’s grace to be transformed, to be born again.

Think about the difference between participating in a potluck dinner and going to a restaurant.

The pastor J.R. Briggs compares church to participating in a potluck dinner. At a potluck dinner, everyone brings something to share with others. Everyone has something to contribute. Everyone gives and receives. Someone brings deviled eggs. Someone brings pecan pie. Others bring casseroles, broccoli salad, fried chicken, and green beans. All these different offerings complement one another. Even when people bring the same dish, the dish is cooked differently. To participate in a potluck you have to be transformed, because you have to learn to cook. You have to grow and develop your cooking skills, so you have something to contribute as well as receive. That’s how a healthy church is. It is transformational!

Briggs contrasts this with the image of someone going to a restaurant where they expect others to do all the cooking and to serve them. That’s how some people approach church, as a transactional relationship rather than a transformational one. Some people come to church, thinking it is restaurant. They sit back and expect to be served: “You meet my needs as I define my needs. You serve me the food I want and don’t expect me to change. Don’t expect me to become different.” That’s an unhealthy church. It has nothing to do with God’s kingdom!

I am so grateful that God relates to us in a transformative way rather than a transactional way, because we cannot earn God’s grace! I am so grateful that I am connected with brothers and sisters through the church in a transformative way, in a way that makes me a better person. A foundation of our faith is realizing that our relationship with God and the church is transformative and not transactional.

July 26, 2020

Pentecost celebrates a gift. God poured out the Holy Spirit on the church as pure gift. The giving of the Holy Spirit is not dependent on our effort to do right, otherwise the Spirit would not be a gift. God gladly the Spirit, because the Spirit equips us to go to others and communicate with them the saving work of what God did for us in Jesus Christ.

For the Jewish people, Pentecost celebrates when God at Mt. Sinai gave them the Teachings or the Law (the Torah). God communicated to Israel the nature and character of God. God’s giving of the Torah was pure gift—because God chose to enter into a covenant relationship with Israel not because Israel earned it, but because God chose to love them and use them as blessing to this world.

When God gave the Torah and when God poured out the Holy Spirit on the church, God communicated. God wants people to know God and to be able to respond to God.

When the Holy Spirit came upon the believers in Acts 2, they began to speak in other languages (tongues) as the Spirit gave them ability. Then people from other nations who were staying in Jerusalem heard the good news of Christ proclaimed in their own native languages (dialects).

Luke, the writer of Acts, uses both the words tongues and dialects when describing this miracle of communication. The dictionary says that the word dialect means “a particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group.” Having lived in Germany, I am fluent in German, but can’t understand the Schwabisch dialect of southern Germany or the Swiss dialect! When people speak the same language, they still may not understand each other because they speak different dialects!

Think of how people belong to different culture and ethnic groups all around us on Racetrack Road. Think of how people come from different places to be here in Fort Walton Beach. Think of how people come out of different contexts and have different life stories. The same words may have different meanings to different people! Communication can be tough.

Yet, God still wants us to communicate the love of Jesus Christ to all people around us. Through the Holy Spirit, God gives us the ability to communicate Christ. Communication begins with us listening to and learning from the people around us. My prayer is that God will teach us how to listen, learn, and communicate in our new era of Covid-19.

I came across the following quote in Celtic Daily Prayer: “I have said that were it mine to build a city, the first stone I should lay there would be the foundation stone of the church. But if it were mine to preach the first sermon in that church, I should choose as the text: ‘I saw no church therein.’ I should tell the people that the great use of the church is to help people to do without it.”

In other words, the church is not a place to shelter from the world. The church is the place to be equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit to go out into the world and communicate the good news of Jesus in dialects and ways that others will understand. We pray for God to lead us to do this.

May 27, 2020

I recently began reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters & Papers from Prison. Bonhoeffer was a German pastor during World War 2. He ended up in prison because of the work he did for the resistance against Hitler. While in prison, Bonhoeffer thought hard about how to live out his Christian faith during this time of loss and cultural collapse. I am now turning to Bonhoeffer’s writings for guidance on how to live the Christian faith during this time of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bonhoeffer wrote about how Christians are to continue to live responsibly, no matter what our outward circumstances are like. While under arrest at the military prison in Tegel, Bonhoeffer quoted the Austrian songwriter Hugo Wolf who sang, “Over night, over night, come joy and sorrow, and before you know it, both leave you and go to the Lord, to say how you have borne them.“

In life, we experience both times of joy and times of sorrow. We are responsible to God to live faithfully during both these times. Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Matthew 6:44-45). Times of sunshine and times of rain come our way. Therefore, regardless of whether it rains or shines, we, who follow Jesus, continue to live responsibly, which means we continue put our faith into action through the practice of love.

Remembering these words of Jesus helps me not to give into self-pity or to complain during tough times, times such as today with all the uncertainty surrounding this pandemic. When Job’s wife told him to curse God and die, Job responded by saying, “You are speaking foolishly. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” (Job 2:9-10) Our true character is not revealed in how we carry ourselves during good times. Our true character is revealed in how we make it through bad times. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 5:3-5, “We also boast in our sufferings, 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.”

During his time in prison, Bonhoeffer focused on what he could do to live responsibly for future generations, not on what he could not do. Bonhoeffer wrote, “What we cannot do, we must now simply let go of and limit ourselves to what we can and should do, that is, be... strong in trust in God in the midst of our suffering.” Even in prison, Bonhoeffer still rejoiced at the wedding of his niece Renate to his good friend and fellow pastor Eberhard Bethge. He wrote a sermon celebrating their union because a wedding is an affirmation of faith in the good future that God promises despite our outward predicaments.

Bonhoeffer’s attitude reminds me of a quote that is supposedly attributed to Martin Luther, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." This time of pandemic and social distancing will end. Our call now is to continue to live faithfully even as we wait for God’s coming salvation.

May 6, 2020

Dear Friends, When John Wesley started Methodism, he gave us three simple rules to follow: 1). Do no harm, 2). Do good, and 3). Stay in love with God. These three rules guide us in how we are to be the church.

Particularly, we don’t want to cause harm in the way we respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. The reason we currently have ceased on-site worship at Trinity is because we do not want to spread the Coronavirus. We want to keep you safe. I give thanks to God that we have been able to grow our online worship service. I am grateful for how so many of you are connecting with us through social media. I am grateful for how our youth and children’s ministries are continuing online. I am grateful for the new people who are joining us. I am grateful that our Daily Bread ministry continues to provide meals to the hungry. Thank you for your continued giving that makes our ministries possible.

People ask, “When will onsite worship resume at Trinity?” My honest answer is, “I don’t know.” We will follow directions from our Bishop David Graves and from our government leaders, such as our Governor Ron DeSantis. We will follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how we can meet together safely. The CDC has recommended a 3 phase reopening plan. We are currently in phase 1 of our reopening plan, the time when our office is closed and when we are asking vulnerable people to shelter in place. We are now avoiding meeting in groups of more than 10. Phase 2 is when we will begin meeting in groups of 50 or less with precautions to mitigate any possible spread of the Coronavirus. We are not yet in phase 2.

We have formed a Covid-19 taskforce to discern answers to the question of when and how we will resume worship in person. The members of our taskforce are: Candy Broxson, Karen Gornto, LaTreva Pounds, Carol Overstreet, Barry Ratcliffe, Michael Simon, and Gail Widener. They will work with our worship staff (Matt Hull, Shannon Hull, Melissa Johnson, Paula Roane and Lisa Simon and me) to prayerfully discern the right time and right procedures to have in place to resume worship onsite.

Even though our office is closed, all our staff are able and willing to speak with you and to be in ministry with you. We ask that you call or email us to make an appointment with the appropriate staff member.

In Christ, Scott

April 15, 2020

I reread recently the story of Jesus joining two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus. On the evening of the first Easter, two disciples walked to the town of Emmaus. As they journeyed, the two were full of grief. They discussed Jesus’ death and the how some of the women disciples had found Jesus’ tomb empty that morning and saw angels who had told them that Jesus was alive. As these two walked and discussed what had happened, Jesus himself joined them. As I reread this passage, I was struck again at how, at first, Jesus’ identity was kept hidden from these two disciples. Luke says in 23:15-16 that, “Jesus himself arrived and joined them on their journey. They were prevented from recognizing him.”

They were prevented from recognizing him. Isn’t that we sometimes experience Christ’s presence with us?

God is with us always. Jesus promises to be with us always. Jesus says in Matthew 28:20, “Look, I myself with be with you every day until the end of this present age.” Still, we don’t always see Jesus in the same way we see our family and friends.

When Shannon Hull and I filmed our Easter Sunrise service with our cameras pointing out over the bay, our hope was to video the sun as it rose. But it was a cloudy morning, and we couldn’t see the sun. The sun was hidden by the cloud, until Shannon began singing Because He Lives. Then, as Shannon sang, the sun peaked through the clouds, and we got a glimpse of the bright, orange ball of the sun, proving that the sun was already in the sky, already with us. The sun had risen. We just couldn’t see the sun because it had been hid from us by clouds. C. S. Lewis once wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” Even when we couldn’t see the sun because it was hid by clouds, we could still see everything else that morning because the sun had already risen.

This reminded me of a mission trip I took to Costa Rica. On our mission team’s day off, we traveled to Paos Volcano National Park, a tropical rain forest with a deck that overlooked a volcanic crater. This crater was supposedly a beautiful sight with steam came up out of the earth. I had seen pictures of this volcano and I wanted to see it for myself. When we arrived at the park, we followed the signs to the volcano. We arrived at the deck that overlooked the volcano. But it was a cloudy day, and all we saw were the clouds below. The clouds covered the volcanic crater with mists. We could not see the crater. It was hid from my eyes. But we were told by trustworthy people that the crater was there. There was evidence all around me that the crater was there, even if we could not see it with our own eyes that morning. My not being able to see the crater did not mean that it did not exist.

Isn’t this how we experience Christ? Sometimes, Christ seems hidden from us. When that happens, we keep trusting in him. We keep looking for his handprints and for his footprints. Even when we don’t see Christ, we see signs of his presence all around us. We believe Christ rose from the dead in the same way we believe that the sun rises every morning, even when we don’t see the sun because of clouds. Whenever Christ seems hidden, we watch and wait. We watch for his appearing, “more than the night watch waits for morning; yes, more than the night watch waits for morning” (Psalm 130:6).

April 1, 2020

At times during this Covid-19 pandemic, I have felt overwhelmed with information. Medical experts share information on how this virus spreads. Church experts share information on how pastors are to respond to social distancing. Counselors share information on how families are to get along while being cooped up together. Business consultants share information on how folks can work at home. It is hard to turn on the TV or open up email without being flooded with lots of information.

I am grateful for all who are sharing their knowledge and opinions, but I am reminded that we are not saved by information. In his book A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, Edwin Friedman criticizes a fallacy in our culture that says that if we just collect enough data and if we consult the rights experts, then we can solve all our problems; we can then be saved. But sometimes, we will never have adequate information. Sometimes, experts will be wrong. Sometimes, the mystery of life can’t be reduced to something we can understand.

The Christian faith proclaims that we are not saved by information. We are saved by a relationship with the living God who comes to us in Jesus Christ. The early church struggled against a false teaching called Gnosticism. Gnosticism says that people are saved by getting the right information about God. But this is wrong! True Christianity says we are saved by grace through faith. We are saved as a gift from God who loves us, claims us, and redeems us through Jesus Christ. Our main goal is not to get more information in our heads. Our main goal is to connect our hearts to Jesus. We are saved not because we have figured everything out about God. We are saved because God chooses to rescue us.

Of course, information has its place. God has given us brains to learn. Acquiring proper information helps us live wise and fruitful lives. God wants us to know the right things. But, it is also okay at times to turn off sources of information. It is okay to turn off the TV, disconnect from social media, and put brackets around the advice of so-called experts. It is okay to sit in quiet and trust in God. In John 15:4, Jesus says, “Abide in me as I abide in you,” because it is about maintaining a relationship more than it is about getting information.

What my heart longs for more than information is community. I miss connecting and worshipping with you all in person. I grieve this practice of social distancing. So let’s work together to maintain our connection and to build our relationships with one another, because it is not information that will save us. It’s God’s grace that comes to us through each other.