Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

Matthew 7:15-17 – “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  You will know them by their fruits.  Are grapes gathered from thorns, or fig from thistles?  In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.”  (NRSV)

Our denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), has its roots in a movement that believed in, longed for, and worked for the unity of the church of Jesus Christ.  We are fond of stating that we have “no creed but Christ,” meaning that as long as you believe in Jesus, you can be part of what we’re about.  Such a posture has often meant that members of our tradition, within and across congregations, hold wildly different understandings of scripture and faith.  But by keeping our eyes on Jesus, we’ve managed to stay in community across broad differences.

As lovers of Christian unity, we have generally been reluctant to call out bad behavior by fellow Christians or to label others’ use of the faith as un-Christian.  We know that God is the one who truly sees what lives within each human heart, and that we are not called to judge but to love.

In recent times, however, we have been pushed to lean more on Jesus’ teaching to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”  There is a growing movement of those who would use the name of Jesus to impose their rigid interpretation Christianity on everyone else.  They have decided they know who is blessed and who is cursed, and they are trying to pass laws to impose consequences on anyone who would dare to live differently.  Their supposed Christianity doesn’t seem to have anything at all to do with love.

We can believe in and long for the unity of the body of Christ without allowing others to abuse scripture and defame the name of Jesus with hateful ideology and violent rhetoric.  We can and must speak up when our Christian faith is manipulated to hurt others, whether our LGBTQ+ siblings, Black and Asian American friends, immigrant neighbors, or people of other faiths.  Jesus taught us that we can discern what behaviors are of God by looking at their fruits.  Hatred, violence, and death are not the fruits of the Spirit.  Rather we must promote what builds up love, kindness, generosity, and gentleness.  Sometimes, in order to do that, we must stand up for truth and disavow the mis-use of Jesus’ name when it is being spoken in service of hatred and division.