Dear Church,

There’s an old song that goes, “I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus.  I have decided to follow Jesus.  No turning back.  No turning back. The cross before me, the world behind me [repeat x2].  No turning back.  No turning back.” This morning that song is calling me to remember that I have a guide in this world.  I follow Jesus.  Not a political party or a personality on social media.  Not my own beliefs or fears about this or that.  I follow Jesus.  He is the one who said, among other things, that the first will be last and that to gain my life I will have to lose it.  Following Jesus does not mean that we take ourselves out of this world in any way.  We watch the news.  We care and we act.  But we do not behave as if we have no direction.  We read the Bible, notice the movements of Jesus life, and then pattern our lives after him.

This is Discipleship 101, but I find myself needing to be reminded of it today.  May each of us be in this world, but not of it.  May we engage in the important conversations of our time with the words of Christ ringing in our ears.  Generations ahead will know and judge how we respond right now.  May they say that we, like Jesus, put love at the center of everything.  May they say that we were willing to lose face and lose the pride of being considered ‘right’ in order to gain the fruits of justice and mercy for all of God’s children.  May it be so.  Amen.

With love,

Pastor Amelia McCown