Why the Church Cares

My wife and I were ready for our new adventure as a future clergy couple in New Jersey. In 1993, Sharon and I, along with our Persian cat Kuzak, stuffed our yellow Pontiac Sunbird to begin our ministry at Northside Chapel Community Christian Reformed Church in Paterson, New Jersey. My co-pastor, the late Rev. Stan Vander Klay, found a spacious apartment for us in neighboring Clifton.

The primary strategy white Christians have taken over the past 45 years to reduce abortions has been to make abortion illegal. This goal can only be accomplished by getting conservative justices on the Supreme Court, which can only happen if conservative (usually Republican) presidents are elected. With Justice Kennedy stepping down this year, we have a moment like this once again.

In March 2018 a bold decree was made by Oba Ewuare II, the traditional ruler of the kingdom of Benin (located in southern Nigeria). Oba Ewuare II was upset that his beloved kingdom had received negative international press regarding the high numbers of women and girls who are coerced into trafficking and sexual exploitation and “bound” to their traffickers through voodoo juju rituals, so he decreed that all victims of these rituals are free.

Review of Journeys to Justice (Novalis, 2018) by Joe Gunn

How should churches deal with political issues? That question has long sparked incandescent discussions among Christians. Many hold that God calls Christians to promote public justice. Yet we differ strongly on what those policies and which political parties, if any, Christians should support. With many white evangelicals backing Donald Trump in 2016’s presidential campaign, the issue soared into public consciousness, triggering months of embarrassing negative media coverage.

Jesus would find modern Zionism peculiar. More than that, in his own day, he rejected the closest thing to it. But first let’s explain our terms.

Created in God’s image, human beings were made with a unique capacity for developing structure and accentuating the beauty of God’s world. God’s intention was that we would be like his signet ring (see Haggai 2:23), representing and ushering in his justice and righteousness as the caretakers of this world, and of each other. We are meant to make his glory known.

Over the Easter weekend, the news media was once again flooded with violent images coming out of Israel and Palestine. We saw groups of masked Palestinians stoke fires made of tires while thick smoke rose into the grey-blue Gazan sky. On the other side of the barrier fence we saw Israeli artillery vehicles shoot teargas to disperse the crowds, and a hundred snipers shoot live ammunition as the people ran for cover. What is going on over there? Will the violence ever end?

“Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.”

We pray earnestly and fervently that God will open the eyes of our hearts. We pray this because we want to be more like God—we want to reflect him truly. But do we let his answer to our prayer penetrate our minds and eyes? Do we let his answer soak into our daily lives? How often do we keep our eyes open to see the way God answers these prayers?

The Creation Care Preaching Challenge submissions are in! Watch Do Justice this week and next to read more submissions. Thank you to everyone who participated for helping us to reflect on the Bible's teachings about creation care. This is a portion of a submission from Kory Plockmeyer. You can read the full sermon here. 

Texts: Romans 8:18-27

“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us.