It is Christmas Eve as I write this post. I am hoping that all who subscribe to Attempts at Honesty are well in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.

While I suspect that the crisis has been sensationalized by news outlets, it is a very real problem that has changed all of our lives. How permanent those changes will be remains to be seen.

But, one of the troubling aspects of the response to COVID-19 is the assumption that those who govern are responsible to fix the problem. We have given up personal freedoms on the promise that if we surrender complete, or nearly complete, control to the governing authorities, we will be safe and much good will result.

Certainly, I believe that government has a role to play in keeping us safe, but I also think that there needs to be caution in placing too much trust in the ability of governing authorities to solve such a massive problem.

The psalmist reminds us:

“Do not trust in nobles, in a son of man, who cannot save.”

Psalm 146:3 (CSB)

During this Christmas season, we celebrate the arrival of Emmanuel, God with us. On that first Christmas, the glory of God broke into our world in the form of a baby in a feeding trough.

That baby grew up to be a man who made the claim to be truly God with us. That claim, if true, should cause us to look to him, not to our government, not to a vaccine, for our ultimate support in this crisis.

In this Christmas season, disrupted as it is due to COVID-19, I hope that there will be a fresh infusion of the understanding of the glory of that baby in the manger.

A crisis such as we are experiencing strips away the illusion that we have everything under control and should cause us to look to the one that actually has that control.

It turns out that surrender, not to a human government, but to Emmanuel, God with us, is actually the best solution. That is my wish for myself, my family, my community, my country and my world.

Merry Christmas!

Politicians are famous for telling us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear. Few politicians get elected on a platform promising austerity and hardship. We want the best things and we want them for free.

But we all know that there is no free lunch. Someone has to pay.

Unfortunately, the church is not immune to the same type of inflated promises. We have entire church organizations that make similar promises. They claim that those who follow Jesus will never endure hardship; they promise that with enough faith, disease will stay away.

Yesterday I read these words in Zechariah:

“For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd.”

Zechariah 10:2, ESV

I have been in churches that are infected with those who are self-proclaimed prophets. Like the diviners mentioned by Zechariah, they tell of false dreams of ascending into heaven and make false claims of being able to speak prophecy concerning what is best for the people around them. Rather than comfort, they bring confusion at best and destruction at worst.

Also rampant in such “ministries” are claims that those who adhere to their interpretation of scripture will certainly be healed of their sicknesses.

Certainly, I do believe that God can heal. I have known stories of healings that defy normal explanation. I am not arguing that miracles cannot happen.

What I am arguing is that we have no Scriptural basis for any claims that God will automatically heal those who have faith that He can do so. To make such a claim is an empty consolation. As C. S. Lewis pointed out, statistics show that one out of one of us dies of something.

Jesus himself told us:

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33, ESV

I have believing friends that are going through serious hardship right now. One friend is struggling with a recent cancer diagnosis. Another friend was informed yesterday of a tragic death in the family. Others have difficulties with family relationships. And we all are struggling with how to cope in the midst of a pandemic and all the changes that result from it.

There is no guarantee that the cancer will be removed, even though I believe God can do it and I pray for such a healing. There is no guarantee that the tragic death will result in some ostensible good, even though I believe God can use an unexpected death for his Glory.

The only guarantee is that Jesus promises to be with us no matter the outcome in this life. The one who conquered death promises to know and to care about what we are experiencing. We can have comfort and joy in the midst of difficulty because Jesus is with us.

In this Christmas season, we celebrate Emmanuel, God with Us, who came to earth to make that comfort and joy possible. But we should also keep in mind that the baby in the manger came knowing that he would also be the God on a Cross as the means of producing that joy.

Any real hope that we offer people has to consider that in a fallen world, suffering is a real thing and does not exclude those who are followers of Jesus.

But we can offer very real hope that suffering does not get the last word.

I probably sound a bit like a scratched record that skips and gets stuck in the middle of a song. But I keep running across passages in Scripture that challenge the way that I have experienced church in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.

The woke church, socially acceptable church, seeker-sensitive church, and just about every other church growth model may have produced larger attendance figures, but I have not seen that they produced better disciples.

The most recent example of such a passage is in 2 Corinthians 2:15-17 where Paul writes:

“For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.”

2 Corinthians 2:15–17, ESV

Two things jump out at me from this passage.

The first is that if we are faithful to Jesus Christ and proclaim His gospel, not everyone will respond positively. Paul clearly says that the aroma of Christ will smell like death to some and life to others. Some will reject, and some will accept the message that we are called to proclaim.

From this, I infer that the drive to proclaim a message that all will accept is misguided and will do more harm than good. It is one thing to use care in presenting the Gospel in terms that newcomers can understand. It is another thing entirely to banish any speech that would cause people to be troubled.

Jesus didn’t have any issues with getting to the heart of the matter and forcing people to make a choice. Once when addressed as Good Teacher, Jesus asked the man, “why do you call me good?” When Nicodemus came to Jesus, Jesus was candid and basically told Nicodemus that he was missing the point entirely. Jesus showed little care about whether people were offended by the message.

But, Jesus did love with supernatural love, and that love was a draw even to those who struggled to believe what Jesus was saying. Perhaps we, as church leaders, should put more emphasis on loving those in our care and burn fewer calories over how well accepted we are. We should speak the truth in love, no matter what the outcome might be.

The second thing that jumps out at me from this passage is that some are in ministry for the wrong reasons. Paul clearly states that some are “peddlers of God’s word.” In other words, they are providing God’s word to the people, but doing so to make money; they have an impure motive for their ministry.

The word that Paul uses to speak of peddlers, is a curious one and it is found only here in the New Testament. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament says this of this word:

“This word means “to engage in retail trade” and carries a nuance of trickery and avarice. In philosophy, it denotes the selling of teaching for money.”

My question to every pastor is, what is driving the desire to have a large church? Is it really because you are concerned about the spiritual well-being of the members?

My experience is that as churches see numerical growth in attendance and giving, the emphasis shifts from growing people deeper in their relationship with Jesus to growing the numbers and the budget. This shift occurs because the leadership gets distracted by the perceived need to overcome the increased costs associated with a bigger staff and a larger campus.

We are all in danger of believing better of ourselves than in warranted. A healthy amount of self distrust and having an elder board empowered to keep things in check are crucial to staying the course to hear “well done good and faithful servant.”

I don’t think that in the day of judgment the attendance figures, church budget or staff headcount will cause any impression on a judge who only cares about the quality of the disciples we produced. After all, that is the mission he gave us in what is commonly known as the Great Commission.

We should seek to be the aroma of Christ to a world that desperately needs Him but in many cases doesn’t yet know it.

As I am writing this, the most acrimonious presidential election season in my lifetime is about to come to a close. To hear the supporters of each candidate, life as we know it will end if the other candidate gets elected.

Yet, when we survey Scripture and understand the environment which Jesus experienced, and in which the early church was formed, we can be in a better position to understand that we need not fall for the doomsday rhetoric.

I was encouraged when I read this paragraph written by H. Richard Niebuhr about Jesus’ faith in God and his skepticism about men.

“Now when we look at Jesus from the point of view of his faith in men, he seems a great skeptic who believes that he is dealing with an evil and adulterous generation, with a people that stones its prophets and then erects monuments to them. He puts no trust in the enduring institutions and traditions of his society. He shows little confidence in his disciples; he is convinced that they will be offended in him, and that the sturdiest of them will be unable to stand by him in the time of testing. Only romantic fictionizing can interpret the Jesus of the New Testament as one who believed in the goodness of men, and sought by trusting it to bring out what was good in them. Yet despite his skepticism, he is remarkably free from anxiety. He is heroic in his faith in God, calling the Lord of heaven and earth Father. He relies in his poverty-stricken existence, without family, food, or lodging, on the one who gives the bread needful for the day; and in the end he commends his spirit to Him whom he knows to be responsible for his ignominious and shameful death. To Him also he entrusts his nation, believing that everything needful will be granted to folk who, turning away from self-defense, seek only the Kingdom of God. Such faith will always seem radical to human beings with their deep suspicion of the power which brought them forth, maintains them, and decrees their death. It is the faith of a Son of God, too extreme for those who conceive themselves as sons of nature, or of men, or of blind chance.”

H. Richard Niebuhr – Christ and Culture

As Christians, we may have a preference for who wins the election, but we should not be dismayed if our preferred candidate does not win. Paul tells us in Romans 13:1 that it is God who oversees the world governments and no result is beyond his sovereignty and control.

Many dictators, emperors, kings, and supreme leaders have sought to eradicate belief in Jesus. As one commentator has said, “the church has always outlived her pallbearers.”

So, my fellow Christians, before you post some gloomy outlook for our country on November 4, please keep in mind that when Paul wrote about submitting to the governing authorities, Nero was the Emperor of Rome.

Let that sink in for a minute. Nero, remember him? The crazy one?

We can, if we exercise the faith of Jesus, become as anxiety-free as Jesus was. We can, if we exercise faith in Jesus like Paul, be as anxiety-free as Paul.

This is so whether there is an “R” or “D” behind the president elect’s name on November 4.