Perhaps some of you might be in a period of mourning: The world and her culture have been changing drastically for at least 40 years. It’s not that the world has ceased proclaiming Christian values – it never really did. Jesus isn’t a clean-cut, soft spoken gentleman who applauds good behavior and conservative thinking. Christ Jesus comes in mercy, with an un-attractive appearance from which we’d hide. His message isn’t on par with right or left-winged thought. He wants us not taking comfort in a “Christian world” but in the promise that he takes away all sins. That He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. It’s called the “scandal of particularity”–and oddly, even many “Christians” are not comfortable with the idea that God will be the one God (YHWH) who will do things in his own prescribed way. But, as declared in The Revelation, “Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let those who are vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy” (21:11).

As in the Gospel of St. Luke, chapter 7, Jesus wants His people listening to John’s message. He wants His people looking to the wilderness for their salvation and not soft frilly garments in king’s courts. “Blessed is the one who is not offended by Me” Christians never had the majority. If they did, then they weren’t preaching Christ crucified for the sins of the world. For that is a scandal that has forever placed the church in the cross-hairs of persecution. Now the axe is at the foot of the tree. The sifting of true Christians from false Christians is beginning.

Consider when Christianity, too, was in the cross-hairs: The late Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings and sermons became stronger and more faithful to the Gospel as he and his people withstood persecution, even faced ultimate death. Grace is costly. Rejoice not in statistics, but that God has brought you into the kingdom of grace, through the blood of Jesus Christ.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
Ezra