9-21-11

9-21-11
Dear Family of faith,
It's a sad day when our nation has to wait to hear whether a man may be wrongfully executed in Georgia for a crime he probably didn't commit. As I write this, Troy Davis, is scheduled to be put to death in spite of witnesses recanting their testimony, the concerns of dozens of prison wardens and executioners across the country, even Jimmy Carter and the Pope. Why would a governor turn a deaf ear to such a cacophony of voices calling for a stay until the matter can be resolved? Because we have this desire to blame someone, anyone, for the troubles of our lives. In this case the family needs closure, and it doesn't matter to them whether they have the right criminal or not. This incident makes me think about my own life and how often I want to blame someone else for the things that go wrong. Yet our New Testament teaches (in Romans 12) that revenge is not part of our Christian lifestyle. Vengeance belongs to God. We are told not to judge others and to leave the justice to God because our judgments are often faulty and our justice imperfect. We misjudge too often, so rather than add to our own sin, God wants us to practice Jesus' way-- the way of the One who said, even as he was being unjustly put to death on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing."
Recently I saw a photo in the newspaper about a local group that has been helping to feed children. Under the photo was a caption that said that the particular program was "providing food to deserving families with children in Hernando County," When I read that, I thought to myself, "I wonder what their criteria are to be a "deserving family." It made me wonder whether the group might withhold food from kids if they thought the parents were not worthy of help. This is the problem we get into when we're trying to help others. Who is deserving? Are little children to go hungry because they have bad parents? Certainly there are unfit parents in this world-- we have all seen them and heard of them, but can we punish the children because of their parents? No doubt our government assistance programs help out a lot of "undeserving parents" in an attempt to keep the children from poverty and worse. What would Jesus do? He told us in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:42): "Give to everyone who begs from you." I'm glad Jesus doesn't keep his love and grace from me because I'm undeserving.