#evangelism — Public Fediverse posts

The justices are expected to decide in coming months whether to take up the case, which is being closely watched as conservatives…work to expand #religious “rights” [ #Christian #evangelism ] in public spaces & opponents battle them in court. In April, a conservative appeals court upheld the law in a narrowly divided opinion.

#SCOTUS #law #Constitution #EstablishmentClause #SeparationOfChurchAndState #TenCommandments #education #PublicSchools #schools #Texas

Calling Out the Church Is an Act of Witness

“Why are you calling the church out and making them look so bad?” someone asked me after I preached about the church’s lack of justice. “The people you’re preaching to probably don’t even need to hear that message. You were likely just preaching to the choir and calling out rare extremists.”

I always feel a bit gaslighted when people tell me this. I wish I had screenshotted all of the insane posts I saw from Christians I knew during the pandemic. The “rare” extremists are apparently many of my friends. I grew up with them. I played at their houses. They taught me who Jesus was. And now that they had been socially and politically provoked, I was observing in them an unimaginable behavior I didn’t know they were capable of.

To some extent, I need to speak out on these issues for evangelistic reasons, as the world needs to see a pastor address such behavior. Unbelievers think that the “rare” extremist is what Christianity looks like because they have seen the same posts I have. I also need to speak out to save myself. If I allow this kind of stuff to go on without saying anything, then I become complacent—and I can’t handle that. People need to know that Christians aren’t all like that. They need to know that Jesus looks different than what’s being presented to them.

To represent God wrongly is what it means to take the Lord’s name in vain, and it was such a big deal to God that he made it one of the Ten Commandments. In the Old Testament, the Israelites bore the name of Yahweh just by being Israelites. Wherever they went and whatever they did, they were to be a specific representation of the name Yahweh. They were to have the character of Yahweh, do justice like Yahweh, farm like Yahweh, party like Yahweh, and take care of the oppressed like Yahweh. They failed over and over and over again until Yahweh eventually divorced his abusive wife, Israel. They had not done a good job of portraying Yahweh to the world, and they had taken his name in vain through their misrepresentation. Christians do the same thing.

So why do I speak about justice to a world that doesn’t always want to hear about it?

I speak because someone has to bear witness to it.

GO! [Sermon]

Hospitality is a huge issue in the Middle East. Even people who have little will offer visitors rest and refreshment.

This isn’t just friendliness. There are many places where there is little opportunity to find food or water. A lack of hospitality could mean death for the traveler.

So it’s not surprising that when Abraham saw three men, he offered them rest, water to wash their feet, bread, beef, and curds to eat.

The tradition of hospitality is still strong in modern Palestine. It was even stronger in the time of Abraham, and in the time of Jesus.

Let’s go to God in prayer.

God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.

Amen.

In our Gospel reading Jesus sends the twelve out to Jewish cities. He’s sending them to people who should have no reason to deny them hospitality. And he gives them instructions to proclaim the good news, cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; and cast out demons.

This is obviously evangelism, but it’s also something else: a test of hospitality.

If you know the story of the fall of Sodom, you may know that it was destroyed for homosexuality. Topical for Pride month.

But if you really know the story of the fall of Sodom, you know it’s a story of strangers to the city who were planning on spending the night in the public square, but who were offered hospitality by Lot – who was mentored by his uncle Abram.

And rather than being content with their neighbor offering hospitality to these strangers, they were enraged and demanded that Lot send the strangers out so that they may “know” them.

I would argue that “know” – yada – is often used for husbands with wives, but for unmarried people, we usually read “lie with.”

Yada also means to just know someone or something well. There’s even a place where God is quoted as thinking about Abraham “I know (yada) him.”

But even if we’re talking about knowing the strangers “in the Biblical sense,” it’s not consensual.

It’s violence.

So the story is about strangers – apparently transients – in town, sleeping on the streets, who were invited in by someone offering hospitality, and the people of the town taking issue with this, demanding the strangers be brought out to face mob judgment.

And if there’s any doubt, hear these words from Ezekiel 16, beginning with verse 48:

48 As I live, says the Lord God,

your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.

49 This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease but did not aid the poor and needy.

50 They were haughty and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.

Ezekiel 16:48-51, NRSVue

So when Jesus sends out the twelve, he’s sending them to people who should know these lessons. But if you have met many people of any faith, you have met at least one or two who have missed or ignore the central teachings of their faith and focused on those that help them.

And he gives them a test:

12 As you enter the house, greet it.

13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.

14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words,

shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town.

Matthew 10:12-14, NRSVue

They’re going to offer you hospitality, or they’re going to be unworthy.

How unworthy?

15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable

for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

Matthew 10:15, NRSVue

There’s that Sodom reference again.

It’s not mere coincidence.

He even tells them what to do if a town refuses them:

23 When they persecute you in this town, flee to the next, for truly I tell you,

you will not have finished going through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”

Matthew 10:23

There’s no benefit in continuing to challenge people who won’t listen to you. We’ve all met people who won’t take “no” for an answer.

So what does this tell us?

Well, it tells us that we ought to offer hospitality to travelers in need. It tells us that we ought to tell the message of Jesus as we understand it. And it tells us that when people are not receptive to that message of love, rather than wasting our time and energy making someone more upset with us, we ought to just move on.

Sometimes it will take several people before someone gets it. Or they may never get it.

We’re not out there counting our conversions. We’re out there bringing good news.

So my challenge to us this week is to find those opportunities to tell of a God who loves us all. A God who wants to offer us hospitality and healing.

There may be large opportunities, like parades, rallies, and protests.

But there may also be small opportunities: one-on-one conversations with people who need to hear these healing words of welcome.

Whether it’s into the public square of a strange town, or next to a person in need,

GO!

Amen.

Let’s sing CH 475 The Church of Christ in Every Age

* Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue

* Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James version of the Bible.

…The IRS’s new approach is the latest in a string of triumphs for #conservative #Christian groups, which are leveraging their alliance with #Trump to redraw boundaries between #ChurchAndState.

For now, the implications of this latest victory are unclear. On paper, the new #IRS policy appears narrow. It grants more freedom only to houses of worship, which the agency already seemed disinclined to police.

#law #TaxLaw #Christianity #Evangelism #NewApostolicReformation #NAR #TaxExempt

At #Trump’s request, Jeffress’s #church sent the White House Faith Office a 7-page letter outlining what it called “wrongful weaponization” of the #law & the “unlawful targeting of our church.” The letter, obtained by NYT, included recommended actions, & a mention of a Texas lawsuit, which offered a vehicle to declare that the law was wrong.

3 months later, #conservative #Christians scored a major victory.

#TaxLaw #Christianity #Evangelism #NewApostolicReformation #ChurchAndState #TaxExempt

In the Blue Room of the White House, once the cameras recording the Easter prayer service cut off, the conversation at #Trump’s dinner table turned to one of the biggest political goals for #conservative #Christian activists — eliminating a #law that banned #churches, & other #TaxExempt charitable groups, from endorsing #political candidates.

#TaxLaw #Christianity #Evangelism #NewApostolicReformation #NAR #ChurchAndState #TaxExempt

How #Conservative #Christians Cracked a 70-Year-Old #Law

The #IRS recently said that #churches could endorse #political candidates from the pulpit, a break from a longstanding interpretation of American #nonprofit law.

#law #TaxLaw #Trump #Christianity #Evangelism #NewApostolicReformation #NAR #ChurchAndState #TaxExempt
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/us/johnson-amendment-church-free-speech.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare