Fighting for Jesus

Those of you who read my blogs weekly may have a sense that I was a kid who followed all the rules as a young boy, and you would be correct.  I experienced a few crazy times in college, and believe it or not, at the seminary.  But I stayed as clean cut as I could, and with my over-active guilt complex, I was careful.  So get ready to be shocked.  I never got into a fight.  I know, crazy, right?  But there was this one time a group of guys got mad at my friends and me.  I can’t tell you why, or what we did.  It was a stage in my life where I had some groupies, and somehow we made the other group mad.  Think of it like suburban gangs--really not scary to anyone.  So they wanted to meet us to have a fight, but I was convinced we could turn it into a football game.  Another shocking thing--I spilled the beans to my mom before I ever got out the door.  My mom conferred with another mom after which we were never allowed to go to that field again.  That was probably a good thing, because you might now have a pastor missing some body part, because I would have lost.

            My best friend is a Marine.  I remember the day he went to Iraq and the day he returned safely home to us in St. Louis.  In between those times I got letters, emails, and a few music exchanges.  His stories are often hard to understand.  I have never been in his shoes.  He tells stories of some hidden mines that destroyed one of his friend’s legs.  His stories are a testament to the cost of my freedom.  Yet, most days I go on living happily.  I enjoy my house, my car, my kids, my wife, and the freedom to pray to Jesus whenever I want.  Yet, the cost is great.  This week we celebrate the gift of independence.  And while it often has been overshadowed by movies of aliens and fireworks, most of my Fourth of July memories are surrounded by firework shows we watched, put on, or risked our lives by doing our own stunts with fireworks.

            This weekend we leave behind the series of Red Bird Evangelism; hopefully you are still praying for the next person with whom God intends for you to share the message.  Yet, we don’t forget the cost that brought us to the place where we can know God personally.  We continue on and re-engage with last week’s Gospel reading where the disciples were ready to run out and use all the new powers God had given them.  Jesus had to calm them down, and remind them of the war they were about to fight, and what it meant to fight for this.  They were fighting for the freedom of the hearts of men and women that were entangled with sin and the devil.

            Sometimes we don’t think about what it would be like to live in this life without understanding the freedom Jesus has given us.  There are people with broken marriages, struggles with habitual sin, financial trouble, sick kids, and so much more, who don’t know the healing power of Jesus.  The war they fight is endless, with no relief in sight.  The disciples struggled with this and we do too.  Yet, God sends us, the Body of Christ, to share the message of freedom, which was won by Jesus.  This weekend we celebrate freedom--both the freedom of this country and the freedom of Jesus.