There is a lot of talk these days
about the lack of preachers in America willing to address public policy from
the pulpit. (read my August 19, 2013 blog posting) Today, I would like to recognize the pastor
of a predominantly black church in Virginia. This clergyman is a leader to his congregation.
Here are portions of his sermon. Note how things have changed very little over
the past 4,000 years.
“Good
morning, brothers and sisters! It's
always a delight to see the pews crowded on Sunday morning, and so eager to get
into God's Word. Turn with me in your
Bibles, if you will, to the 47th chapter of Genesis. We'll begin our reading at verse 13, and go through
verse 27. Brother Ray, would you stand
and read that great passage for us? (read Genesis 47:13-27)
Thank
you for that fine reading, Brother Ray. So
we see that economic hard times fell upon Egypt, and the people turned to the
government of Pharaoh to deal with this for them. And Pharaoh nationalized the grain harvest,
and placed the grain in great storehouses that he had built. So the people brought their money to Pharaoh, like
a great tax increase, and gave it all to him willingly in return for grain. And this went on until their money ran out, and
they were hungry again. So when they
went to Pharaoh after that, they brought their livestock – their cattle, their
horses, their sheep, and their donkey … to barter for grain; and verse 17 says
that only took them through the end of that year. But the famine wasn't over, was it? So the next year, the people came before
Pharaoh and admitted they had nothing left, except their land and their own
lives. ‘There is nothing left in the
sight of my lord but our bodies and our land. Why should we die before your eyes, both we
and our land? Buy us and our land for
food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh.’ So they surrendered their homes, their land,
and their real estate to Pharaoh's government; and then sold themselves into
slavery to him, in return for grain.
What
can we learn from this, brothers and sisters? That turning to the government instead of to
God to be our provider in hard times only leads to slavery? Yes ... That the only reason government wants
to be our provider is to also become our master? Yes! After
Jacob and Joseph passed on, and the Jews began to drift away from their God,
even they too became slaves in the land of Egypt.
I
also tell you a great truth today, and an ominous one – We see the same thing
happening today! The government today
wants to ‘share the wealth’ once again, to take it from us and redistribute it
back to us. It wants to take control of
healthcare, just as it has taken control of education, and ration it back to us.
And when government rations it, then
government decides who gets it, and how much, and what kind. And if we go along with it, and do it
willingly, then we will wind up no differently than the people in Egypt did
four thousand years ago – as slaves to the government, and as slaves to their
leaders.
What
Mr. Obama's government is doing now is no different from what Pharaoh's
government did then, and it will end the same. A lot of people like to call Mr. Obama a ‘Messiah,’
don't they? Is he a Messiah? A Savior? Didn't the Egyptians say, after Pharaoh made
them his slaves, ‘You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be
servants to Pharaoh’? Well, I tell you
this – I know the Messiah; the Messiah is a friend of mine; and Mr. OBAMA IS NO
MESSIAH! No, brothers and sisters, if
Mr. Obama is a character from the Bible, then he is Pharaoh.
Bow
with me in prayer, if you will. Lord,
You alone are worthy to be served, and we rely on You, and You alone. We confess that the government is not our
deliverer, and never rightly will be. We
read in the eighth chapter of 1 Samuel, when Samuel warned the people of what a
ruler would do, where it says ‘And in that day you will cry out because of your
king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in
that day...’ Lord, we acknowledge that
day has come. We cry out to You because
of the ruler that we have chosen for ourselves as a nation. Lord, we pray for this nation. We pray for revival, and we pray for
deliverance from those who would be our masters. Give us hearts to seek You and hands to serve
You, and protect Your people from the atrocities of a new Pharaoh's government.
In God We Trust! And all of God’s people said – Amen!”
This contemporary pastor is like those
of this nation’s historic ‘Black Regiment’ … not because of the color of his
skin, but because of his fulfilling the call to be ‘salt and light’ in a dark
and foul tasting world.
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor,
Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
No comments:
Post a Comment