“Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem…he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” – 2 Chronicles 29:1-2
Violence, racism, war, sexual abuse scandals, and economic stress flood the headlines as I write this blog. On Saturday, May 14, 2022, in Buffalo, NY, suspected gunman Payton Gendron, 18, was “accused of fatally shooting ten black victims and wounding three others, including two white victims, at a Tops grocery store,” as reported by Stephanie Pagones from Fox News. The next day violence broke out at a church in Laguna Woods, CA, resulting in the death of one person with others wounded in the incident. During a press conference, Orange County Undersheriff Jeff Hallock said that “churchgoers displayed ‘exceptional heroism and bravery’ during the incident, and without their quick actions, there could have been more casualties.” Hallock added that “the churchgoers detained the gunman by using an extension cord to hogtie him and confiscate the weapons.” After I wrote the first draft of this blog, another headline broke concerning the Southern Baptist Convention. Last year at the SBC Convention, a gathering of leaders from the thousands of churches that make up the SBC called for an independent investigation into allocations of sexual abuse throughout the convention. On Sunday, May 22, 2022, the report compiled by an independent source highlighted several known accounts of sexual abuse and misconduct from leaders, pastors, and volunteers in SBC churches. As a pastor of an SBC church, this breaks my heart and puts me on my knees asking for God’s mercy, grace, and help as we are called to repent and mourn the truth of evil and sin in the church. Then the day before this blog was posted, another tragedy struck. On May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old gunman shot his grandmother before killing 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
We must caution ourselves against becoming numb to the discouraging and tragic headlines produced seemingly every day. We can walk away with cynical hearts, broken by the evil events shaping our culture and world. Cary Nieuwhof warns of allowing cynicism to rule our hearts instead of our hearts being soft and tender. In his book, Didn’t See It Coming,Nieuwhof writes, “Cynism doesn’t start because you don’t care, but because you do care.”As I write, my son walked into my office as he was preparing for school. A cynical heart doesn’t help him look past all the pain in the world. A cynical heart doesn’t help all the survivors who were not protected from abuse. A cynical heart doesn’t help me point people to the hope of the gospel. I don’t want to be cynical, and I don’t want to ignore another headline.
It can be tempting to gloss over headlines simply because they happened somewhere else to someone else. Yet, the tragic truth is it did happen to someone—a person created in the image of God who bears His image for His glory, yet tragically killed where they lived. These horrible crimes happened within a church, grocery store, and school, which are places most of us will visit this week. What do we do in the face of such violence and hatred right where we live? There are a few options. We could pretend incidents like the ones referenced didn’t happen and allow them to be swept away with the next news cycle. Or we hide away from all the world’s dangers by locking our doors, turning on our security cameras, shutting our garage doors, and living anxious, fretful, and isolated lives. Or could there be another way? What if, instead of ignoring the world’s condition or hiding from what could happen, we run to the places we live with the hope of the gospel?
Everyone, every community, and every soul experiences a “gospel gap” that exposes our longing for something better and more beautiful. Patrick Scheiner, professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, describes the power of Christ in a tweet from 2019, “For Christ left us in such a way that his presence might be more useful to us….He withdrew his bodily presence from our sight, not to cease to be present with believers….but to rule heaven and earth with a more immediate power.” I believe we are looking for this “more immediate power” in our lives and communities. The gospel message of Christ is the answer for the communities we live in, yet, where do we begin? I often ask myself, should I preach more on how the gospel impacts our lives? Should I write more and have deeper, more meaningful conversations about the world’s hurt and despair? I don’t have the answers, but I am willing to probe my own heart and ask the hard questions about how I can help my community right where I live. We have to start somewhere, so let’s look at the Old Testament for an example of a man, King Hezekiah, who restored and reformed worship in Judah. During his reign, King Hezekiah made his community and the city where he lived better because of the hope he had in the Lord.
Traditions are powerful. They can serve as an anchor for our souls in times of famine and plenty. Sacred traditions help us slow down and reflect on all God has done and all He has promised. In her book, Treasuring God in Our Traditions, Noel Piper writes, “You can’t impart what you don’t possess.” This quote is simple yet profound. We often experience the gospel gap in our life because we do not have a fixed point of reference that serves as a marker. Sometimes, the pace of life does not allow us to slow down and observe.
I like that word, observe. Observing a powerful and sacred tradition was one of the first acts of King Hezekiah. In 2 Chronicles 30:5, King Hezekiah “decreed to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come and keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem for they had not keep it as often as prescribed.” The tribe of Judah had been plagued by war, evil, poverty, and incompetent leadership; they were separated from the rest of their brothers in Israel. Hezekiah wisely sees something missing in the life and rhythm of the nation and passionately calls them back to the sacred ways. Judah was not going to be a light to the nations and live the life to which God had called them if they didn’t remember the faithfulness of God. Often, you can’t go forward without remembering how God has blessed and taken care of you in the past. The Passover was to be a hallmark in the life of Israel. God was clear in His intentions for Israel to celebrate and remember His great act of deliverance. Exodus 12:14 states, “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever.” Notice that the problem was not failing to observe the Passover; the problem was the failure to observe it regularly. What habits and traditions are you observing that can point people to the hope you have in Christ? Do your spiritual habits come up in conversations with your children, spouse, or the people in your community? What rhythms are you developing with the people you do life with that would help them close the gospel gap they are experiencing?
Developing a spiritual tradition doesn’t have to be complicated or cumbersome. You don’t have to be a biblical scholar to see the benefits of building spiritual milestones in your life. But, you have to start somewhere, and sometimes the first step is the hardest. This step could be establishing a time alone with the Lord, a time to pray for your community and neighborhood, or maybe it’s inviting the neighbors over for a meal so they can naturally see how real Christians love God and one another. During my time as a student pastor, Kristina and I would host a high school Bible study at my house with several dozen students in attendance. Before we began the Bible study, we would read a bedtime story to my daughter when she was a toddler. Those students now have children of their own, but watching us live out a God-honoring tradition greatly impacted their lives. Some of those dear friends are now in their twenties and thirties, and they will tell us how those stories, confetti cake, time spent around the table, our open house, our open lives, and an open Bible made a significant impact.
Those living around us are hurting, even if they won’t tell you. Remember, you can’t impart what you don’t possess. But as believers, we possess the blessed Holy Spirit and the gospel message, which can fill the gap that so many people experience. Yet, a key to filling the gospel gap where we live is to be active and present with those in our community. Why? Because sadly, we will walk through another Buffalo incident. As the songwriter, David Wilcox sings, “there will always be somebody with an army or a knife to wake us from our daydreams and bring the fear back in our lives.” The communities where we live are filled with scared, isolated, alone, and fearful people, thinking the worse is yet to come. But we who follow Jesus know the best is yet to come. We know there is something greater and better than the world we are experiencing. So let us boldly live out the Kingdom, pointing others to the reign of the King.
We were not meant to do life apart from others but to bring a message of reconciliation where we live. The Apostle Paul writes the following to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 5:19, “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself…entrusting to us the ministry of reconciliation.” What a gift to share! Our neighborhoods need the gospel of hope, and who better to be the catalysts for change than you and I.
