A Lived Sermon
My religion column for today's issue of the Tribune & Georgian is How to Transform Camden County with a Lived Sermon. The column started with thinking about Tuesday's blog post Beware! and wondering what street level theology looks like here in Camden County, knowing that the best sermons are lived rather than merely preached:
Theology just means “what we think about God.” So your own theology is what you think is true of God. Common theological statements are things like, “I believe God is always present, all knowing and all powerful.” Or “I believe that Jesus is God’s son and through faith in him, I can have forgiveness of sins and eternal life.” You can say that you believe that God loves everyone and that Christians should share the love God has shown them. But how do you put those beliefs into practice?I then went on to consider how much we Christians are already doing in Jesus' name for our neighbors and then considered what else needs doing and concluded:
The needs are greater than the resources. But rather than focusing on that reality, we would do our faith more credit to dream as God dreams, seeing that working together, we can accomplish much more....You can read the full text of the article and comment on what you think.
We Christians are already doing much to make Camden County a better place and in doing so we preach about what we believe about God more effectively than any sermon. And to the degree we join together, celebrating that which unites us, we will all the more show our neighbors the love God has shown us.
peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor + King of Peace Episcopal Church
posted by King of Peace @ Friday, December 08, 2006
2 Comments:
At 12/08/2006 8:32 AM,
Anonymous said…
I think for most people there is a faith gap - a gap between what they profess and what they believe in their hearts. I can say that I believe that God is real, but if I live my life as if He isn't there, do I really believe? Probably not. In the same line of thought, if I believe that God loves all people, but don't try to help others, do I really believe that, too?
My Mom is a positive example of this principle. She is consumed with the need to spread the gospel. Her faith in the Saviour inspires her to help others to learn to share their faith. And she doesn't understand why others don't feel the need as well. Because she really, truly, genuinely believes, she wants - needs - to tell others about Him. Even when she is sick and cannot get out of the house for days, she is on the phone encouraging others, writing her daily e-mail devotion, praying for needs in our community, planning mission studies for her church, and organizing service projects for the ladies of her church to spread God's love. Her faith drives how she lives her life.
No one has ever had to ask my Mom if she is a Christian. It's obvious. And while we all have different gifts and missions within the body of Christ, the fact that our lives are driven by our faith should still be obvious to anyone who encounters us. No one should have to ask us if know God. It should be clear that we have been in His presence and have been changed because of it.
At 12/08/2006 9:23 PM,
Anonymous said…
God, who has begun a good work in you, will be faithful to complete it. I look forward to joining with you and other pastors in that work when I move to Camden County in January 2007.
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