These days it seems that the church as well as the nation (and world) are caught up in never-ending spirals of condemnations. All we seem to hear is “Condemn them! Condemn that! If it’s not perfect, we must condemn!” Even the calls for church leaders to condemn an action, group or individual have grown more vocal as we demand our judgmental viewpoints be echoed from someone who (supposedly) represents God.
 
               What is this need to condemn and where does it come from? Why do we think judgment and condemnation against others is the answer to so many of our problems? And why do we feel the need to demand that our leaders condemn those we want judged on our behalf?
 
               The word  “condemn” comes from the Latin word con-damnare. Damnare, the second half of that word, means to harm or damage; the con is there for emphasis. So to con-damnare someone means to really, really harm or damage them. (https://www.etymonline.com/ )
 
               Of course, we can all see the word “damn” in this Latin word which invokes images of God (or us) sending people to the horrible suffering of hell. And while sometimes we may have a lighter meaning in mind when we “condemn,” such as to disapprove or judge against, the weight of the word tends to imply the harsh desire to hurt or rip apart those we’re condemning.
 
               This I think is one of the reasons behind our need to condemn: to lash out and harm others after being wounded. When we experience this hurt or remember past hurts while failing to remember the many hurts we’ve caused, we often are left with a strong craving to retaliate. We want to damage others the way we’ve been hurt through assaulting, dehumanizing, demonizing, and damning them, their identity group, their character, their actions and their personhood. And we especially like to do it on social media where we think there are no consequences to our actions.
 
               We also seem to do this out of our own sense powerlessness and feeling out of control of our situation. We condemn in order to lift ourselves out of insecurity and a sense of weakness; in order to bully ourselves out of anxiety and fear; in order to tear others down and rip them apart so we can feel more self-righteous and more like god and thus all-mighty and power-full so that at least in the condemning moment that sense of human weakness and helplessness disappears…until it returns when those we’ve condemned attack us back.
 
               And this steers us toward demanding that our leaders condemn others so that we can hear our own condemnations through their voices. We get stuck in echo chambers where we choose to hear only what we want to hear, and what we want to hear is our leaders confirm our opinions and echo back to us what we believe so that we can feel righteous in our own right-ness.
 
               The fact is that all this condemning actually just perpetuates the cycle of destruction as the condemned get defensive and retaliate with more condemning words or actions. Then we retaliate with our own condemnations and so on, until we descend into violent, hate-filled damning of one another in a horror-show like the spectacle on January 6 or other violence, riots and wars seen throughout human history.
 
               Here’s reality folks: condemning one another does not work! It doesn’t fix any of the problems we want to fix. It doesn’t allow us to be the solution we claim to want to be. It doesn’t cure the evils of the world. It doesn’t heal the wounds we want to heal or help those we are called to serve. Condemning only harms, destroys and damages, perpetuating the cycle of bitterness, cynicism and fear into on-going hate and finally eternal damnation.
 
               So what do we as followers of Christ do? Do we stay silent in the face of the evil and suffering so obviously happening in the world around us? Do we ignore the pain and oppression, hate and violence against ourselves or the neighbors we are called to love and just suck it up as our “cross to bear”? Do we hide inside a comfy, nice-but-not-kind church in a false sense of safety until we get to escape to heaven?
 
               No, of course not! But we don’t turn to condemning, which is God’s work and God’s alone -- IF God chooses to do so. God is God; we are not, and we are commanded to be on God’s side, rather than forcing God to be on our side, including the side of us that wants to condemn. (Cf. First and Second Commandment & Bp Elizabeth Eaton)
 
               Instead, we exhort and challenge the “what is” by speaking and living God’s eternal Law of “what God wants,” namely Love, by being and doing Christ’s love in everything we do and say into the world through kindness, compassion, peace, reconciliation, generosity, justice and self-control.
 
               Instead, we admonish through the words of God’s Law but always in humility, seeing and renouncing our own sin and complicity in the larger evils first by checking in the mirror and asking how our own words, actions, and ways of life may already be breaking God’s Law, harming our neighbors and preventing Christ’s kingdom from coming near. “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.”  (Mt 7:1-5. See also Lk 6: 37-38 and Rm 2:1ff)
 
               Instead, we proclaim through our actions and words the gospel of God’s grace, forgiveness, welcome, and equal acceptance and love of all people of all identities, standing with the wounded in solidarity and lifting them up through the Spirit’s encouragement, empowerment, and enlivening words, thoughts and actions.
 
               And we proclaim this Gospel and Law not by tearing some people down to lift ourselves or others up, but by preaching over and over again the affirmative, positive gospel that we know through teachings and ministry of the Jesus of Nazareth in the Bible. (Thanks to Bishop Michael Curry for reminding us of this on the webinar that was recorded today entitled “Democracy and Faith Under Siege: Responding to Christian Nationalism” and can be found here soon.
 
               So no, I will not condemn. Nobody but God has the power or right to condemn, including me. But I will speak and affirm God’s Law AND Gospel loud and clear ad nauseum to those who would listen. For that is my call as a pastor. And I do this knowing that I too am in bondage to sin and cannot free myself, knowing that through faith that I too am a beloved child of God and created in God’s image, knowing that I too am welcomed, loved and accepted through my baptism.
 
               And SO ARE YOU a beloved child of God, created in God’s image, welcomed, loved and accepted into Christ’s kingdom! What amazing, grace-filled good news this is that we all get to share with the world! So let’s stop condemning and instead lift up God’s love for our neighbors in all we do and say.
 
In Christ’s Love,
 
Bishop Laurie

What is God doing in the world? As we go through these days of division that have reached the point of violence or threatened violence against the foundations of our society, we may be wondering “Where is God in this?” and “What is God calling us do and be right now?”

This is a paralyzing question in the midst of the anxiety and fear and anger we may feeling. But perhaps some guidance directly from God Word (Law and Gospel) may be helpful in naming one of the most important ways God is showing up right now as you wrestle with how God is calling you to live into this time and place.

So I offer you this reminder in less than 2+  pages of what God’s Law states to us. Note that this comes from Scripture, Luther’s Small and Large Catechism, some familiar words from the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, and bit of my own work in Christian Ethics. It’s longer than usual so you may want to read on a computer or print it out rather than trying to read on your phone.
 
God’s Law - The Great Commandments – the two commandments upon which ALL of God’s Law is based. (Mt 22:40)

1. Love God with your whole self -- your heart, spirit, body, and mind. In your viewpoints, opinions, politics, and social actions. In everything you are and everything you do, everything you think and everything you feel, Love God.
   
2. Love your neighbor as yourself –your neighbor, ALL your neighbors including those you refuse to define as neighbor. Love: seek the well-being, the best life, the safe and secure world, the hope-filled, peace-filled, joy-filled world for your neighbor. As yourself – know yourself through God’s loving eyes and heart, as a human being created in the image of God, as a beloved child of God and sibling in the body of Christ. Then love your neighbor in and through God’s love for you.

 
God’s Law - The Golden Rule – the governing rule that can be found in every major world religion and philosophy, including that of democracy.

1. In everything, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you don’t want it done to you, don’t do it to someone else. “For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” (Luke 6:38)

 
God’s Law - The Ten Commandments – the laws that so many people want front and center in their communities yet refuse to follow as God wills. These emerge from the Great Commandments.

• The first Table of Commandments – our relationship with God.
  1. Where we are to fear, love and trust God above ALL things, including success, power, wealth, political figures, social ideologies, and addictions; including our angers, fears, memories of past hurts; including our self-righteous desire to condemn others and be like God.
  2. Where we are to never take God’s name in vain by using it disrespectfully or dishonorably in any way, especially to support and defend violence, hate, rage, malice (hate with the intent to hate and harm), wickedness, evil, covetousness, envy, murder, deceit, craftiness, slander, etc. or applaud anyone who does these things. (See Rm 1:29-32)
  3. Where we are to worship only God and do so regularly, to open our minds, hearts, and ears to the Word of Gospel that saves the world through the life, death and resurrection of the Son, Jesus Christ rather than condemning it. (John 3:16-17) God is love itself, filling us with love so that we can share God’s love with everyone.
• The second Table of Commandments – concerning our relationship with our neighbor.
  1. Where we are to respect and obey those in authority who would serve us and seek to establish justice for ALL, ensure domestic tranquility for ALL, provide for the common defense (against those who would do us violence), promote the general welfare for ALL, and secure the blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ALL.
  2. Where we do not endanger or harm others’ lives but instead protect, support, and help them in all of life’s needs.
  3. Where we would seek to live in promise-centered intimate relationships and keep those promises.
  4. Where we would not take or destroy others’ property but help them keep, improve, and protect their property.
  5. Where we would use kind, loving, encouraging and empowering words to lift up others rather than condemning, hate-filled fear-filled words to tear them down or rip them apart.
  6. Where we would not covet or envy anything that others have.

 
God’s Law – “God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8

1. Where God calls us to do justice to all – to share; to give each and every person their due, which is respect, dignity, worth, and the necessities and blessings of life as human beings who like you are all created in God’s image; who like you are beloved children of God with whom we are called to share the blessings we’ve received from God.
2. Where God calls us to be kind and full of love, sharing the Spirit’s fruit with our neighbors through “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” (Gal 5:22-23)
3. Where God calls us to walk humbly with God, and not with self-centered, boastful, deceit-filled arrogance and self-righteousness, remembering always, every moment of every day, that none of us are God, that only God is God, thank God!

 
God’s Law
If you’re hearing God’s Law as presented as a tool that you can use to bash other people over the head to justify yourself, then you’re doing it wrong. If God’s Law too easily becomes a weapon in your hands to shoot, maim or shatter other lives, then you’ve missed the point. For God’s Law was and still is intended as an earthly gift and blessing so as to order and guide our lives in the way of Christ as we relate to each other and God under the power of sin. If we all followed this law to the best of our ability even in the midst of our sin, the world would be a better place.
But the world would not be saved, for in the end the law, not even God’s Law can save. In the end, it accuses, convicts and kills anything that would destroy, hate, and tear down God’s creation. It is as a mirror that we first hear God’s Law. “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged…You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” (Mt 7:1-5)

Only when we’ve applied God’s Law to ourselves, been humbled and convicted that we can use the Law of God to direct others. Only then will we hear, receive, and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the world. For only in Christ are you forgiven, saved, healed, and made whole. That’s the Gospel message: that Christ loves you, welcomes you, accepts you, blesses you and fills your whole self with faith, hope, and joy no matter who you are, which political party you support, or in which identity group you place yourself. Through Jesus’ life, Jesus’ teachings and ministry, Jesus’ suffering and death on a cross and Jesus’ resurrection you receive new life, shalom life, blessed life, the truly great life. Never, in any political ideology will you receive these things.

So live out your salvation in Christ, empowered by the Spirit to love God and neighbor and encouraged to fulfill God’s Law the best that you can. “Blessed are those…who walk in the law of the Lord.” (Ps 119:1)