Don't Give Up
Excerpt from UM Insight's weekly newsletter
This graphic from Climate Central shows the kind of weather and climate facts that a group of scientists is presenting on YouTube through June 1. Their 100 hours of livestreaming intends to educate legislators and the public about the impact that cutting federal funding will have on lives and property, including churches.
Some days, I think if I read one more screaming headline about the current U.S. administration’s actions, I’ll start screaming myself. My frustration compounds when I read about folks defending such actions without recognizing their utter lawlessness and blatant corruption, both regarding the U.S. Constitution and the moral values that Christians have taught for generations.
When my frustration threatens to overwhelm me, the Apostle Paul whispers in my memory:
“So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” – Galatians 6:9, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Paul lived and wrote at a time when the fledgling church existed outside most cultural norms. “Those Christians” were weird in their neighbors’ eyes. They shared their wealth. They fed hungry people. They cared for sick people, and they didn’t abandon the aged. They sheltered widows and orphans. They welcomed strangers and visited people in prison. They refused military service.
In short, they made a community where people were valued, and where God was worshiped in spirit and in truth, as Jesus told the woman at the well in Samaria (John 4).
This week, I was watching a YouTube program, “The Weather and Climate Livestream,” which is broadcasting 100 hours of meteorological and climatological science through June 1. The presentations were reported by scientists, some of whom have been fired from government agencies such as the National Weather Service, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Science and others. I was listening to a presentation about how excessive heat affects the body when word came in the live chat that the presenters were being evicted from their office because federal administrators determined their reports were “advocacy.”
In other words, their fact-based presentations, intended to inform both legislators and the public, were labeled “advocacy” because they flew in the face of political arguments for cutting federal funding for their live-saving scientific research.
The implications of that action are terrifying. What’s more, the same pressures to hew to the “party line” are playing out in every aspect of American life – education, health, economy, criminal justice, immigration, humanitarianism and yes, religion. In this situation, Paul’s guidance for the Galatians still rings true:
Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh, but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all and especially for those of the family of faith.
– Galatians 6:7-10, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.
This post is excerpted from United Methodist Insight’s weekly email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.