This Post Is About People, Not Politics

As you may be aware, Madison, WI is being touted as the "epicenter of democracy" these days.  Our Governor has proposed a bill that will affect thousands of families in a negative way and those families and their supporters (nearly 70,000 yesterday) have come to the capitol to voice their concerns.  The supporters of the bill (mostly private sector employees) say it's about time the public sector feels the pain of the floundering economy.  Don't expect me to give my opinion of whether this is right or wrong here.  The fact of the matter is that...it just is.  The situation exists and we have to deal with it.

That said, I was hoping we'd get through the day without bringing up the protests at church.

Politics at church makes me uncomfortable.  I'm sure I've been conditioned to think that way.  They can be so divisive and whenever there's a group of people, there will be divergent perspectives.  I knew that even in our relatively small community, there would be opposing opinions and avoiding the topic seemed best for everyone.  Is it so wrong for me to want people to get along, even just for a couple hours?  And for the most part things went according to (my) plan.  That is, until Steve got up to give his sermon.

As our pastor began his short talk, it was clear his approach was different than mine.  Whereas I would have avoided the topic altogether, he embraced it.  A detail important to this story that I failed to mention earlier: we meet two blocks away from the capitol building.  "It would be foolish to ignore what's happening so close to us," he said.  And he was right.  The next fifteen minutes were amazing.  He didn't make a decision for anyone.  He didn't say who was right and who was wrong.  He focused on the impact.  Regardless of which side you're on, this bill will impact more people than we can imagine.  He asked anyone who would be affected by this bill to raise their hand and nearly half of our congregation raised theirs.  These are our friends.  They are not just numbers to rectify a financial situation.  At the end of the service he had them come up and we prayed for them.  Again, regardless of your stance on the bill, these people, our friends, will be affected and it was important that we stood with them and prayed for them.

The other thing Steve spoke about was the passion and dedication involved in the protests.  "How do we foster that same passion for Jesus?" he asked.  It's true.  Our city is known, now, for democracy and fighting for rights and peaceful protests...can it also be known as a place where people love Jesus?  If you haven't been here, I'm just going to be honest: that'd be a miracle.  Madison is incredibly liberal and we've found it to be a tough nut to crack when it comes to spiritual things.  Even so, we are dedicated to bringing the presence of Christ to our community; one that generally doesn't acknowledge its need for Him.

All I'm really saying here is that I'm glad it wasn't my turn to speak today.  We heard exactly what we needed to hear.  Thanks, Steve.