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Brothers and sisters,

In just over two weeks, we’re going to be having our annual Fall Festival here at the church. As you all know, this is a night when we come together as a church family to offer things like Trunk-or-Treat, carnival games, prizes, crafts, and food to our neighbors. It’s a wonderful time each year as we set aside a Saturday to provide good, clean fun for families in our community. Every year I look for-ward to this event because every year it is a reminder of the joy that comes from time spent together.

Read through just about any part of the Bible and you will find biblical authors who write about joy. Even in the midst of hard times, they will find reasons to celebrate and to speak of the goodness of God and the joy that brings them. The psalmist declares, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). As Paul ends his first letter to the Thessalonians, he writes, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:16-18). The whole of the Bible speaks to the idea that in good times and in bad, be-lievers can find joy because we know that God is with us.

Why do I bring all this up? Because right now, there’s a lot of stuff happening in our world that seeks to steal our joy. The news apps on my phone love to send me upsetting headlines that, as a whole, send a message that the world is scary, that fear is good, that community is fundamentally broken, that joy is silly. But joy is not silly. It never has been. It has always, always been a form of resistance. To acknowledge that life is difficult and still choose joy takes strength and dedication. I’d argue, it takes faith.

On the night that he was betrayed, Jesus talked with his disciples and gave them his final sermon. According to John’s gospel, Jesus touched on topics like love, persecution, community, justice, and more. But I think one of more important things he told his disciples was this, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:10-11; emphasis mine). When facing trying times, Jesus tells the disciples his joy would be with them, if they would simply believe in him and follow his lead.

So, on October 25th from 4:30-6:30 PM, our church will have a Fall Festival. We’ll have it because it’s a fun event for everyone involved. We’ll have it because it will bring joy to our community. We’ll have it because in the midst of all these headlines desperately trying to tell us the world is falling apart, we can remind folks that community is still possible, people can still be good to each other, and there is still joy to be found. We’ll have it because Jesus tells us that his joy is in us and that makes our joy complete. Let us be joyful believers in Christ!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

A little over three years ago, I preached a sermon series entitled, “Faith and Art.” It was a series designed to connect different passages of scripture with pieces of art hanging in local art museums here in the Triangle. Since then, several folks have mentioned to me that they’d enjoy doing a series like that again. So, I spent some time in the North Carolina Museum of Art and the Ackland Art Museum and I found six new pieces I’d like for us to talk about as we move into autumn.

I’m not going to list out all six in this article—you’ll need to come to worship or tune in to see which pieces we talk about—but in looking over the six pieces as a whole, I realized there were some common threads connecting them all. I didn’t mean to pick pieces that seemed so connected, but art has a tendency to resonate with whatever we’re feeling when we view it. And so, I suppose these pieces all stirred up similar things within me. They connected with me at this particular time, in this particular place, for their own particular reasons.

In looking these pieces over, there’s a consistent theme of appreciating life for what it is and living in that moment. Artists, so often, try desperately to capture one moment, one idea, one dream and communicate it to the rest of us. These pieces speak to that message from the artists—live now; life is precious. There’s also a consistent theme of choosing to do the right thing in the moment. Art often seeks to encourage our better angels, empowering us to do right by others, and challenging us to value things like truth and beauty and grace.

So, starting on October 5th—with a break on the 19th for a guest preacher—we’ll be looking at these works of art and asking ourselves, “What do these pieces stir up in me? And how do they connect to my Christian faith? How can I take the lessons of these artists, filter them through the lens of scripture, and find faithful ways to live and express myself?” I’m looking forward to this series!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

As you all know, we’re in the midst of our, “I’m Just Trying to Help” sermon series that looks at various phrases Christians will say that are not as helpful as we might think they are. I mentioned one phrase this past Sunday that I wanted to dive into a little deeper here in the Illuminator. I told y’all that my high school Calculus teacher’s extra credit policy was based on a phrase she claimed was in the Bible, “God helps those who help themselves.” I want to take a moment to unpack some of what that phrase says.

Ultimately, the idea this phrase is pushing is that a person has to take some initiative before God will swoop in and help them. On the surface, that feels logical. If a person is in a bad situation and is not doing anything we think would help their situation, it’s easy to say, “Well, there’s no need to waste time or effort on them.” Whether we like it or not, that’s a judgmental attitude. It’s saying that the person does not deserve help because of who they are. They only deserve help if they’ve earned it.

But on top of that, by throwing God into the mix, “God helps those who help themselves,” we’ve snuck a kind of works righteousness into the way we think God views others. “Show God your good works, then you’ll get help” or “Show God your works, then you’ll receive God’s grace.” That is not scriptural. Let us remember Paul’s words to the Ephesians, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). God helps whoever God wants to—not because one particular person did more than the other, but because all people need God’s help. Always.

I wanted to write about this because I increasingly see faith leaders, particularly some Baptists, coming out and saying that empathy—the ability to walk in another person’s shoes and the desire to help them—should be considered a sin. They argue that it is wrong and sinful to show empathy toward other people. Or they will argue that there is an order in which you should extend your empathy—almost a flow-chart that tells you whether or not you have to care about a person. And there’s a judgmental attitude that comes with that. There’s a judgmental nature that comes with saying, “This person doesn’t deserve my help” or with saying, “To help this person would be a waste.”

Let me quickly correct the record here—empathy is not a sin. It never has been. It never will be. It is never wrong to look at another person, feel empathy for them, and choose to help them—whether they’ve “helped themselves” or not. If you feel called to help someone, then help them. Why do I say all this? Because, thanks be to God, Jesus did not look on sinful humanity and say, “I’m not going to help them till they help themselves.” Thanks be to God, Jesus did not decide that empathy was sinful and that people should be left to their own devices, desperately trying to do enough to get God’s attention and compel God to help them. Empathy is not a sin. God does not withhold help till someone “deserves” it. Cause if God did, we’d all be in trouble. Show people grace simply because God has shown you grace.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben