Dear New McKendree Church Family,

There’s no denying that we’re in the midst of a pivotal time in our nation’s 249-year history.  Culturally, times are tough and getting tougher by the day.  Unity is in short supply in the United States, and things are becoming more divisive by the day.  Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative: no longer are these merely names of political parties or cultural ideologies.  Over the past few years, they’ve become labels—derogatory names spewed by Americans at other Americans.  As I said, times are tough, and it’s hard to know whose side is right and whose side is wrong.  What’s a person to do?  Better yet, what’s a Christian to do?  Better still, what would Jesus do?

The best way to figure out what Jesus would do is to open the Bible and see what Jesus actually did.  Pick just about any “red letter” Gospel story and you’ll quickly see that Jesus was the master at looking beyond and tearing away labels and stereotypes.  Take the Centurion in Matthew 8, for instance.  To the Jews, this man was not a man at all but rather the poster boy for oppression and brutality.  Jesus, though, looked beyond the label and saw a man of faith pleading for the life of his dying servant.  Jesus accepted the man because of his faith.  What about ole Zacchaeus, the vertically challenged tax collector?  As far as the Jews were concerned, tax collectors—labeled as treasonous extortionists—were the lowest form of life.  When Jesus crossed paths with Zacchaeus, all he saw was a fellow son of Abraham.  Jesus saved him not because he was a tax collector, but because of his faith.  And then there’s the Samaritan woman at the well.  This poor soul’s labels had labels.  To the Jews, she was a lowly Samaritan woman with a seedy past.  Again, Jesus looked beyond all that and saw only a child of God thirsting for meaning and truth in her life.

So, if Jesus were a 21st-century American, what would he do?  My guess is that he’d handle things today the same way he did back then.  He’d look beyond our petty American-made labels and see only Americans.  Better yet, he’d look beyond our nationality and see only people…people in need of a Savior.  Maybe we should do the same.  

Your brother in Christ,

Pastor Bryan Wendling