Pastor Reichart is happily married and the father of two adult children. He received a Master of Divinity at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN and has served in the ministry for 23 years, all in Kansas. Twelve of those in western KS, with the last eleven here in Council Grove.
The blame game has no winner
We started out in history with rebellion against God, forsaking what was good and right and choosing instead what was disobedient and destructively deadly. We then followed this sin with more of the same: a pathetic and arrogant shifting of blame and responsibility for our wrong decisions and actions by judging the situation poorly and in error as we exclaimed, “It was the woman You gave me…” that caused my present dire consequences.
Disgusting then. Disgusting still. Shamefully, we continue to play this horrible game which has no winners and only breeds compounded misery and destruction.
At present, we humans judge everything and everyone at a breaknecked pace of reactionary speed in real time through our technological devices. And since the dawn of the information age; we have accelerated the volume of that information coming at us to a massive proportion that only affords us the time and ability to react to it but not truly process it. To receive the fire hose of information, but not truly think on it. This leads us to regular snap judgments void of wisdom and true compassion.
Add to this pattern of conduct a basic falling away from faith in the Creator of heaven and earth and of His Son, Christ Jesus, who reconciles the lawbreaking sinner and His Holy God through His atoning sacrifice; and we are left with believing that we the lawbreaker ourselves can judge rightly and provide justice and fix the universal imbalance of brokenness. How foolish and truly wretched we are!
Restoration, healing, goodness, love, and salvation from this bleakness however, are provided by the one, true God through His decision and action to send His Son to accomplish what we cannot. He is obedient where we are rebellious. He does the good will of His Father where we instead insert our evil machinations of perverse self-service. Christ Jesus also atones for the punishment that we have earned with our sin by taking on this judgment and enduring that suffering (even our justified death) for us.
This is the Good News of Christ Jesus for you, for the world.
He is both God and man, one Lord – grace, mercy, forgiveness, and life – personified.
Slow down and process this. Learn of His incredible and humbling love for you; and then apply it and love everyone around you as He loves you.
This simple yet profound reality applies everywhere in the human condition; politically, relationally, and in the core of our hearts, minds, and souls. A result of knowing Christ Jesus and Him claiming you as His own…well, it will be harder to find enemies and it will be more difficult to play a losing game…but that is good. Soli Deo Gloria. AMEN