We sometimes have tunnel vision with famous bible verses. This is certainly the case for Jeremiah 29:11. God certainly has a plan for us, but we frequently confuse our plan with God’s plan. The preceding verses to this well-known one offer great insight for what I will call our “public witness” as Christians.

For those who know my temperament and teaching style, you probably notice I rarely discuss controversial political issues. I shy away from these discussions because I simply believe that politics is one of the biggest idols in American culture. We worship the political process. In my own experience, the average person gets worked up more over a political issue they see on the nightly news, than a religious issue facing Christianity. Likewise, I don’t think many people consider themselves “Christian” in our culture as much as a “liberal” or “conservative.” You can see it in how they act. It deeply saddens me to see how angry people will get, ranting and raving on Facebook over an idea so trivial as taxes or demeaning a political opponent. (As a side note, I think I’ve “solved” this personal problem by not “hanging out” on social media that much. As they say, ignorance is bliss.)

But despite my conversational aversion to politics, there is an interesting point in Jeremiah 29 that I find convicting and insightful. God commands the Israelites to better the lives of those in their community (verse 7):

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Notice what Jeremiah doesn’t say in chapter 29. He never said to impose your values on others, forcing others to follow God. This is where I think many Christians mess up in the political arena. Instead, we must simply seek the best for others. If they benefit, we all benefit.

This is an important topic for Christians to grapple with. We should never be content serving our own needs. Instead, we ought to seek the betterment of society as a whole, regardless of whether people are Christian or not. We are called to live out our faith in public life. That includes how we invest our time, donate our money, vote in elections, and treat our neighbors. In the words of Jesus from Matthew 5:16, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

The Methodist tradition has a rich history of letting our light shine through our public witness. Many Methodists were involved in the abolitionist movement, fighting against the inhumane and evil practice of slavery. Methodists also helped with the temperance movement, noting the harms of abusing alcohol. Methodists have been involved in labor causes, promoting better working conditions and hours for those at the bottom of society. Methodists have also spoken out about funding programs for children, the elderly, and the disabled in our country.

I think our denomination’s approach to political issues is admirable. In our Social Principles we outline what the church teaches regarding many issues. I think we also “rise above” the noise and offer unique insight into highly controversial topics. An example of this would be abortion, which I’ve previously written about here.

You might be aware that there have been many prominent politicians from our denomination. George W. Bush and Elizabeth Warren are both Methodists. I think it is encouraging to see that there is enough diversity in the Methodist church to have two people on differing ends of the political spectrum. I’m sure if you talked with both, you would find a deep conviction that they want the best outcome for society.

I still think politics is a dicey issue. But my hope and prayer for my life and for other Christians is that we would always seek the welfare of the city. We do that through church missions. We do that through being welcoming of other people. We do that with how we behave in public. Jesus summarized this idea perfectly in Mark 12:29-31:

“The most important commandment,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second commandment is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Our world often struggles with the idea that God is just plain angry. It is difficult to pinpoint the reasoning behind this troubling belief, so I’m not quite sure why so many believe it.

On one hand, in a few rare instances I’ve seen this literally preached from pulpits. Somehow, a pastor will ignore verses like 1 John 4:8 and say that God is angry with the sinfulness of the world. Fear definitely sells and captures attention, so I can see how Christian authors and pastors might be tempted to portray God as a wrathful being. We also sometimes focus on a handful of scripture passages, so I can also see how someone might pick and choose a couple of stories from scripture that might describe God as angry.

In college and seminary, we studied some ancient religions in class, and the belief that God (or the gods) are angry is quite common among these old belief systems. In ancient myths, divine figures seem moody, unpredictable, and downright nasty sorts of things. Perhaps we’ve never really gotten over these longstanding beliefs!

But in a broad sense, I think we can blame this predicament on our state at broken human beings. We don’t get along with one another. We are separated from God. To put it bluntly, we are sinners in need of salvation. Our sin also includes having broken views about who God is. I’ve witnessed so many people think that God is disappointed in them, that God just won’t forgive that one sin, or that God is too far away for them to receive any help.

As we saw in our sermon, John 3:16-17 is a wonderful foundation for what it means to be a Christian. It recognizes God’s love, the importance of Jesus on the cross, and the hope God offers us through salvation.

God is not angry with you. God offers forgiveness.

God does not seek to punish you. God wants to rescue you from sin.

God does not condemn the world. Instead, as John 3:17 points out, God sought to save the world.

One of the most famous theologians of the 20th century was a fellow named Karl Barth. I’ve referenced him occasionally in my sermons. He wrote a lot… So much so that in seminary, we only could read a couple of chapters from Church Dogmatics because it would take years to read the whole thing (over 6 million words!). The point is that he was extremely bright and thorough in his writing and reasoning.

There’s a story about him, however, that’s always stuck with me. When being interviewed one time, he was asked how to summarize everything he had written and believed about the Christian faith. His response was remarkably simple, “In the words of a song I learned at my mother’s knee: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.'”

Sometimes the simplest things are the most difficult to remember. We overthink it because surely it could never be so straightforward. But despite all the confusion about who God is in our world, I firmly believe and have experienced that God is perfectly loving.

King David is one of the most well-known characters of the bible. David and Goliath is a frequent topic for Vacation Bible School lessons. Many of the Psalms are attributed to him. He’s obviously an important character in a pivotal time of God’s work of salvation. I thought he was the most appropriate character to explore for the conclusion of our 1 & 2 Samuel series.

So David’s rather important. Many might even consider him to be one of the biggest heroes of scripture.

One temptation we have when reading the bible is to glorify so-called “heroes” without examining their brokenness. I think David is a perfect example of this temptation that Christians often struggle with. We love to imagine David conquering his foes and being an incredible leader. We don’t always think about all the times he messed up. We gloss over uncomfortable moments of the story in favor of overly positive interpretations.

I would argue that this “rose-colored glasses” temptation has practical, everyday implications for how we treat sinfulness now. Do we always call out sin? Or do we ignore it, especially if we have an affinity for the person who has sinned? Whether it is family members, close friends, political affiliations, favorite athletes, or community groups, chances are we idealize those allied with us rather than being honest about wrongdoing.

David and Bathsheba is an obvious example of David’s sinfulness that we briefly discussed during the sermon. In some readings and interpretations of this story, it is arguable that David actually raped Bathsheba, since she had utterly no voice or say in the story. She was a victim of a powerful man who demanded to have his way while refusing to face consequences for quite some time. This is certainly a dark story of scripture filled with lies, lust, violence, and a coverup.

David also clearly struggled with sinfulness in other chapters, too. We would like to think of David as the “good guy” in Israel’s civil war and Saul as the “bad guy.” But in the midst of fighting, David actually sides with the pagan Philistines to harm his fellow Israelites. He essentially acted as a traitor against his own people. Even though many assume that “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” and “All’s fair in love in war,” I am greatly troubled by David’s actions before taking the throne.

David’s last recorded words in 1 Kings 2:9 are actually a command of revenge to punish an old enemy: “But now, do not consider him innocent. You are a man of wisdom; you will know what to do to him. Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood.” This paints a dark picture for the kind of fellow David often was. Perhaps he also struggled with unforgiveness and holding onto grudges.

Now I don’t bring up this topic to “spoil” the stories of David for anyone. There are many great examples David gives us of what it means to be righteous. I hope I highlighted just a few for the sermon–Be a person after God’s own heart, be bold, and repent when you do wrong.

But in reading scripture, we have to be honest about how we view biblical characters. No matter how “good” we think them to be, they all still struggled with sin… even great King David.

If you ask me, there’s only one true “hero” in all of scripture: Jesus. He’s the perfect example of Godly character. He’s the best possible character to imitate in our life today. All other figures in scripture fall short. Never forget that as you read about people in the bible.

Yet despite his sinfulness, David still gives me hope. Even though we read about the many times he struggled and messed up, God was still faithful to a covenant with humanity. God had a plan for David. So if God could use someone like David, surely God can use us today, too.