Dear Friends,

Over the past few months, my son Luke and I have been indulging ourselves in episodes of Better Call Saul, a television series that ran from 2015 to 2022. The two main characters – Jimmy McGill (who later becomes Saul Goodman) and Kim Wexler – are complex people who descend from being ordinary citizens to unethical monsters. Time after time they reach a fork in the road. One path leads to light and life. The other path risks darkness and death. With few exceptions, they cannot resist the latter way. Remarkably, redemption often presents itself anew with another fork in the road, yet seldom do they follow the light. I’ve lost count how many times I have hit my forehead with the heel of my hand, as if the New York Giants had just fumbled again in the red zone. 

Lately, I’ve been feeling like we are all living in the television series, Better Call Saul. Indeed, the headlines are such that I’ve lost count how many times the heel of my hand has hit my forehead. People with seriously questionable, if not dangerous credentials are given vitally important cabinet seats. Vladimir Putin, plastic straws, and January 6 insurrectionists are returned to the mix as good elements. Meanwhile, the Gulf of Mexico, Canada, Greenland, Panama, our historic European allies, and others are on the outs – dismissed and disrespected. What is an appropriate Christian response to these things that are coming to pass? Perhaps you will indulge me for a few more paragraphs, as it is Presidents’ Day Weekend. 

Sadly, many people who call themselves Christian have aligned themselves entirely with the current occupant of the Oval Office. Doing so is never a good idea, no matter who the President is, because the ways of God are often inscrutable to us. Perhaps a better mindset is to trust that despite broken systems and seriously flawed people, God still manages to work out the divine will. I realized this anew last Wednesday evening at our Bible study following the 6 pm Eucharist. We have been making our way through the great stories of Genesis, and the lot fell to me to present chapters 18 and 19 – the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Read the story for yourself. In the midst of it you will encounter Lot, a nephew of Abraham. Lot turns out to be the very last person you’d pick to be heading up your family. The decisions he makes are remarkably bad, yet God has a purpose for this deeply defective individual. God makes use of him in the drama of salvation history. 

Something else for us all to remember is the virtue of humility. I was not in Lot’s house or his mind when the violent mob was trying to break down his door. Likewise, I am not an international diplomat, a military strategist, an economist, or a politician. Certainly, we all have our opinions. In a free society we must be able to voice them vigorously, without fear of retribution, especially when those in power appear to be traveling the paths of darkness and death. On this Presidents’ Day Weekend, let us continue to pray for those who sit in judgement seats, and urge them to choose the ways of light and life. 

See you in church,

Don