How Gentleness Raises Us Above Cancel Culture

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Scott Sauls: My name is Scott Saul’s and it’s my privilege to be with you for the next 45 minutes. The folks that gospel coalition have graciously invited me to speak on the subject rising above kancil culture with the fruit of gentleness. And what I want to do is start with just sharing with you a meme that I came across that summarize the year 2020. You may have seen it, it was all over the internet. It was this, this image of I think four or five porta potties lined up at a construction site and they were all blazing on fire. And the meme said, if 2020 were a scented candle, if you were to think of a word, to summarize the last year, year and a half, in just a word you might come across with words like polarized tribe, alized, racialized, radicalized, politicized, divided, outraged, filled with contempt us against them, you could go on and on and on. And if you’re like me, you’re you’re you’re really tired of this, and you’re longing for. Hopefully the days when we can get back to precedented times. There’s another word for 2020 unprecedented times. And I think what I want to do is start my talk off by reminding us that nothing we’ve been through in the last year is unprecedented in the history of the world, going all the way back to the beginning is filled with division with violence with cancelling other people. You go all the way back to Genesis chapter three, where Adam and Eve decided to go independent from God. And the moment they did that they began turning on each other. You might remember that famous verse where where Adam looked to God and said, the woman that you gave me, she is to blame for my disobedience. So he’s blaming God and he’s blaming his wife, and then we get to Genesis chapter four, and we get history’s first murder, which comes out of a sibling rivalry when one brother envies another and Cain, tragically and irreversibly takes the life of his brother, he literally cancels him. And so this problem that we’re living with his oldest time, Cathy Keller once shared with a group of us her thought on the true nature and religion of the human heart, and she said that the natural religion of every human heart is self righteousness. And self righteousness is most succinctly defined in Luke chapter 18, verse nine, where it says there were some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. And they looked down on other people with contempt that has been in the human heart and the behaviors that proceed from that have been occurring ever since the beginning of time. And so the times we’re not in, or the times we’re in are not unprecedented. And yet, they are deeply concerning. And, in many ways, unacceptable, especially among those who live in light of the gospel and believe the gospel. There are actually two characters that have emerged on the cultural scene recently that I think speak to where people’s hearts are these days. One is Ted lasso, does anybody know who Ted lasso is? Okay, we love Ted lasso, because he is a glass-half-full kind of person. He’s kind you want to hug him. But he’s not real. That’s the one thing we realized when the show was over these not real. But there’s another person who has reemerged named Fred Rogers. A couple of years ago, there was a documentary released about Mr. Rogers for Mr. Rogers Neighborhood life, Fred Rogers. It went viral. And then not long after that there was a film starring Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers. Now Tom Hanks doesn’t take apart unless there’s something significant going on with the character and there already was momentum around the things that Mr. Rogers brought many years ago to the world. Wonder if we can get back to that. People might be thinking,

Scott Sauls
so Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, it was this nerdy cardigan sweater-wearing soft-spoken wirey like Every guy who ran a low budget children’s program on the public Public Broadcasting System, he helped to raise me. And I imagine he might have helped to raise some of you even though my relationship with Mr. Rogers was through a screen. I felt safe with him. He was one of the very few people in the world that I felt safe with growing up. It’s hard to find people who feel safe anymore who have this kind of aroma that Fred Rogers brought to the world. Since Fred Rogers is a real person, I want to camp out on him instead of Ted, Ted Lasso is sort of my cultural illustration of the biblical truths I’m going to talk about today. I think that his renewed popularity is an indicator of how people are feeling right now. I think people are feeling anxious. I think people are feeling afraid to speak up or to share opinions or to do anything that might elicit an attack or, or some sort of call out or some kind of cancellation I think I think so many of us we feel like we’re walking on eggshells in the climate that we’re in. We’re so tribal eyes that everybody’s looking to judge and punish somebody friendships and communities are now built not around common good, but around common enemies. It seems an incomes Mr. Rogers again, I think that the TED last Oh, Fred Rogers phenomena both suggests that there is a quiet majority, not minority, but majority that is craving. What both of these characters one fictitious one real have offered to the world and that is words that build up. Or what Ann voskamp likes to say words that make souls stronger words are incredibly powerful things. Who ever said that sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me was wrong. Psychology Today rewrote that statement some time ago, to read sticks and stones may break my bones but words can cut me deeply. Let’s let’s remember that. It’s words that actually put the galaxies into being it’s words that send you words that were spoken at some point in life that send people into counseling offices for the rest of their lives. Words are powerful. Words can be weaponized. Words are weaponized. You hear this in the faricy, in Jesus’s parable of the Pharisees and the tax collector, thank you, My God, and it’s in the hearing of the tax collector over here. Just a few feet away from him Thank you, my god that I’m not like other men robbers, evildoers, adulterers, tax collectors. I fast twice a week I give a 10th of all I got you there he is canceling all these different people groups, with his words, them othering other people with his words. I wonder if this was why Jesus was so strong with his words toward scribes and Pharisees, because scribes and Pharisees were constantly weaponizing words, when words are supposed to be put out there in order to advance grace and truth and uphold love.

Scott Sauls
Mr. Rogers, three favorite words. I think this is why I felt safe with him.

Scott Sauls
I like you. I like you. What if we got back to that? What if we took I love you to the next level?

Scott Sauls
I love you but I also enjoy you. Your existence makes me glad. I’m not just here to love you in the putting up with you. I’m committed to you. sort of way therefore I have to because it’s the right thing. But But I actually like you. My friend Russ Ramsey says that to me a lot. He’s my colleague, good guys taught here at gospel coalition before. Russ is one of my favorite friends because he says those three words. I like you. Those are powerful words. Fred Rogers treated people with dignity no matter where they were coming from, whether they agreed with him or disagreed with him. He was kind. He was an anti-2020 kind of guy. He was kind, warm, safe, approachable, loving, friendly, and above all else, gentle. You might say that Mr. Rogers was a good picture of the aroma of Christ. He was a follower of Christ. He was a believer in Christ. Christ the Great I Am. Remember the I am statements from John’s Gospel. There were seven of them. Jesus said I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I’m the daughter of the sheep. I’m the resurrection and the life. I’m the Good Shepherd. In the way, the truth and the life, I am the vine. And then in Matthew’s Gospel, maybe because all of the culture had canceled Matthew because of his profession. Matthew was specifically especially awakened to an eighth Im statement that Jesus made, in which he says, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, especially lonely tax collectors who have been written off by the entire culture because I can’t stand you because of what you’ve done to them because of what you represent, because of your politics because of because of the way that you exploit the way that you take advantage. The way that you put yourself first, you have been canceled. And incomes Jesus risking cancellation himself by befriending a tax collector like Matthew in the same way that he befriended a tax collector or chief tax collector no less like Zacchaeus who, because he didn’t have friends surrounded himself with Brett hooves himself with branches and leaves in order to get a glimpse of Jesus climbed up to a safe and distant space just to get a glimpse. And Jesus looks up and calls him by name, Jessica. Yes, I know you and I, I think the song The children’s song that you might have learned in Sunday School Zeki as you come down, you remember the hand motions, kind of a scolding, you come down because I’m coming to your house. I don’t think it was a scold. I think it was brother. Everybody’s calling you an sob. But I’m calling you a son of Abraham. Whoo, what? And furthermore, I’m going to show you hospitality, but it’s going to be in your house. Your house is the lonely place where you go every single night, we’re coming to your house, I’m going to bring some friends. And you’re going to become a friend maker. And what happens he comes alive because of grace. He comes alive and says, whatever I’ve defrauded anybody, I’m going to give him five times as much back and over half of my possessions. I’m going to give away to the poor. I’m a different man now. Because that guy, he said he likes me. Jesus also got angry. Not gonna bypass the prophetic fire of Jesus, that would be irresponsible. exegetically and otherwise. This is where I’ve gotten the most curiosity around this little guy right here. It’s It’s my latest project called a gentle answer. Our secret weapon in an age of us against them, let me encourage you. If you got to choose between the two read Dana Portland’s book on gentleness because I spend three chapters on what Dane spends writing entire book about and that is how to get the gentleness of Christ into your own heart. fused into your own heart. He does a beautiful, remarkable job. He does it in a whole book, I try to cram it into three chapters, and then the rest of mine is about how to take your gentleness out. But you’ll never be able you’ll never be resourced to take your generalists out and give it to your neighbor, like Jesus did as a kiss until gentleness has come in. You’re not ever going to succeed and being like Jesus, the one who is gentle and humble in heart by trying to be like Jesus, you’re going to succeed at being like Jesus by spending your energy being with Jesus, and receiving the energy of his gentleness and kindness towards you.

Scott Sauls
Eight I am statement I am gentle and humble. In heart. I give rest to weary lonely, tired, exhausted, even canceled souls. But he also got angry. So to Mr. Rogers, the distress, the confusion, the curiosity that comes from people who haven’t read the book is the title of chapter five. Gentle people do anger well. And I think the operating assumption that we often have is that gentleness and anger, they cancel one another out. Speaking of canceling, they’re not compatible. If you have one, you can’t have the other. I want to make an argument and I think the scriptures make an argument that both gentleness and anger complete one another. One cannot truly and fully exist without the other. I’m not sure what your English translations say, when both the Psalms and Ephesians which are most often translated in the English, in your anger, do not sin, if you go this is where some sort of knowledge or access to the original Hebrew or Greek matters, because in the Hebrew and the Greek and the Psalms and Ephesians, it says Be angry, it’s in the imperative mood. It’s a command B, and you want to be Christian. Be angry. In the same way that Paul in Romans nine said hate evil and cling to what is good, the only way you can cling to what’s good is by hating evil and the only way they can really hate what’s evil is by clinging to what is good. And there’s this dance here. That that has to happen in order to be thorough in our discipleship, but anger is a lot like fire, there’s a raging version. The raging version of anger is like the raging version of fire it can take a house down, it can decimate an entire landscape like we’ve seen in recent months in California along the coastline. If you’re This Is Us person you still haven’t gotten over the fact that jack died in a house fire. There’s also righteous anger or I’m sorry righteous fire righteous fire, cooks bacteria out of our food so that we don’t get sick. It creates lovely on Beyonds by candlelight around a fire pit or a fireplace and a gathering of friends or romantic evening it keeps us warm in the winter time prevents frostbite has all kinds of righteous uses fire does anger is the same. What is righteous anger look like from the one who’s gentle and humble in heart. You remember when Jesus got all bobby knight on the temple? You guys remember bobby knight? We’re in Indiana right now so it fits right bobby knight if you would get upset with a call on the basketball court, he would just pick up a chair and throw it across the floor. Well, Jesus didn’t quite get bobby knight. That was raging anger. Christ’s anger is always righteous. It’s never been unrighteous. But he did turn over tables in church. Could you imagine your pastor just doing that in the hallway or in the lobby of your church just getting so upset about something that just grabs a table and flips it over? Or maybe one of you will go to the one of the book tables? Nevermind. Don’t do that. Don’t go flip a book table over. But why did Jesus do that? Because people were trying to monetize something that was sacred. And if you look deeper into the story, they were invading the only place where the Gentiles were allowed and so so there were there were racial and justices involved as well. There were exclusionary dynamics going on as well. The Jews who had all of the inner courts decided they were also going to set up shop in the place where the Gentiles were supposed to find sanctuary in prayer. That’s why Jesus not only says you know you’re corrupting it by by by trying to line your pockets, but he also says my father’s house is a house of prayer and it’s a perhaps a prayer for all nations. That’s the context. john chapter 11. He gets furious at death. Matthew chapter 23. He speaks words. strong words, toward religious bullies. Seems like these are the only people that Jesus seemed to bow up on. He didn’t bow up on sexually damaged people. He bowed up on people who bowed up on sexually damaged people. using words like hypocrites whitewash Tim’s blind guys, fools, sons of hell, wicked, negligent, merciless, greedy. He got angry. Jesus lost his cool without ever losing his character.

Scott Sauls
He’s the lamb is also the lion. He’s kind but he’s also severe. He’s gentle toward the week. He’s a defender of the week. So here’s, here’s an example. Speaking of Pharisees and prostitutes, Luke chapter seven, group of Pharisees hosting a dinner party at the home of Simon the faricy. They invite Jesus not to show him hospitality, but to ask him a bunch of gotcha questions in order to discredit him. And incomes. This woman has described as a woman who lived a sinful life in that town. All the scholars would say she’s a prostitute. And what she does is she starts employing three of the primary tools of her trade, her hair, her lips and her perfume, to anoint Jesus’s feet to express affection to him, in one of the only ways that she knows how to express affection, it was appalling, culturally appalling in so many ways for her to do what she had done. And they start calling it out and they start saying, He’s receiving that there’s no way he can be a prophet. He doesn’t know what kind of sinners he’s even dealing with and, and Jesus turns around, he says, you want to talk about sinners? You haven’t offered me a shred of hospitality since the moment I walked into your house. Furthermore, this this woman has just put on a clinic to show you what worship really looks like what it really looks like to love God and only people who know how deeply they’ve been forgiven, and how far away they were from the throne of grace. Only people who know how far the Good Shepherd has gone in leaving the 99 to find the one can love like this. So learn a thing or two. You think this is a moment to take an offense but it’s actually a seminary class. He stands between them what what feels like outrage to them? Feels like gentleness to her. Because he’s standing between them and he’s essentially saying you want to get to her you got to go through me first and good luck with that. JOHN, chapter eight, they’re all the men want to cancel the woman caught in the act of adultery. Do you ever wonder where the man was? Who was caught in the act of adultery? They want to they want to eliminate her. They’ve all got their rocks, they’re ready to throw them. Jesus asked them a gotcha question you who are without sin, raise your hand, you’ll be the first to throw a stone. They all walk away and the only one left for her is the one who is without sin. And what does he say? I do not condemn you. Now go leave your life of sin. He doesn’t dismiss ethics. He emphasizes ethics. But he establishes the climate, for obedience first, by saying I don’t condemn him. Now leave your life of sin, reverse the order of those two sentences reverse that sequence, you lose Christianity, you lose Christ, you lose the power to be sanctified. already spoken about as a key as there’s also Peter Peters ready to cancel himself. He’s so demoralized about how he’s betrayed his master, denying him three times and what is what is the angel of the Lord say through mark, who was Peter’s protege. In Mark’s gospel is the only gospel that adds this detail. When the angel of the Lord says to the women at the tomb, go tell the others and Peter, that I’m coming to him. Go tell him, I like him. Go tell him the Lord said I like you. I want him to know that before I get there, so he’s not on eggshells. So he’s not nervous. So he’s not skittish about seeing me again, because the last time he saw me, he sold me out. Even Judas, the gospel writers cannot bring themselves to call him anything but the betrayer. And that’s an appropriate name for Judas. But what is Jesus call him, even as he’s on his way to hell? What is Jesus called Judas friend? Because he takes no pleasure, even in the death of the wicked, he takes no pleasure. I mean, what is it about Christians who believe in the existence of hell and are glad about it. It’s one thing to a believer in the exists. Of course, Jesus talked more about hell than he did about salvation. But to be glad about it, to be happy that that place is reserved for them for the people that were so prone to other. Jesus doesn’t seem to take opportunity to cancel someone when he has every right to why because of what it says after john 316. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through him, the world might be saved.

Scott Sauls
So how might this apply to us? Let’s talk a little bit about canceling. Let’s talk about censoring. Generally, these things are bad ideas, I think we would all agree that, that these are some of the fruit, some of the fruit, not all of the fruit, everybody is culpable in the climate that we’re in some of the fruit of a hyper political politicized culture. I think Christians have become susceptible even to turning party platforms into our doctrine, pundits into our profits, politicians into our Jesus and the voting booth into our communion table. Let’s think about that. There’s a reason why Gallup has reported for the first time in the history of the united states that less than 50% of people in our country attend churches right now. And it’s going down, down down and his younger generations. And it’s not because it’s not because they’re running towards secularism in the world. Interestingly enough, it’s because they’re running from secularism in the church. Let that sink in for a moment. Never has there been a time in the history of the world where the church has gotten into bed with the power of the state. But it’s not led to anything but more nominalist nominalism more decline and more discrediting of the kingdom that is not of this world. A party spirit is just repackaged Faris atheism. Says prophetic zeal ever legitimate. Yes. Raging anger righteous anger. Here’s the difference. Raging anger attacks problem or I’m sorry raging anger attacks people righteous anger attacks problems. And as righteous anger attacks problem, you can learn this from Martin Luther King Jr. It also seeks to win the people who are creating the problem in the first place. It tries to cancel problems, not people, it tries to win people in an effort to cancel problems. That’s what righteous anger does. This is why Jia is CS Lewis famously said Christianity is a fighting religion. He went on to clarify he said Christianity thinks that God made the world and it also thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists and insists very loudly on are putting them right again. Lewis would also say if you read history, you will find that those who, who did the most. For the present world, we’re also the ones who thought the most of the next In other words, the more heavenly minded people have been, the more earthly good. They have become a key ingredient to redemption in the world. is Christian distress. Christian distress? Have you ever? Have you ever studied the emotional life of God’s prayer book, the Psalms, there’s anger there, be angry and sin not that originated in the Psalms, there’s hurt. Why do the wicked prosper? There’s loneliness. My friends have abandoned me. I’m repulsive to them. My father and mother have forsaken me. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? There’s sadness in the Psalms. I’m bent over crushed morning all day long. There’s fear there. When I’m afraid I will trust in You. There’s guilt and shame. I know my transgressions. And my sin is ever before me. The word reformed which which is popular in TGC, circles, and in my circles as well. It originates from the word reform, who was the first and most famous Protestant reformer protest and reformer Martin Luther, with you know, his nailing of the 95 theses on the door at Wittenberg that came from distress. Because abuse of abuses and exploitations of weak unassuming people in the church, to line the priests pockets. That’s what started the whole thing was luthers distress over abuse in the church.

Scott Sauls
Taking advantage of the weak in the church, Christian distress is what leads to Christian prophetic ministry. It was Christian distress about disease and death that led Christians under chrysostom. to invent the hospital. It was Christians in distress, over unformed minds and unrealized potential in our young people that led Christians to found every Ivy League University except for one. It was Christian distress about orphaned and homeless children that led George Mueller to start the orphan care movement. It was Christian distress about slavery. That led john Newton, a former slave owner turned Christian to get into the ear of William Wilberforce of Parliament as now his pastor and shepherds to cheer him on to fight that battle alone for abolition. And he won because of Newton’s distress, encouraging him to persevere in this noble cause of justice and mercy. It was Christian distress about racial inequality that led Martin Luther King Jr. and john Perkins and all the others to lead us lead for us the civil rights movement, Christian distress that got Chris Christine Caine into fighting trafficking, human trafficking, especially of young women and girls, Mother Teresa to fight on behalf of the unborn and even to say courageously to a sitting president. Stop taking the lives of your babies and just give them all to me. At a National Prayer Breakfast, Christian distress has led to some Good things, righteous anger that seeks to cancel problems, as it also seeks to win and persuade people. Never at the expense of love. When love is out the door, you have nothing, you gain nothing. You are nothing. According to First Corinthians 13, the greatest gift, the one that holds it all together, the the one that the god named as his greatest descriptor love, not only am I loving, I am love I ain’t got his love. Never at the expense of love So, so I’ll I’ll start to wrap up here with an example of what it could look like in church, something that happened in our church or expand on this story a bit in, in my writing here, but I’ll give you a little glimpse of it. One time in church. A visitor came in that I’d never met I’d never seen. He wasn’t dressed for church in the way that you would expect somebody to be dressed for church. He wreaked of nicotine, he was wearing jorts you remember jorts Sue is a little bit out of style, ripped up t shirt, flip flops, and, you know, the music starts playing, he looks around and clearly doesn’t know what to do. I’m noticing their needle streaks on both of his arms and bruises down his legs. Know what that’s about. He’s just kind of, you know, like trying to fit in and, and this guy that I’ll call church guy comes up behind me, taps me on the shoulder, he’s carrying this huge Study Bible that look like it never been open. Always be suspicious of a guy carrying a huge Bible study in pub, or study Bible in public that looks like it’s never been opened. That’s about something else. What he says is, you see that guy, church guy says, He says, you see that guy over there? I say, Yeah, I see him. You know who that is? I don’t know. Do you know? No, of course I don’t know him. Well, well, what do you want to say to me said well, from being honest pastor, he is a distraction to my worship. He had a protest. He had a cancellation that he wanted to make. said, Pastor, would you like me to set him straight? And tell him how you’re supposed to behave and dress in church? And I said, Please don’t do that. So I will remind you what I said a moment ago, the guy had needle streaks on his arm. The backstory is this, the people in the recovery movement said you need to find some religion. Because if you find religion, your chances of not relapsing are going to go up. And so he came to the nearest church which happened to be ours. He smells I mean he reeks like nicotine, right? And so, so I leave church that day thinking what do you what do you call it when a when a person trades in a heroin addiction for a nicotine addiction? I

Scott Sauls
call it sanctification. I call it progress. Every person you meet is fighting a hard hidden battle. Every person you meet is fighting addictions. You know, there’s this there’s this illustration I heard somebody give I think it’s a really great one. Let’s say you got Pete two people traveling to Indianapolis, one from New York City and one from Terre Haute, which is right down the road. And two weeks pass and the person traveling from the east coast is how far is Terre Haute from from Indianapolis rescue, you know, hour and a half. Okay. So the person traveling from the east coast is now three hours away. Two weeks later, and the person from Terre Haute is still an hour and a half away. Who’s growing there? Who is more virtuous? Who’s who’s got a greater righteousness going on in their lives even though the optics are very different. I wonder don’t you why Jesus said to Pharisees, the prostitutes you guys are getting into the Kingdom faster than you are. Do you know that because they started in New York City you’re in Terre Haute you haven’t moved and they’re about to pass you. Learn from a woman who understands what it means to be loved when she doesn’t deserve to be loved and knows it. Learn what grace means learn what I desire, mercy, not sacrifice fries means. So what I did was I looked for my other opium addicted friend. Except it was legalized opium that he had gone into rehab for a couple of years before. No pain pills had recovered, became an elder in our church. Still, to this day been one of the greatest elders I’ve ever worked alongside. He was always the one that I would send into the mess and he would clean it up beautifully. And win hearts in the process. Just through the telling of his own story of having been broken. once was lost, but now I’m found Was blind, but now I see. And yeah, I really mean it. I really mean it. back I remember going home in the car that day giving some advice to the Lord about what the Lord’s church needs. I said, Lord, what the church needs is for all the church guys to go away. What the church needs most is for you to cancel all the church guys. And I am as a Presbyterian. I mean, we’re the chosen frozen, right? We don’t hear audible voices from God. I felt a voice didn’t hear it. But I felt it.

Scott Sauls
And I knew it came from him. And the voice went like this. Be careful Scott. Remember what nature once said, Yes, Scott, I’m quoting nature who said that I

Scott Sauls
am dead. Nature said, Be careful in your attempts to defeat the monster that you don’t become the monster. I am in the process of forgetting the peril. The parable of the prodigal son wasn’t about a son. It was about two sons and a father who loved both sons and welcome both sons into the party, including the church guy. That’s how the parable ends the father intriguing and pleading with the guy who is offended that he has to be called a brother to that. He says now this brother of yours he was dead and is alive again. He was lost and found we’re celebrating. Whether without you we’re celebrating but Oh won’t you come in? Because all I have is your suit. And so the message to me is Pentecostal message to my Presbyterian heart was that there is such a thing, Scott as a grace faricy that’s somebody who is in the name of grace and unloving, faricy toward unloving Pharisees. So I want you to go build a relationship with the church guy, and let Mark take care of the guy who’s coming off of his addiction. Back to Mr. Rogers, he was a Presbyterian minister. Yes, we like to claim him along with Tim Keller, Francis Schaffer, Johnny Erickson, tada john Perkins, Mark Twain, Neil Armstrong and Sheryl Crow. My insecurity coming out a little bit there. Many people are surprised to know that the major impulse behind Mr. Rogers kindness and gentleness was anger. He was angry, he was distressed. He was hurt, lonely, sad, shamed. All of these distressed emotions that we find, being prayed out loud to God, and entrusted to God in the Psalms, which are our instructional prayer guide. He had been mercilessly bullied when he was a child. And the grownups who witnessed it did not come to as his defense in the way that Jesus came to the defense of a prostitute at some of the Pharisees house. They called him fat Fred, could you imagine Mr. Rogers being heavyset, he grew up overweight, and he was body shamed by his peers. And at some point along the way, he made a vow that every child he ever encounters will leave having been treated with the utmost of dignity. Every child that he encounters will leave, knowing that somebody in the world likes them, and sees them. He was angry, and he was sad. Because of how often how frequently children are made to feel the way that he was made to feel as a child. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can cut me deeply. only speak words that make other souls stronger. There is a quiet majority that is craving what proverbs 15 one calls a gentle answer that turns away wrath. My personal belief is that it is not watertight arguments anymore. That’s going to win people for Christ in a climate where the church is declining because people young people especially are not running to the secularism of the world as much as they’re running from the secularism of the church. I believe our best opportunity now Is as Jesus said to Peter when Judas was betraying Him, put down your sword. My kingdom is not of this world, Marcus, here’s your ear back, buddy. Now, do what you’ve came to, you’ve come to do that the scriptures may be fulfilled. Peter, they’re not taking my life, I don’t need you to defend me. No one takes my life from me. I lay it down. On my own accord. Pontius Pilate. You don’t have any authority over me. You would have no authority had it not been given to you by my father. So now do what you must give them barabas and cancel me coming from that place, getting that into our hearts. Read Danes book.

Scott Sauls
Then and only then will we be able to get out there in the world and start to evangelize the gentleness of Christ the eighth I am statement of Christ to a world that is so thirsty for something different. Maybe in so doing, we can do our part in making Christianity beautiful again. May it be so let’s pray. Lord, as St. Francis Peacemaker that he was taught us to pray, Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt faith, where there is despair hope, where there is darkness light, where there is sadness, joy, oh, divine master grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive it is in pardoning that we are pardon. It is in dying, specifically Lord in dying to ourselves in dying to our pride and dying to the party spirit. That we might live to Christ. The one who is gentle and humble in heart and gives rest to every soul who comes to him. It is in dying in this way that we are born to eternal life. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you