Church Signs

The congregation with which I am blessed to be in ministry made an intentional move to proclaim the Gospel to the masses driving by our facility every day by installing a 'Church Sign' near the highway about ten years ago. Thousands of folks drive by our sign every day and every week I strive to share a unique theological perspective on the world. Sometimes the sign messages are better than others, but seldom are they ever a copy of another sign. In my heart, using a Church Sign message that others have seen or read in a book or heard from someone else is akin to standing at the pulpit on Sunday morning and reading some other Pastor's sermon: at best, plagiarism, and at worst, unfaithful. Using the messages of others without even attempting to discern God's word for this place, time and context, is limiting the power of God to be relevant in the lives with whom I am called to serve.

So, this morning, I changed the sign for the week to come and, more poignantly, for the weekend at hand, which is Memorial Day weekend. The sign this week reads,

BEFORE CAMPING, COOKING

& BOATING, THANK GOD FOR

THE VETERANS WHOSE LIVES

HAVE MADE IT ALL POSSIBLE

Nothing flashy, nothing particularly catchy, and nothing new in the heavens above or the earth beneath, but original to the thousands who will, in the days ahead, parade their campers, RV's, boats, and weekend outing supplies past the worship home of our congregation on their way to Carlyle Lake to 'celebrate' a long weekend. Being grateful to God is not a new perspective but, for many who drive by, it will be the only invitation to remember 'why' we have a long weekend that they will hear . . . . and, for many more, it will be one of the few invitations to prayer they will hear at all. If half of those who go by read it, and half of those think about it, and half of those do it, then there will still be a thousand or two prayers of thanksgiving offered to God for those who have left their giftedness and talents on the battlefields of the world that, in freedom, we might go where we want, do what we want, and say what we want . . . . even blog what we want.

Their ongoing sacrifice is not lost on me as I write these few words a day. Among those for whom I continue to give thanks to God for their service are the members of the congregation I serve who continue to serve here and abroad for the liberties we enjoy. Freedom and liberty are not entitlements, either from God or from man, they are gifts whose purchase continues to be paid by those who believe the cost is worth the investment. Wonder as I might about how that investment is being appreciated by the millions whose presence on this earth reflects a greater degree of amnesia regarding the history into which they are born, than an appreciation of the environment which they enjoy at the cost of others, still, when I think of it from God's viewpoint, whom among us can ever fully appreciate the freedom into which we have been born through Christ?

So, the struggle continues and sign writers try to be clever while God just prays we notice. "For freedom, Christ has set you free . . . ." yet, the powers and principalities demand on earth a blood payment in every generation for that which is truly heavenly. Thank God, once and for all, Christ sets us free, a gift we should never forget, even as we remember those of this age who embody that sacrifice anew.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Don