What is our Vision? Been awhile since we checked that.

                Our church has a Christian view of the world.  On the one hand is the call “I give my heart eagerly and sincerely to the Lord.”  On the other, we look to our neighbors with the call “With you, through all.”  It is the total commitment to the work of the Lord in this congregation.  These actions define us as “a neighborhood in the Kingdom of God”.  This is who we are in the Lord at the First Presbyterian Church of Perth Amboy.

                I was watching a movie the other night, which, like so many, I have on DVR to complete.  It is called “The Kingdom” with Jamie Foxx.  He plays an FBI agent, part of a US investigative team, that goes to Saudi Arabia to investigate a terrorist attack aimed at a Western community located within the nation.  During the movie, there are cut scenes to the terrorists who have masterminded the attack.  What came across that struck me is the utter passion that such leaders have for their work, a misguided passion to Allah and an impassioned hatred for those they have labeled as their enemies.

                Yes, it was a movie.  But it comes on the heels of the eighteenth anniversary of 9/11, when that thing happened to us, right here, and we could see the columns of smoke rising up over Staten Island.  I arrived here in December of that year.  I did not see the smoke rising at that point, not from here, but I saw the searchlight tribute that was in place for such a long time.

                And I wonder.  I wonder how we even begin to arose the passion in our community for a God of peace.  This God of peace who stands up to the passions for the god of war that terrorists create for themselves.  Because Allah is not that way.  I wonder about the long view.  It is not the short view of making a point by killing another person.  Destruction has always been easier than creation.  I am talking about the long view, of a passion for the peace, love, and forgiveness of Christ that changes the world so there is no more breeding ground for the makers of war. 

                The things that churches say about themselves, they are words on a page or a bulletin or a website.  They usually sound good and, like most clichés, they carry a powerful truth.  But it is the church that lives into that vision, that brings passion to the work of the Lord, it is that church that changes things for the Lord and does not simply float in a happy limbo.  I believe this is who we are called to be.  I invite you to renew your commitment to the Lord and join me.

Peace,
Pastor Peter