As I write this I am reminded that today, June 6, is the anniversary of D-Day. Operation Overlord was the largest amphibian assault in our history. That day, carried by 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft, the allies initiated an attack at the beaches of Normandy, France to liberate northwest Europe, then occupied by the invading German army. Nine thousand allied soldiers were either killed or wounded that day. We express our gratitude to the many soldiers who stormed those beaches. Their service protected our liberties.
We face a new kind of assault on our liberties. It is not a military assault, this occupying force is a shift of social conventions, those boundaries to behavior that mark proper and decent conduct in a civilized society. For centuries Biblical values informed and shaped the conventions of Western Civilization. The Church was the institution that, in combination with the parents, was the teacher of honorable values and ideals. Now the Church is viewed by much of society as the oppressor of free expression.
These new social conventions have swept through America primarily by judicial fiat and bureaucratic decree and they are redefining person hood (who has the right to life), marriage, sexual identity and the freedom to practice our faith in the pubic square. The allies of WWII responded to the occupying force with a united military assault. King Jesus, the Lord of the Kingdom of God, calls upon us to “stand” and to “withstand” and to “stand firm” (Ephesians 6).
We are not to compromise God’s values with the social conventions of this humanistic world. While we stand fast Jesus also teaches us to move forward, He says we should “love one another” (John 13). We can and shall welcome our neighbors at Emmanuel. It is our privilege to serve them and accept them and at the same time to hold onto the values and ideals of the Kingdom of God as revealed in Holy Scripture. We can invite our neighbors to turn their hearts to Jesus and trust Him to be their Savior and Lord. Jesus is the true Liberator.
Pastor Tim Cartwright