Mt. Lebanon United Presbyterian Church     
 
Pastor Tim Janiszewski - "Veterans of the Good Fight"

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Messages of Grace

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This Sunday
Nov. 15, 2015



Sermon Title:
"Sounds Like a Plan"



Scripture:
Jeremiah 29:4-14  




Picture of Pastor Tim
November 12, 2015
 
Dear MLEPC Members and Friends:
 
Wednesday, November 11, was Veterans Day. Veterans Day has its beginnings in the ending of World War I, when on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 (Nov. 11, 1918, 11 a.m.) an armistice was signed between the Germans and Allies, thus formally concluding the conflict. One year later on November 11, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson declared the first official Armistice Day to honor WWI veterans, and the observance became an official legal holiday in 1938 as a "day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace." In 1954 the observance was renamed Veterans Day so as to include all who participated in the American Armed Services, in addition to those of WWI.
 
Our church long has appreciated and recognized those among us who served in the United States military. On behalf of MLEPC, if you are a veteran who is reading this week's Pastoral Letter, thank you so very much for the sacrifices you made on behalf of our country. Allow me personally to thank my own father, who served for twenty-eight years with the United States Marine Corps including tours of duty in the South Pacific for WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. I further am grateful for my son, Jon, who currently is a Captain in the US Army. Having been deployed previously to Kuwait in the Middle East, he soon will be stationed at Ft. Bliss, El Paso, Texas. I am so proud of both of these men. I imagine most of us can think of men and women such as these two whom we admire and appreciate for their military service.
 
Throughout the history of the Christian Church, the subject of "God and country" has been a thorny one. Many sincere Christians have championed a close alliance between God's cause and the national causes of their countries. Other conscientious believers have thought it wise to put distance between identifying the Kingdom of God with the agendas of any of the kingdoms of our world, including the United States of America. One visible marker of this difference often is noticed in church sanctuaries where some feature an American flag prominently visible and others do not display one at all. To be sure, churches with an American flag in the sanctuary do not necessarily baptize everything the country does with the blessing of God. And churches that refrain from displaying an American flag are far from being anti-patriotic. Yet the decision about the national flag in the place of worship does signal something about one's basic approach.
 
It is not my intention to resolve this diversity of thought on God and country among faithful Christians. I would however say that we are called to seek God's highest and best purposes for our nation and its military efforts. I would assert that our military is most honorable when the sacrifices made by its soldiers reflect the virtues and values of God's high calling and standard. After all, there are many veteran soldiers throughout history who fought for unjust and twisted causes. Their valor is tarnished by their misdirected goals.
 
A case in point comes from our Scripture for this Sunday, Jeremiah 29:4-14. The prophet Jeremiah writes to Israelites in exile in Babylon in 594 B. C. Why are they in exile? One prominent reason is that Israel fought battles that God did not approve and made alliances that God did not sanction. In part, judgment came due to these unjust wars and ill-advised alliances. God's people always are called to remember that "the battle is the Lord's," whether that battle is temporal on the field of conflict or spiritual against unseen powers and principalities of evil.
 
So once again, thank you to our veterans. We are grateful to you! At the same time, let us continue to pray that our country will choose its battles and pick its friends only in accordance with the Lord's principles of liberty and justice, mercy and righteousness. For our nation's well-being and blessing only can be found in Him.
 
Pastor Tim
 
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