There is no excuse. That the family is trying to spin the Freeh report to protect his "legacy" is only adding to the shame he deserves. Joe Paterno may have served his fellow man for decades, and he did, but what will he be remembered for? Looking the other way to protect his buddy and his football program as children were raped by the man whose office was next door. The legal ramifications for Penn State will be huge, and they should be, but the moral ramifications are beyond the pale. Each of those students who gathered to protest the firing of Joe must now look themselves in the mirror and realize that they were helping to protect a man who made an inexcusable evil choice.
Those of us who serve the public as our life's calling know that everything we have worked for could be ruined by a false accusation. It makes us tentative, causes us to have rules about ministering alone with anyone, and plays to our fears. It cannot be helped. The innocent deserve our discomfort.
If any of these 4 leaders at Penn State (plus who knows how many more further down the ladder) had any sense of courage or honor, they would have gone to the police regardless of the consequences. It is not a choice, it is an obligation. Everything else that may be offered in their defense is meaningless. They knew enough, they knew children were at risk, and they walked away. Only one person needed to do the right thing to put a stop to Sandusky's predatory rapes of children; at Penn State, to their shame, there was none.
There is no excuse, only shame.
This blog serves as an outreach for Pastor Randy Powell of the First Baptist Church of Franklin, PA. Feel free to ask questions or send me an e-mail at pastorpowell@hotmail.com
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Jesus Christ is the same - Hebrews 13:8
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever." A simple enough statement on the face of it, although I feel the need to insert a couple of commas. What's so odd about something staying the same? In reality, it is remarkable for anything to remain the same. When we look at the physical world around us the one constant we see is change. Nothing stays the say, everything is in a state of flux. Our own lives are no different. None of us are the same as we were ten years ago; not only have our bodies aged and changed (usually for the worse), but our relationships and our thinking as well. Change is inevitable.
And yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Isn't that what Solomon meant when he wrote, "there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, 'Look! This is something new'? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time." (Ecclesiastes 1:9b-10) Things such as death, taxes, man's inhumanity to man, natural disasters, pestilence, disease, and war are certainly not new. The 24 hour news channels may report them as if they were a brand new thing, but we know we've seen them all before.
So what makes Jesus different? The last word of the verse is "forever". Everything I listed that we want go end, such as death, will one day be destroyed by the victory that Jesus accomplished with the Cross and the Empty Tomb. One day, death will be no more, a new earth will be free of defect, and those who inhabit it will be free of sin. Solomon knew that those things had all been around, and could see no way in which the evil in our world could be destroyed. In God's wisdom, he sent his Son to our world to solve the dilemma that lead to Solomon's melancholy.
After God's final judgment of his creation, it will be God that remained the same throughout, from beginning to end, and his creation that (thankfully) returned to what it once was. We will change, Jesus Christ has no need to; he will remain the same yesterday, today, and forever.
And yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Isn't that what Solomon meant when he wrote, "there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, 'Look! This is something new'? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time." (Ecclesiastes 1:9b-10) Things such as death, taxes, man's inhumanity to man, natural disasters, pestilence, disease, and war are certainly not new. The 24 hour news channels may report them as if they were a brand new thing, but we know we've seen them all before.
So what makes Jesus different? The last word of the verse is "forever". Everything I listed that we want go end, such as death, will one day be destroyed by the victory that Jesus accomplished with the Cross and the Empty Tomb. One day, death will be no more, a new earth will be free of defect, and those who inhabit it will be free of sin. Solomon knew that those things had all been around, and could see no way in which the evil in our world could be destroyed. In God's wisdom, he sent his Son to our world to solve the dilemma that lead to Solomon's melancholy.
After God's final judgment of his creation, it will be God that remained the same throughout, from beginning to end, and his creation that (thankfully) returned to what it once was. We will change, Jesus Christ has no need to; he will remain the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Ancient Words Ever True...
I was listening to the song Ancient Words in the office today, considering the words of Peter in Acts 4, and pondering the book, The Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch. Where did all of that lead me? The Reformation (in conjunction with the Renaissance) was a difficult time for those who wished to respect ancient traditions. If you wanted to revere all the wisdom of the ancients, you had to deny the observations of men like Copernicus and Galileo in favor of men dead for two thousand years like Aristotle and Ptolemy.
If instead, you opened up the wisdom of the ancients to doubt, even ridicule, how could you hold the line and protect the Orthodox faith from those who would deny the Trinity (for example)?
For us, the answers seem easy: Copernicus was right and that doesn't say anything about Biblical interpretation, it's just an observation from the natural world. It wasn't so simple at the time. We, as supposedly enlightened modern thinkers, may scoff at the foolishness of our forefathers, and shake our heads that they ever burned "witches" at the stake; but the question should be, "Are we any better?"
Take a look around the world we live in. It has become the accepted belief in the Modern West that a human embryo can be disposed of with not a bit of care, and even an ironic moral outrage at those who would seek to "force" a young girl to give birth to the child growing inside of her. It has also become the accepted belief in much of the Modern West that any and all variations of sexuality, co-habitation, and separation are equally valid. That nobody has the right to tell anyone else that their choices are wrong.
Does it really seem so funny that men in the 16th Century were troubled that Copernicus was claiming the earth revolved around the sun? In reality, humanity hasn't "advanced" much at all over the last five centuries. We may know more stuff, and have a lot more widgets and gizmoes to entertain ourselves, but our moral state is just as deprived as the day Luther became troubled with Paul's insistence on fallen humanity in his letter to the Romans.
If instead, you opened up the wisdom of the ancients to doubt, even ridicule, how could you hold the line and protect the Orthodox faith from those who would deny the Trinity (for example)?
For us, the answers seem easy: Copernicus was right and that doesn't say anything about Biblical interpretation, it's just an observation from the natural world. It wasn't so simple at the time. We, as supposedly enlightened modern thinkers, may scoff at the foolishness of our forefathers, and shake our heads that they ever burned "witches" at the stake; but the question should be, "Are we any better?"
Take a look around the world we live in. It has become the accepted belief in the Modern West that a human embryo can be disposed of with not a bit of care, and even an ironic moral outrage at those who would seek to "force" a young girl to give birth to the child growing inside of her. It has also become the accepted belief in much of the Modern West that any and all variations of sexuality, co-habitation, and separation are equally valid. That nobody has the right to tell anyone else that their choices are wrong.
Does it really seem so funny that men in the 16th Century were troubled that Copernicus was claiming the earth revolved around the sun? In reality, humanity hasn't "advanced" much at all over the last five centuries. We may know more stuff, and have a lot more widgets and gizmoes to entertain ourselves, but our moral state is just as deprived as the day Luther became troubled with Paul's insistence on fallen humanity in his letter to the Romans.
Sermon Video - "No other name", Acts 4:1-12
In response to Peter's healing of a crippled man and his preaching to the people in the name of Jesus, the religious leaders demand to know by whose authority Peter has acted. In his defense, Peter boldly claims that the sole source of his healing power is the resurrected Jesus Christ. His conclusion is Christianity's exclusive claim; that there is no other name that we have been given that can save us.
To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video
To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Sermon Video: "the name of Jesus" - Acts 3:11-16
Following the miraculous healing of a man born crippled, Peter explains to the gathering crowd that it was not the power responsible did not belong to him. The miracle was through and in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the same Jesus who the people of Jerusalem put to death. By insisting that the name of Jesus, and the faith that comes through him, was the basis for the healing, Peter is declaring Jesus to be God himself. Only God has the power to perform miracles because there is only one God. In the end, it is faith in Jesus Christ that can heal, both body and spirit, and nothing else.
To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video
To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video
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