“You who ride on white donkeys, sitting on your saddle blankets, and you who walk along the road, consider ... – Judges 5:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 2, 2012): Judges 5

I love that there are a whole lot of different denominations and different churches in this world, because I recognize that we are all different – and each one of us responds to something different. A good friend of mine has a church experience that once a month highlights church without music. They do a lot of different things in their worship time, sometimes engaging all of the senses as they also engage the scripture in various ways. And it is working for them. I suggested something like that for my congregation and the response that I received was that it sounded boring. For us, what seems to be important is lively music performed by the band (but sung by everybody) with a Bible message. Anything else just would not seem like church.

A couple of weeks ago a Pastor from a local church walked into my office just to meet me. His church experience was very different again. At his church it is only the hymns that are sung (we try to sing one hymn every Sunday – all though admittedly we define hymn as anything written before the 1980’s – so a lot of what we would call hymns would be modern songs to him) and the only accompaniment allowed in his church is a piano and organ. Like us, his church preaches a Biblical sermon every week, but he only preaches from the King James Version – a version of the Bible that is rarely heard in the church experience that I attend.

And the question that gets asked is this – is that okay. And some people say that it is not. God can only move in these circumstances. God only moves when this type of songs is sung, or when this version of the Bible is read – and I just do not buy into that. I do not believe that Jesus is limited by that – but I believe that we can be. So I believe it is going to take all of us, doing what it is that we do, to reach a world in need of God.

Pure white donkeys were very rare. And because of that rarity they were highly prized by the rich and by those that ruled. This verse could be rewritten this way for our culture. “Listen, all of you driving your Jaguars with your plush seat covers, and hear all of you that take mass transit, and everyone in between – this message is for you.” The Gospel message is intended for everyone. And so, whatever it takes, that is what we do to reach people. The differences in our churches are important so that the world can be reached. We are all a team, working toward the same goal – the goal that Jesus has laid in front of us. And whatever it takes we will do so that we will show God’s love to the world that he has created.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 6