Opinion

A church social justice committee can keep members informed and educated on issues confronting the community and can work with social justice committees of other congregations to have a powerful impact.

Think about all aspects of retirement as you plan. Include giving time and talents, as well as money, to ensure maximum productivity and maximum joy.

No, the title of this column does not imply that your pastor is illiterate. No offense intended. My challenge is that all of us pastors need to read wider — much wider than we normally do.

It has become increasingly clear that the unrest in Ferguson is more than a protest over the killing of a young black man. The community is displaying pent-up anger in a situation where a majority of residents claim to have little to say in the governing of their community or in policing it. They believe mistrust - racial mistrust - runs deep, and the current unrest seems to confirm it.

Sometimes, God will allow the disruptions to remind us that we are not in charge. If things always go our way, we never learn patience. If our human-contrived security is enough, we never learn to trust God.

Take it from me. We never graduate from the school of trusting God. In fact, there is probably a class starting soon, near you!

The old joke goes, “Baptists believe the Bible; they just don’t know what is says!” In my more mature years, I’ve stopped worrying whether or not people take the Bible literally and started asking if they take it seriously.

Heard any good jokes lately? Early Christians customarily celebrated Easter with joy, laughter and lots of jokes. Someone once said that humor is our response to seeing the proud lord of death step on a banana peel. That proud lord of death (Satan) thought he had won. But God had the last laugh! The resurrection of Jesus turned tragedy into comedy.

Like many people, I was appalled the first time I heard the story of how Thomas Jefferson, one of our nation’s founding fathers, personally edited the Bible. He took a pair of scissors and cut up his copy of Scripture, removing the parts that he believed did not pass the Enlightenment test of reason.

But I wonder. What about us? Without ever touching a pair of scissors, have we “cut out” important scriptural themes simply by ignoring them?

It mattered to God that the Hebrew people, wandering in the wilderness, were famished. He gave them manna. It mattered to Jesus that 5,000 people were hungry, and so he fed them with five loaves and two fish. It matters to God and to Jesus that people are hungry today.

The question is: Does it matter to us?

Urging churches to provide adequate financial care for their pastors, other ministers and staff members during less-than-stellar financial times might seem a stretch. After all, gifts to many churches are down even as members struggle with unemployment and, in other cases, less disposable income.

Under such circumstances, what is a church to do?