Senior U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Crabb, of the District Court in Madison, Wisconsin, ruled yesterday that the National Day of Prayer created by Congress in 1952 and reaffirmed by them in 1988 is unconstitutional. In a confusing ruling, Crabb wrote that government involvement in prayer may be constitutional if the conduct serves a “significant secular purpose” and doesn’t amount to a call for religious action, but that the National Day of Prayer crosses that line.

It’s hard to imagine a more significant secular purpose than praying for God’s help and wisdom for America. Apparently President Obama agrees, because an administration spokesperson told the Associated Press, “As he did last year, President Obama intends to recognize a National Day of Prayer.” And it should be noted that Judge Crabb herself said that her ruling should not prevent the occurrence of any such prayer days “until all appeals are exhausted.”

The lawsuit was filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation—an organization that makes its position on America clear by its deliberate distortion of the actual words in the U.S. Constitution’s first amendment which guarantees freedom of religion. It’s no surprise that an organization that (by its very name) disrespects our Constitution is seeking to have the words of that Constitution misinterpreted to match their own agenda.

But as is often the case, there is a deeper question: Does it matter? After all, there’s certainly nothing in the ruling that prohibits individual Christians (or Hindus or Muslims or…) from praying for America on that day. What is our real goal? To get the government to declare a day in which praying for our country is a good thing? Or is it instead to build an America in which people lovingly call upon God every day for our country and all our needs?

Some would argue that this is just one more step down a slippery slope into a world in which Americans are forbidden to pray; or at least as in some Muslim countries, forbidden to pray as Christians. They may be right. As Christians, we do need to be vigilant to prevent that from happening.

But what’s the best way to fight that battle? Is it by causing another angry uproar that the media can use to paint us as negative haters? Surely some level of public response is good to remind everyone that we’re still here! And this is especially important now as President Obama is preparing to appoint a new Supreme Court Justice that will make final rulings on cases like this.

But isn’t it more important that we help people find the love of Jesus so the swell of public opinion is to support the freedom of religion in the Constitution rather than fight it? To create a country in which fringe groups can no longer dictate policy to the masses? No doubt there are some idiots in the Ku Klux Klan who would like to see Martin Luther King, Jr. Day removed from the national calendar, too. But they don’t dare try to file such a lawsuit because the climate of America is so strongly behind admiration for Dr. King’s contributions to our country. Shouldn’t our primary goal be developing a climate in America that is so strongly behind the value of prayer to our God that such a lawsuit wouldn’t even be considered?

What do you think is the best response?

We’ve all heard this old saying. But did you know that this proverb was applied to the church as far back as 1526 by Martin Luther himself?¹

I was reminded of that during my Bible time as I read the story of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 31:18 we see God giving Moses tablets of stone containing His instructions. Meanwhile, the people had gotten tired of waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain and had pestered Aaron so much to build an idol for them that he caved in to public demand and did as they asked. When Moses came down from the mountain, he was furious.  So furious, in fact, that he ground up the golden calf and put it in the water supply so people would drink it.

It makes sense to get upset about things that are wrong, doesn’t it? The issue is how we handle that anger. As Moses came down from the mountain, Exodus 32:15 says, “He held in his hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.16 These tablets were God’s work; the words on them were written by God himself.”

Moses is carrying something the likes of which had never been seen on earth! He had been in the very presence of God and seen God inscribe these tablets. Spend a minute letting it sink in just how incredible were the tablets in his hands. The kind of thing that would be revered as long as humans had breath!

19 When they came near the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing, and he burned with anger. He threw the stone tablets to the ground, smashing them at the foot of the mountain.

Sure it’s understandable that Moses was angry. But in his anger, and in his haste to fix the situation, Moses destroyed something unspeakably sacred. When we do that, God is under no obligation to restore what we destroyed. In this case He did, but notice the difference we see in Exodus 34:

1 Then the Lord told Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones. I will write on them the same words that were on the tablets you smashed.

The first time, God created the tablets. The second time, necessary only because Moses threw out the good with the bad, Moses had to chisel out the tablets himself. His job became harder because he allowed his anger to overwhelm the sacred things he was carrying.

I see two applications for this lesson that are highly relevant today. First, there are many calls for reformation in the church these days.  Emerging church, missional church, externally focused church, organic church… all attempts to correct things that have gone wrong. Fair enough. But in our zeal to address what is wrong, let us be very, very careful not to destroy something that is sacred in the process. Let us be careful to treat the Church as the Bride of Christ, radiant in her glory.

Second, Acts 2 speaks of a time when Christ’s followers were admired by the people and many were being saved as a result. The key characteristics of the Christians were generosity, joy, sharing with those in need, and praising God. Today the admiration of Christ’s followers in the U.S. is arguably at the lowest point in the country’s history. Many would say that the key characteristics of Christians are anger, judgmentalism, and hypocrisy. No doubt some of this is due to the media’s desire to pounce on anything that feeds that image—but they don’t have any trouble finding examples to highlight.

In our anger over the things that are wrong, let us not destroy something that is utterly sacred. We would do well to imagine ourselves carrying two stone tablets at all times; each containing one of Jesus’ words to His followers:

John 15:12 “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.”

John 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

As we feel anger for the things that are wrong in our world, let us not destroy the tablets of love.

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¹Quoted from D. Martin Luthers Werke, ed. by Paul Pietsch. Weimar: Hermann Böhlau, 1898, vol. 20, p. 160. See also James Cornette, Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions in the German Works of Martin Luther. Diss. University of North Carolina, 1942, p. 157.

I was 10 years old that summer. I was an only child in a home where both parents worked. They were afraid of what we’d get up to if I had friends over after school, and by the time they got home and we’d had dinner they didn’t want me going out so I never really had the chance to build friendships. On the weekend, my parents would go to the lake to hang out with their friends—none of whom had any kids my age.

So I was thrilled to death when my cousins in Kentucky asked me to come down and spend a week at a kids’ Bible camp, held at a church camp near Morehead. I didn’t grow up in a Christian home. I didn’t really know what a Bible camp was! All I knew was that it was a chance to go have fun with my cousins for a while. I don’t even remember the name of the camp, but the father of the cousins I liked so much was the pastor of a SouthernBaptist church, so I imagine that was its affiliation.

Well, we had a blast. There was a whole lot of playtime. That’s where I learned you’re supposed to pour the bag of peanuts right down into your bottle of Dr. Pepper. But there were also times for Bible stories. One guy in particular I still remember… we called him Mr. Ken, and he was quite a storyteller. He had such a great way of building the atmosphere and keeping kids’ attention. He told stories of Elijah, and David. I’m sure there were more, but after all these years I can still remember him telling those.

It was such a fun, relaxed time. I guess I might have been even more open to the teaching because it wasn’t in some formal church situation that can be intimidating to kids. But when he told the story of Jesus, it just all sunk in for me. I realized these weren’t just stories from a book like any other.This Jesus guy really had lived and breathed and done things that you’d only expect superheroes to be able to do! I don’t remember them doing anything like an altar call there, but looking back on it that’s truly when I became a Christian.

That’s just the beginning, of course… but to hear the rest you’ll have to come to the Stoney Creek Church Camp tomorrow night.  And for the sake of all the lives they’re going to touch, please bring your checkbooks.

It’s an interesting story that indicates the huge potential power of one simple, profound idea that captures a single motivated person.  To me, it’s a rather ironic side-note that the concept of a meme was advanced by the British scientist and atheist Richard Dawkins; because I see the book (which is not connected with Dawkins) as a wake-up call for every Christian on how simple evangelism can be.  We see one person, with few friends and almost no circle of influence, begin a movement that affects the world.

It started when he found guiding principles for his life that he committed to living, and thought he’d tell others about those principles.  He wasn’t really an evangelist, in that he wasn’t necessarily trying to persuade others to adopt those principles.  He just thought they should be aware of them, so they could decide for themselves.  So he diligently went about spreading the message in ways that you and I could easily do today—and it went viral, reaching the world.

Is there any greater message than the gospel of Jesus Christ?  So why does it seem so few of us are actively spreading the message—in simple, unoffensive ways.  As the band Casting Crowns sings, “If we are the body, why aren’t his feet going?”