1 John 5:1-6 Perhaps you can remember watching those old Western movies, the kind that John Wayne appeared in back in the forties and the fifties, back before Clint Eastwood’s more complicated Westerns began to appear. In those movies of yesteryear, there were good guys and bad guys, and you always knew who was who. Sometimes, they even wore different colored hats – one white, one black – just so you didn’t miss the point. We call this dualism, and dualism lets us see everything in black and white, either/or terms. You’re either with us or against us, and if you’re against us then you must be evil. And if you’re evil, then I may have to destroy you. We like to see ourselves living on the right side of things, which means that our opponents must be evil. As a nation we’ve spoken of our enemies in terms of evil empires and an axis of evil. It seems to make sense to us, but maybe life isn’t so cut and dry. Perhaps Abraham Lincoln was right when he pointed out that both sides d...
Sermons of a Disciples Preacher Ministering in Troy, Michigan