It is clear that our nation is experiencing a sea-change of political direction, and yet at the same time is split in half at the close of a contentious presidential campaign marked by divisive and hateful rhetoric.<\/p>\n
There is tumult and uncertainty all around us, but the church may yet reassert itself as the body of Christ in which all members have a part, no one member is greater or more important than another, and no one can say to another that he or she is not needed in the body (1 Corinthians 12).<\/p>\n
Times of great change and uncertainty are times of opportunity for disciples of Christ. This is a time for the church to speak about the Good News of the Gospel with renewed energy and enthusiasm.<\/p>\n
The calling of the church of Jesus Christ is clear, in this circumstance\u2013and indeed in all circumstances: \u201cTo bring good news to the poor…. to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord\u2019s favor\u201d (Luke 4:18b-19 NRSV).<\/em><\/p>\n Words from the prophet Micah offer us similar wisdom for this time in the life of our nation, from the Old Testament scriptures:<\/p>\n \u201cHe has told you, O mortal, what is good; There is tumult and uncertainty all around us. What can the church do?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cheryl-brumbaugh-cayford"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4146,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions\/4146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nand what does the Lord require of you
\nbut to do justice, and to love kindness,
\nand to walk humbly with your God?\u201d (Micah 6:8 NRSV)<\/em>
\nLet us continue as the church, living out of faith and hope, and the greatest of these: love (1 Corinthians 13:13).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"