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By Antoine Love

Psalm 62:5-12
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20

Can?t we all just get along? No, really? Can?t we all just get along? That is the question that has caused this 'Walking in the Word' to become my 'Wrestling with the Word.' But I am grateful for the walk and my wrestling. Prayerfully, I now invite you to join me ? step by step, in my shoes.

What a wonderful thought ? to think that all of humanity could stand shoulder to shoulder and 'get along.' There would be unity among the peoples and harmony in every heart.

Tolerance and understanding would rule the day. Imagine a time, a place, when people of all colors, female and male, wealthy and poor, young and 'seasoned,' gay and straight, sinner and saint stood side by side. What a wonderful world that would be.

Now imagine if that was not the world but the church. But can the church be the church and everybody just get along?

We have celebrated Christmas ? the joyous remembrance of the Messiah?s coming ? the babe born in a manger. Jesus, who is our Lord and Savior, has come to bring the gift of salvation. Oh, we rejoice at the Star of Bethlehem, but we cannot forget that the Cross of Calvary looms in the distance. And we dare not forget that Christ has come, Christ is risen and Christ will come again.

Paul?s writing to the Corinthian church declares his urgency regarding Christ?s imminent return. Therefore, Paul compels the followers to seek after spiritual matters, not temporal matters, and to attend to the affairs that please God. What does please God?

God was pleased with Jonah when he went to the city of Nineveh and preached to its people concerning their wickedness, their sin. Because of Jonah?s obedience and the Ninevites? repentant acts, both were saved from certain destruction. Without repentance, they would have been destroyed.

In Mark?s Gospel, it pleased God to proclaim through Jesus that 'the Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe ?'

It seems as if being saved is predicated upon repentance and then belief. The 'R' word, 'repentance' ? the turning away from our sin(s) that offend God, is the word that often keeps us from getting along.

For the sake of getting along, do you or I settle to promote a softer Word of God and a cheaper grace or do we call out the need for repentance as part of salvation?s plan?

For the sake of the church, can we continue to gather and stay in our mess, sin, and get along without any accountability?

The psalmist speaks from his experience of God in Psalm 62 and knows God as a refuge and strength. The psalmist has encountered God as trustworthy and loving. His God is also the God who will reward each person 'according to what he has done.' God is a loving God. Living within or without godly standards has its just rewards.

Therefore, aren?t you, aren?t I, aren?t we mandated to cry out repent and believe? Yes ? with an open heart, an open mind, an open door and an open invitation to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.

The Rev. Antoine Love is the pastor of Covenant Point UMC in Waldorf.