Hi.  I’m your pastor.  Do you remember me?  I’m Jeff Smith.  If the only way you know me is by reading what I post on our website, you probably don’t know me nearly well enough.  I’ve not been as good as I’d like to be at corresponding with you this way but I’ve repented.  I would like to periodically post a book review here in Pastor Jeff’s library.  I want to do this so that you might have a feel for who I am by what I’m reading and just so that we can get to know each other better.  If you happen to have read, or read one of the books I review, I would dearly love to talk with you about it.  So with that in mind, let’s begin.

Last summer I read a book by a gentleman named Cleon Skousen.  The name of the book was The Five Thousand Year Leap.  What makes this book worthy of a review in Pastor Jeff’s library?  Very simply, Skousen did such a marvelous job explaining how the founders of our nation put together a government by the people, for the people and of the people, that The Five Thousand Year Leap should be required reading for every junior or senior in high school.  When our founders came together in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776, the only thing they all agreed upon was that they were fed up with the government of King George the Third, taxation without representation, being deprived of personal property at the arbitrary whim of a distant king.  They weren't to fond of the fact that British troops were quartered in their homes without their consent.  In other words, they knew what they were against.  But somewhere in the heat of that long ago Philadelphia summer, those founders thought critically about what should go into the Constitution of the United States.  They thought strategically and carefully about how to articulate a bill of rights.  The result of those deliberations was an amazing transformation whereby a group of people from individual states united only in what they were against, gave way to a nation of people who understood something far more important.  They became a people who understood what they stood for!  That understanding, Skousen argues, allowed the United States of America to become a powerful nation whose political and social experiment would lead the world to an era of unprecedented progress.  In fact, Skousen suggests that in the two hundred thirty some years that have passed since that Philadelphia summer and those documents that launched a nation, the world has progressed more in that time than the previous five thousand years in the history of the planet; hence the name of the book.

So what does that have to do with us?  First of all, for us as Americans, particularly those of us who call ourselves Christian Americans, The Five Thousand Year Leap reminds us of something fundamental; something that I for one quite frankly, have forgotten.  That something lies in the answer to the question: “Where do our rights and liberties come from?”  Sadly, we live in an age of “entitlement mentality” and that mindset has subtly allowed us to drift to a place where we think that our rights come from the government.  The founders went to great lengths to establish that our rights come from no human being or from any human institution; our rights and liberties come from God and God alone.  Why is this important?  Because a government that giveth, is a government that can taketh away.  Secondly, for us as the church, it is important for us to remember that there are lots of churches that know what they are against.  At worst, they’re against change.  At best, they are against sin.  They are against immorality.  They may have differing views on abortion, but most churches understand that single mothers are far more likely to raise their children in poverty, which they are against, and that a child raised by just one parent isn’t a part of God’s plan for creation.  Yes, there are lots of churches that know what they are against.  But what do they stand for?  The Five Thousand Year Leap reminds us that what we stand for is far more important than knowing what we are against.  As Americans, we understand that our Constitution allows us to worship God, or to not worship God as we see fit and “as to the dictates of conscience.”  The Five Thousand Year Leap reminds me that we have the freedom to be the Trinitarian church and uniquely Wesleyan church that we are.  I would argue, my friends, that while it is important to know what you are against, it is far more important to know what you are for.  I recently received some literature from a national office holder who suggested that I support his cause because the other guys were doing things that were harmful to the long term health of our country.  While philosophically I may have agreed with this man’s premise, he only told me what he was against in his political opponent and not what he himself was for.  So here’s the question I had to ask myself, “what happens if this guy wins?”  Is knowing what he is against enough?  In the short term maybe.  But I want to know what this man will do after his mission is accomplished.  How will he govern?  Will it be based upon a set of core values, or will his decisions be based on political expediency or in reaction to what his opponents will do?  You see, I don’t think that we as Christians are called upon to “react” to life like that.  We are called upon to live it.  The Five Thousand Year Leap helps us to remember what we as a nation stand for.  To the degree that we have forgotten, may we quickly remember.  To the degree to which we remember, may we never forget.

Blessings,                  Pastor Jeff