Pastor's Page for Sunday June 8, 2008
“Yes You Can!”

“I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

What a kairos moment in the life of the United States of America ! God is up to something in our country when a true African-American man can win a major party’s presidential nomination. Can’t you just feel the move of God in our country and see the change that is taking place? We may have a long way to go when it comes to healing the racial divide in America but I believe Senator Obama’s nomination is a great start. History is being made right before our eyes and it is my hope that we embrace it and reflect on what God is doing among us. God is showing us one mo’ gain that He is Emmanuelle, a God who is with us in our struggles and triumphs. He is a God who cares about what is happening in our existential situation in the here and now and not just in the sweet by-and-by.

The question I have been asking myself is how was Senator Obama able to come ‘out of nowhere’ and capture the imagination of the people who supported him? The Bible says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he” (Proverbs 29:18). Senator Obama has captured the imagination and support of a significant number of American people transcending race, class, and gender because of his vision for a new and better America . The converse of Proverbs 29:18a is that with a vision the people can live. Another translation of this verse reads like this “Where there is no revelation the people perish.” Many people have responded to Obama’s vision similar to how they responded to the late JFK and even to the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His vision is what we need for America and for the world. We need a president that will seek peace and unity in the world arena and not one that will continue the current “us vs. them” foreign policies.

I like what the freshmen Senator from Illinois said to his supporters the other day when he said his faith made him victorious. He said something that all of us need to really hear today. If I were to exegete what he said in order to help others, it would go like this: “With God on my side; with belief in what God told me or led me to do; with a strong will to succeed no matter what the price; with a thick skin and an unalterable level of perseverance, you can achieve your dreams.” In other words, with the tailwind of God at your back, along with grace and mercy flanking you on the right and the left, you can make it! You can do what you’ve dreamed you can do. That is what Senator Obama’s meteoric rise has taught us this year. Here is a man that is deeply convinced that his life is in God’s hands and if God has said he can come out of nowhere and possibly become the first African-American president of the U.S.A. , then he can do it. If God says it, yes he can!

But don’t stargaze at the Senator. God wants to take you on an adventure also where you can actually see your dreams come true. Have the audacity to hope. Remember your Heavenly Father has dreams for you. Coupled with faith in God and empowered by the Spirit of Jesus, i.e., the Holy Ghost, you can do anything you set your mind to. Yes you can. Yes you can. Yes you can!