Am I depressed, or is life just depressing. . .?

I am a card carrying liberal Democrat.  Given the current state of affairs in our country, that alone is depressing.  What's most depressing is not that a Republican is in office, but that the Republican party is so blind to their own.  Had Hillary Clinton done any number of the things that have already transpired in the Trump campaign/presidency, there'd be countless congressional investigations underway.  How bad will it have to get before Republicans step up to the fore and do what is right.  Some are, but they are the minority.  Depressing.

I have been delighted to be back in ministry.  It feels good.  It feels like my life's calling once again.  But it is also depressing.

My little congregation is in need of redeveloping.  Attrition has taken its toll.  I don't know that there is any one thing that needs fixing in order to right the ship.  I'm more concerned that we live in an age where making the case for any form of 'organized religion' is a hard sell.

One of my projects has been to use Facebook as a means of outreach into the community.  Brief synopses of my sermons and other posts are 'boosted' and distributed to households throughout our service area.  Many of those posts reach upwards of 2,000 homes, and there are many who respond with likes, and a few comments.  What hasn't happened yet is for anyone, on the basis of those posts, to take the big leap and actually visit worship at Peace Lutheran.

I resolve to faithfully put forth Biblically sound messages.  I frequently recall the verses from Isaiah 55:

10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

and do not return there until they have watered the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

My soul and spirit cry out that "it is your Word, God, do something with it in the hearts of the people."

Yet week after week, the regulars show up, and rarely a visitor.  We are looking for a few good, folks.  Actually, even a few good sinners in need of forgiveness would do.  

One of the things I have encountered out there is an anti-Evangelical Lutheran Church in America sentiment.  There is a "righteous" indignation out there focused at us and other mainline churches that have decided in recent years that we would no longer condemn gay and lesbian people, but rather welcome them, and yes, even allow for their marriage and ordination.  

What is most depressing about this is that there are so many people that are so deeply prejudiced and judgmental about gay and lesbian people.  "We welcome gay and lesbian people, but if you are to be in leadership in our church you must conform to a 'biblical lifestyle'".  That sounds good, I suppose, but there is not the same demand of others.

Jesus is not recorded in the scriptures as saying one bit about homosexuality, even though it was a very well known aspect of the Greco-Roman world in which he lived.  He did, however, have much to say about divorce.  Divorce and remarriage are identified by Jesus as being adulterous.  And adultery, for the record, made the "Top Ten" of laws, etched in stone by the hand of God.  Right in between murder and stealing.  If it is not only divorce, but divorce AND remarriage that is adulterous, what would true repentance look like, the type of repentance being demanded of gay and lesbian people prior to their inclusion in the Church?

If you want to be that type of Church, and exclude divorced people along with gay and lesbian people, then at least you'd be consistent.  And I'd have a request of you.  As you kick the divorced people out of your churches, send them our way.  Remember, we are the ones carving out our niche in the world welcoming sinners.

Thankfully, in most Christian circles, grace abounds when it comes to divorced people.  What is depressing to me is that this same gracious attitude does not extend to gay and lesbian people.  Ah, we can be so righteous in our judgments.  Until we look in the mirror.  

All this I find rather depressing.

But perhaps it is because it IS depressing, not because I am depressed.  

This I think is the balancing act for one who has bipolar disorder and yet still must deal with the world as it is.  We have to be vigilant in guarding against plummeting into depression.  But at the same time, life naturally has its ups and downs, its ebbs and flows, its highs and lows.  Sometimes we are depressed, not because of a major misfire in our brains, or because of a chemical imbalance, but simply because the circumstances that we are dealing with are depressing.  And that is alright.  Its natural.  Its healthy.