The Church Since 9/11: What Is Going On?

Posted on September 12, 2026 by salooper57

Yesterday was 9/11. It marked the 25th anniversary of the air assaults on New York and on the Pentagon. They were intended to strike terror into the heart of Americans and, as I remember, they succeeded in doing so, at least for a while. But they also were the occasion of many acts of courage and even sacrifice.

As many pundits have recognized, the terrorist attacks on 9/11 changed the world. Millions of us bemoan the changes that were brought about for air travel: security checks, long lines, and missed flights. But 9/11 also changed the way national leaders look at the world. The money spent on defense, the intrusion of government surveillance, the fear and suspicion of Muslims, which sometimes amounts to hatred—all are a result of 9/11.

My concern, however, is with the church of Jesus Christ. On the morning of the attacks, my phone rang. I was just about to start a meeting with a fellow-elder from our church, but I answered anyway. It was my mother. I thought she called to wish me a happy birthday. Instead, she said: “Shayne, turn on the TV” and hung up.

I thought, “What was that all about?” and went to turn on the TV. We watched what happened next with shock and alarm. In the days that followed, the churches in our community came together for a prayer gathering and many hundreds of people attended. Our church, and churches throughout our community were full on the following Sunday. But they were a little less full on each of the succeeding Sundays until they were back at their pre-9/11 attendance norms.

I wrote an article right after the attacks, noting that America had turned to God during their fear, and that was good. But if they did not continue with God, I warned, things would be worse than they were before the attacks. That prediction turned out to be true. Churches today are less full than they were twenty-five years ago – marking a nearly 30% decline in attendance. Smaller churches, according to the sociologist and pastor Ryan Burge, are on the verge of extinction. And, although larger churches have actually enjoyed growth, much of it has come from the people smaller churches have lost, and it is only a matter of time before larger churches also begin losing people.

America turned to God after the 9/11 attacks, but to which God did it turn? Was it the God and Father of Jesus Christ or the God of civil religion, the God who is often referred to as “the hand of Providence,” “The Almighty,” and the “Giver of blessing and help”? This God appears whenever we are at war or are suffering financial calamity or bodily peril (e.g., the pandemic), and quietly disappears afterward. He never wants to intrude.

The church of Jesus Christ does not worship and serve that God. The God and Father of Jesus Christ is over the nations and is “judge of all the earth.” He is not our servant, whom we can call in times of need and dismiss afterward.

It is necessary for each of us to ask which God we have acknowledged. If he, like Jeeves in the wonderful Wodehouse stories, only shows up when we are in trouble or need and can be ignored the rest of the time, he is a fantasy, a false god, an idol. The God of the Bible, the God and Father of Jesus Christ, is not only our “help in time of need,” but he is also the “Most High,” the “Alpha and Omega,” and the “Judge of all the Earth.”

If you can dismiss your God when you are done with him, if he dutifully withdraws until he is wanted again, then leave him be and get on with your life. Forget church—you don’t need it. Deconstruct your faith—or just demolish it; you don’t need it.  What you need is the real God, the One who is always present, in good times and bad. You need the God and Father of Jesus Christ.

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Spiritual Scoliosis: How We Lean Away from God Without Knowing It

Posted on September 5, 2026 by salooper57

When I was in my forties, several years after my dad died, I was visiting my mother in my childhood home near Cleveland. Out of the blue, she said to me: “You know you have scoliosis.”

But I did not know I had scoliosis. No one had ever told me, and I did not think to ask when she learned I had scoliosis. It had to have been when I was a child or a teen. How could I live for 40-something years and never know I was … crooked?

My primary physician recently referred me to a Doctor of Physical Therapy for a back problem. At our initial meeting, he asked me questions about pain and limitations and took various measurements. At one point, he said casually, “Of course, you have scoliosis.” He could tell that just by looking at me. Later, he told me that one of my legs was longer than the other, something else I had never known.

I did know that my belly button does not line up with the center of my breastbone. And I knew, from seeing my shadow on the road in front of me on our early morning walks, that I habitually lean my head to the right. Those things made sense once I understood that I had scoliosis.

Scoliosis is a condition in which the spine does not run up and down in a straight line but curves from side to side. The scoliosis in my spine is, thankfully, mild, but it is severe for some people. I have a sister-in-law whose respiratory and digestive systems were compromised by the curving and/or twisting of her spine. She went through a difficult, many hours-long surgery and a long period of recuperation in the hope of relieving the negative health impacts she suffered because of it.

The word “scoliosis” is Greek and means “bent,” “twisted,” or “crooked.” It appears four times in the Greek New Testament and another 28 times (in both noun and verb forms) in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It refers to crooked ways and roads, crooked generations, and crooked masters/employers.

“Crooked” has become a generic term for someone who acts with immoral or criminal intent, Hence Richard Nixon’s famous line, “I am not a crook!” He was responding to accusations that he had used his office to benefit financially, and not to accusations regarding the Watergate break-in and subsequent cover-up. The original idea of being crooked, out of alignment, and twisted has been replaced by the idea of being criminal. That is unfortunate. If I think of “crooked” as “criminal,” I can miss the fact that I am misshapen in a way that negatively impacts my life.

Spiritual scoliosis causes a loss of moral balance. That is certainly apparent in our society, where people are quick to accuse or quick to defend their own or others’ actions based on which way the scoliosis has them leaning.

From the biblical writers’ perspective, we are all “crooks,” which is to say, we are all crooked, bent away from what is good, and out of alignment with God. This bend, theologians tell us, happened when Adam, the head and representative of our race, rebelled against God. When he fell, his children were left bent and slanted away from God.

The results are sometimes more apparent in one generation than another, just as scoliosis can be more apparent in one person than another. Moses (Deuteronomy 32:5), Peter (Acts 2:40) and Paul (Philippians 2:15) all believed they were living in a “crooked” generation. I wonder what they might think of ours?

Spinal scoliosis causes me to tilt my head in one direction. Spiritual scoliosis does something similar. In my case, I realized years ago, without knowing why, that I looked at one half the congregation much more than the other when I preached. It was not because I liked them better (or less!) but because my spine is crooked, one leg is slightly longer than the other, and my head naturally tilts to one side.

Spiritual scoliosis makes people look away from God and prevents them from truly seeing one another. It encourages people to focus on the wrong things, and they may never know why. This results in broken relationships, damaged souls, and impoverished spirits.

Spiritual scoliosis causes a loss of moral balance. That is certainly apparent in our society, where people are quick to accuse or quick to defend their own or others’ actions based on which way the scoliosis has them leaning. They look at their neighbor and can see that she leans, but they do not realize they are leaning just as much, only in the opposite direction.

What if we could be made straight again, as on one Sabbath Day in the synagogue, Jesus made a poor, bent, and suffering woman, straight? Is it possible? I think it is, but the process takes time—a lifetime, to be exact. To correct it all at once would be too painful; we might not even survive the procedure. But there is a program, a plan, designed by God, followed by us, and energized by the Holy Spirit to straighten us out. And even if my spiritual spine cannot be entirely straightened in this life, it can be much straighter (to my great relief), and the resurrection will finally and perfectly complete the work.

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I Am the Resurrection (2) – John 11:17-27

Posted on September 3, 2026 by salooper57

There are details in the story of the raising of Lazarus that we may have missed. In this message, we see Martha bring her hurt and fears to Jesus and hear him declare himself to be “the resurrection and the life.” Both parts of that claim are enormously important for us!

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Why We Underestimate Ourselves—and Why God Doesn’t

Posted on August 29, 2026 by salooper57

When Alexander Graham Bell tried to sell the patent on his telephone to Western Union, the telegraph company’s executives told him the telephone had no future. But Bell believed in his idea and started his own company – Bell Telephone – and the rest is history.

In the 1950s, the computer industry in the U.S. was just getting a toehold. Even inside the industry, experts assumed that computers would only appeal to large corporations and would never amount to more than a niche market. Ken Olsen, who founded his own computer company in 1957, said, “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.”

Great ideas are often underestimated at the time. Olsen could not imagine that anyone would want to own a computer, but he also never imagined that people would one day control their furnaces, refrigerators, ovens, and lights from a computer they carry in their pockets—a computer with more power than his room-sized, data card eating monstrosities. And Western Union never imagined that a telephone would be a computer. It often takes time for the value of an idea to be recognized and its potential to be realized.

It is that way with people too. We underestimate the value of individuals who originated as ideas in the mind of God. Yet the destiny of the universe hangs on what God has begun on our unremarkable little planet and in our ordinary lives. How can we look at our neighbors or even strangers and not see that they are a brilliant idea of the Creator?

I may have even more trouble seeing the brilliance of God’s idea when I look at myself. I know myself, after all, and I know that I am not anything special. I frequently get things wrong. More often than anyone knows, I have acted in selfish and stupid ways. Other people are smarter, better looking, and more capable than I am. God was off his game when he came up with me.

I wrote above that we have trouble valuing ourselves because “I know myself.” I know things my parents, teachers, friends, and spouse do not know. But to say “I know myself” is to grossly exaggerate my knowledge. I may know what I have thought, and done, and failed to do, but I have known these things in very specific and limited contexts. Yes, I lied in twelfth grade when my math teacher accused me of cheating on a test. But what was the context? It is far more complicated than I can possibly tell. What provocations incited me to do this? What psychological states of mind, developed from infancy, predisposed me to it? What if any of these had been different? Would I have still cheated?

I am not trying to explain away my guilt, still less am I trying to minimize sin. If anything, I am maximizing it. Sin is never simply an act I commit. It is bigger than my habitual actions (as anyone who has read St. Paul is bound to conclude). Sin is more dreadful than any of us realize. Nevertheless, my sins do not nullify the value of God’s idea when he made me. Perhaps I, by an ultimate embrace of sin, can make myself valueless, but nothing I do can ever make God’s idea of me less than perfect.

“Sin is more dreadful than any of us realize. Nevertheless, my sins do not nullify the value of God’s idea when he made me.”

The point here is this: I do not see enough of history or the ways others have impacted me to judge that God’s idea was flawed when he created me. But if I do not see enough of history, I see almost nothing of the future. The little of the past I do see is distorted by factors I do not comprehend, and I cannot see the future for it has “not yet appeared” (1 John 3:2).

You and I are ideas – God’s ideas – whose time is yet to come. When it does, everyone will be amazed—and no one more than you and me! When God made us, it was not for a mere 70 or 80 years but for the ages. He placed in us treasures that will only be discovered in the millennia to come (if “millennia” has any meaning when speaking of the coming age).

Alexander Graham Bell was told his telephone was a pipedream—no one was ever going to use it. Today, there are an estimated 400 million phones in the U.S. alone. And the computer that no ordinary person would ever want is now everywhere and running almost everything. These were ideas whose time eventually came.

You and I are also ideas (God’s), and our time is coming. When it arrives, we will know why God made us, why he made everything, and why he called the making of it “good” and “very good.”

And we will wholeheartedly agree.

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I Am the Resurrection (Part 1) – John 11:1-16

Posted on August 26, 2026 by salooper57

What did Jesus mean when he told Martha that he is the resurrection and the life? And what does it mean for us? This 25-minute sermon begins to answer those questions, firmly setting this extraordinary revelation of Jesus in the context of real life.

“In the first century, every Jew understood what resurrection is, even those who denied it was a real thing. Resurrection was the end-of-the-age, God-staged event in which all people who have ever lived come back to life. How could Jesus claim to be that? And how could anyone believe him? That is what we are going to see.”

Shayne Looper

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The Trial Defense that Got Stephen Killed (Acts 7)

Posted on August 22, 2026 by salooper57

In Acts 7, St. Stephen is standing before first century Israel’s highest court, accused of religious and civil crimes. (The two cohered in the first century in a way they do not in our society.) Stephen’s future hangs in the balance. When he is given the opportunity to testify on his own behalf, instead of denying the accusations, he launches into a meandering sermon—or at least that is what it seems like to us.

In reality, Stephen’s “sermon” is a carefully-worded defense, but in place of denials he is offering a biblically-based apologetic for the importance of Jesus over the tabernacle/temple. You will notice that Stephen never exactly denies the allegations, which are malicious distortions of what he actually said, but he did say something about Jesus, the temple, and the “customs Moses handed down.”

Stephen wants the court to understand that things have changed since Jesus came, died, and rose again. His death and triumphal resurrection has changed the playing field, which is to say, changed the way that people come to God. Stephen does not say as much about this as we would like – people throwing rocks at him brought his defense to a premature end – but we can see from the apostolic writings where he was headed.

It will help us if we understand, to the degree that our very different life experience allows, what ancient Jews felt about the temple. At least three times a year, when Galilean festivalgoers crested the Mount of Olives, they saw the Holy City stretched out below them and there, dominating the foreground, was the temple. It was the size of a modern-day professional football field, and it was the place where God resided. Even the sight of it filled people with awe. This is why the accusations leveled against Jesus, and later, Stephen (of acting, or being complicit in an attempt, to destroy the temple) were taken so seriously.

In John’s Gospel, immediately following the story about Jesus purging the temple and controlling access to it, we read that the Jewish leaders demanded proof of Jesus’s authority to act in this way. He answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” The Jewish leaders misunderstood, but John explains: “…the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”

The temple “was his body.” John Dickson points to Gospel stories that bear this out. For example, we often find Jesus telling individuals that they have been forgiven, but in first century Judaism only a temple priest could do that, and only after the appropriate sacrifices had been offered. People murmured about this, and the scribes accused Jesus of blasphemy because of it. Dickson notes that when Jesus pronounced people forgiven, he was acting “like a mobile temple.”

Jesus himself pointed to the end of the temple’s usefulness as a place to meet and worship God when, in John 4, he told the Samaritan woman that a time was coming when people would no longer worship at the temple in Jerusalem (John 4:21). The Jerusalem temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Roman general Titus, but that was not what Jesus was talking about. He understood that a new temple would be available before then.

In the Gospel of Mark, the Spirit descends on Jesus at his baptism. Later, on the Mount of Transfiguration, the glorious cloud – the Shekinah of God – descends on Jesus, just as it had descended on both the tabernacle and the temple when they were dedicated. More importantly, Jesus plainly stated that people can only come to God through him—not through the stone temple.

Stephen quoted Isaiah 66:1-2 during his trial: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be?” Stephen went on to explain that “…the Most High does not live in houses made by men”—echoing Solomon’s prayer and referring to the Jerusalem temple.

But if God does not live in temples built by men, where does he live? St. Paul, who was present at Stephen’s trial and heard his defense, answered that question when he wrote to the Colossian Christians. It is “in Christ [that] all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form…” Jesus is the temple not built by human hands, which is why St. Paul tells the Ephesians that access to God the Father is found through Jesus rather than a stone temple, and that spiritual blessings are received “in Christ” rather than in Jerusalem.

Finally, in the Book of Revelation, the author sees no temple in the age to come and he explains why. It is because “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.”

These ideas lay behind Stephen’s defense before the Sanhedrin. He and the early church believed that Jesus had transformed the religious landscape. The Jerusalem temple, which remained a marvelous place that the early believers frequented daily, had ceased to be the locus of God’s presence on earth. That was now to be found in Jesus.

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Jesus said: “I Am the Door” (John 10:1-10)

Posted on August 19, 2026 by salooper57

There is something almost magical about a door. It opens and closes on new places; it leads somewhere. When Jesus says that he is the door, he wants us to realize that he leads somewhere: to an abundant, overflowing life – “life … to the full” (John 10:10).

In this 25-minute sermon, we see what it means that Jesus is the door – what it means for him and for us.

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Good Shepherd 2 (John 10:11-18)

Posted on August 16, 2026 by salooper57

This is encouraging! What we learn about the Good Shepherd is GOOD NEWS for us! That Jesus is the Good Shepherd means that we are known, loved, and safe. I hope this 24-minute sermon will bring long-lasting encouragement.

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Why Didn’t He Just Say No? (Acts 7)

Posted on August 15, 2026 by salooper57

At the end of Acts 6, St. Stephen has been dragged before the Sanhedrin, Israel’s highest court, on serious charges. The outcome of the trial, should Stephen be found guilty, would be life changing. To add to the drama, witnesses have been called who falsely testify that Stephen publicly stated that Jesus would destroy the temple and change the customs handed down by Moses.

After such serious charges had been leveled against him, and witnesses had lied about what he had said, we might expect Stephen to be at least a little anxious. But Stephen is not biting his fingernails. He stands calmly before his judges with a face like that of an angel.

The meaning of this last line is unclear. In our culture, when someone says, “He looks just like an angel,” they are almost always talking about a child, usually a sleeping child. They are implying that he looks sweet and innocent. But in the Bible, angels are never described that way. They often appear dangerous and perhaps fierce. Those who see them cower, or run, or faint dead away.

But whether Stephen looked sweet and innocent or looked dangerous and imposing, it is what happened next that I find so interesting. When (Acts 7:1ff) he was called to testify on his own behalf – Israel did not have a Fifth Amendment – he did not say, “Those witnesses are lying. I have witnesses who heard what I really said!” That is what I would have done. He did not even deny their accusations. Instead, he launched into a long recapitulation of Israel’s history, beginning with Abraham and continuing through the books of Genesis and Exodus and then skipping ahead to David and Solomon in the historical books.

That has always confused me. Why not deny the allegations, expose the false witnesses, and get back to life and ministry? When the high priest asked if the charges were true, why did Stephen not answer, “No”? Why launch into a rambling sermon on the history of Israel?

First, I think, it is a mistake to call Stephen’s defense a “rambling sermon.” He is providing the court with the context it needs to find in his and, frankly, Jesus’s, favor. Secondly, he does not deny the false witnesses’ allegations because at least some of what they claimed was based in fact, a fact he wanted to explain.

Now, don’t get me wrong. The men who testified against Stephen were false witnesses, intentionally distorting his words in order to get him in trouble and bring the Christians into a negative light. Nevertheless, Stephen had said things that were similar to what the false witnesses claimed, and untangling the truth from their skewed testimony required a full and careful explanation. Hence, the extended review of Israel’s history.

As I’ve already said, Stephen’s testimony always seemed to me to be a rambling sermon through unrelated biblical events. But this was not the case at all. Stephen chose the events he narrated because they would provide the context for what he had really said and help distinguish his teaching from the caricature the false witnesses presented.

A careful examination of Acts 7 reveals a connection between Stephen’s defense and the charges that were brought against him. Stephen takes his judges through the early history of the Jewish people, from Abraham to slavery in Egypt to Moses’s leadership in the wilderness. And at this point, Stephen does two important things: he reminds the court that Moses promised the Israelites that God would send a prophet like himself. Stephen is preparing them for the revelation that Jesus was that prophet.

Next, Stephen reminds his judges that their ancestors turned away from the true God and began to worship idols even though they had the tabernacle where God met with them and lived among them. This is a key point. God was among them. They had the tabernacle where they could always come to God, and yet they turned away from him. The tabernacle, as wonderful as it was, could not keep the people of God faithful.

Stephen continues. After David came along, things changed. Rather than a portable temple made of a frame covered by skins, David wanted to build a permanent, stationary temple in Jerusalem to the glory of God. He did not build it, but his son Solomon did. This temple was the pride of Israel, the center – the heart of – Judaism on earth. A smaller building had replaced the original temple after the Babylonian army destroyed it, but in the past century that smaller temple had been renovated – really, it had been entirely rebuilt by Herod the Great – and was now an architectural marvel. Yet, this beautiful temple in which the Jews took such great pride had not been the answer to Israel’s problems. Stephen says bluntly, “The Most High does not live in houses made by men.”

If you missed the connection between Stephen’s defense and the false witnesses testimony, let me make it clear: it was the temple. The false witnesses said that Jesus claimed he would destroy it and that Stephen constantly spoke against it. Stephen did not deny their testimony outright because there was a grain of truth in it. He believed the Jerusalem temple had ceased to exist as the meeting place with God. The early Christians had come to see Jesus himself as the new temple, the place where God and man can meet. What would lead them to think such a remarkable thing? The answer: Jesus’s own – and his apostles’ – teaching. Next week, we will explore that teaching as it was passed down from the apostles.

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When Jesus Looks at You, What Does He See?

Posted on August 8, 2026 by salooper57
Photo by Sony Dude on Pexels.com

Were one of my Methodist friends to write an article with the same title as this one, I might expect he or she would say something about how Jesus sees a cherished friend, even his dearly beloved, when he looks at you. On the other hand, if one of my fundamentalist friends wrote such an article, it wouldn’t surprise me if he or she said that Jesus sees a sinner when he looks at you—a sinner whom he loves, of course, but a “sinner” nonetheless.

The first response could be maudlin, even sappy, and the second could be manipulative and is certainly incomplete. (I hope my Methodist and fundamentalist friends and readers will forgive me for the reductive stereotyping in the paragraph above. All Methodists are not alike, and neither are all fundamentalists, and none that I know is exactly as I have misrepresented them above.) I am painting with an intentionally broad brush, hoping to block in a background that will prepare us for what I hope is an authentically biblical answer to the question raised by the title. It is a question, I have no doubt, that some of my Methodist and fundamentalist friends could answer more insightfully and eloquently than I.

Fortunately, I needn’t depend on my own intuition to suggest an answer to the title’s question about what Jesus sees when he looks at you. We have sufficient information in the Gospels themselves to formulate an authentic biblical answer. There are fifteen verses in the Gospels that either mention Jesus’s eyes or explicitly state that he looked at someone or something, and two additional verses that imply that he made eye contact with someone.

There is, for example, the account of the rich ruler to whom Jesus extended the offer/challenge to become his disciple. When Jesus looked at this man, St. Mark says that he “loved him.” So, what did Jesus see when he looked at the rich young ruler? He saw someone he loved. (Chalk one up for the Methodists!)

But he also saw a sinner who would reject the priceless offer to be discipled by Jesus himself. The ruler turned Jesus down. We are not told that he said anything, only that he “went away.” (Chalk one up for the fundamentalists!) Nevertheless, Jesus is explicitly said to love this troubled man.

In the numerous verses in which Jesus looks at a person or a group, he is described as seeing people with compassion, love, and discernment. He might, after looking at someone, make a generous offer (as in the case of the young ruler) or issue a stern rebuke (as in the case of St. Peter). But whether a rebuke or an offer, Jesus actually saw the individuals. He did not look past them to the next big event on his calendar. He looked at people, saw them, and knew them (John 2:24-25).

St. Peter is a case in point. More often than with any other person, Jesus is said to look at Peter. When he first met the Galilean fisherman, the text says that Jesus “looked at him” (John 1:42). How long this lasted, we do not know, but he apparently did more than look at him; he looked into him and saw his character, his strengths, and weaknesses. Only then did Jesus speak to him: “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas,” which means “Rock” (as in “Rock Hudson” or “Duane-the Rock-Johnson”).

Jesus was neither maudlin nor manipulative. When he looked at people, he saw them for who they really were and responded appropriately. Even when that response was stern, it was loving. This was true, for example, when “Jesus turned and looked at his disciples” and “rebuked Peter.” He saw the disciples, who they were and what they needed, and he responded accordingly.

On the night preceding his execution, Jesus was interrogated by a hostile government official. After the first stage of the interrogation was completed, “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter,” who had only minutes before denied even knowing Jesus. I do not think that look conveyed anger or even disappointment. Perhaps I am becoming maudlin myself (which sometimes happens), but from what I know of Jesus, I expect it conveyed compassion and genuine love. Even after Peter had disavowed the Lord, Jesus could still see Peter for who he was—and who he would become.

So, I think an authentically biblical answer to the question posed in the title of this article, “When Jesus looks at you, what does he see?” would be: “He sees you.” He sees you, with your past failures and present flaws. He sees you with your present strengths and future successes. He sees everything you are – the good, the bad, and the shameful – and seeing all, he does not turn away.

Few people actually “see us.” Most don’t even try, and some who do are only looking for faults and weaknesses to ridicule or exploit. Some people go through life without ever being seen. It is an injury that inflicts lasting damage.

But Jesus sees us, and he does not look away when he finds ugliness inside. And his look heals and beautifies. It is capable of reversing the injury and healing the wound left by our long invisibility.

Just one look sets angels singing, trembling with delight. Just one word sets our hearts burning, shining with his light.

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