It is Sunday, March 17th, day one of the centennial celebration of the Lutheran Brethren Church of Cameroon. It seems I am dreaming, having just crossed the Logone river this morning from Chad in a wooden canoe.

Historically, the art of public speaking (including proclamation) has been considered under the category of rhetoric. Aristotle famously defined rhetoric as “the faculty of observing, in any given case, the available means of persuasion.”

Dangers confront us continually in the form of car crashes, heart attacks, divorce, politics, war, or terrorism. Jesus prays, appealing to his Father for our protection, but do we feel safe? We can look to pillars of Christianity and ask the same question.

Most of us think of a “kingdom” as a place. But when Scripture speaks of the “kingdom of God,” it is not speaking of a place... Rather, the “kingdom of God” (or the “kingdom of Heaven”) is a fact, the fact that God is king.

I don’t know if the church gets much more divided than during an election year. 2024 is shaping up to be no different. How should we, the body of Christ, think and behave in this divisive climate?