-Milwaukee Africology department celebrates career of Dr. William G. Rogers » Milwaukee Community Journal

Milwaukee Community Journal » WISCONSIN'S LARGEST AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWSPAPERUW-Milwaukee Africology department celebrates career of Dr. William G. Rogers » Milwaukee Community Journal

Unconventional Mother’s Day Gifts

This Mother’s Day take a moment to think of all the mothers in the world who are in need. There are millions of women in the world living on less than a dollar a day. There are women in this country who are wondering how they are going to feed or diaper their children from day to day. There are children who need medical attention that their parents may not be able to afford. Anyone who has ever had to worry about such things can deeply sympathize. For those of us who have escaped such worries, we can only imagine the level of instinctive stress that uncertainty can provoke.

There are many ways to celebrate Mother’s Day, but here are a few unconventional suggestions that will prove to your own mother that she did a good job raising you. How about dropping off a box of diapers and/or a case of formula to a local food bank or women’s shelter? If you have some baby furniture or clothing that your own children have outgrown, how about donating that stuff to a local charity? Does our local hospital have a fund for children who need care? Are there doctors in our community or city who volunteer in clinics overseas who might need supplies? There are countless ways to help support Moms locally and globally. Let your own Mom know that you were thinking about her and all of the many things she provided for you along the way…and that you did a good deed in honor of her. It will make her proud. 

Becoming Who We Are by Rev. M.D. Rogers

If there were ever a dysfunctional church, it was the church at Corinth. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians reads like a laundry list of problems. Every chapter presents at least one issue where the church is missing the mark. There are scandals, disagreements, confusion, and outright sin. Members quarrel, pridefully taking sides against each other. They hurt and alienate one another.

And yet, at the very beginning of the first letter, Paul addresses members as those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be saints. Despite all their failures, Paul does not forget what Christ can do in and through them. He points them to their God-enabled potential. In a sense, Paul tells them: "You are holy. Now become who you are."

How can the Corinthian church be both holy and not holy? One way to explain this paradox is through the concept of Christ's "imputed righteousness." We usually apply this to persons, but it also applies to the church corporate. To have Christ's righteousness "imputed" to us means that it belongs to us and counts in our favor. It means having his righteousness cover over our sinfulness, so that God can perceive us as righteous, even though we aren't. Despite lacking any holiness of our own, we are clothed in the "white robe" of Christ's holiness. To claim that the church can enjoy imputed righteousness is not to ignore its failings and shortcomings. But it does remind us of an important aspect of holiness: It is derived from another source.

Human beings derive their holiness from the unique holiness of God. "I am the Lord, who makes you holy" (Ex. 31:13; Lev. 22:32). "I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. . . . I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy" (Lev. 11:44–45). "Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God" (Lev 20:7). "You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own" (Lev. 20:26). Scripture shows a connection between God's holiness and our holiness that must not be forgotten.