Don't Be Deceived

"DON'T BE DECEIVED"

a message by Rev. Dr. Bruce Havens

Coral Isles Church, U.C.C.

June 29, 2025

Colossians 2:1-10  NRSV

1 For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face. 2 I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

4 I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ. 6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. 

Have you ever used jumper cables on your car?  Have you ever put them on the wrong post? Do you remember the spark?  Bet it scared you even though you were not actually shocked, didn’t it? It’s technically called “reverse polarities!” I want to reverse your polarities this morning. Yes, I want to shock you a bit.  Nothing too dangerous, just wake you up a bit. Don’t worry, I won’t clip jumper cables to you.

I have one more warning:  Don’t be deceived! For centuries people have been telling us that the Bible says God only loves certain people. They say God only loves people who believe their way. They have tried to rewire us to believe the way they believe.  You know their list: People of color, or people who have mental health issues, or people who don’t fit their definition of male or female, or who love people they don’t approve of, they have said God doesn’t love them.  For the past 40 years I have listened to the political and religious fanatics who have hijacked the Bible for their own purposes.  That’s their secret.  It isn’t about God, it is about their own power, privilege and purposes.

And many of us have become defensive and fearful that we might be wrong. THAT is the thinking we need to rewire!  We must not be deceived by their passion and their certainty.  So today I am going to reverse your polarities! 

Our Scripture this morning warns us:  Don’t let anyone “deceive you with plausible arguments.” It tells us “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.”

I’ve heard those fanatics,  who are either misguided, or down right deceivers, claim we are the ones who are guilty of deceit.  I am here to tell you they are the deceived and they are the deceivers. They have tried to deceive us into believing in a false god and a fake Jesus.  They have made a god in their own image and it must change. I know a God who says we are ALL made in the image of the real God.  The Creator God, the God of love, the God of redemption and transformation and salvation is the God I know, the God I read about in the Bible.

Here’s another way the political and religious fanatics deceive.  They take every positive word and turn it into a curse and turn every negative, hateful concept as truth.  I’ve heard them say words “liberal,” and “progressive” are bad words.  I’ve heard them lately saying “diversity” is evil.  I’ve heard them proclaim “equity” is profane.  I’ve listened as they tried to tell us “inclusion” is wicked. They claim it took freedom and equality away from them.  Worse, they tried to make us believe in an “us” versus “them” that deceives us into hate and fear and broken relationships.  But you are wiser than that!

This morning we are speaking the truth!  We are proclaiming that we are Open and Affirming and we will not back down from that truth as God’s truth.  Just after the 45th President was inaugurated, Andrew Lang, the Executive Director of the ONA Coalition of the UCC at that time spoke this prophetic word: “The Open and Affirming movement in our church is at a turning point. Many of the freedoms and rights we’ve won in the past decade are at risk, and in state after state, proposed laws are moving forward that would grant a broad right to discriminate against LGBTQ Americans in the name of ‘religious freedom.’

He added, “Transgender Americans are especially in danger. And when the government attacks immigrants, Muslims, women and people of color, every ONA church is affected, because LGBTQ people are also immigrants, Muslims, women, and people of color. We are present in every family and every community, so an injury against one is an injury against all.” Over against that he declared a vision of “a world where everyone is safe,  everyone is wanted, and no one is left outside.” This morning I want us all to KNOW we need to rewire ourselves in order to see and fulfill this vision.

And here is what we must do first: we must stop being defensive.  We must stop apologizing for who we are and who we know God is.  We must rewire our thinking to reject the deceit that comes from those who call us names and refuse to repent of their idolatry.  They do not speak the truth! 

Now let me put the battery charger wires on you and jolt you.  We proclaim our “Open and Affirming” nature as a church.  We are proud of that! We STRIVE to welcome everyone we can no matter who they are or where they are on life’s journey.  We know our Open and Affirming statement is about more than gender, sexual orientation, how someone identifies and all that. We must always remember that our statement includes the person dealing with fears about their mental, spiritual, or physical challenges.  It includes the couple who feel unwelcome in many churches because they are from different ethnic backgrounds.  We are ONA for the divorced couple, and the single person who has no desire to be married or have children.  ONA must mean ONA for all those the church and the culture have refused to welcome or we are not ONA.

Here’s another shocking point I want to make.  I want to tell you we should be begging all those who have never felt welcome to be Open and Affirming to us! We need to apologize for over 2000 years of bad theology and hateful human opinions. We must repent before those who have rejected God because of the church. We need to ask them to accept us! And we need to tell them not to be deceived.  Those who have the loudest voices, the harshest theologies and the most destructive political views about their value as a human being, as a child of God, are deceivers.  They do not speak the truth and we must not back down!  

Now let me perhaps jolt you one more time.  We cannot give in to hate those who have deceived us.  They are still our siblings.  Many of our siblings have been deceived, manipulated by those who knowingly lied to them about God.  That’s another story. For now, we must love our siblings. Why, you ask?  Why do we love those who don’t love us, who in fact act and speak hatefully against us?  Simply this:  Jesus said,

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.” [ Luke 6:32-33 ]

So to be truly Open and Affirming we must even love those who hate us!  Let us show our ONA faith to them as well!  That is the way we shall say “Amen” to God’s love.  God is Open & Affirming and the church MUST be too.  And let ALL the people say “Amen!”  AMEN and AMEN!