I don’t own the rights to this…

I do not own the rights to this photo.

I watch and listen to lots of sermons and music on YouTube.  Often, people will write something like “I don’t own the rights to this music” or “no copyright infringement intended”.  What they don’t realize is that the only way their uploading of music is permitted is that the owners of the music have a deal with YouTube.  Occasionally, the artist does not have a deal with YouTube and if you upload one of their songs, it’s immediately removed (that’s why you could not find anything from Prince when you looked for it after he died).

As a pastor, I always think of my sermons as something I don’t own.  I have dozens of sermons on my blog.  At the top of every one I have written that they are fair game.  Use them just as they are or change them and make them your own.  What makes the difference to me?  They belong to God.  To Him be the glory.  He let me speak them, but if they are only my words they are not worth repeating anyhow.

The Bible is also something that we don’t own.  It is God’s Word as compiled by those of the earliest days of the church.  The first disciples were entrusted with the Word of God and this faith and they handed it down.  And the ones who received it then handed it down, each generation having to receive it.  Each generation understood God’s Word, understood God, and understood faith through the lens of the previous generations.  After 2,000 years, I worry about what America is doing to God’s Word and to the faith that has been entrusted to us.  And I do not worry about it on God’s behalf.  He will be OK whatever America does, and His Word will endure forever.  I worry about America.

(This was not written specifically for, but is a relevant message for the United Methodist Church as the elected delegates from around the world gather to meet in Portland, Oregon over the next week and a half.  Please pray for the UMC General Conference).

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