“The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds”
———————————————————
ORDER OF SERVICE:
Bell/Invocation/Call to Worship
Confession of Sin and Forgiveness
Kyrie
Greeting/Opening Prayer
Hymn “In Christ Alone”
Prayer of the Day
Gospel reading: Matthew 13:24-30…36-43
Sermon
Hymn “Lord, Take My Hand and Lead Me”
Apostles’ Creed
Closing Prayer/Lord’s Prayer
Benediction/Bell
(PART TWO: Bible Study on Mark 12:18-27)
———————————————————————
THE PRINTED TEXT OF THE ABOVE WORSHIP SERVICE AND BIBLE STUDY:
INVOCATION/CALL TO WORSHIP
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let us pray: Almighty God, you pour out your grace upon all who desire it. Deliver us, we pray, as we come into your presence, from cold hearts and wandering thoughts, so that with steady minds and sincere devotion, we may worship you in spirit and in truth; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (LBW #205)
CONFESSION OF SIN AND FORGIVENESS:
We confess our sins unto the Lord.
Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart and mind and strength.
We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us amend what we are, and direct what we shall be, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name. Amen.
(Pastor) In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for you, and for his sake God forgives you all your sins. To those who believe in Jesus Christ he gives the power to become the children of God and bestows on them the Holy Spirit. Amen.
KYRIE: As you know, and as you will, Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us. Amen.
GREETING: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you. Amen.
OPENING PRAYER: Let us pray: O Lord, Creator of all things, I lift up my heart to You in gratitude for this day’s happiness: For the sheer joy of living;
For all the sights and sounds around me;
For the sweet peace of the country and the pleasant bustle of the town;
For all things bright and beautiful and happy;
For friendship and good company;
For work to do and the skill and strength to perform it;
For a time to play when the day’s work is done, and for health and a glad heart to enjoy it.
Yet let me never think, O eternal Father, that I am here to stay. Let me still remember that I am a stranger and pilgrim on the earth. For here we have no lasting home, but we seek one to come. Preserve me by Thy grace, good Lord, from so losing myself in the joys of earth that I may have no longing left for the better joys of heaven. Let not the happiness of this day become a snare to my too worldly heart. And if today, instead of happiness, I have suffered any disappointment or defeat, if there has been any sorrow where I had hoped for joy, or sickness where I had looked for health, give me grace to accept it from Your hand as a loving reminder that this is not my home.
I give thanks, O Lord, that You have so firmly set eternity within my heart that no earthly thing can ever completely satisfy me. I thank You that every present joy is so mixed with sadness and unrest as to lead my mind upwards to thoughts of that more perfect home. And above all I thank Thee for the sure hope and promise of an endless life which You have given me in the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen. EVENING PRAYER (John Baillie, Diary of Private Prayer, Day 21)
PRAYER OF THE DAY:
O God, from whom come all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works; give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, so that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments; and also, that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness. Amen. —(LBW #255)
GOSPEL READING: Matthew 13:24-30…36-43
Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”
…Then Jesus left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
SERMON: “THE PARABLE OF THE WHEAT AND THE WEEDS”
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of each heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
One of my all-time favorite preachers is Fred Craddock (1928-2015), author, professor of preaching, and the pastor of a church in Cherry Log, Georgia. He was a great storyteller, and this is one of his stories
Fred and his wife were invited to the home of Charles and Emily for dinner. When everyone got ready to gather around the table, Charles said to Emily, “Where’s Robbie?” Robbie was their seven-year-old son.
She said, “I think he’s outside.” So, Emily went to the back door and called him. There was no response, so she went into the backyard. Then she came running back, and said frantically, “Charles, do something! Robbie has a snake!”
Charles replied calmly, “Leave him alone. You shouldn’t interfere with a boy growing up.”
She said, “But it’s a snake.”
He said, “Emily, our guests are ready for the meal. Let’s be seated.”
“But it’s a snake, Charles,” Emily said again, adding, “and we have poisonous snakes around here, you know.”
“Yes, I know,” Charles said, “so either he’ll be all right, or he’ll learn a lesson about what snakes to avoid.”
Robbie came in after a little bit, and his dad said, “Go wash up, Robbie. Always wash your hands after you’ve been playing with snakes.”
Fred Craddock goes on to say: “Charles was right, you know. You shouldn’t interfere with a child’s growing up, always protecting them from the bruises and pain and disappointments and the tears that are going to come. Just let them get up, brush themselves off, and get back up in the saddle or back on the bicycle. You can’t move every wall, so don’t stop them if they’re headed for one. They’ll hit that wall and that’s how they learn. Charles was right. But Emily was right, too, because it was a snake! What kind of snake? Charles didn’t know, but it was a snake, and some of the snakes around there are deadly. And so Emily was also right, and sometimes the danger is too great, sometimes the price is too high. This is a question, of course, every parent deals with every day. Should I or should I not interfere?”
My wife and I faced that question with our kids all the time. And I know my parents faced it with me.
I remember one time in particular.
My Dad owned milk trucks, picking up milk up at the farms and taking it to the creamery. Dairy cows don’t take weekends off, and neither do dairy farmers, nor do milk haulers. There was one time Dad went two years straight without missing a single day of getting in that truck and picking up the milk. So when I, the oldest son, got my driver’s license, Dad was ready for a day off. I still didn’t have a license to drive a truck that size, but Dad said the license I had was close enough. He had been teaching me to drive, and how to back around on farmers’ yards and into the creamery. So the very first day after I turned 16 and got my license, Dad sent me out with the truck on my own. And that was okay with me, because I liked hauling milk, and at that age you like to drive anything, anytime.
But then, when I asked Dad for the car that weekend, he said “No, of course not; you’re just a kid and you haven’t even had your license a week yet.” I objected in the strongest language I dared with that old school father (probably something like “Ah shucks, Dad”). What was the difference, I wondered? But that was that, Dad said no more, and I did not get the car.
Well, the difference was this: Dad knew I was capable of driving a truck and a car. But in the truck, it was just me and the truck and a job to do. With the car there would be friends, and the temptation to drive fast, show off, and act like an idiot, which is what teenage boys do. Not only that, but Dad was probably thinking about Donny.
Donny was the son of a family friend. He was a little bit older than I was, and he also drove his dad’s truck. Even as a kid, Donny was a great truck driver. He drove with the confidence and skill of a veteran driver, not slow and uncertain like I did when I started driving. Donny’s dad always let him have the car, and Donny, like most boys, liked to drive fast. One night, he took a corner too fast, went off the road, and hit a tree; and Donny was killed. Donny was a great truck driver, but not yet a mature car driver; and that is maybe what my dad had in mind when he would not let me have the car.
Charles said, “You can’t interfere with a boy growing up.” But Fred Craddock said, “Sometimes the price is too high.” Robbie got along all right, and he was learning to be independent, tough, and how to make good choices about snakes. But in that learning process, immature kids can make mistakes. Donny made a mistake, and he lost his life.
The safest thing to do would be to never let those immature, reckless, mischievous kids outside alone, never let them climb trees, never let them play with snakes, never let them wrestle around in the back yard, never let them play with friends without adult supervision to prevent bullying, and certainly not ever let them drive the car alone. That would eliminate a lot of the bumps, bruises, heartache, and dangers of growing up.
But we all know that won’t work. While that approach might eliminate some of the pain of growing up, it would at the same time, make growing up impossible.
There is much in life that is like this. Oftentimes we have to allow something we don’t like to go on, in order to reach a goal that is good. Parents face this all the time, and it is difficult to know what to do– when to step back and not interfere with a child’s growing up, and when to step in and protect them.
God faces this same problem with all of us, all the time. That is a part of what is going on in Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13. Remember how it went? A man sowed good seed in his field. But then, when everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and the wheat and the weeds grew up together. “Now what?” asked the man servants; “Should we go out and pull up all those weeds?” But of course, that wouldn’t work. You might be able to pull out the weeds between rows of corn, but wheat is planted too close together, and the roots of the weeds are too intertwined with the roots of your wheat; so every time you pull up a weed, you are bound to lose some wheat. You’ll end up with no weeds, but no crop either. “Leave it alone,” said the farmer, “don’t interfere with the growth. We’ll sort it out at the harvest.”
That’s just how it is in this world and this life, Jesus told his disciples when he explained this parable to them. The devil has made a mess of things here, and so have we– by listening to the devil instead of to God. And one day, at the end of the age, God will get rid of all the evil. But in the meantime, God is just going to let a lot of it go. And we can be glad He does.
We might wish God would just eliminate all the evil in the world. I even have a few suggestions as to where he could begin that process. God could start by getting rid of Vladimir Putin, that Russian trouble-maker who is causing such horrific suffering in Ukraine, along with threatening to plunge the whole world into war. From there God could go on to eliminate the ISIS terrorist organization and everyone in it. And after that, God could rid the earth of all serial killers and anyone planning a mass shooting. I have several other good ideas on where God could start eliminating wicked people.
But where would God stop if He was going to eliminate ALL the evil? If God started pulling up all the weeds, am I so pure and sinless that I can be certain He would stop before he got to me? Would it be a perfect, problem-free world with no evil whatsoever if everyone was as wonderful as me? Or you?
After enduring eight years of evil in a Russian prison camp in Siberia, Alexander Solzhenitsyn said what he learned was that the line between good and evil does not run between different people, but right down the middle of every human heart. We should give thanks to God that he is letting the weeds and wheat grow together, because there is some of each in our own heart.
This parable provides some insight into the nagging problem of why God allows so much trouble in our lives. The potential for trouble came when God created us with a free will to live as He has commanded, or, to do it our own way; to live for our Creator, or to ignore our Heavenly Father. God could have eliminated the possibility of the weeds by creating us not in his image, but in the image of a robot, designed to act as programmed. Even now, God could remove every tyrant, restrain every unreasonable boss, force every bully to be kind, shut the mouth of everyone who gossips or tells a lie, and so forth. But God would have to make robots of us to do that, and would have to take away our choices, freedom, personality, character, and everything that makes us human. God could pull out all the weeds and eliminate the freedom; but then the wheat of our humanity would also be gone.
The same freedom that makes evil possible, also creates the opportunity to choose real love, service, kindness, nobility, courage, and sacrifice; all those things that make relationships real and life worth living. Tear out the weeds and there won’t be any wheat left either. God will one day sort this out, do away with all the evil, heal our hearts and minds, and things will be different. But not yet; so for the time being, it is for us to use the freedom God has given us to choose him and his ways. For now, said the farmer in the parable, let it all grow together, weeds and wheat, the freedom to do evil along with the freedom to do good.
This doesn’t mean God never intervenes. It is clear from the Bible that He does. But when and where God intervenes is up to Him, and is very hard to understand. We just have to leave it at that.
The fact that God does not always intervene means that God wants this world to be a place that provides humans with choice, and with the possibility of developing good character or poor character. When we tell children to “make good choices,” are we only hoping they will manage to stay out of trouble for the day? No. It is our hope that the good choices will become habits and the children will grow into good people who naturally want to do the right thing. Of course, this may or may not happen. Children are free to choose. A world that permits the development of moral character is much better than a world that would not permit such freedom; even if this means great suffering is also permitted. This doesn’t mean God causes the suffering or approves of it. But moral development and goodness and meaningful relationships are possible only in a world of genuine freedom.
I know a man who makes robots. He designs and perfects the computers in these robots until they do exactly what he wants them to do. They are perfectly obedient and agreeable to his every command. But I don’t remember him ever saying he was friends with any of his robots. He loves his kids, though. He’s a good father, and does his best to teach his children to do what is right and make good choices. But, unlike the robots, they don’t always do what he tells them to do. Sometimes they break his heart with their disobedience and rebellion. But their dad still loves them. Sometimes they return that love, and that makes all the heartache worthwhile. That imperfect love, freely given, is still infinitely better than any perfectly programmed obedience.
If your main goal in parenting is to prevent children from making a mistake or getting hurt, you will destroy their lives. They have to choose, they have to learn, and they have to grow; or they will never become capable of developing a nature or character that chooses the good.
That is why my dad eventually let me have the car– even though he knew he was taking the risk of losing me, like Donny’s dad lost him; and, like our heavenly Father loses so many of his children.
Near the end of his life, Joshua gathered together the people of Israel that he had led for so many years. In his farewell address to them, he began by retelling the history of all the ways God had provided for them, rescued them, and brought them to the Promised Land. The Joshua said (24:14-15):
Now, fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness… But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
Use the freedom God has given you to choose to serve and obey the one who, in the parable, sows the good seed, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. AMEN.
CLOSING PRAYER: Let us Pray:
Loving God, You are the giver of all we possess,
the source of all of our blessings. We thank and praise you.
Thank you for the gift of our children.
Help us to set boundaries for them,
and yet encourage them to explore.
Give us the strength and courage to treat each day as a fresh start.
May our children come to know you, the one true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
May your Holy Spirit help them to grow in faith, hope, and love,
so they may know peace, truth, and goodness.
May their ears hear your voice.
May their eyes see your presence in all things.
May their lips proclaim your word.
May their hearts be your dwelling place.
May their hands do works of charity.
May their feet walk in the way of Jesus Christ,
your Son and our Lord. Amen. –www.loyolapress.com
LORD’S PRAYER
BENEDICTION:
May the eternal God bless us and keep us, guard our bodies, save our souls, direct our thoughts, and bring us safe to the heavenly country, our eternal home, where Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ever reign, one God for ever and ever. Amen. –Sarum Breviary
******************************
PART TWO:
Mark 12:18-27: 18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection, whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
————–
The question in this little conversation comes from the Sadducees, the liberal religious leaders of the day. The Sadducees, we see in verse 18, “say there is no resurrection,” and will try to trap Jesus with a trick question on this issue. They, like some Christians today, considered themselves too sophisticated to believe in an old, unscientific, fairy tale like the resurrection of the body. The Sadducees remind me of a student who asked one of my seminary professors about this very thing. “Dr. Forde,” he said with an air of intellectual sophistication, “we don’t really believe in all that resurrection of the body stuff anymore, do we? Isn’t all this business about heaven just ‘pie in the sky when you die?’” (using a line from an old song). Dr. Forde stared at him for a moment, and then said calmly, “Well what’s the matter, son, don’t you like pie?” If by pie, that line means something good, and if by sky, it means something good beyond this world, well, that is exactly what we believe in, because that is precisely what Jesus proclaimed.
The Sadducees tried to get Jesus to say otherwise. They ask this ridiculous question about a woman who married seven brothers, one after another, after each of them died. Then she died. Then they ask with a sneer, “Now Jesus, if there is such a thing as heaven, how is that going to work; whose wife will she be there?,” quite sure that not even God could sort out that situation in the afterlife. Jesus replied, first of all, by implying that in heaven our relationships will be on a different level than on earth; and then, Jesus quoted a common reference to God in the Hebrew Bible as “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” men who lived their earthly life eighteen centuries earlier and were now dead and buried on earth. But, said Jesus, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, so Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are no longer dead, but alive in Him. The dead do live again. The Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament, was revered by all the religious leaders, and putting those two statements together, silenced the Sadducees question.
A few weeks ago, actor and funny little guy Danny Devito, interviewed actor and big tough guy Arnold Schwarzenegger. The two old friends talked about many things, and towards the end of the conversation they got on the subject of life and death and what comes next. Here is a summary of what Arnold said when he was asked about what happens to us when we die. He said, “Nothing happens. You go six feet under and that’s it. Anyone that tells you something different is a liar.” Then he said, “I don’t know what happens with the soul and all that spiritual stuff. I’m not an expert on that; but even though all this talk about heaven sounds good, it is a fantasy. The reality is we won’t ever see each other again after we are gone.” And then he added, “That’s the sad part. I know some people feel comfortable with death, but I don’t. I am going to miss everything here—having fun, and visiting with my friends, riding my bike to the beach, and traveling all over the world seeing interesting things. Life is the best, and I don’t want it to end. Why do we have to die?”
Let’s think about that. First of all, right in the middle of the conversation, Arnold says he is not an expert on ‘any of that spiritual stuff’– so that doesn’t really give us any reason to pay too much attention to his uninformed opinions. Arnold is a smart and articulate guy, and I like him, but he himself says he doesn’t know much about this subject. Yet, he does love life and he doesn’t want to die. But, wouldn’t you then want to be something of an expert on what comes next, or at least look into it a little bit? Arnold Schwarzenegger has led an amazing life, going from a poor family in a small town in Austria, to international fame in body building, acting, and politics. He got his start by disciplining himself to train and build himself up to the best body in the world—he was Mr. Universe at the age of 20—and then that opened all kinds of other doors for him. But now that is all in the past, and there are not many years left, and that makes Arnold sad. I am reminded of what Paul says in I Timothy 4:8: “Physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”
John Wesley was an English pastor and reformer. His ministry resulted in a religious revival throughout the British Empire in the late 1700s. One day, he was invited to the country estate of a rich nobleman. The rich man proudly showed Wesley his large castle home, his many acres of land, his stables and horses and carriages, his servants’ quarters, his lavish dining room, his library, his shooting range, and his den filled with trophies from his many hunting expeditions. When Wesley had seen everything, the wealthy man asked, “Well, what do you think?” John Wesley said quietly, “I think it is going to be very difficult for you to leave all this.” That’s just like Arnold— he too is finding it difficult to think about leaving all this.
Tim Keller was a little younger than Arnold, and when he started college, he was, like Schwarzenegger would say, not much of an expert on “the soul and all that spiritual stuff.” But Tim Keller did realize the importance of knowing whatever there was to know about ‘all that spiritual stuff,’ because even as a young man, he knew this life was brief and uncertain, and he did want to know what comes next. Keller took all the college classes he could on religion and philosophy, read piles of books, studied all the religions the world, and talked to anyone and everyone he thought he might learn from about this. In time, after a long search, he became convinced of the truth of the Christian faith, because he came to believe that Jesus Christ really did rise from the dead– on a specific Sunday morning, in a specific place on the other side of the world, not quite 2,000 years ago. And for the rest of his life, that conviction grew in Tim Keller, and his faith deepened into a trust and a hope that could not be shaken. He became a pastor, and in 1989 he started a church in the center of New York city; which is not an easy place to start a church. But his church grew into the thousands. Tim Keller is considered by many to have been the best Christian pastor, preacher, and author of his generation. His gift was being able to communicate to skeptics, atheists, the hostile, and the uninterested. His style was characterized by gentleness, respect, and intellectual brilliance.
Over the last three years, Tim Keller’s earthly body has been ravaged by pancreatic cancer. On May 19th of this year (2023), he died in his New York apartment at the age of 72. A friend visited him one time when he was in the midst of another miserable round of chemotherapy. The friend asked Keller how he was doing. Keller wanted to talk instead about a book he was reading, but he did say, “Look, I’m in my 70’s. I have a wife I love and who loves me. I have children who are all Christians and who I love and who love me. And, above all, I have the Gospel. What do I have to complain about?” His long-term prognosis was never good, but for the entire time his outlook was characterized by that kind of courage and faith and gratitude. He summed up the reason for that attitude in one sentence. He said, “There is nothing at this point in my life that could convince me that Jesus Christ is not raised from the dead.” And along with that, was his firm belief that Jesus would one day raise him from the dead. In his last sermon in the church he founded, Keller concluded by saying, “If you believe in Jesus, fear not; hold on to the Gospel, and look up.” On May 19th, Tim Keller’s last words were, “There is no downside for me leaving, not in the slightest.” — ‘no downside, not in the slightest’
Again, as Paul said in I Timothy 4:8: “Physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” Jesus said, “God is not a God of the dead, but of the living,” and Jesus also said, “Because I live, you shall also live.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger says when you die you go six feet under and that’s it. He is like the Sadducees, who in verse 17 say there is no resurrection. And Jesus said to them in verse 27, “You are badly mistaken.” I said to myself many years ago, “I don’t want to be badly mistaken about this; I don’t want to be wrong, and not believe in Jesus, and miss out on an opportunity for eternal life.” So, in my first year of college, I went on a similar search as Tim Keller, at about the same time in the early 1970’s, reading many of the same books, and after two years, coming to the same conclusion. So now, like Paul, I believe that whether I live or die, I belong to the Lord.
One more thing from the very first verse of this morning’s text where it says the religious leaders were sent to “trap Jesus in his talk.” The whole conversation begins with hostility. There was always so much hostility toward Jesus, then, and there still is. Why is that? Sure, Jesus opposed many of the traditions of the old-time religion, and that shook things up a bit and made some people mad; but he came offering eternal life. And even after he proved it could be done, by rising from the dead himself, he and his followers still faced opposition. Why would anyone want to oppose to that?
Now, in our poisoned political discourse today, there is hostility on all sides, and many folks will demonize anyone who disagrees with them on anything. But I am puzzled about why so much hostility is directed at the church and its Lord. Jesus is offering precisely what Arnold Schwarzenegger and so many others want most of all—an opportunity to live again. Why be angry about that? There are no other credible offers on the table.
You know, perhaps some of this anger I do understand, as I am embarrassed and saddened by the words and actions of many people who also believe in Jesus; and, I know I also have not always been a good witness to my Lord. I understand there are many reasons why people have turned away from the church. But what if it’s not about the church and all its faults, or about politics, or about personalities, or about the time your minister made you mad, or about that annoying Christian lady at work with her self-righteous nose in the air; what if it is not about the nuns who hit you with a stick when you were in the second grade, or about the TV pastor you admired who turned out to be a sex offender, or about the fact that you were born into a different religion, or no religion at all, or had too much religion forced on you when you were a kid?
Let’s say it is not about any of that, but simply about the truth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who rose from the dead; and about God’s offer and promise to you, that you can be saved. Saved from what? Saved from that sin in our hearts that disturbs and divides us; saved from that sin that makes you mad at others and disgusted with yourself; and also, saved from that ticking clock, moving you faster and faster toward you know what.
Jesus really did rise from the dead, and he really has gone on ahead to prepare a place for you, as he said he would. Believe in Jesus, and you will be forgiven, and you will be saved; and then, when your time does run out,– perhaps in sixty years from now, or maybe later on today—when you time does run out, you will be able to say like Tim Keller: “There really is no downside for me leaving, not in the slightest.” Amen. (now a prayer by Tim Keller)
Let us pray: Our Father, you are our hope and our strength. We pray that you grant to each of us the vision of that life in which all tears are wiped away, and disease and death shall be no more. Raise us up now in your Spirit to follow you in hope and trust; and give us your loving power to protect us, your wisdom to nurture us, your beauty to inspire us, and your peace to fulfill us; lifting up our hearts in the light and love of your presence. One day, everything in this life will be taken away from us, except one thing, God’s love, which can go into death with us, and take us through it and into his arms. For that, we give you thanks and praise. We pray in the name of the one who is the Resurrection and the Life, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Related Posts
