Time is a gift – and a constant one at that. There is, in fact, no wasting or saving or spending time. Time passes no matter what we do or don’t do and God’s work unfolds around us and within us.
Sermons
…people aren’t sent into eternal conscious torment because they ran out of all the good things they had been enjoying on earth. Jesus is not teaching about the afterlife. But he is teaching about responding to those in need.
The parable set before us this morning is greeted by preachers and students of the Bible across the church with…well, let’s just say without a lot of enthusiasm. I think the favourite comment I read in my preparations was simply: “The parable defies any fully satisfactory explanation.” So, with our expectations suitable managed, let’s see what we can do.
We need to do the work to hear the truth the Spirit is speaking through these texts…This prophecy – this word from God – is for us, today. How can it not be when it describes the kind of devastation we see on the news every night; the kind of devastation that we know our aching earth will continue to experience with greater and greater desperation.
…being healthy or having a full belly are not the goals that Jesus is trying to achieve, any more than having the largest group of people following him is something he is after. Jesus wants something bigger. Something more impactful.
It’s almost as though Jesus isn’t interested in propping people up, either today or in his own day. He’s not concerned with their position on the social ladder or increasing their followers or level of influence. In fact, Jesus’ advice sounds like it was meant for a different people altogether than those he was talking to—different from us today too.
How many of us show up to church or to pray with our head bent down, looking at a small area on the floor, and waiting for God to show up in that space? Is this what our church services have become? Is this what our interactions with each other have been reduced to? The five-foot circle of familiarity?
We want hippy Jesus in tie-dye and bell-bottoms and a headband and round John-Lennon glasses.…but that’s not who we get today.Who is this Jesus? The Jesus of fire and division? Can’t we just skip this part?
If what makes us furious like nothing else is something that is immoral, or unholy—not of God—then that rage might not be a flaw in us—it might be a reflection in us of the divine; God also gets angry. And God is holy.
“We are dead and our life is hidden with Christ in God.” It is the stuff of fairy tales and fantasy novels – and it’s no wonder that early Christians were treated with suspicion or even hostility. This faith of ours disrupts the natural order in ways I don’t think we usually really notice, allowing such claims to become tame metaphor rather than wild assertions