There is a story about a minister who was attending a minister’s conference. He was from a very small town. During one break, he was standing in a group of ministers whom all were from large cities. One of the ministers noticed he was from a small town so he asked, “How many churches are in your town?” His response was, “Well, there used to be two, we merged into one, now there are five!”
The Gospel reading from the Lectionary this week is Luke 12:49-56. In that passage, Jesus shocks his disciples by saying that he did not come to bring “peace on earth and good will to men!” Instead his coming was going to bring division—father against son, son against father. Mother against daughter and daughter against mother and so on and so forth! Why is that, what makes Jesus be divisive instead of uniting? Jesus came offering to ANYONE who will accept him as “lord of their life” (Romans 10:9). He came paying a debt for sins, all sins, that we cannot pay ourselves. And yet God’s family is divided. If we were all together, with one mind (specifically the mind of Christ) then there would not be divisions and there would be only one church. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Show me a church in conflict and I will show you a church that has taken their eyes off of Christ and has turned inward! We humans have the propensity to want to always have things our way. We like to say things like, “If you don’t interpret the scriptures the way I do, you are just wrong. My sins aren’t nearly as bad as yours!” Truth is there is no list of sins that says any one sin is greater than another! All sin, any sin separates us from God but God’s love and grace forgives all our sins! As the author of Luke’s Gospel brings this passage to a close, he points out that we know the signs, signs from nature and we had better not miss them! Is the second coming just right around the corner? It could be, but the bigger question is “are you ready for it when it does come?” I hope you are but if you are not, do something about it before it is too late! Amen 9/4/2016 10:44:49 pm
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