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First Congregational

United Church of Christ

... exploring the frontiers of faith in Jesus

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Again and again, it’s a broken record. Grrrr ... Jesus is just trying to do some good, and they keep grumbling. They keep complaining.

What good does grumbling do? None at all! What does grumbling accomplish? Nothing!

Actually grumbling does accomplish something. Grumbling dampens enthusiasm, kills the mood, drains energy. Grumbling is a distraction, diverting time and attention away from more worthy pursuits. Grumbling is just not fun! And grumbling presents a real threat to the vital work of the gospel. I am so glad that grumbling is never a problem among us!

Jesus answers the grumblers by telling them a story, actually three stories. Notice what he does. Instead of chiding them or scolding them, he tells them a series of stories to show them another way.

And what is the common theme of all three stories? What is the common punchline? A party! A great celebration! Great joy in heaven over each and every sinner who repents. Great joy in heaven over each and every lost soul who comes back home.

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Never give up

Do you believe everything happens for a reason?

Was there a reason you were thinking of the buddy you hadn’t seen in forty years just as he was thinking of you?

Was there a reason you chose today to call your friend, just when she needed to hear a friendly voice?

Was there a reason you lost your job and had to move on and landed in a place and among people who brought out the best in you?

Was there a reason they called you back to let you know you could make dinner reservations for that evening after all?

Was there a reason Gina Swaim and Paul Greene were paired as cheerleading partners at ISU?

Was there a reason six-year-old Matthew Blackman was placed in Mrs. Ensworth’s kindergarten class where she got to know him and his foster parents and his brother, Henry, and his sister, Louisa?

Is there a reason you are in church today?

Surely there is! Surely there is a reason for the events that befall us, for the opportunities that are presented to us, for the people that are brought into our lives, for the people into whose lives we are brought. I do believe in a God who provides and protects and guides, a God whose gracious designs are woven into the fabric of our lives in ways mostly unrecognized and mysterious. Do you believe everything happens for a reason?

Then what about the other side? What about the bad things? Not the growing old or the getting sick or the disappointments that come to all of us along life’s way, but the accidents, the tragedies, the disasters. Do these things happen for a reason?

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Staring down the fox

What is God calling you to do? It’s no mystery. God is calling you to do justice, to show mercy, to walk humbly in God’s way. God is calling you to love your neighbor as you love yourself, to share what you have with the poor, to be a witness to the truth by what you say and what you do, to make peace, to make shalom. God is calling you to set aside your own wants and needs, to walk everyday the path that leads to the cross, to walk everyday the path that leads through the cross. God is calling you to follow Jesus.

It’s a daunting journey, a hard way to go, a path filled with hazards and pitfalls. Some of us may never choose to start down that path in the first place. Some of us may start down that path, but be distracted or diverted along the way. Some of us may abandon the path for an easier one or one seeming more pleasant to follow. Some of us may turn around and go back, or stop to sit down and rest and consider our options for a while, a while that turns into a long while, a long while that turns into a permanent stopover.

Jesus faced the same hazards, the same pitfalls. the same temptations, on his journey to Jerusalem. One of the first obstacles in Jesus’ path was fear ...

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Shalom

We wait for what God has promised

Earth

... new heavens and a new earth!

• Read my essay, Heaven can wait

From my blog, a believer's journal ...

heaven can wait

I don’t expect to go to heaven.

At one time I did. At one time, making myself worthy of heaven was the focus of my life. From early childhood, I learned what it meant to ask Jesus into my heart with the hope of spending eternity with him in heaven. I learned to live for the sake of heaven. I wanted to please God now, do what God wanted now, so that one day, when my life came to its inevitable end, I might enjoy that great reward, life without end in a perfect place.

That childhood faith became my adolescent faith and the faith I carried into young adulthood. By that time, my faith was more informed and articulate and nuanced, but the core of my belief remained the same: faith in Jesus secured for me, and for all who share that faith, the reward of eternal life in heaven.

I don’t believe that anymore.

Read the rest of this blog post and leave your comment at: heaven can wait.

turning the page on torture

It is sad that it has taken a change in administration to begin to turn the page on torture. A categorical ban on torture is an American value, not a debatable value of one party or another. Perhaps we were in so deep that there was no way out … other than repentance. And repentance doesn’t come easily to politicians.

Read the rest of this blog post and leave your comment at: turning the page on torture.