The recent parables proclaimed in church have been about the kingdom, the two sons, the tenants in the vineyard and this coming Sunday the wedding banquet. Each deals with the kingdom for insiders and outsiders. The insiders have become too complacent. Worship is not about God but about them. Sometimes we have the same problem in our congregations. What is the real problem? Is it the church? The people? The culture?
In this Sunday’s parable, the king invites the good and
the bad. The kingdom is filled with good and bad. Whether the story
is about the mustard seed, the net with fish, yeast and bread, time after time
Matthew insists that the kingdom stories are filled with good and bad. We
can think of people who make excuses for not coming to church, too busy, too
tired and too bored. Then there are the critics that the church is too liberal,
too conservative, and just plain too much.
Weekly, I see people who suffer lots of heartaches. Pain
from grief over the death of family members, or the pain of rejection the
result of their partner’s infidelity, or the pain of divorce and feeling unworthy to receive communion, or worse, the spouse whose husband is passive
aggressive and thinks he is entitled to be a pain (bully) to his spouse.
Perhaps the cause of all this pain is too much booze, to many drugs, or the need for power (selfishness). The only ones left out are those who think
they are too good to be in the same room with the ones they consider bad.
Welcome to heaven. Yes, the God we pray to in
desperate times, during moments of illness or unemployment, for the safety of our
soldiers, for simple peace of mind loves us all. God loves all creatures, great
and small, mean and nasty, humble and meek. May we find our strength in our God
who loves us despite all our fears and foibles?
God prays for us as we reflect: "The Lord looks down from heaven on humankind to see
if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.”
(Psalm 14:2).
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who understand
that we all are imperfect and God loves us all the same. Welcome to Heaven!
