Daily Gospel Reflection - 29 September 2011

-

Matthew 7:22-29 (CEB): On the Judgment Day, many people will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name and expel demons in your name and do lots of miracles in your name?’ Then I’ll tell them, ‘I’ve never known you. Get away from me, you people who do wrong.’

“Everybody who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise builder who built a house on bedrock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It didn’t fall because it was firmly set on bedrock. But everybody who hears these words of mine and doesn’t put them into practice will be like a fool who built a house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It fell and was completely destroyed.”

When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he was teaching them like someone with authority and not like their legal experts.

In this passage, Jesus is talking about a firm foundation for life. Not life in the world to come. No. Life now. This whole sermon (that started way back in chapter 5) is about practical daily life here in this world. And it’s not just about belief (as we saw with yesterday’s reflection). It’s about doing. Apologies go out to my neo-Calvinist friends. There is work to be done regarding following Jesus. In the first two paragraphs, Jesus made mention of our actions: ‘Get away from me, you people who do wrong’...Everybody who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice...But everybody who...doesn’t put them into practice...’ The teachings of Jesus are a way of being human that reconciles God’s creation. It’s not only about spiritual things. Notice the first paragraph is all about doing spiritual things. But that alone is not enough. To be truly human, to be fully human, we have to live reconciled lives in all of life - at home, at work, at school, etc.

We see in the second paragraph that walking in The Way - being people committed to living the way of Jesus, of being Jesus in the world - is the only sure way of living and being. It is a firm foundation; the only foundation.

Also notice that living The Way does not guarantee one a life free from issues. Jesus was clear that there are storms in life. The key is how we are prepared to handle them. If we have built a way of living that is based on our own way of doing things, of thinking that our way is best, then, when the storms of life come our way, our world will come crashing down around us. But here is an important point - we aren’t destroyed, but our way of living is. Even when we blow it and want to do things our way, the Gospel is all about God coming to our aid even then. As someone recently said, the Gospel story ends with resurrection, not Golgotha. In the Gospel, there is always hope. Even when the ‘house’ is ‘completely destroyed’ we can start over. God is there to help us begin again. God’s unfailing love and compassion are renewed every morning (Lamentation 3.22-23 CEB).



~~~
In the Love of the Three in One,

Br Jack+, LC

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Linux Mint 5

-
Image
It's been a while since I did a technological (read: geek) blog, so I thought I would update you on what's going on. As you are aware, I am a full-fledged geek by trade and passion and I have gone from Windows to Mac to Linux.  My Linux evolution went from Linspire to Mepis to PCLinuxOS to Ubuntu .  I stayed with PCLinuxOS and Ubuntu for the longest.  However, I have always read good things about another distribution called Linux Mint .  It's based on the latest Ubuntu release but with a lot of add-ons.  The latest version is called Linux Mint 5, Elyssa.  So, at the office, I downloaded the latest iso and tried it out to see how it all worked. First of all, there are always some things I keep in mind when trying any new Linux distro, the primary thing being, 'How would the average user feel about using this OS?'  'Is it (very) simple to install?  Is it easy to use?  Is it easy to get help?  Is it easy to add or remove applications?  Is the terminal (command ...
Read more

The OS Problem

-
I recently purchased a new laptop.  It's a Gateway M-6843 .  It's wonderful!  The very first thing I did, of course, was install Ubuntu 8.04.1 .  I plugged in the laptop and booted from the Ubuntu CD and clicked the install icon.  After about a week, I saw this blog detailing how this person got a refund from HP because he didn't want to use Windows Vista.  So, I started the process with Gateway.  It's been about a week and it's going to be a long process.  Customer Support at Gateway gave me the run-around so I am in the process of writing a letter to the Corporate Office. The reason for all of this is because of the End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) from Microsoft.  According to the EULA, if I choose not to use Vista, I should contact the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM, in my case this would be Gateway) for a refund or credit.  But this begs the question: Why don't people get this option before buying the system?  That is, instead of having the cust...
Read more

Series: New Testament Eschatology

-
Image
From time to time, I hear a lot about the early church’s understanding of the “end of the world” or their belief that the “Second Coming of Jesus” would take place within their generation. And it’s usually not in a very good light. “They were obviously mistaken,” is often the remark I hear most. I know it’s hard to imagine but what if we’re mistaken? What if we’ve misunderstood what they meant? I’m hoping that this series on some of the major statements from the New Testament about the “end of the world” will show that they weren’t mistaken in their understanding of the “signs of the times.” Before we begin, however, let’s look at some terms that will have to be used. As most of you know, I try to refrain from using big “church” words. My reason for this is because those words are like suitcases where ideas and thoughts and understandings are packed into them. To explain the words would mean a long time spent unpacking the suitcases and explaining their contents. While such a pil...
Read more