Todays Reading Luke 16:19-17:10
In our schools, teachers and staff spend a great deal of time helping children to learn to make wise and positive decisions. We begin in kindergarten because it is a skill and an awareness that will be valuable in all aspects and throughout these children's lives. Making good choices is that important. Not everyone heeds the lesson.
If someone were to survey people what about what were the most important choices that one could make in their lifetime, I suspect that the answers would be choices about who one marries, how one raises their children, and the choices in our careers. For most people, this is what would come to mind first. Very few people would come up with, " I chose to believe in Jesus Christ because I wish to be saved and have eternal life." Although, the scripture for today would seem to point out the importance of choosing Godliness and faith above all else, we do not clearly make that choice as emphatically as we do others. Why?
The answer is easily found in that we do not live in a God-friendly culture. When one reads about those who lived in the time of Christ, it often appears that in the Jewish culture, of which Jesus was a part , people lived theology in everyday life. So much of life was centered about the temple and the observances of faith. Islam today finds people being called to prayer several times a day. However, in our western American culture, not even church bells ring as they do in Europe. Not that this is such a big thing, but it makes the point that very little makes us call to mind our faith in our daily life. We have to make a point of seeking it out. Our days begin with a cup of coffee and the morning news shows, not the word of God. In doing so, we are confronted immediately with the sins of the world. But we have trouble realizing that it is sin we are witnessing. We euphemize it and call it news as we watch people making bad choices, wrong decisions, or spewing lies that have brought them notoriety or defamation.
Here in Luke, Jesus gives us this tough illustration of a man who had everything he could want in this world. He tells us also about a man who had absolutely nothing in this world, living outside the doors of the rich man. When the destitute man dies, he is given a place in heaven. However, when the rich man dies he is sent to hell. There he calls out to God for help but God explains that there is no way out of his circumstances that he has found himself in. He made his choice back in his earthly life. The rich man then pleads that somehow, someone should communicate to his family and friends still on earth, that they must repent and understand who God is in order to avoid the same fate as he is experiencing. God tells him that they have heard the same words that he has heard when he lived, which also the poor man had heard. They must make the choice, just as he did, for God or against God.
Ah choice! The freedom to really do well or to really mess up ! Too many of us in this world, are still dilly dallying around with this choice thing as if it is not that serious. The thinking promoted in this culture and taught by secular-humanist liberal churches, is that it just does not matter. We are all going to heaven. No one has clarified as to why exactly this has come about in Gods thinking. On the surface it sounds good but then it raises the question, "does this include Hitler, Dahmer and Stalin?" But wait—"no that does not make sense," says the public as they ponder this. Yet, where does God draw the line? How about some of our lesser know criminals, or the child molester or the guy down the street caught pilfering the cash register? Are their sins erased? Or how about the person who practices satanic rituals or the person who never believed in God and denounced Him all the way? Do we all get a shot at heaven no matter what choice we have made? Confusing isn't it?
Not really, because God does have an answer which modern theologians do not like and that our culture is uncomfortable with. Although, we cannot know entirely what God's judgment will be, his Son has emphatically told us that the way to God is through him- Jesus Christ. His suffering and agony on that horrible cross had a purpose and a message: that he was the actual doorway to the kingdom of God. It is not a suggestion. It is the truth.
So it does matter what choices we make. God is not stretching out his hand to all who have rejected him. He is not accepting applications from the ones who had no time for him. But he is saying "yes, you are welcome," to all who, with a sincere heart, have repented of their sins and have chosen Jesus freely with loving hearts and fervent minds and have made this decision long before the train hit them or the boulder fell on their head. Everything about eternal life hinges on this choice. Everything. Our chance to be saved is now. It is this very moment that is the right time to tell everyone that we know, the good news, because our voice will be inaudible from the grave.
Laurie Erdman
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