[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #621, Pentecost 13, 8/10/08

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Pentecost 13 – August 10, 2008

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
Psalm 105, 1-6, 16-22, 45b
Romans 10:5-15
Matthew 14:22-33


Why Wait For the End?

So it all works out in the end.  Is that it?  God prepares the salvation of the tribe of Jacob by positioning Joseph in Egypt.  Jesus grabs Peter in the nick of time.   "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."  (Romans 10:13; Joel 2:32)  Not to worry, God will pull the thing out.  

It may indeed all work out in the end, but why wait for the end?  If Judah and his ten brothers had known it would all work out in the end, they could have spared themselves and Joseph a whole lot of misery by just working it out at the beginning.  People get upset with the idea of salvation setting aside punishment. Something in the heart loves the punishment of an enemy, loves to get even.   Joseph's little "gotchas" played on his brothers years later make the salvation pill go down easier for the Bible story consumer, but they have nothing to do with God's grace.  Neither does Joseph's arrogance have anything to do with it.  It is trust in God's working things out in the end that works things out in the end.  It is Joseph's trust in God that is synonymous with Peter's stepping out onto the water and Paul's appeal to Jew and Gentile.

The prophet Joel said that, at the end, "all who call upon the name of the=2
0Lord will be saved."  Paul remembers this as a characteristic of the end, but combines it with Moses' speech from the beginning. [Deuteronomy 30:11-14] Don't talk as if salvation were far away.  Don't wait for the end.  You have everything you need at hand.  Now is the time to trust in God, to step out of the boat and be a part of salvation.  When  "you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead," you trust in God's working it out in the end.  For Paul, the Gospel is the end and is about the end.  That is why he thinks of Joel, who prophesied about the end.  It is characteristic of the end time that "all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved."  Paul realizes that this "all" includes the Gentiles.  It is not the ordinary situation for all to be enfranchised by faith.  It is a characteristic of the end.  So believing in Christ is believing in the end, believing in God's final victory.  If then God will finally be victorious, let his kingdom come now, his will be done on earth as in heaven.

 Don't prolong the agony of sin.  It won't survive the end anyway.  Instead, reconcile your relationship with God and neighbor now.   “Leave your gift at the altar and go be reconciled with your brother/sister.” To go on in bitterness and estrangement is a waste of time.  To continue thinking those people out there, even those enemies out there, are the problem is an unnecessary20burden.  Share your possessions with the poor now.  Give up your worries now.  Turn from the worship of things material now.  Turn your attention to the will of God now.  If this is the way it will be in the end, why waste the time between?  Why wait for the end?!


May these thoughts strengthen you. 
 
An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors 
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor 
(an e-mail service) 
 
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