[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #634, Pentecost 26, 11/9/08

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Pentecost 26, November 9, 2008

Joshua 24:1 3a, 14 25
Psalm 78:1 7
1 Thessalonians 4:13 18
Matthew 25:1 13


Get A Grip

Joshua assures the new arrivals to the Promised Land that the Lord is not to be trifled with.  Paul visualizes the consummation of history with a family reunion in the sky -- including just the family.  Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven in the same vane, not everyone is included, the foolish having chosen and blundered their way out.  The Psalmist counsels, therefore, that we teach our children how to serve the Lord so that they will be a part of the family in the future.

God's mercy is directed to all human beings, but human beings have choices.  The Scriptures are clear that God honors human choice including the choice to serve other Gods, "honor" in the sense of honoring our freedom to choose.  So, we can choose ourselves out of the kingdom, out of the family and out of the joyful consummation of history.  What is even sadder is that we can choose our children out as well.  The parents of western society have much to contemplate about having reared a secular generation.  Joshua's words could just as well have bee delivered in AD 1960.  "But Joshua said to the people, 'You cannot serve the LORD...'"  (Joshua 24:19)  What did he mean by "You cannot serve the Lord"?  Was this a persuasive speech technique, or did Joshua really doubt the character of his audience?  Or, did he mean that, given the risks of failing God, they should stay out of relationship with this God altogether?  His listeners protested his assertion and insisted that they could and would serve the Lord.  Then they went on to raise up idolatrous generations.

Serving the one God, serving the invisible and nameless one God has its rewards, but like performing in a high trapeze act, when you lose your grip, it’s a long way down.  It is safer to align yourself with the spirit of the current age or the current place, the local gods.  They change.  You can change.  A new attachment is never far away.  When you drop the one God, the invisible and nameless one God, you drop a long way.  The drop from there is likely to be abismal.  If you have entertained the one God and declined that relationship, you could never be satisfied with a lesser god.  So, western society has not moved from one god to another, but from the one God to no god, a long fall, perhaps the fall Joshua had in mind when he said you can't serve this one God; you aren't up to it.  It would have been better for the foolish attendants in Jesus' story not to have gotten involved with the wedding celebration at all then to have entertained the notion and failed to act.  If you want "to meet Jesus in the air" (as Paul puts it), you better get a grip on it now.

If you are a servant of the one God, it is no accident.  You are a servant on purpose, God's purpose now your purpose in life.  If you are going to be part of a high trapeze act, you had better practice your grip.


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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