Meditations for Lent - #22
The recommended Gospel reading for this day of Lent is Luke 11:14-23 and one of the Old Testament lessons is from Jeremiah 7:23-28.
Jeremiah talks about the fact a house divided against itself cannot stand. In the passage from Luke, Jesus, perhaps thinking of the passage from Jeremiah or perhaps just observing how humans tend to function, reminds those he is teaching that a divided kingdom or household will fail. He also says to illustrate this point that “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. “ These lessons and other similar ones have often been used to suggest or even declare that all those who do not claim the God of the Old Testament or the trinity of Jesus, father and Holy spirit as their Lord and Savior will be doomed to eternal Hell.
In the movie Come Sunday. Bishop Carleton Pearson, Bishop of an evangelical mega church in Tulsa, Oklahoma began to question why the God of his understanding would send adults and children who had never heard the Christian message and whose God had a different name to hell for eternity.. He concluded that the exclusive, punishing God he had been preaching and who would only save those who specifically professed faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior was a monster. He did not believe that the God of his understanding was a monster and said as much in church. Eventually many in his congregations, other Evangelical ministers and the man who claimed this African American as his adopted son, Oral Roberts, decided he was not fit to be minister and disowned him. Yet, he held tight to his belief that the God in whom he believed and who he worshiped, the God who had sent his son to teach a kinder, all forgiving, embracing message was not a pubescent teenager who got his or her feelings hurt because someone did no call him/her by a certain name or give him/her credit for Grace. Eventually Carleton was accepted as a minister of a large Unitarian church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
My understanding is that when Luke reports that Jesus says in Luke 11: 23 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” he is talking about actions. I think that that when one engages in behavior which is consistent with the teachings of Jesus we are with him. When one has the courage to love one’s enemy, to treat one’s neighbor as one wants to be treated, when one forgives someone else or ourselves for acting as a fallible human, when one rejects those others as less than; as not one’s brothers and sisters one Is not with Jesus; one is not gathering with him. When one does these things, one is gathering with him. When in Ephesians, Titus and Romans one is told that one is not saved by works or works alone but by Grace, the student is being told one does not earn worth because of good works but it is only when one accepts that that one is worthwhile – that all are worthwhile - that one truly does good works. It is then, as the Buddhists might suggest. that one can love unconditionally without expectations.
I was talking to a young man this morning about my belief that we cannot develop a system for measuring who has the most sin points or the most good works points. We all have hurt ourselves, others and mother earth. I have no idea how to assign points or take away points for actions of each of us. Ironically it is when accept that we are all equally worthwhile that we are able to be our most unconditionally loving. It is then that we can gather with Jesus and follow his example.
Written March 28, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
Coachpickett.org
The recommended Gospel reading for this day of Lent is Luke 11:14-23 and one of the Old Testament lessons is from Jeremiah 7:23-28.
Jeremiah talks about the fact a house divided against itself cannot stand. In the passage from Luke, Jesus, perhaps thinking of the passage from Jeremiah or perhaps just observing how humans tend to function, reminds those he is teaching that a divided kingdom or household will fail. He also says to illustrate this point that “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. “ These lessons and other similar ones have often been used to suggest or even declare that all those who do not claim the God of the Old Testament or the trinity of Jesus, father and Holy spirit as their Lord and Savior will be doomed to eternal Hell.
In the movie Come Sunday. Bishop Carleton Pearson, Bishop of an evangelical mega church in Tulsa, Oklahoma began to question why the God of his understanding would send adults and children who had never heard the Christian message and whose God had a different name to hell for eternity.. He concluded that the exclusive, punishing God he had been preaching and who would only save those who specifically professed faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior was a monster. He did not believe that the God of his understanding was a monster and said as much in church. Eventually many in his congregations, other Evangelical ministers and the man who claimed this African American as his adopted son, Oral Roberts, decided he was not fit to be minister and disowned him. Yet, he held tight to his belief that the God in whom he believed and who he worshiped, the God who had sent his son to teach a kinder, all forgiving, embracing message was not a pubescent teenager who got his or her feelings hurt because someone did no call him/her by a certain name or give him/her credit for Grace. Eventually Carleton was accepted as a minister of a large Unitarian church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
My understanding is that when Luke reports that Jesus says in Luke 11: 23 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” he is talking about actions. I think that that when one engages in behavior which is consistent with the teachings of Jesus we are with him. When one has the courage to love one’s enemy, to treat one’s neighbor as one wants to be treated, when one forgives someone else or ourselves for acting as a fallible human, when one rejects those others as less than; as not one’s brothers and sisters one Is not with Jesus; one is not gathering with him. When one does these things, one is gathering with him. When in Ephesians, Titus and Romans one is told that one is not saved by works or works alone but by Grace, the student is being told one does not earn worth because of good works but it is only when one accepts that that one is worthwhile – that all are worthwhile - that one truly does good works. It is then, as the Buddhists might suggest. that one can love unconditionally without expectations.
I was talking to a young man this morning about my belief that we cannot develop a system for measuring who has the most sin points or the most good works points. We all have hurt ourselves, others and mother earth. I have no idea how to assign points or take away points for actions of each of us. Ironically it is when accept that we are all equally worthwhile that we are able to be our most unconditionally loving. It is then that we can gather with Jesus and follow his example.
Written March 28, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
Coachpickett.org
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