Sermon Notes: Such a Time as This

Sermon - Such a Time as This

We had some friends over a few weeks ago, and we were playing a Reverse-Q-and-A game. In response to one particular statement, nearly all of my friends stood on the Strongly-Disagree side and all of their reasons really struck me.

The statement was ‘Political Issues should be talked about at church’. 

I, as a skeptic and part-time contrarian was on the Strongly Agree side, all alone.

As you can imagine by my mentioning the story at all, I’m still of the same opinion, but I also COMPLETELY agree with all of my friend’s reasons for taking the opposite position.

While playing this game, I was the only person on that side, so I had the first round of explanation. I said that I believe political issues should be talked about even more at church because ALL things that pertain to life have a way of becoming political.

In response my friends said a few variations of, ‘if you want to define political things that broadly, you’re muddying the idea’. 

When they gave their reasons, for their position it was because in most cases preachers are not qualified nor competent to speak authoritatively on political subjects.

I cannot disagree with that sentiment, quite frankly most preachers are NOT experts in politics and probably shouldn’t bill themselves as experts in political issues based upon their real or supposed prowess in matters of religion.

Yet, even though I agree with my friends’ position I STILL believe there SHOULD be more talk of political issues in church.

Today I want to take this unusual opportunity to monologue to a captive audience and explore the topic of competence.

I want start with an assumption that I believe most of you share, that is that in some form or fashion, though varied; We (the people of God) are Called (separated, destined) to be a Kingdom of Priests, or Kings and Priests. (Some sort of authoritative group of servant leaders). I kind of want to see a show of hands on that, because I can adjust the starting point if need be.

Do we all roughly, accept (translations and specific meanings aside) that proposition? 

When I was young, I was one of those kids that listened in church, I remember a good deal of the messages I heard as a 6 year old onward. One thing that has always stuck in my head, not as a red-flag per-se but as a major curiosity was the doctrine that at the resurrection God will give His people the abilities to do the jobs He prepared them for. This was a universal doctrine in all the churches I was raised in. This was taught in most cases as, ‘worldly education can never give you what you need to be Godly’, and ‘no amount of worldly education can prepare you for what God has in mind for you to do’.

This doctrine was always malleable though, and quite often used in cross purposes to bring about obedience to a myriad of ideas.

I was taught there’s no reason to learn politics because God’s government is different. I was taught there’s no reason to politically fight against abortion because, I quote, “God doesn’t care about the abortion problem in the world, He cares about fixing the sanctity of life in the Kingdom’. I was taught there’s no value in a university education about psychology because it’s all just gobledy-gook and man’s feeble attempts to understand man. I was told there was no need to pursue an education in things that pertain to The Kingdom of God because everything I would need would be given to me when I got there.

As I said, this wasn’t a red flag to me as a 6 or 7 year old, but it always sat on a shelf in my mind glowing and unable to be ignored.

Later in my 20s it began to bother me. In my 20s I started my own business and began hiring people and it occurred to me in several different ways, that what people bring to the table is VERY important.

I got to see the difference between experience, and the willingness to learn. I got to see the difference between “I’ve hung gutter for 3 years” and “I’m a fast learner”. 

They are not the same.

It was taught to me, and probably to some of you that we are not and cannot be good enough for God, and there’s an idea that’s extremely pervasive in Christianity, as a whole, that man cannot please God. No doubt there is a scriptural basis for the concept, but the application gets so far outside of context that Christianity believes some very strange things about what man can and cannot do.

There is most certainly a distinction made between the physical and the spiritual in the biblical texts, but does that mean that nothing man can do is good enough? Does the fact that Flesh and Blood cannot enter the Kingdom mean that nothing man can do is good enough to please God, more importantly does that mean that our physical and worldly education, talents, experiences, strengths and weaknesses are immaterial to God’s plan? 

As we start looking at some biblical stories, I want to ask you, are there heroes in the Bible? Are there men and women who did great things? Were those great exploits just God using people as a simple tool like a hammer, or a yellow pencil?

Hebrews 11:1 as we read this first section, we see the emphasis on Faith and Belief. It is without a doubt the majority opinion in Christianity that Faith and Belief are Passive Concepts. Faith and Belief are seen as the ability to stand still, to be patient, to be hopeful, to be internally at peace, to be convinced, to be convicted…

I have, in one of my older Bibles marked something unusual in Hebrews. At the top of the page, I have one of my favorite words, VERB, and then I have highlighted every action in the chapter that’s associated with Faith and Belief.

I’m going to read this chapter with my own emphasis added, I think you will see something interesting.

By Faith

11 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. 5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. 20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. 21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two,[a] they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

How many Actions were associated with, as the definition of Faith there?

How passive does Faith look in that account? Now, was God just using people as tools in all those cases?

I might be fraying the topic a little bit right here, but we’ll get it all back together soon.

Unless we ignore the words in Hebrews 11, Man’s actions CAN be ‘good-enough’ for God, and the things that are ‘Commendable’ by God are Actions by man.

With that lets explore some of these stories of exploits that God commends and see what went into them. Were all of these cases simply Miracles in which God took a passive person who was ignorant, incompetent and unlearned, and moved mountains with him?  I ask that because in one particular group right now there’s a slogan ‘God’s got this’ and while it’s NOT specifically pointed at being a passive believer, it’s commonly viewed as meaning such and is used in conjunction with ‘be still and know that I am God’. It’s also expressly used to say, ‘we need to keep doing what we’re already doing’. (which I might add is, bleeding membership at an accelerating rate and increasingly growing hostile to groups of similar faith)

I often like to go back to the story of Moses because it’s got personal significance to me. My mom was among many other things a planner. She organized, planned, negotiated and directed summer camps and feast sites. Because of that I got to see a very big problem in the “God’s got this” mentality. 

At the time of the Exodus, it’s estimated there were around 3 Million Hebrews. We can say that very easily, the words don’t hurt to say, 3 million, 3 million, etc.…

Do any of you know how to communicate a message to 3 million people? No.

I got to see this watching my mom plan events, and later in life she was greatly respected and loved for her abilities in management of large groups of people. I dare say the most of us here, EVEN with the internet and phones would have a very hard time communicating a clear message to 1000 people. That’s because we don’t have any experience managing large groups of people. Now what if I told you to go tell 3 million people something?

NONE of us here even know what 3 million people looks like! We have never seen 3 million people in one group.

My mom was often respected for how accurate her food rationing was with large groups, that was with under 1000 people… How much food does 3m people eat? How much space do they take up? How fast can they move? All of these are currently not in our knowledge banks.

Back to Moses, he was just a normal passive guy, right? No! He was a prince... He grew up in a palace that reigned over 6 to 8 million people. He was trained in how to manage large groups. He knew what that looked like.

You could say to this example, ‘that was God preparing him’… fair enough, I accept that and as I will intend to show, it even proves my point. There was worldly education in political and physical things that were necessary for God to use and be pleased by Moses.

What about Samuel? Samuel was quite the character in the old days. I have a tongue-in-cheek favorite scripture in which Samuel ‘hacks’ Agag, a king, to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal and delivers the Clint Eastwood worthy line ‘as your sword made women childless, so will your mother be’. This man was a Kingmaker, he was even an accepted authority ABOVE the king of Israel. He alone was the man-in-charge of ‘foreign policy’! What was his background?

Well, from his childhood he was trained by Eli. There wasn’t a man in all of Israel at the time who knew the writings of God as much as Samuel. He was educated by MAN, Eli and carried out POLITICAL exploits that pleased God.

What about Esther? This is a very not-G-rated story, the account we have is rather muted in its expressions, but the content should not be overlooked. Here is an entirely political situation in which a woman, by being TRAINED by a group of… professionals… used her newly acquired, and apparently exceptional, Human and Physical skills to save an entire race of people… Let that sink in for a moment… as an aside, could a man have done that Job? Also, could that have been done without training, I don’t mean to be crass, but really?? 

What about Paul? The scene is this: There’s a paradigm shift in the world, Judaism’s time as a torchbearer is over and a new and better covenant is made. Now there’s a need to spread the ‘gospel’, this new covenant needs to be proclaimed throughout the world good enough so that people from now on will know about it... who is most able to do that? Some passive guy who just ‘believes’? NO! The guy who gets so much of the credit is Paul, pray tell, where did he come from?

He was trained… not just trained but educated personally by the most prestigious institution of religious teaching of the time. Not only that, but He was also a practicing member of the Jewish ruling community he was quite literally a religious politician, and the equivalent of a religious lawyer. It is specifically BY this education that he was able to reach the audience he did. If Paul had not been educated in, well versed and experienced in the political system he would have not made it out of Antioch. It was his education that afforded him his audience. It was because he was credentialed that his message was even considered. It was his Experience in his trade that supported him Economically and it was his training and prowess in Jewish and Roman law that opened the doors. It was his ability to speak about the depths of Greek philosophy and make connections to God. It was his Education that gave him and audience.

What I see all of these heroes in the bible have in common is that they were competent. They had or sought the training, they had the experience, training and education necessary to deal with the issues of their time.

I have said the before, but it’s one of my favorite things to say, when Jesus said, ‘he who has the faith of a mustard see can say to this mountain be moved and it will be’, he did not mean ‘the person who sits still and waits for God to move the mountain’… The person who actually has faith is the person who sees that the mountain needs moving and goes and buys a bulldozer and hires a crew.

Some people might equate that to be being impatient, but is it?

Abraham is often looked at in a bad light when he takes Hagar. It’s nearly always viewed as Abraham being impatient. I ask you a question, when does God scold Abraham for being impatient concerning Hagar and Ishmael? God does not go to Abraham and say,” look, you screwed up here, calm down a bit...”  He actually says of Ishmael “I’ll make him a great nation too”. Abraham is commended by God because He GOES, and he LIVES, and he DOES. (This is one of those issues like Moses's wife where people 3000 years later put their God's supposed displeasure into scripture)

This could go on because all the heroes of faith have stories, and most of them are conveniently (from the stories perspective) pre-qualified for the job that they eventually carried out.

Is this just because of Predestination?  So much doctrine is based upon that idea, when Paul expresses his wonder and excitement that God ‘knew’ him before his birth, Christianity says ‘oh Paul meant his life was planned’… but is that the case?

One thing we often fail to realize is that the stories we have we’re written after the fact. They were ALL written LONG after the events they describe and as such all the stories speak in authoritative and omnipotent voice. That is, the narrator tells the story knowing all the relevant information, much more, knowing that the person is relevant! These stories though didn’t happen that way, it’s not like Paul’s father was like ‘son, you need to go do XYZ because that’s God’s plan for you’.

What actually happened is that life happened to all of these characters the same way it happens for us, one blind moment after another. They, just like us, could not see into the future. 

Now let’s play some historical fiction, let’s pretend we’re Abraham and a someone who claims to be a minister comes to us and says, ‘what God really wants of you is to be still and patient… don’t go learning that fancy math, don’t learn that astronomy that’s all man’s feeble attempts to understand the creation’. Suppose he took that advice. Thank God he didn’t.

Suppose you’re Moses Parents and a man of the cloth tells you, ‘Go ahead and let the guards kill your son, after-all God will resurrect him, and it wouldn’t be right to resist the government.’

Suppose you’re Mordechai and your niece who you raised is taken by a King, sight-unseen because he like variety in his bedroom. Your abducted niece manages to write you a letter from her cell and says, ‘I’ve been taken as a sex slave, what do I do?’.

Suppose you say, ‘enhh.. Sex-slave… God can’t do anything with that...’.  Thank God he didn’t, instead he told his niece, ‘This may be extremely difficult, but maybe your beauty is exactly what’s needed right now, perhaps you have your qualifications for just a time like this.’

Here’s where this comes back to the present. We see all these old stories and we read them, and we see that God was present, guiding the situations and we then view the characters as something other than human like us. We see them as heroes who did God’s work. When we do that, we do a major injustice to these men and women and to God. We also exempt ourselves from all responsibility to be competent by say, ‘yeah, well that was God doing all the work’. That perspective was never afforded to any man! All the heroes of the bible were men and women who woke up every morning with the same ignorance about the present and the future that we do, they didn’t know! What they DID do was act, and act in the best way they knew how and in the long run, it’s recorded that GOD COMMENDED THEM for it.

So, what are you going to do? It’s so common to say and to hear “if God wanted me to pursue this or that He’d make it happen” … Is that true? I say no, that’s not how it works, at least at ground level.  Do you have an opportunity to become competent in a field? Are you turning it down because it’s not religious? Are you not interested because it’s not perfect and maybe there’s some problems with the curriculum? 

One of the things that grinds my gears the most is listening to religious people in scientific or political debates. One of the most nails-on-a-chalkboard debates was Ken Ham, the young-earth-creationist against Bill Nye, the Plays-a-scientist-on-tv-guy. Two ideological blockheads who each dogmatically believe in their own rainbow-colored unicorns. Each arguing nonsense and ignorance in the name of their respective religions. Each of them entirely incompetent in the others’ professed field.

Go back sometime and read about William Jennings Bryan and the Scopes Monkey Trial. This was about evolution being taught in school. As you might have guessed, he lost, and Christians still sound this absurd and convoluted today. Jennings Bryan skewered himself as a complete fool and he took Christianity down with him. His arguments among many other faults, made Freedom of Speech only apply to those who shared his view of Right and Wrong. Which by the way, is the same argument that folks like Matt Walsh make which is why they sound so good on their own platforms but fail miserably in actual public discourse.

So often religious speakers are like this! I hear it all the time, a minister giving a sermon talking about how the Greeks worshiped their gods for instance, and they are COMPLETELY wrong. The minister absorbs or makes up some entirely false idea and preaches as if the Greek people worshiped Zeus like the Muslims worship Allah or the Christians worship God. They speak incompetently in many cases because they were taught that to learn about pagan religion is dilute yourself with error. When the reality is that Paul was only able to speak convincingly to Greeks BECAUSE he know enough Greek Philosophy and Poetry to argue competently with educated Greeks and Romans!

This is precisely why my friends in the Q-and-A did not want to hear ministers talk about politics from the lectern, because in large part people who consider themselves religious authorities are incompetent in political understanding!

The same goes for Child-rearing, Economic planning, which car manufacturers make the most reliable cars, or whether or not to buy bitcoin. Not everyone is competent to teach about such things from a position of authority, and a ‘biblical understanding’ is not a super-piece credential.

To these points, I agree with my friends’ sentiment on that point, what I disagree with my friends’ position is what to do about it.  

I started by asking if we all subscribe to the basic notion that we are called to eventually be in some sort of authoritative office. If we believe that as we say we do, we will never be among the class of heroes in the bible by being still and passive and waiting for go to move mountains for us… because that’s not how those people received their commendation either. 

The notion that worldly education, even in completely human subjects is not important is not consistent with the stories in the bible. 

Each one of here is on a unique path, our lives consist of complex and diverse experiences, and perhaps that IS God moving you and positioning you but if that is the case, it’s not God using you like a yellow pencil… I don’t suggest this analogy won’t break down if taken too far, but it’s something more like chess. I say chess because the player doesn’t control WHAT the pieces do, the pieces control what the pieces do, and the player simply moves the pieces accordingly.

In chess, much like in these biblical stories, not all pieces can make the same moves… and in order to play the game, the player NEEDS certain pieces and the moves they can make. Think, Pharoah, Noah, Moses, Judas, Paul, Esther, Jonah, etc.

It looks to me, like history of God’s people has been like God playing chess with billions of people who just want to be pawns. They only want to move one space and only straight ahead. Maybe, these heroes in the bible stories stand out because the castles, like Abraham took 8 spaces to the left like they were intended to, and the bishops moved, like Paul, all the way across to the opposite corner when no other piece was qualified to be in that position, and maybe the Queens, like Esther, yielded to what would be illegal moves for other pieces in order to overthrow the opposing kings.

Take a look at the world around you, there is endless trouble. Things are wrong, things are broken, people are broken, things are upside down… Who is going to fix that?? Do we not have story after story in the bible of men and women we now call heroes and great that did not sit around and wait for God’s kingdom to come… they VERB-ed like the men and women in Hebrews 11. They got up and left their comfortable positions and did the best they could with the tools they had, and WE EXIST BECAUSE OF THEM. Go back some time and look at the characters in Jesus’ lineage explain to me how they were something other than normal, fallible humans.

Tell me how a Prostitute ended up a necessary ancestor of Jesus because she broke what WE would consider a sacred law about lying.  Explain to me how Phineas stopped a plague from killing thousands MORE Israelites and garnered God’s own praise for spearing two people who were causing the problem?! These stories aren’t anomalies, like we are often prone to argue, these are among the stories of the people of God for a reason. 

I’m of the opinion that the stories in the bible are in large part a collection of stories that contrast people who are passive, still and willfully ignorant to those who do the best with and act with what they have.

I want to end with a couple of political issues of our day and propose an alternative way in which we might address them.

Abortion. Abortion is among other things, a political issue, and none of us here are politicians. There ARE, however, some of us here who are midwives. There are also, some of us here who are citizens with the legal right to participate in politics. (which Paul did) There are some of us here have ways of helping people affected by the existence of our current abortion policies. Perhaps, we can drop our unbased and often obnoxious claim to authority on the subject and instead speak about it in terms of ‘what can we do with what we have to make the most impact?’ WHILE we’re doing that, maybe we can learn about politics enough to understand what’s going on behind the scenes.

LGBT issues. I don’t believe any of us in this room are actively a part of that group, but some of us here have connections by way of friends and family. I don’t believe that any of us in this room are biologists by trade, or phycologists for that matter, so maybe we shouldn’t teach about the subject as if our personal understanding of the Old Testament gives us credentials that trump all others. Still, it’s an issue that affect us all, so maybe we should instead talk about the subject in terms of, ‘what can we do with what we have and what we know to help the most people in the best way?’ Perhaps we could read books, and listen to folks who study the issue, not with the intent of believing everything we’re told, but with the intent of understanding just what it is we’re battling. So, So, so often Christians talk about Satan, and how we should know his devices and yet, how many of us know any specifics of what’s happening in this discussion? We blame everything on Satan so blindly that we throw our friends and family into the fire with him, meanwhile, here in reality, there are actual physical things we can do to help those in need of relief from the torture, whether internal or external they live in if we would only learn about it.

How about Technology Like Bitcoin and 5G or the effects of Social Media, or Prognosticating the future political climate... You get where I’m going...

Maybe in these issues, like so many other pressing issues is LEARN ABOUT THE PROBLEM! Perhaps we should devote some time to becoming competent in the subject material. That DOES NOT mean, and I AM NOT suggesting you go out and adopt another lifestyle and see how it fits. What I mean is, maybe talk to those friends and family members who are affected by subjects like these, and actually have a real series of conversations about WHY and HOW they are affected. Then, after learning WHAT the problem is maybe we’ll be a little more qualified when we attempt to spit-ball solutions.

At the same time, if you find yourself as I several times lately, in an inexplicable scenario, don’t turn away from the opportunity to become competent in a new subject matter. If you find yourself in any strange or inexplicable circumstance, don’t pass on the opportunity to learn.

So many of my peers turned down opportunities to go to college or university, or to get married, or to take a job path because they were constantly being taught that the end was near, that worldly education was futile and that God would magically give them all the skill they needed when Christ returned. Don’t let that be us; and let us not be the ones who train our children to be yellow pencils and devoid of a broad education. 

The Heroes of the Bible NO DOUBT had God participating in the events of their lives, but that WAS NOT known to them at the time! They were just normal human people like you and me who had some skill set, or experience or talent, or conviction and USED it the best way they could muster.

If we actually believe that the same God is with us, we should ACT by our faith the same way they did before us.

Esther 4:14, Think about this in terms of chess pieces if you will. Also think about the weight of this statement, this is a young woman he raised as his own daughter, this is not a flippant statement to a stranger.

14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Now, Let’s go to Matthew 22

The Parable of the Wedding Feast

22 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants[a] to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”

If there is any symbolism in the chronology of this parable (feel free to disagree), we today would certainly not among the first invites, and if you're curious about wedding garments, in Revelation the white garments are explained as 'the righteous acts of the saints'... isn't that exactly what the authors of Hebrews credited God's commendation of the saints on?

There is a great big world out there, there is a LOT of work to be done, and God WILL HAVE IT DONE, if not by us, then someone else. Could it be, would you consider, is it possible that perhaps we were prepared with what we have for such a time as this?

Seth Forrestier – 11-16-2022