(Just a forewarning if you are a Catholic, or Lutheran who has accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior this message isn’t meant to belittle that belief of yours.?? Rather it is intended to strengthen your relationship with Christ by realizing the downfalls, and weaknesses of being a part of a religion rather than simply living in a relationship with Christ, The Father, and The Holy Spirit.)
I am so in a crushing mood right now.?? I talked with Rose last night, and we were going over the idea of me going to her church.?? It’s kind of necessary since I’ll be going to her Grandma’s for Thanksgiving, and well… I’ve never been to a Lutheran Church before so it’ll be nice to know what to expect.?? Alright so I was a little bit creaped out by the in unison prayer at her step grandma’s birthday… but I can deal with the rituals, oddities, and hypocrisies… as an old pastor I used to have would say all the time when confronted with people who wouldn’t go to church because it’s full of hypocrites he’d simply reply “There’s always room for one more.” because let’s face it as humans we’re all hypocrites.
The exclusivities of both the Catholic religion and the Lutheran religion get to me though… That’s not what Christ taught at all.?? Christ came for the least, the lost, and the lonely… not the high and mighty who have it all figured out.?? I never really questioned the authenticity of Rose’s families belief in Christ before, I mean there were some things I heard that didn’t sound very Christian… but we all have those moments.?? There was a statement that slightly worries me from her Grandma about me coming to church with them though.?? She had a simple statement… just as a friendly reminder that because I haven’t been instructed in the ways of the Lutheran I was not allowed to partake in communion.?? It’s honestly not that big of a deal… except that it is, because that statement shows the state of her heart.?? That statement shows that she does not believe I could have possibly come across the teachings of Christ, because I’m not a part of the “cool” kids club at the Lutheran Religion.
I’ve bitched about the Catholic’s a lot, and generally associated them as worse than the Lutheran’s when it comes to skewing and screwing over the words of the Bible.?? But I’m no longer sure if either one of them is really worse than the other, right now they’re about on the same level to me.?? What worries me most is that a most of them actually believe that they can get to heaven with these attitudes.?? Not saying that you can’t get to heaven with an attitude, but they believe that their attitude of exclusivity, and Lutheran raising alone will get them to heaven.
In fact there was one day that Jesus was preaching against these teachings.?? He spent an entire day explaining to a group of Jewish men, and religious leaders the danger & folly of this type of attitude.?? I’m not sure if he ever got the point across to them. As bad as it sounds there’s a part of me that hopes he did get his message across.?? Yet there is also this burning desire to watch these types of people get crushed beyond repair by their attitude, as I stand back with a silly smirk saying I told you so.
The latter of those two is not what Jesus wanted out of his preachings… so even though he knew he would be spit upon, kicked, trampled, and eventually killed he still came for the least, the lost, and the lonely.?? He came to save anyone who would accept him.?? Now granted I’m not like a Wiccan who believes that all religions lead to the same…?? well… I actually kind of am like a Wiccan in the idea that ALL religions do lead the same place… hell.?? 100% of all religions, no matter who you’re worshiping will lead you straight to hell, with veiled eyes, and candied promises.?? Jesus said I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life no one gets to the Father except through me.?? No one gets to the Father without a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.
A little background history before we get into Jesus’ message that day when he was talking to the Jewish men and religious leaders I spoke of earlier.?? First off you must understand the Jewish culture if you don’t already.?? It had been several hundred years (I believe it’s somewhere around 800 but don’t take my word for it I haven’t fact checked that date yet) since the promise was made that they would be given a messiah who would rule over the whole world.?? The Jews were the promised people of God, from Abraham they had multiplied and become a mighty nation.?? Twice they were taken away from their homeland forced into slavery once by the Egyptians, and I think the other time was by their hated neighbors the Palestinians (once again I’m terrible with names, so check for yourself, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).?? Both times they were freed miraculously by their God.?? Upon returning the second time some of them mixed with the Palestinians and were outcast as the Samaritans.?? The Palestinians were also descendants of Abraham, although considered to be outcast because they were of the sinful first son of Abraham’s, although both Palestinians, and Samaritans were of decent of Abraham they were not considered to be a part of the promise God made.?? Living between the two countries the Jews believed themselves to be superior to everyone else and grew very hard in their ways.
God gave just one rule to man when he first created Adam and Eve.?? By the time Moses rescued the Jews out of Egypt he gave them ten rules to follow.?? By the time Jesus comes on the scene there are more than three thousand rules thought to be of God, governing the lives of the Jews.?? There were religious leaders who reliced themselves on studying and following these rules to a T.?? These are the men Jesus was talking to.?? He came to explain to them that the rules were not there to give salvation, but rather show our imperfection and how much we needed Him.?? We couldn’t follow one rule, we had all ten commandments broken the night they were given to us before Moses walked off the mountain, there sure as heck is no way anyone could follow all three thousand rules the Jews had at Jesus time.
There is no way to really reason with these kinds of people so Jesus simply told a series of parables to show them how they were taking God’s teachings vastly out of proportion.?? There are two stories that I love from that day.?? One of a farmer, the other has been named the “Prodigal Son” ironically enough the story is not truly about this “prodigal” son.?? Don’t get me wrong I love the teachings of the prodigal son, it gives hope to all of us, because we have all rejected God and must return to him to join in the feast.
Anyways, the first story is about a farmer who is scattering seed.?? He scatters seed across his farm, some lands on the good soil grows producing a crop, other seed lands among the thorns and gets choked out, some lands among the rocks shoots up quick and soon withers with the heat, and yet still more lands on the road packed hard from years of use and the seed is grabbed up by the birds.?? This story is of course not about farming.?? It is about peoples heart, some people have a soft heart open to the Lords teachings and they will flourish.?? Some have hearts full of junk from this world which will choke out the teachings of our Lord.?? Others have quick hearts, eager, and willing but they will soon wither as they have no substance in their life.?? And of course some have hard hearts that will not hear the words of the Lord and their fruit will be stolen by Satan before it even has time to sprout in their life.?? Of course the hardened heart could refer to the Wiccan or Pagan who refuses to hear the words of the Lord.?? I personally believe this is a message to all types of believers though, the hardened heart represents those who have been in the system for their entire lives (much like the Jews) those who believe that they are accepted by default.?? They don’t need to grow or learn because they already know it all.
The other story I love is about a man with two sons.?? One of them decides that he no longer wants to be the mans son, spits in his face, takes all his inheritance and leaves to make his own life.?? He’s sick of the rules, he’s sick of the chores, he wants to do things his own way.?? He picks up and heads out to have a good time.?? It’s all good and fine tons of fun, tons of friends, tons of booze, drugs, sex nothing could be better.?? Until one day he runs out of money, he runs out of friends, he runs out of alcohol, there’s no where to turn for comfort… and all the fun has run out.?? He takes up a job making mere pennies a day taking care of and living with filthy, disgusting pigs.?? After a while of this he is finally so hungry that he longs to fill his stomach with the left over slop that the pigs eat, drool on, piss, and defecate in.?? It’s at this low point that he comes to his senses and realizes that even his fathers servants have a better life than he does right now.?? He comes up with a huge speal about how he’s sinned against heaven and he’s sinned against his father, he does not desire to be called his son any more, but to be a servant among his house is all he desires.?? Now a long way off from his fathers house the son is getting nervous, he’s practicing his speech, rehearsing everything he must say.?? He sees someone coming at him rapidly, closing his eyes just hopping for repentance he goes over his speech one more time with just the right words maybe his father will forgive him.?? Tired, hungry, dirty, and nervous beyond belief the young man looks up to see his father approaching very fast.?? Before his father gets to him, he begins in on his speech “Father I’ve sinned against you, and I’ve sinned aga…” he gets tackled, kissed, and cried on by his father.?? His father takes off his own robe and puts it on the boy sticks his ring on his finger and tells the servants to begin the feast!?? His son who was dead has returned to life!
That’s where we like to leave off with the story isn’t it??? It’s truly a beautiful thing… And I wish that was the end of the story.?? Everybody is happy, everybody takes part in the good and beautiful things that the father has to offer.?? But there is another son… one standing outside the dining hall on the steps, above everyone else he whines to his father “I’ve slaved for you for years, done everything as you’ve told me exactly like you told me to and you’ve never thrown a feast for me.?? Yet this person spat in your face, he squandered his inheritance, he lived with swines… you killed the fattened calf for him, and treat him like a son.” to which the father replies “Son, please, all that I have is yours, it has always been yours.?? Come and join in my happiness, my son that was dead is alive again.” the son says nothing more… and never joins the dinner party.?? He can’t take it that his fathers love is so vast, so graceful, so amazing that it would extend even beyond betrayal.
Having things such as closed communion to those not a part of the right religion says the same thing that the other son was saying.?? It says that Jesus’ sacrifice alone is not enough, it says that his grace shouldn’t extend to everyone, it says “I’ve served you all my life, followed all of your rules, added to your bounty.?? Not once have you killed the fattened calf for me, not once have you thrown a feast in honor of my work on your behalf.”?? It does not say “I love my Lord God with all my heart, mind, and soul.?? And I love my neighbors as myself.”
In fact when Jesus was confronted about this exact issue and asked “What is the greatest commandment?” he replied with those words about love being greater than any command.?? They then pressed as to whom their neighbors were.?? He told another parable at that time about a man who was robbed and beaten left for dead on the road side.?? A priest came by, leaving him where he lie.?? A levite came also crossing to the other side of the road to avoid him.?? Then came a Sammiritan who picked the man up, bandaged his wounds, and took him to an Inn giving the Inn keeper money to care for the man until he returned and if he needed more money at that time he would give it to him.?? They were then asked who this mans neighbor was.?? With gritted teeth, and shame in their eyes they replied that the Sammiritan their hated breatheren was the neighborly one to this man.?? Jesus simply replied to them “Yes, now go and do likewise.” I see the behavior much like the priest, and Levite in both the Catholic, and Lutheran religions.?? The Lutheran church broke away from Catholicism when no one, not even the government would stand up to the Catholic religion, but they got caught and have become exactly like the Catholics that they despise so much.
