The Price of Nothing

Nothing doesn't cost much. You wouldn't think it did, anyway.

But it does.

I know this because I've paid the price for Nothing on more than one occasion, and among those Nothing moments are numbered some of the most costly sorrows I have ever bought.

What sorrows do I speak of? Evils that could have been halted. Could have been stopped.

If someone had said or done Something.

But they didn't. They chose to do Nothing.

And it was in the vacuum of their inaction that I suffered.

There are usually three people in such situations. There is the wrongdoer. There is the victim. And there is the person who chose to do and say Nothing.

Sometimes whole crowds of people do Nothing, of course. But at the end of the day God doesn't judge crowds. He judges souls one at a time.

Speaking for myself, I've noted the irony that the memory of the pains inflicted by the perpetrator fade faster than the stubborn knowledge that "good people" stood by and did nothing to help me in my hour of need.

Was I not worth the bother? Not worth the risk? Not even worth a few words?

Someone reading this might think I've been through some dark hellish experiences. Not by ordinary reckoning. No physical torture here. Mostly just wounds from words that were never spoken in my defence.

But what must it feel like to be victim of a rape committed in a crowded street? It happens.

To rot in a prison, knowing that if enough people complained you'd get released. It happens.

To starve in a distant country, fully aware that wealthy people elsewhere who know of my plight are throwing piles of food away every day? It happens.

Yet perhaps we sell our human dignity short when we grant physical evils, awful as they are, special status. Laws in America usually do a pretty good job of protecting our corporeal bodies, so no... most of us, myself included, are in good shape on that front.

Protecting the soul is a bit trickier. A lot trickier. There aren't many laws that do that. God's law does. But judging by how often I've seen "good Christian folk" stand by while I suffered various comparably small injustices, I'd have to say God's law loses out to Nothing quite often.

Nothing is not cheap, but if people will choose Nothing to spare themselves a minor inconvenience, God only knows what they'll do when bigger risks are on the line. In Nazi Germany we witnessed not the mystery of so many who did Nothing, but the sheer miracle that even a few did Something.

God, grant me grace to know my role. I cannot do Everything. But I can do Something. And yet mostly I too do Nothing. Being hard on myself? False humility? No. Compared to what I could do... I've done a lot of Nothing. I'm a comfortable American. Need I say anything further? I know what the world is like. I've done more than Nothing. But not a lot more.

I hear others say we're not responsible to fix the world. I beg to differ. I think the wording itself is off. We have the option to make a difference. If we choose to do little or (God forbid) Nothing, then thus our choice shall be. We'll have to defend that choice before God one day, however. I'd rather have jumped for more options to do Something, driven by the love of Christ.

I was drawn to these dark reflections while viewing a Jars of Clay video entitled, Oh, my God. It ends with this chilling quote...

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
— Edmund Burke

These haunting words remind me of something Abraham Joshua Heschel once said. "Some are guilty. All are responsible." Heschel would know a thing or two about that, having lost a number of his relatives to Nazi gas chambers.

Dietrich Bonhoffer understood the price of Nothing. He was so grieved by it that he returned to Germany to die rather than leave others to pay it in his absense.

For every Dietrich Bonhoeffer, however, there were whole cities filled with "good Christian folk" who did nothing. Some of those cities were hardly a stone's throw away from a death camp. It took effort to not investigage the source of the stench, but most people were up to that task, as it worked out.

Would I have looked into matters more closely? Stood up for Jews being carted off? Been willing to die for them? Been a Dietrich?

Have mercy on us, oh my God.

Not all monsters are bad, but the ones who are good
Never do what they could, never do what they could.
— Jars of Clay

Seven Habits of Highly Humble Leaders

Actually, most of these items aren't habits, and... well.... there aren't really seven of them, but rather two sets of seven.

But I'm told this treatise of mine won't see the light of day unless the title is catchy and reminiscent of other recently successful self-help books.


Act I

1. Be born to greatness.

Exodus 2:1-10 (greatly compressed) — When [Moses' mother] saw that he was a fine child, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son.

2. Show initiative.

Exodus 2:11a — One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor.

3. Have compassion.

Exodus 2:11b — He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.

4. Fail catastrophically.

Exodus 2:12 — Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

5. Discover your failure is public knowledge.

Exodus 2:13-14 — The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"
The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known."

6. Run (literally) for the hills.

Exodus 2:15 — When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian...

7. Spend about 40 years in desert solitude reflecting upon your abject failure. Watch your best years roll by.


Intermission...


Act II

1. Get re-commissioned by God to the exact same job you screwed up 40 years ago.

Exodus 3:10

God: "So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

2. Explain to God why He is mistaken. (Don't take "Go" for an answer.)

Exodus 3:11 - 4:12 (compressed)

Moses: "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

God: "I will be with you."

Moses: "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."

God: "Now go; I will help you..."

3. Keep arguing with God until He gets pissed.

Exodus 4:13-14

But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."

Then the LORD's anger burned against Moses...

4. Accept the job.

Exodus 4:18 — Then Moses went...

5. Be unappreciated.

Exodus 5:20-21 — When [the leaders of Israel]... found Moses... they said, "May the LORD look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us."

6. Love, serve and pray for those entrusted to your care.

(the ones who find fault with you, that is...)

Exodus 5:22-23 — Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all."

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for approximately forty years.

(A small word of advice: You have lots of time, so... be creative. Try many variations on this theme.)

Exodus 15:24 — So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?"

Exodus 16:2 — In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses...

Exodus 17:3 — But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses.

Numbers 14:2 — All the Israelites grumbled against Moses...

Numbers 16:41 — The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses...

To repeat.... respond to all this endless whining, disobedience and grumbling in the following manner: love, serve, and tirelessly intercede for (especially) those miserable souls whom God has placed in your life.

Stand between God and the grumblers when God himself loses patience and decides to kill them all. Threaten to quit your job so as to stay God's hand. (Then when God relents from slaughtering them all wholesale and kills only a few... watch those grumblers who are — thanks to you — still alive turn and blame you for the few deaths that did occur.)

Let your own sister accuse you of being arrogant. Watch God strike her with leprosy for having done so. (Now intercede with God to have mercy on her all the same and heal her.)

It would take a long time to rehearse all that Moses endured. Suffice it to say...

Just follow these simple steps, my friends. Do this for about 40 years and humility, true humility, my friends, will be yours for the taking.

Numbers 12:3 — Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.

Two Compliments Don't Unwind A Single Insult

I guess the title says it all, but this phrase came to me as I reflected recently on hurts visited upon me.

Get slammed. Then get a compliment or two. All better?

No.

Slams hurt. There is an evil person in my life whose motto might be more closely aligned with "One compliment absolves me of my last ten vicious attacks." This person is not approachable in any manner, so I just have to take the eleven things said and pray for God's grace to bear up.

But I see this dynamic at work even in my interactions with certain souls who love me deeply. When they perceive that they have unkindly slammed me, the compliment factory kicks into gear. But no number of compliments can unwind an insult.

What, then, does unwind an insult? Confession. Both words start with "C" but they are different birds indeed.

Confessions require great humility and brokenness. We must be brought low in order to bring a true confession forth. We must, like a dog, roll over and exposes our belly. We give the other party an opportunity to forgive us... or to stab us in the gut.

It's much easier to toss out a compliment! Compliments can be given from a position of safety — even authority. They can be dispensed downward. That's why they are of no use when the order of the day is to unwind an insult. Compliments compound the problem, rather than rectify it.

It's not that I don't appreciate compliments — but after I have been insulted unkindly, a compliment is not the right antidote. On the heels of an insult, a compliment brings resentment, not healing. A package deal of insults and compliments reminds me that I'm being evaluated. Not loved. That's how it works out in practice for me, in any case.

Perhaps the situation is different for others, but I suspect not, and here's why: I play this game myself. I wish I could say that I don't. But I do. And the game doesn't work for me either. I have doled out compliments in lieu of confessions and have witnessed the same outcome.

For starters, the compliment sounds hollow and tinny coming from my lips. It doesn't even sound good to me. Furthermore, more often than not I can tell by the response I get (silent or otherwise) from the recipient of my verbal largesse that it didn't do much for them either.

Lord, grant me the wisdom to hold off on the insults in the first place. But failing that, grant me humility afterwards to confess and repent...

...and save my compliments for later.

A Good Proxy For Vigorous Exercise

So on Saturday my son Andrew and I watched the US pull out a tie against England in the first round of the World Cup. (Yay!)

On a sober note, I watched a commercial in which sports were not so much hinted at as being a religious experience, but rather literally celebrated as such. We're talking the whole nine yards, up to and including a sunlit cathedral window with a glowing soccer ball in its center. Etc. etc. etc. Not exactly subtle.

But here's the thing that made me laugh.

After the game, I said to Andrew, "Hey, I'd like to do something athletic today with you so that we can get some exercise. I don't care what it is..." But before I could finish that sentence, Andrew quickly interjected with his thoughts on why this would not be necessary.

"But Dad," Andrew replied, "we watched a World Cup game today. Didn't you see how they were sweating?"

What the Words Messiah and Church Have In Common

Answer #1

Both words show up in the below passage!

Matthew 16
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of death will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Answer #2

Both words have been utterly and tragically misused and abused.

Jesus avoided the term Messiah like the plague. Practically everything that God had in mind for his Messiah was exactly not what the religious leaders and people of Jesus' day had in mind. And the Messiah they were waiting for was pretty much exactly not what God had in mind. Even the twelve disciples were utterly confused in their understanding. This is precisely why, after complimenting Peter for guessing correctly, Jesus proceeded to prohibit him from saying such things publicly.

The Messiah whose coming the Old Testament prophets foresaw was so wonderful that they found themselves literally grasping for words to convey the wonder of what they saw. By the time Jesus arrived, however, the word Messiah had been co-opted into a festering project of hatred and violence.

The Messiah, it was commonly believed, would overthrow the world order and restore Israel to the top of the heap. The Messiah, it was thought, would do some serious bloody and violent housecleaning. The Messiah, it was thought, hated Gentiles.

No wonder Jesus didn't want to be publicly associated with the word.

This, I submit, is the problem we face today with the word church. If Jesus were to conduct a follow-up interview with his disciples today, how might it go?

I imagine the following:

When Jesus came to the region of the Americas, he asked his disciples, "What do people here say the Church is?"

They replied, "Some say it's a place where sexual predators, money-grubbers and power-mongers find easy prey."

"Ouch." Jesus winced. "How do you feel about that?"

They answered, "We grieve that a people called to holiness, simple living and mutual submission should fail so greatly as to make such caricatures not only possible but in many cases well-justified."

"What else do you hear?" Jesus inquired.

They replied, "Others say the is church a minority group of people who want to write laws that will force all of society to live by their own standards of behavior."

"Do you agree?" Jesus asked.

They replied, "We don't think laws change people. It's your job to change hearts and transform lives."

"What else do people here say the Church is?" Jesus asked.

They replied, "Still others say that it is a bunch of people who hide from life and hate gays and other people they consider sinners."

"How do you feel about that?" Jesus asked.

They replied, "You spent most of your time with the people that religious leaders hated the most. We think we should do the same."

"What do people who go to church around here think the Church is?" Jesus asked.

They replied, "Many of them think it is a place where people gather socially on Sundays to listen to a sermon, sing a few inspiring songs, and get a lift that will carry them through the week. If it's a big church, they like to buy coffee at the Starbucks in the foyer."

"But what about you?" Jesus asked. "What do you say the Church is?"

They replied, "We are your people. We expect to suffer because we follow you. We encourage one another to bear up under suffering, support the cause of the orphans and widows, and take unpopular stands for those who cannot speak for themselves. We walk the way of the cross as you did, revealing to the entire world the secrets of God: that life is found in you, and nowhere else."

Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, my little ones, for this was not revealed to you by a sermon you heard on TV or in a mega-church. God himself revealed this to you, and I tell you that you are my church. The gates of death will not overcome you. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Yes, despite the way these terms have been dragged through the mud, both the Messiah and his Church will indeed prevail over the kingdom of Satan. But we have to be careful about how we refer to these two partners in victory.

As for Jesus, he was, as Peter said, "the Messiah, the Son of the living God." But because of the baggage that came with these legitimate titles, Jesus had to use code-words to refer to himself, the Son of Man being only one such example.

We face a similar dilemma today. We are indeed Christ's Church, but the original meaning of the word is now hidden beneath numerous layers of muck. For this reason we, like Jesus, must be cautious when using the term in public. In my imaginary dialog between Jesus and his disciples living today, I wonder if he might not have ended it on a similar note....

Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that they were the church.

Jesus Sees Us

I noted in my last blog that I like Mark's word choice in his gospel account of Jesus walking on the water.

Mark 6:45-52
Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land.

He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified.

Immediately he spoke to them and said, "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

Everybody knows the bit about Jesus walking on the water, but what fixates me from this passage is not so much that miracle (though it is cool!), but ironically pretty much everything else in the passage. Each phrase is a glittering treasure.

When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. This part is gorgeous because it sets the impossible prelude. It's dark. Where's Jesus? Up on a mountain. Where are the disciples? In the middle of the lake. The impossible question: can any mortal see that far in the dark? No. In the days before electricity, you'd be lucky to see more than a few hundred yards.

But we're talking about Jesus, and his giftings do not begin and end with the ability to walk on water. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Jesus can also see in the dark. A long way.

In John's account of this event (chapter 6) he notes not only that it was dark, but that the disciples had rowed some 3.5 miles out into the middle of the lake. John pointedly notes also that "Jesus had not yet joined them." This is a none-too-subtle reminder that, while Jesus sees them, they do not see him.

About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. The disciples think they are fighting this storm alone. But they're not. Jesus has been watching them the whole time. Now Jesus is coming to them. Help is on the way. But they still don't even know he's aware of their problem, let alone that he is coming.

He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. The phrase "pass them by" hints at a divine revelation — God's majesty revealed to mere men. So what happens when God shows up? The disciples are stricken with panic.

So we are on the horns of a dilemma. We panic when we're alone. And we panic when God shows up. The irony is that we were never alone, and God's arrival is good news – not bad news.

Immediately he spoke to them and said, "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." This refrain is everywhere in the Bible. God says it. Angels say it. Prophets say it. Jesus said it. Repeatedly. Why? Because we frail humans just have a hard time believing it.

Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. In this story, there is a literal storm, and it literally dies down. In my life, the storms are usually less tangible. A situation. A problem. But when I let Jesus into my boat, the storm dies down. The problem might not go away quickly – it may not go away at all! But if the peace of Christ is with me, the storm in my heart dies down.

They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened. When will we ever learn that God sees us... that he's not leaving us alone?

The God who created the universe can make bread multiply.

The God who can multiply the loaves of bread can also walk on water.

And He can see us in the dark.

Superior In Every Way: Part II (Service)

OK, so this series of reflections is moving ahead slowly. I wrote Part I in March.

Be that as it may, I was reflecting on true service, and am reminded again of Jesus. Superior in every way.

There are so many ways to look at Jesus as a servant, and how he, God incarnate, was better at serving than those who owe their very existence to him, let alone their salvation. We live because of him... and yet cannot even serve him well. And yet he serves us.

The scriptures are full of examples of how Jesus served others, and I suppose the most famous passage would be the last supper, where he got down on his knees to wash the feet of the other disciples. He took the job his disciples were too proud to take. But today I am drawn to another passage: Matthew 14-15.

In Celebration of Discipline Richard Foster notes, "When we choose to serve, we are still in charge.... but when we choose to be a servant, we give up the right to be in charge. There is great freedom in this."

The other day I was with a good friend and saw a call come through on my cell phone. It was a needy soul, and I wasn't in the mood to break away. I let it go to voice mail and called the fellow back a day or two later. On my own time. By my schedule. When it was convenient for me.

Now a case can be made for such decisions. Nevertheless I found myself reflecting on whether the timing of our conversation was best for my friend... or just best for my calendar and my desires. I won't say it was entirely the latter, but it certainly wasn't entirely the former either. I didn't feel like answering the call. My service button was in the "off" mode.

For a sharp contrast, we need go no further than Matthew 14-15. Jesus' own cousin John the Baptist has just been beheaded by King Herod. The text then reads...

Matthew 14:12-14
John's disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

[His cousin just died. He's grieving. Does Jesus try to "take a break" from ministry? Yes.]

When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.

[Do the needy people leave Jesus alone in this time of deep sorrow? No.]

Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.

[Does Jesus tell them all to back off and leave him alone? No.]

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

As noted in the verses which follow, Jesus continue all day to minister all day long to a vast crowd of needy people.

And it doesn't stop there. After a no-doubt emotionally draining day of service to a host of needy people, Jesus again tries to slip away again. Remember, his cousin just got beheaded. He's probably wanting just a wee bit of alone time.

[Here I switch over to the Gospel of Mark's rendition of the same day, simply because I love his word choice...]

Mark 6:45-51
Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land.

He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified.

Immediately he spoke to them and said, "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."

On the one day he needs to escape, he instead continues to serve. And serve. And serve.

Superior in every way.

And Are We Really Doing Any Better??

So it starts off well. The garden of Eden.

"This is gonna be great!" That could be the rallying cry.

But Adam and Eve snatch defeat from the clutches of victory. Tales of woe follow.

So God steps in an introduces his first great covenant with one man: Abraham. The covenant is "formalized" many years later at the foot of Mt. Sinai with one people: Israel, the descendants of Abraham. The God of the heavens will call this people his own.

"This is gonna be great!" That could be the rallying cry.

But the people of Israel snatch defeat from the clutches of victory. Tales of woe follow.

So God steps in an introduces his 2nd great covenant with all of mankind. (No one can fault God for not thinking big!) This new covenant is ratified with the death of Jesus Christ, God in human flesh. We have been set free from sin by the blood of Christ.

"This is gonna be great!" That could be the rallying cry.

But the church of Christ has, by and large, snatched defeat from the clutches of victory. Tales of woe follow.

Someone will perhaps at this point jump up and, rightly, point out that this is not the victorious message proclaimed by the writers of the New Testament. We are the church victorious! We are one step away from the great finale where God comes down at the end of the ages! And we, the church of Christ, will become the bride of Christ. Touché.

But on the other hand, the book of Genesis started out on a pretty good note too.

So did the Exodus story.

The problem is not with God. It's with us. And I really don't think we're doing a whole lot better than our forebears. We're largely just miffing another great offer.

Sure, I could spin things a bit. I could assume the church is healthier in other parts of the globe. But since I don't live elsewhere I'll just describe what I see here in America. What I see here is, by and large, more of the same. Idolatry. Covetousness. You name it.

Oh, sure! We like to mock the Old Testament Israelites. "They were so stupid," we sneer. "They worshipped idols made of stone!" Idiots.

Granted. And it's true that we, enlightened souls, have not bowed to idols made of wood and stone. No. We're not that dumb. We only worship idols made of plastic and glass. They glow in our living rooms. (How cool is that?)

And we worship sports teams.

And nowhere does our worship become more pronounced than when the sports teams we worship are presented on the glowing screens of the plastic-and-glass gods we worship. A 2-for-1. When that happens? Well! We get as excited as any prophet of Baal.

The Old Testament Israelites worshipped at the temple, to be sure. They put in time at the holy place of Yahweh. But.... then they'd slip out to the shrines on the hills too, where they prostrated themselves before false gods that they mistakenly thought would secure a good harvest and fertility in general. These false gods offered, so the Israelites thought, a secure and fertile future.

"How silly," we say. "How hypocritical! Why didn't they just trust God to take care of them? Fine and good. Except that we do the same.

Oh sure! We go to church on Sunday and talk about God providing for our every need. But then we slink home and tend to our 401K and IRA savings accounts just as anxiously as any Israelite approached their fertility god.

Because apparently a secure future is not within the means of God to provide. Wasn't then, and isn't now. We have to take care of that on the side. That bit of life is too important to trust to God.

I could go on and on. (I suppose I am going on and on!)

The New Testament Pharisees thought they had a lock on the God thing. They thought they could line up God and get what they wanted from him provided they followed certain laws carefully enough. They never realized God wanted their hearts.

"How hypocritical and blind," we note scornfully. Oh, yes! We love to watch Jesus tear into the Pharisees for their wickedness. Then we church folk proceed to live utterly unholy lives which are literally, statistically indistinguishable from the lives of those who do not attend church. Why? Because we too think we have a lock on God. We think we can get what we want from him provided we say the right thing carefully enough.

"So long as I claim Jesus as my savior," we foolishly think, "I can do what I want and I'll be forgiven of it all at the end." But God always wanted our hearts – and no one who thinks like that belongs to God. We are as stupid as the Pharisees.

The great irony is in how the cycle repeats. The Pharisees mocked the wicked Israelites who preceded them. We love to hear Jesus point it out.

Matthew 23:29-33
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers! You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?"

We've come full circle. We now mock the Pharisees. They were heading to hell, we note approvingly. But we have been invited into the kingdom of God! We are invited to the wedding feast. We are to become the bride of Christ!

But Jesus had a few words for us too. And like the Pharisees, we're too blind to realize he's talking about us.

What did Christ have to say for those invited to this great event?

Matthew 25:1-12
"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'

"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'

" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'

"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

"Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'

"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'

Those word are for us. But like the Pharisees, we're too blind to see it.

There were holy people in the Old Testament days. But what we remember today is how most of the people of Israel behaved. And it was nothing to be proud of.

There were holy Pharisees in the New Testament era. Some of them followed Jesus! But what we remember today is how most of the Pharisees behaved. And it was nothing to be proud of.

There were and are holy members of the church of Christ. Some people who self-identify as Christians actually follow Jesus! But from my limited vantage point, what I see in the American church is nothing to be proud of.

In his wedding parable, Jesus indicates that half of those invited never make it past the doors of the banquet hall. I think it's safe to say that all of God's people will celebrate that banquet. So what is Jesus saying? That his church is a failure?

No.

I think Jesus is pointing out that his church is not what people think it is. There are plenty of churches and tons of church folk in this great land of America. But the number of people who belong to Christ is quite small.

The rest are just a bunch of blind fools.

Dear God, don't let me be one of them.