I just overheard an ad on TV for a show having to do with weight loss. The incentive for the weight-losers is that if they don’t lose enough weight, they will have to appear on national TV is a bikini that is too small. I’m not sure who would want to tune in to gawk at that spectacle, but that is another story.
Not good enough. Don’t we all feel that at various times?
In the current TV-Land craze, if you are not good enough, or if the other contestants are jealous of you, you can be voted off the group, off the island, out of the boardroom. Apparently, and I say apparently because I don’t watch these shows, apparently, the contestants, with their own human frailties, get to judge the others, who may have greater frailties or problems. Hey, they are “just” human.
Some years ago, I heard a sermon illustration that has stuck with me. The pastor said that our society rates us as though we must reach at least a certain mark on a yardstick. But in the Kingdom of God, where we are members due to Jesus’ actions and our baptism, we are like the knights sitting at the Round Table. There is no person who is above the others. None have gotten there by their own works, so therefore no one is beneath any other person. All are at equal places at the table. All are brothers and sisters in/of Christ.
NONE WILL BE VOTED OFF!
Thanks be to God!
My pastor would say that "Not good enough" is a message from the Accuser -- not from God.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we believe the accuser when we take Jesus' teaching about the rewards/treasure stored in heaven for us incorrectly. We think what we do gets us into heaven rather than what we receive once we arrive.
ReplyDeleteA number of years ago, a woman moved back to this area after living out east and attending a decidly not-Lutheran church. She was often bringinig up what sounded like Biblical statements, especially some having to do with "jewels in our crown." The meaning the rest of us took from this was that we get to heaven by God's grace, but our works on earth determine how many jewels there will be in our crown in heaven. None of the rest of us knew this concept, so we finally challenged her. We found verses about a crown of laurel leaves, but we didn't find anything about our works ranking us in heaven, specifically nothing about some people getting more jewels than others.
ReplyDeleteI haven't checked this out lately, but apparently someone was preaching something about our heavenly treasure really being some jewels.
Well whatever our rewards are...I am pretty certain they are not real jewels...it would be similar to giving someone a hunk of pavement or bricks here on earth...pretty much useless as treasure. And of course any crowns we get for being inheritors of the kingdom will be placed at the feet of Jesus (king above all kings)...again rendering them useless as "treasure" to us.
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