August 22, 2015

Then he (Jesus) will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Matthew 25:45 – 46

“I do not think that anything is comparable to the soul and its salvation. But what wonder that the suffering lose all belief in spiritual things when so many pastors neglect the plainest duties to their wretched and miserable poor? What wonder that reflecting men are disgusted at the religion of our pewed city churches with their awful want of mercy and charity? …The gospel must be lived as well as told, or men disregard it as an idle dream.”
William A. Passavant (1821 – 1894) “Appealing for gifts to rebuild a hospital” “For All The Saints”, volume II (p. 378)

I think one of the greatest challenges for the church today is helping people move from “saying” to “doing — from “believing” to “living”. Our lives have become so “scheduled”, so “prioritized”, that we get caught in the day to day rat race of trying to keep up. Parents of young children spend the weekend running between soccer, ballet, rugby, baseball, basketball, lacrosse practices all the while trying to wash the car, plan a vacation, do the laundry and prepare for another exhausting week. Some may be able to get to church on a Sunday morning, if they can get themselves out of bed, and hear the message of the Gospel, but living it out is just a dream.

And then there are the millennials who are working themselves to death trying to get established in a society that is increasingly difficult to “grab hold of”. Many work more than one job at substantially lower wages than are necessary to pay their student loans as well as rent and food, and so have no time to give even 1 percent of their time, talent or treasure for G*d.

And finally we have the retirees of this society — those who have “done their time” — served on committees and chaired them as well, that they believe retiring from their work means retiring from everything, including work.

So, how do we move from “believing” to “living” — from “saying” to “doing”? I don’t know how to answer that question — for it may be different for each person. But one thing I can say is that the Gospel must be lived as well as told. If we are “followers” then we have to also be “doers” — it is a necessity. Faith needs to be a verb, not a noun. But the only way we will maintain that active part of our faith is to constantly review our priorities. The Gospel must be, must be lived as well as told…..

Pastor Dave