When you start telling people that you want to enter ordained ministry, they look at what is wrong or sinful about you. “Tamara, you can’t curse in the pulpit.” “you will never have sex again.” “Does this mean we can’t hang out anymore?” “I don’t know if I want to date a preacher.” “Does this mean you are going to become closed minded.”
Not only do words like this come from ohter, but sometimes it comes from within. Sometimes I feel unworthy because I don’t profess or believe enough. But today’s reading puts things in perspective. Below is today’s meditation from forward day by day. I hope that this also validates your humanity and yet your ability to enter the kingdom of God.
Just a question: how would church be different if this was on the biblical quote on the back of most people’s cars?
Matthew 21:23-32. Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.
Like all Jesus’ parables, there is a surprise in this one for his listeners. The first son told his father he wouldn’t do as he was instructed, but then did it anyway. The second son said he would obey, but he did not. Jesus asks the “chief priests and the elders of the people,” who are his audience, to try their hand at interpretation. They all know well that the first son is the one who is doing his father’s will.
Like the second son, the devout of the community will learn that entering the kingdom will not come easy for them. Jesus’ surprising words are, “the tax-collectors and the prostitutes,” will enter “ahead” of those in the world who appear to be more righteous.
Jesus warns us, who are very busy keeping his church going and perhaps self-righteously demonstrating our faithfulness, to listen to his deeper word. Those who must struggle to know him and to believe in him are the ones who are nearer to the kingdom of God. The surprise for us is that when we set our self-assurance aside and listen, we will hear Jesus say, “Change and believe.”
Pursuing Call 