journal/THE RESPECTABLE SINS

One of my favorite parables of Jesus is in the 15th chapter of Saint Luke's GOSPEL-it is about the lengths
GOD WILL GO to find one lost soul-and it is told through the story of ONE lost sheep-one lost soul-
and ONE LOST SON-who has finally reached HIS BREAKING POINT

IS it the end for him-NO it is just the BEGINNING-as it often is for us-WHEN we allow GOD
to take over our lives

THANK YOU LORD-for even our failures-because they can BECOME MEETING POINTS
with you-and TRANSFORM our sin into LOVE

it is A GREAT DAY to be ALIVE in GOD'S LOVE FOR US!












WITNESS




3-06-13




THE RESPECTABLE SINS


We all know sins
Like murder, rape, child abuse
Ant violent crime---is wrong


We have a penal system
Set up for that
But beyond that---if we have a conscience
We have to reconcile our sins
With our God


But what about sins
Like coldness, indifference, ingratitude, and luke warmness
Toward others
Sins like, pride, jealousy, gossip, etc., etc., etc.


Just the sin of self-righteousness
The sin
Of thinking that we are better
Than the human being
Standing or sitting right beside us


The sins of the spirit
Are more difficult to get at
But I doubt no less of a sin
To our God


These sins are carried by all of us
In varying degrees


In the XVth chapter
Of Saint Luke’s Gospel
Jesus tells us such a story


A story about a Father and his 2 sons
1 respectable, 1 lost


The lost son takes his inheritance
Takes off for a foreign land
And spends everything he has
On wild living


Maybe by today’s standards
Wine-women-and song---maybe even drugs


A severe famine hits
And he has nothing to eat
So he decides to go home
Apologize to his Father
And beg for any job his Father
Will give him


His Father sees him coming from a long way off
And before the son can even apologize
And beg for forgiveness
His Father hugs him and kisses him
And decides to throw a party


The older son hears all the commotion
And basically throws a fit saying,
“All these years I have been slaving for you
And never disobeyed your orders
You never even gave me a young goat
So I could celebrate with my friends
But when this son of yours
Who has squandered your property
With prostitutes comes home
You kill the fatted calf for him” Luke 15:29-30


I certainly understand
How the older son feels
I am sure you can too


The Father responds,
“My son you are always with me
And everything I have is yours
But we had to celebrate and be glad
Because this brother of yours was dead
And is alive again
He was lost and is found” Luke 15:31-32


One thing the sinners of this world know
Is that they are sinners


Jesus himself
Was unduly questioned and criticized
As to why he hung around “sinners”


Dickens once wrote,
“There is so much bad
In the best of us
And so much good
In the worst of us
It ill behooves any of us
To speak badly of the rest of us”


And Jesus himself said,
“If any of you are without sin
Let him be the first to throw the stone” John 8:7


Robert P. Wallman
11-3-11


Ps WITNESS 3-06-13


“Show proper RESPECT to everyone-LOVE the brotherhood of believers –
Fear God-honor the king”
1 Peter 2:17




Misc. WITNESS 3-22-14