<\/p>\n
Picture that scene in the Gospel again.\u00a0 Someone has passed on to the next world, and they are knocking at the doors of heaven.\u00a0 \u201cLet me in\u201d, they say.\u00a0 And what does Jesus say happens in the parable?\u00a0 The Lord says \u201cGo away, I don\u2019t know you\u201d!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s a very disturbing story, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Because we get the impression that the person knocking on the door is a believer and they really want in.<\/p>\n
Now, we are all here, gathered in this celebration, because we believe Jesus Christ is Lord, that he is God\u2019s Son, that he came down from heaven, became one of us; suffered death, rose from the dead, and brought us salvation.\u00a0 We believe in all of that.\u00a0 So, why didn\u2019t the Lord let this person in?\u00a0 And what does it mean that the Lord didn\u2019t know him?<\/p>\n
And then there is the Isaiah reading, where the Lord says.\u00a0 \u201cI know their works and their thoughts\u201d.\u00a0 So, how can He know about our thoughts and all of our works and at the same time tell us He doesn\u2019t know us?<\/p>\n
Well, God is all knowing, isn\u2019t He?\u00a0 So no matter who we are, God knows about us.\u00a0 He knows about what we think and what we do.\u00a0 He knows about the deepest secrets of our hearts.\u00a0 But knowing about us is not the same thing as knowing us.\u00a0 Knowing us is a two way knowing.\u00a0 Think about it this way.\u00a0 We might say, \u201cI know you; and you know me\u201d; but what we really mean is that we know about each other.\u00a0 We really don\u2019t know each other very well, do we?\u00a0 If we really knew each other, we would be very close friends.\u00a0 We would not only know about each other, but we would have a certain knowing of each other at a deeper level.\u00a0 We would be able to see and feel things like each other.\u00a0 So, I think Jesus is saying that God lets us into the Kingdom when we both believe in him and we know him as a friend.<\/p>\n
In our second reading, Paul talks about how we are sons of God.\u00a0 He tells us that it is those God loves that He disciplines.\u00a0 And he tells us that God\u2019s discipline isn\u2019t a source of joy; but rather, it can even be painful.\u00a0 Then, he goes on to say that discipline \u201cBrings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.\u201d\u00a0 The peaceful fruit of righteousness!\u00a0 And how are we trained by discipline? \u00a0Two things:\u00a0 First, we need to accept our discipline and to learn from it.\u00a0 That means whatever our trials; we have got to be willing to face them, not try to run away from them.\u00a0 And second, we need something to help us through the process.\u00a0 Specifically, we need someone there to lead us through the pain to the righteousness- someone like a trainer.\u00a0 And it is God that wants to be right there with us, \u00a0\u00a0Helping us as a trainer every bit of the way.<\/p>\n
You see, God is not asking us to do anything that He didn\u2019t ask His son to do.\u00a0 Jesus suffered greatly and was put to death.\u00a0 And yet, he bore that suffering and the trials that were his Father\u2019s will for him.\u00a0 Elsewhere Jesus says that his burden is light, and his yoke easy.\u00a0 That may sound like a contradiction, but we need to understand the context.\u00a0 Whatever our burdens in this world, they are easy and light compared to the burden of sin in everlasting life- that is hell.<\/p>\n
Jesus makes a great companion in our suffering, because he can empathize with us, he knows what it is like and so, whatever your trials, invite Jesus to be there with you.\u00a0 Invite him through prayer; invite him to walk with you as you experience your difficulties in life.<\/p>\n
I heard an interesting story recently.\u00a0 It seems a pastor began noticing a man in his Church each day.\u00a0 The man was not well dressed, and appeared frazzled.\u00a0 He would walk up to the altar, kneel, pray for a minute, and then leave.\u00a0 This happened for weeks, and so one day the pastor asked him what he was doing.\u00a0 The man said he worked in a factory, but took each lunch hour to walk 25 minutes to the Church and then 25 minutes back, giving him just a moment to pray.\u00a0 This was his prayer:<\/p>\n
\u201cI just came by to tell you, Lord, how happy I have been,<\/p>\n
Since we found each other\u2019s friendship and you took away my sin.<\/p>\n
Don’t know much of how to pray, but I think about you every day.<\/p>\n
So, Jesus, this is Ben,\u00a0 Just checking in today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, all of a sudden, Ben came no more to the Church.\u00a0 The Pastor found out at the Factory that Ben was in the hospital.\u00a0 The nurses at the hospital told him that Ben was all alone and had no visitors.\u00a0 The Pastor visited Ben, and asked him about what the nurse said.\u00a0 Ben told the Pastor the nurse was all wrong.\u00a0 Because each day Jesus visited him and said:<\/p>\n
\u201cI just came by to tell you, Ben, how happy I have been,<\/p>\n
Since we found this friendship, and I took away your sin.<\/p>\n
I think about you always and I love to hear you pray,<\/p>\n
And so Ben, this is Jesus,\u00a0 Just checking in today\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time Is 66: 18-21; Heb 12: 5-7, 11-13; Luke 13: 22-30 Dc. Larry Brockman Picture that scene in the Gospel again.\u00a0 Someone has passed on to the next world, and they are knocking at the doors of heaven.\u00a0 \u201cLet me in\u201d, they say.\u00a0 And what does Jesus say happens in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[231],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}