Tuesday, June 26
Too simple…
“So, let me get this straight…it’s not what I do, it’s who I am. It’s not something I get because I do something good to get God’s love, I am loved by God first and foremost, before anything on my part, before I do anything to earn it?”“It all just sounds too simple.”
What a great discussion we had at our small group this past Sunday… No matter which angle we looked at this magnanimous concept of God’s love we kept coming back to the same thing, “That can’t be right, it’s too simple.”
It’s like that story Jesus told in Matthew 20, Brennan Manning calls it the “Parable of the Crazy Farmer”.
It begins like this: "God's kingdom is like an estate manager who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. They agreed on a wage of a dollar a day, and went to work. And ends like this: "Those hired at five o'clock came up and were each given a dollar. When those who were hired first saw that, they assumed they would get far more. But they got the same, each of them one dollar. Taking the dollar, they groused angrily to the manager, 'These last workers put in only one easy hour, and you just made them equal to us, who slaved all day under a scorching sun.'
"He replied to the one speaking for the rest, 'Friend, I haven't been unfair. We agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn't we? So take it and go. I decided to give to the one who came last the same as you. Can't I do what I want with my own money? Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?'
"Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first."
Oh to be a faith community full of crazy, simple farmers…
Mark Nelson at 7:41 AM 3comments
3 Comments
-
at 10:33 AM
Betsy said... amen!
-
at 1:19 PM
said... That guy in the picture looks INSANE.
-
at 6:27 PM
Mark Nelson said...
It's a picture of a farmer...maybe an insane farmer, but a farmer...
mark