Lk 12:54-59 The Guessing Game!Jesus said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain and so it does; and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot and so it is. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”
We can all refuse our great Designer, but we cannot refuse the great design! We can dismiss Heaven, but we will never be able to comfortably dismiss the testimony of a nine-year old little boy who went there and came back! We can deny Jesus as the Son of God, but we cannot deny the conversion of sinners and how they committed their life to Him. We can deny Him as the Messenger but we cannot deny the power of his message of mercy, compassion, forgiveness and love in an age that knew none of the above. We can deny He was the Lamb, but we cannot deny that he was slaughtered like one. We can doubt another’s love for us, but we can never doubt the existence of love or that of a Divine Lover. How else could I experience a lack of love if I did not know love itself? We can doubt our very existence, but we can never doubt the door we walk through or the window we look through.
I could not doubt if I could not think; and I could not think if I am not.
What has atheism given the world? The truth? If so, then this is what the truth looks like in the largest atheist nation in the world. Are you ready? It must be perfectly acceptable for a driver of a hit and run to leave the scene after hitting a baby girl. It must be perfectly acceptable for pedestrians and bicyclists and other drivers to slow down and never stop to aid a dying child. We can all deny that it was intentional, but we cannot deny the video! We can all rest assured that it could never happen here, but we cannot deny that it hasn’t happened here. If we only tell half truths, then we can expect to live a lie! Just recently, President Obama inaugurated a memorial in Washington D.C. dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr. He never once mentioned God. We can deny God’s rightful place, but we cannot deny that MLK was a godly man, a Christian man, a Pastor of Jesus Christ.
A few days ago I was in the car of an elderly gentleman who was celebrating his birthday. We were off to a dinner when he suddenly and unexpectedly received a text from his estranged son. I could tell he was very happy to have received a message from his long lost boy. After all, he had not heard from him in many months! He was so delighted, that he handed me his phone and asked me if I would kindly read the message for him. I took the phone and I looked at the message. I was speechless. “Well, what did he say?” he asked. I couldn’t tell him. It was too vulgar, mean-spirited and judgmental. His son had abandoned the faith long ago, fallen into bad company, and become addicted to drugs and alcohol. Now, he was blaming his father for all his failures. While growing up, his father had only asked him to do two things: study hard, get good grades and then you can play sports. Since he didn’t do the first, he wasn’t supportive of the second. His standards were higher than the school’s policy. So, the estrangement began and continues to today.
I asked him if I could text his son back. “Go ahead”, He said. I wrote the following: “My son, I guess you would say that I have not been a good father. But I would say that I welcomed you into this world and helped feed you while you were young. I took care of you while you were sick and prayed that you would be strong. I always knew that you had in you to accomplish great things, but you always refused to have someone behind you and push you higher and higher. You have two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears, a mouth and a nose. Use them! And stop blaming others for your poor decisions. Use all that you have that is good and do some good.” We can deny our personal upbringing, but we cannot deny our personal decisions.
There are a few in the Church that have caused us great harm, and we would love to blame it on their vows. But the vows were freely given and received. When someone in the Church commits a sin they break the Creed. When someone outside the Church commits a sin, it means they have no Creed. When the Church goes wild it breaks its own rules. When the world goes wild it’s because it has no rules. Even atheists know they need some type of Creed, but they can't get past the first two words, "We believe", because they already contradict their philosophy of life!
Nature tends to exterminate the weird beasts that roam the planet, either by beaching them or ignoring them. We can deny our Creed, but we cannot eliminate it!
Today is the day to stop guessing! Do I recognize the present time? Am I conscious of the evil that I do? Do I continue to blame others for my poor decisions? Do I see a connection between my faith in God and the decisions that I make? Why do you not know how to interpret the present times?
