Wednesday of Trinity III - Devotion in semi-Exile

Lection for Wednesday after Trinity III 
Joshua 6:6-27      Acts 10:18-33

In the business of the day, I was looking through some things while doing some introspective thinking and came upon this article I wrote for the local paper back in 2011. I thought that it might be appropriate as a devotional thought to fill this space. So, here you go.

I was privileged to hear a wonderful Gospel sermon at the funeral of a pastor friend not too long ago.  Unfortunately, the Gospel that had been proclaimed was severely clouded when a church official got up a few moments later and extolled the virtues of this pastor.  By the time he was done, you would have thought that my departed friend could walk on water, still the storm, and heal lepers. 

I knew this pastor, and he was not without sin.  I knew how his sin affected his family and how they thrived richly on the grace of God. Their marriage and family life was lived in the forgiveness they each received from Christ, and through Him, they were able to forgive and love one another.  I also know that doubts about this man’s eternal well-being arose when this man’s goodness was extolled and the focus was taken from Christ. His family expressed doubts because they knew he wasn’t perfect, as His heavenly Father demanded, and the church official seemed to indicate his place in heaven was because of his goodness. What a damnable confusion to place this man’s works (stained and corrupted by sin) as holding a higher place before the grace of God, and downplay his sinfulness and the confidence that is the Christian hope in the forgiveness won by Christ.

This got me to thinking, “What do I want people to say about me when I die?”  Some of the things that came immediately to mind were:

He was a great fisherman.

He dearly loved his wife and family.

He always preached wonderful sermons.

He was a wonderful pastor.

He wrote great articles for the newspaper.

You know what?  There are problems with every one of those statements, each of them glosses over truth .  OK, in some cases is spits upon and obliterates truth.  There are many times I was fishing and came home empty-handed.  While I love my wife and family, more often than I’d like to admit, I have been less than a stellar husband and/or father.  Unfortunately, I’ve had my share of sermons that were poorly crafted, or my heart wasn’t into the preaching of them.  And to be honest, there are days I’d have rather been a fisherman of fish, than a shepherd of the souls God has entrusted into my care. There have been article that I wrote which appeared in this, or another paper, which I wish I could have destroyed rather than published.  (This isn’t one of them)

Simply put, I am chief of sinners – just like Paul.  I may indeed have the right intentions.  I do want to love perfectly, but… Paul said it so well. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:21-25)

On that day when my body lies in the casket before my family, friends, and the congregation assembled, I pray that nobody talks about how good I was.  Why? I don’t want my family to have any doubts about where I am. I am not perfect, I am a stinker – rotten from the core – a poor, miserable, sinner.  Instead, I pray that this might be said of me.  “Todd knew the frailty of his flesh.  He confessed His sin, He confessed he was undeserving of God’s grace, and he trusted solely in Jesus Christ who took his death into His own flesh and rose three days later to give unto Todd life everlasting.  As a pastor, he never led people to trust themselves or in their own works.  He faithfully pointed to Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. For it is by grace that he was saved through faith; as a free gift of God, not of any works, of which no man may boast. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) By a gift of God’s grace, Todd was given by God to trust solely in Christ. Today, his Savior took this sinner to heaven – thanks be to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.”