Mind Your Own Business
A reading for Thursday, April 30, 2015: Luke 6:39-49.
It's much easier to see the wrong in another person than the wrong in our own lives. That person is greedy, that one is selfish, and that one is lazy. We are best sometimes at identifying the ways "the other isn't as faithful" as we are?
Yet, Jesus reminds the disciples that there is no benefit in identifying faithlessness in another person, only ourselves. No tree can bear fruit on another tree, just as no disciple can use the gifts and skills of another to be faithful. Only from our own can we be the follower of Jesus that we were created to be. So it's a waste of time to worry over what someone else has done, or is doing. Mind your own business.
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges we face as the people of God is to be identified by what we stand for, rather than what we stand against. What does it mean for you to be Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ? The moderator of the PCUSA, Heath Rada, has just identified nine challenges for the denomination going forward. One of which is the following: "I don’t know how to tell someone in a few sentences who I am as a Presbyterian. It is complicated. Can it be put into some simple statement that could then be elaborated on?” I would propose that for the next few years we might need to put greater emphasis on communicating than any other facet of our church."
We spend a lot of time identifying who isn't as faithful as we are... perhaps we should be minding the business Jesus Christ calls us to. Hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and act on them. Bear fruit. Seek God in the places we live and work. Be the church.
Let's communicate our business, and let others mind theirs.
It's much easier to see the wrong in another person than the wrong in our own lives. That person is greedy, that one is selfish, and that one is lazy. We are best sometimes at identifying the ways "the other isn't as faithful" as we are?
Yet, Jesus reminds the disciples that there is no benefit in identifying faithlessness in another person, only ourselves. No tree can bear fruit on another tree, just as no disciple can use the gifts and skills of another to be faithful. Only from our own can we be the follower of Jesus that we were created to be. So it's a waste of time to worry over what someone else has done, or is doing. Mind your own business.
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges we face as the people of God is to be identified by what we stand for, rather than what we stand against. What does it mean for you to be Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ? The moderator of the PCUSA, Heath Rada, has just identified nine challenges for the denomination going forward. One of which is the following: "I don’t know how to tell someone in a few sentences who I am as a Presbyterian. It is complicated. Can it be put into some simple statement that could then be elaborated on?” I would propose that for the next few years we might need to put greater emphasis on communicating than any other facet of our church."
We spend a lot of time identifying who isn't as faithful as we are... perhaps we should be minding the business Jesus Christ calls us to. Hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and act on them. Bear fruit. Seek God in the places we live and work. Be the church.
Let's communicate our business, and let others mind theirs.
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