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CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith from a place of winter For the Years of Winter…


At the 40th anniversary of my seminary class we were each asked to sum up our careers. I said, “I was in campus ministry in the ‘60s, flunked out of graduate school, served a series of small churches, and retired.” It didn’t sound very impressive, but I didn’t have time to list all the friends I made in those small towns.

One of those friends was a Baptist pastor. He had been retired for several years, lived in another town and was part-time with our little Baptist church. He wasn’t in town very often, but we became friends. He had been there only a year or so when his wife was diagnosed with a terminal illness. I ran into him on the street downtown one day. He looked morose. “Last night in bed,” he said, “I could tell she was awake. I asked her what she was thinking about. ‘I’m thinking about what it will be like to be dead,’ she said. I’ve been telling people about heaven for a lifetime, but I didn’t have anything to say to her.”

Like old friend and Quincy, Illinois pastor Bob Morwell, I don’t spend much time thinking about heaven. [1]

Well, at least I didn’t. Then I got old. “I can see an angel peeping through the broken window pane. “ [2]

Rhode Island’s Ron March is a chiropractor by day and a singer-guitarist-composer-philosopher the rest of the time. He sent me a link containing strangely stilted animation and dialog, but remarkably provocative and astute theology. [3]

It is about John 14:6, where Jesus is reported as saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” That is generally interpreted by Christians as saying that you can’t get into heaven unless you are a Christian. The speaker in the animated clip claims to be a literalist. He says that isn’t at all what Jesus is saying, that instead he is saying that he, Jesus, and he alone, gets to choose who gets into heaven.

That’s tremendously good news for us all sinners, and bad news for the self-righteous who want to keep out of heaven all those who are not like them. Judged by anybody else, friends, I ain’t gonna make it in. But if I’m judged by Jesus, I’ve got a good chance, because he consorted with sinners all the time, and since he commanded us to forgive others, I suspect he’s going to forgive even “a sinner such as I.”

Good news, not just for Christians, but for everybody: Jesus is Lord and Savior. He’s also the judge, the only one.

JRMcF

1] Bob’s commentary, “Who Gets IN?” is at http://www.forministry.com/USILUMETCUUMCU/Commentary.dsp

2] “Ain’t Gonna Need This House No Longer.” Stuart Hamblen.

3] Ron has given me permission to forward his email, so if you want the link, let me know and I’ll send it to you. It’s way to long to copy, and it won’t cut and paste from my email program.


{I also write the fictional “Periwinkle Chronicles” blog. One needs a rather strange sense of humor to enjoy it, but occasionally it is slightly funny. It is at http://periwinklechronicles.blogspot.com/}

(If you would prefer to receive either “Christ In Winter” or “Periwinkle Chronicles” via email, just let me know at jmcfarland1721@charter.net, and I’ll put you on the email list.)