A Reminder

Pastor Jeff has not been reading my blog; I am fairly certain of that.  If he had been, he would surely have taken me to task on my universalist approach to faith instead of my adherence to the Lutheran doctrine.

God, however, has been reading.  His comments are gregarious with a bit of attitude, and very often come  when He knows I am paying attention.  If I have gotten a point wrong, or left one out, I can be certain the Lesson for the day or Pastor Jeff's sermon will make  the point clear. It's uncanny.

Since I believe that Pastor Jeff was called to his vocation and did not just wander into it, I was not at all surprised in his sermon on faith and forgiveness.  He believes as I do, that some faith is acquired because our parents had it, and some is learned.  What really matters is when the faith becomes our own, with enough belief to defend it.

My parents, one a Catholic and one a Protestant, were not church-goers.  Mom took me to the Lutheran church nearby because her friend went there.  Dad would have preferred I went to St. Ann's, but rarely went himself.  My friend Linda's family was devout and often included me.  Some of her faith rubbed off on me along the way.  In my teens and twenties I was active in my church.  In my thirties I went occasionally.  In my forties I didn't need the building or the people; I could do it alone.  In my fifties, I came back.

In those years, I discovered what kind of faith was my own.  Some of the tenets of the Church no longer made sense to me.  I don't argue the finer points of my beliefs, although I am sure Pastor Jeff would welcome the challenge.  I believe what I believe firmly enough to defend it.

Pastor went on to talk about forgiveness. Uh-oh.  Here is the thing--I didn't put forgiveness on my list of truths.  I hear God's shouting through Pastor's words. Don't you believe in forgiving others?  That was a heck of a thing to leave out!  He admonishes.

I believe we must forgive to be forgiven, including forgiving ourselves.  The uneasiness that comes in not forgiving is conscience.

The impeccable timing of the sermon tells me that God is using Pastor to make His point clear.  He is speaking to me and to others in an answer to a prayer, spoken or unspoken.  He has read my essay on writing a person off...He is telling me not to do that, not yet.  As we forgive, we are forgiven.

I add another truth to the things in which  I believe.