One of the things I don’t like about going to church… Stay with me, I’m all for weekly church attendance… but I don’t like that it keeps moving, never silence for us to stop and think. There’s an order of service and we have to get through it. Pastors plan so that sermon, hymns, readings, and prayers are of real spiritual help to worshippers, that’s good… Thank you, pastors! But each of us is at our own place in life and spiritual growth. At the end of life, at the end of time, I am, you are responsible for your spiritual life. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12)
Sunday many of us will hear Jesus say, “Strive to enter through the narrow door” (Luke 13:24). That’s an example of what I mean. The lector will read “Strive” and keep galloping on. But if we could stop there… Wait! I’ll stop there right now. The Greek word for strive means, “to contend, to exert oneself, to struggle.” That word, agon-izo (pronounced with a short a and a long o) was used especially for athletic contests but in the New Testament has a figurative sense, but it still has substance. Strive means more than going to church. In faith you strive against something. You strive for something.
Someone asked Jesus, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” Typical Jesus, He doesn’t answer the question but says, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” Jesus disagrees with the polls showing most Americans think they’ll go to heaven, if there is a heaven. People who think that way, think of themselves as Christian, who know about Jesus, will in the final judgment hear Him say, “I do not know where you come from. Depart from me” (Luke 13:27). That’s what we church goers should strive against, struggle against, false comfort because we know facts about Jesus. What we strive for, exert ourselves to do, is see ourselves humbly. Can you truly say, I am the chief of sinners? “Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last” (Luke 13:30).
That’s just one word from Sunday. Take the order of service home. Revisit the readings, prayers, hymns. Going to church on Sunday is good but not enough.
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