"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard."He might say to us that the kingdom of heaven is like public transportation, though we would much rather it were like a house on a cul-de-sac.
I think all Christians run into other Christians whom we wish would give up the name. Maybe they don't live up to my standard of righteousness. Maybe they don't take their faith as seriously as I do. Maybe they don't understand grace as well as I do. Whatever the case, surely God isn't as happy with them as he is with me. But the fact of the matter is, we're all on this bus together.
Of course, objectively this is a very good thing. I'm not so bold as to think of myself as one of those hired early in the morning (after all, that would make me one of the grumblers in the parable!), but I have to admit that I do generally think of myself as if I were one of those hired at about nine o'clock, or surely by noon. Yet it is certain that there are other Christians who see me as one of those hired at five.
I'd like to be at the point where I am happy that God extends blessing everyone, and in general I really am. It's those particular people that give me trouble.
2 comments:
The problems start when I'm okay with sharing the bus and working it out together, but someone else isn't, and is trying to push me off the bus. That's when I want to revert back to my first-grade self and yell, "Bus Driver! They're picking on me!";-)
Yeah, that's the worst.
Before I wrote this I had a run in with a British Israelist on Beliefnet. Boy, would I like him off the bus. But as sure as I am that he's wrong, I'm also sure I have to find a way to live with people like that (even if not quietly).
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