| Homily: Believer or Follower During my whole 70 years as a Christian, nobody ever asked me if I was a follower of Jesus. Oh, I've been asked many times what I believed. Once, during a Baptist service, my best friend at the time turned to me and asked if I had been saved? I whispered to her that I had been saved so many times, I'd lost count. That made us both erupt into girlish giggles that almost got us tossed out of the place. I love a good Baptist with a sense of humor! I started out as a Zion Lutheran because that was the church I could walk to in my neighborhood. I always loved church and Sunday school and I was the only one in my immediate family who went. I never saw my Mother in a church until I decided to convert to Catholicism and she took me to every Protestant church within 10 miles to try to change my mind. I never saw my Dad in church until my wedding. However, both my maternal and paternal grandparents were church goers and I took after them. From the time I was in school, my Mom would put me on a train from Cincinnati to Paducah to visit her parents for most of the Summer. My Grandmother and Grandfather would pick me up and tote me to their home in Wickliffe, KY. Wickliffe was the county seat and a town of about 400 at the time. My Grandpa George was a BMT (big man in town) as he owned the only grocery store. I was treated like the local gentry and I loved it. Wickliffe had two churches right next to each other; Baptist and Methodist. In the Summer it was a hoot to listen to each of them try to out-do each other in hymn singing with the windows wide open. I loved it! Grandpa opened his store for an hour after church so anyone could get what they needed for Sunday dinner. That's how I met just about everybody in Wickliffe. I was also kin to the Ryans, Moores, Rankins, and many others whose names I forgot. In those days, religion was easy and simple. We just followed Jesus and the 10 commandments. I don't know why it got so complicated and testy lately. Years ago we, too, had the Apostles Creed to tell us what to believe. However, that creed was put together over 300 years after Jesus died and many parts have come under serious suspicion in the past decade or so. Why has what one believes become so important and what one does so sloppily disregarded? Note the divorce rate, the sexual mores, the greedy leaders, dishonesty, and the widening difference between the rich and the poor. I've been reading many books on what is going on in Christianity considering belief in and following Jesus. In Saving Jesus from the Church, Robin R. Meyers says when someone asks what he and his group believe, "...We are not believers at all, not in the sense of giving intellectual assent to postbiblical propositions. Rather we are doing our best to avoid the worship of Christ and trying to get back to something much more fulfilling and transformative; following Jesus." As to following Jesus when discussing other religions, Brian D Mclaren writes in A New Kind of Christianity; "Our first responsibility as followers of Jesus is to treat people of other religions with the same respect as we would want to receive from them. When you are kind and respectful to followers of other religions, you are not being unfaithful to Jesus; you are being faithful to him." Amen! Respectfully submitted, J. Sue Gagliardi |
| "May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to You, Oh Lord, My Rock and Redeemer." Psalms 19:14 Dearest Lord of my being, Thank you for blessing me with all that I need to be the best that I can be. I am so grateful for your love, light, and peace. May I always be aware of your presence and may I love and honor you above all things. I need you in my heart, in my soul, and in my life now and forever. Amen |
| astrologizing.net Sabbath Devotionals The Sabbath; Sat. Aug. 28, 2010 |
| BIBLE READING NEW TESTAMENT Matthew 16: 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. |
| BIBLE READING OLD TESTAMENT Numbers 14:24 24 But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it. |
