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Sunday, August 21, 2022

A Mercifully Short Sunday Sermon


“Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." (Lk 13:22)


Strive to enter by the narrow gate. It grates against post-modernist Marcusian ears, against the culturally ascendant air we breathe  because "narrow gate" sounds dangerously like narrow-minded, and so bigoted, intolerant and hateful.

"After all," says our Ivy League uneducated friend, "I've got my truth, you've got yours. Coexist!"

What a broad path and it sounds alluring; so free and tolerant, so very narrative. But let's apply this logic to mathematics. Imagine a classroom full of young children, pronouns mixed. Their teacher asks, "You have two rainbows in the sky and you add another two rainbows, how many rainbows are there?"




An impetuous youngster raises zhir hand, "One!" A pensive girl, she/hers, utters "three," another adventurer exclaims four, another eight and an enthusiastic child offers up "eighty eight!" The teacher beams, "Children, all of you are right!" And each receives a delicious unicorn cupcake, don't say Lambeth Conference.

But look what's happened. In the name of freedom, these poor children have been denied the liberty of doing mathematics because they haven't been allowed to go through the narrow gate of correct addition. The logic of salvation's similar.

As with 2+2=4, there's one solution to paradise and that's Christ; He is the gate. Only He unites humanity to God, He alone is true God and true Man. He alone offers the perfect, sinless, atoning sacrifice to the Father for the forgivness of sins and He, and only He, rises victorious from the grave only to give His resurrected life to the faithful.




So to get to heaven, the end or τέλος of desire, we have to go through Christ, the door, the gate of the sheep, the way, the truth and the life. And we must strive to do so, to make the conscious, deliberate effort to conform our lives to His.

The Savior's grace, frightened and gentle readers, will supply the deficiency.

Here endeth the Lesson,

LSP
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15 comments:

  1. Mike_CAugust 21, 2022 at 3:37 PM

    The teacher beams, "Children, all of you are right!"

    Nope, wouldn't happen. Sorry. The one who said "88" would be taken from xir parents and placed in foster care under the benevolent eye of nonbinary body-positivity MAPS. (Monkeypox helps build stronger immune systems in children. The SCIENCE says so. So bugger a child today!) The biological birthing person and sperm doner would be gulag-ed for re-education. Eighty-eight is obviously code for "HH" which is clearly code for Hail Moustache Man. (Only a people whose body of religious commentary and marginalia is full of mystical numbers could come up with such tripe.)

    You know how some buildings in the West don't have a 13th floor because of "bad luck"? Well, in Asia some buildings don't have a 4th floor because the word for "four" is roughly a homonym for "death" in Mandarin. So in Sino-Anglo spaces (such as Hong Kong) you find buildings that lack both a 4th AND a 13th floor. Similarly, the progressive set of cardinal numbers goes "86 87, 89, 90, etc".

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  2. juvatAugust 21, 2022 at 3:47 PM

    Excellent Sermon, LSP. Excellent. Made much more sense than the version I heard today. But then again, short attention span, so short sermon's resonate with me.

    And...to be truthful, help me understand this morning's sermon.

    Well done, sir.

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  3. LSPAugust 21, 2022 at 4:39 PM

    Dammit, Mike, I knew someone would pick up on 88.

    At some point, hopefully soon, narrative flounders on reality.

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  4. LSPAugust 21, 2022 at 4:41 PM

    Thanks, juvat, I appreciate that.

    It's not hard to get, eh, but less than easy to do. Of course I preach to myself.

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  5. drjimAugust 21, 2022 at 5:07 PM

    Beautiful sermon, Parson.

    Thank you!

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  6. Well Seasoned FoolAugust 21, 2022 at 5:38 PM

    When something is exactly on point, too much verbiage dilutes the message. Thank you.

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  7. Wild, wild westAugust 21, 2022 at 6:15 PM

    Short sermons are best, clarity is all important. I've left instructions that the Sky Pilot who officiates at my send-off gets five minutes, no more and then cut his mic. Show's over, everybody back to work.

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  8. Mike_CAugust 21, 2022 at 6:42 PM

    "I knew someone would pick up on 88."

    Is hunting over bait legal in Texas?

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  9. LLAugust 21, 2022 at 7:04 PM

    Thank you for the sermonette, LSP.

    Mike C - is hunting over bait any more wicked than staking out a watering hole?

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  10. LSPAugust 21, 2022 at 7:16 PM

    Just a short pitch 'n punt, LL.

    Hope I got in the X Ring.

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  11. LSPAugust 21, 2022 at 7:17 PM

    Ah, Mike, 88.

    Eternity.

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  12. LSPAugust 21, 2022 at 7:17 PM

    Why thank you, drjim.

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  13. LSPAugust 21, 2022 at 7:19 PM

    Mr. WSF, you're kind.

    Btw, I HATE long winded sermons and walk out, have a smoke, maybe get a coffee and return for worship. That's what I do.

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  14. Paul MAugust 21, 2022 at 7:37 PM

    Well said, short and sweet and Gospel centered. Long winded rambling sermons with no obvious relevant point, or lacking Scriptural reference, do nothing for the hearer except help them zone out. As LL did today, Jesus offered the necessity of becoming Christ-like in a few sentences with astounding clarity and truth. You did the same.

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  15. LSPAugust 23, 2022 at 6:03 PM

    Thank you Paul, I appreciate that. High praise.

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