Modern Day Pharisees

To be honest, I just can't imagine that the issue of homosexuality exercised the minds of the apostles as much as it exercises the minds of certain people in the Episcopal Church. To be honest, I believe that the apostles and disciples were exercised with spreading the Good News and inviting as many as possible to share in it. I don't see them limiting the Kingdom to those who passed a certain litmus test any more than Jesus did when He walked the earth.

All this talk of who can or who cannot be a part of the Kingdom of God reminds me of the Pharisees and their endless hedging around the law and their endless exclusions of others from the love of God.

Was it the Pharisees that Jesus hung out with? Did He spend a lot of time with the excluders? Nope. He sought out the sinners, the rejects etc. I can only be grateful that He did, because I am certainly a sinner and have been rejected by many modern day Pharisees intimidated by mental illness.

Who was it who spread the Good News after Pentecost? It wasn't the Pharisees. It was the sinners and the rejects. I give thanks every day for the sinners and rejects who carry on the work of the Kingdom.

All Christians leave something to be desired. We are none of us better than anyone else and were we to come out of denial about ourselves, we might be chided for thinking ourselves the worst of sinners. Were we to take our own sin seriously, we might echo Paul's words. Because he certainly took his own sin seriously.

The miracle that is God's grace allows us to do some good, transforms our sins into vehicles of grace where God can work on human hearts and turn them to Him.

Thanks be to the Most High that He continues to send His Holy Spirit where He wants. Thanks be to the Lord that the Holy Spirit is like a wind that is felt everywhere. Thanks be to God that we can see the modern day Pharisees for what they are. Which is exactly what Jesus says they are.