Jack’s Winning Words 6/19/18
“The devil made me do it.” (Flip Wilson) Many of you aren’t old enough to remember Flip as Geraldine, the preacher’s wife, who would excuse “mistakes” by saying, “The Devil made me do it.” Some people excuse “sin” in the same way. Who is this Devil? Is he to blame for when we mess up? Don’t be like Geraldine…”It’s not me, Lord,” when, in fact, it is ME! In this world there’s too much blame-shifting. “It’s me, it’s me, O Lord…” goes the Gospel song.” ;-) Jack
FROM HONEST JOHN: I will go with Schleiermacher on this one...there is nothing so real as evil.===JACK: I'll go with, "We are conceived and born in(to) sin (a world where evil exists to influence us)."===JOHN: Key words. "Where evil EXISTS"
FROM FACEBOOK LIZ: i swear it is not me, tho... 😂===JACK: Swearing to tell the truth means nothing unless you trust the swearer, But, who knows all, knows the difference between truth and a lie.
FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: “She” used to make me laugh! So did the “Church Lady” on Saturday Night Live. Dana Carvey was actually a Lutheran and he played a funny old church lady. He would say...”Could it be satan?” ===JACK: Do you know who Sam Scratch is?
FROM KANSAN DON: Aen11===JACK: I don't understand your response. Is it written in Hebrew or in broken Swede?
1 comment:
Your WW this morning are really good at pointing up the fact that we all need to acknowledge our sinfulness and not shift the blame to someone else, Pastor Freed. That's why I especially appreciate it when our worships start out with confession--and not affirmation of baptism--"I confess I am in bondage to sin and cannot free myself. I have sinned against You in thought, word and deed. I have not loved You with my whole heart and I have not loved my neighbor as myself." A big problem in our country is racism and a big problem in my own social circle is the disjoint between people who want and feel compelled to repent and own our own part in sustaining this social ill in our country and people who feel absolutely no sense of ownership, need of repentence, or even need of discussion of where we're all at currently and how people are feeling about the kinds of treatment seen all around in our communities. This sad state of affairs is prevalent now and even pointing that out is something that makes me feel sinful as what could I personally be doing in my congregation which would reduce the fear of discussion of sinfulness and bring about more understanding between all of us and maybe finally that other white people would understand more deeply us white people who believe black people are still being discriminated against--both at a very personal level and also in our society's institutions? We all are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves--we need Jesus in our lives to help us transcend the ugliness and unfairness that exists in our world, especially as our country is going downhill, in my opinion anyway. We need individual and corporate confession. I feel terrible and judgmental even for thinking all these kinds of thoughts.
S.H. in MI
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