The Narrow Door

The most powerful lesson about the gospel I have ever learned, I did not learn in seminary, although I was on vicarage at the time. I did not learn it from any professor. I learned it from my son David, who was just over the age of two. He has changed a bit since he was two. As you get to know David now you will meet a wonderful kid who is outgoing, smart, empathetic and very helpful. David likes to talk and he will talk to anyone and everyone. But he was not always like that, and especially not at the age of two.

Believe it or not, there was a time when David was actually shy. If someone he did not know would go up to him and say, "hello, David." He would respond by screaming "Nooooo," and if he had the opportunity, he would run in the opposite direction. He was consistent. He would do this with people in stores, members of the congregation, even his grandparents.

That year, December 28^th was the first Sunday after Christmas. It was also the first time that I was solely responsible for the church service. The pastor had gone on vacation to visit family and I got to do the whole thing. It is quite the experience for a vicar to do this.

One of the practices of the congregation is, just like here, to have prayer request cards that people would fill out and then they would be included in the prayers. This always made me very nervous, because I had a difficult time reading the handing writing of the people.

But that Sunday there was a card requesting prayers for a local family. Their twelve-year-old son had been playing with a gun and accidently shot himself. The accident happened the week of Christmas too. Not knowing anything more about the situation than that, I prayed that God would comfort the family and be with them and comfort them in this awful time.

When the service had ended, I was relieved. None of the things that you expect to happen the first time you do a service by yourself happened. No one ran out of the sanctuary screaming. Nothing was thrown at me. The roof did not cave in. Nothing caught fire. This meant that it was a good service.

I was standing at the door greeting people as they left the service and one gentleman asked if he could speak to me after I was finished greeting everyone. He needed to talk to me about the service, and immediately my mind began to race through the sermon to find the heresy that I unknowingly spoke. He waited in the corner, and when the last person left came over to me and told me that he had an issue with my prayers.

I was immediately relieved that the sermon was ok, but perplexed as to what have been wrong with the prayers. He told me that I prayed for this family in the community. They were not members of a Missouri Synod congregation and therefore God would not hear prayers for them. I thought it was a joke, but he was serious.

The more we talked the angrier I was becoming. I was able to keep a calm composure on the outside, but on the inside I was beginning to fume. I mean the audacity of this guy saying these awful things about this poor family who had to endure a tragedy that no family should ever have to deal with. And to have it all happen at Christmas time.

I tried explaining to him how his position was mislead and misinformed and he only persisted. And the more he did, the more upset I was becoming until I was at the point that I was ready to hit him. And then it happened.

We had been there for over half-an-hour at this point. The only ones left in the building were me and him, and Mindy and David as they were waiting for lunch. It happened so suddenly and unexpectedly that to this day I still can't really believe it. But my two-year-old, who never wanted anything to do with anyone, ran up to this guy, and at a point when I was ready smack him, David threw his arms around his legs and gave him the biggest bear hug those little arms were able to muster.

Do you get what is going on here? Here is a man who is clearly in the wrong. I was righteously angry and to a point where I wanted to exercise divine judgment (I wouldn't have, but sure wanted to) and David comes in and gives him what he really need at that point, love. This is the power and perhaps even the yscandal of the gospel. God's love and mercy and forgiveness are for people who do not deserve it.

In the church we can easily say this, but then we can act as if the opposite were true. It is like there is a list out there somewhere of "acceptable sins" and "unacceptable sins" and if your sins are on the acceptable sins list, then you are OK. You really aren't that bad. You deserve to be here. But if your sins are on the unacceptable list, well then…look out. Go away and when you can behave yourself, you can come back.

What I am talking about here is an attitude toward other people. We allow those who are like us and have sins that are acceptable to be in our midst, and those that have unacceptable sins are to be shunned. This does not mean that we ignore sin or look the other way. You know that sin is serious business. We don't treat it lightly. We certainly deal with, but we deal with it from a perspective of love. This is much more difficult to do. It easy to shun a person and tell them to go away, because you do not have to live in relationship with them. But to love them means that you are in relationship with them, and this task is much harder for us to accomplish.

Our text for today occurs at a point in Luke's Gospel where Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem. He is going in order to give his life on the cross to pay the price for your sins and for mine. He is going to pay for the sins of the whole world. This section began at Chapter 9 and will go all the way through to chapter 19. It is a section that contains a lot of his teaching. It is a section that is not always easy to hear, but is certainly necessary.

In our text today, someone calls out a question, "Lord, will those who are saved be few?" This is the kind of stuff that we want to know. We want to know who is in and who is out. Not only that but we like to spend our time trying to figure it out and we set up rules, guidelines, acceptable and unacceptable sins lists. All in an effort to enable us to be able to have assurance of the answer to this question. And then Jesus answers it.

Now this is a simple question. Yes or no. Will those who are saved be few, Lord? Jesus can say yes or he can say no, but note what he says instead. Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many will seek to enter and will not be able. He answers a yes or no question with a command. Strive to enter.

How does this happen? It is actually quite simple. Repentance. When we recognize our sin as such; when we understand the ramifications of our own sins and that it makes no difference which list our sins are on, and we ask our gracious and loving God to forgive our sins, that is entering through the narrow gate.

It is a narrow gate. It is not a popular gate. It is a gate that we don't enter by way of our good deeds or religious knowledge or church attendance. It is a gate that is not entered as long as we are better than the really bad people. It is a gate that we cannot enter through and still be allowed to hold onto our pride and prestige.

It is a gate that is shaped like a cross. It is a gate that all who enter say with St. Paul, "I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith."

It is a narrow gate. It is entered to through repentance and knowing that the forgiveness and life and salvation is given to us through and for the sake of Jesus. He is the only way. This means for us that we can know with certainty where we stand with our God. But as we know this, we dare not use it to see ourselves or make ourselves out to be better than anyone else. We are not to sit around and decide who is in and who is out. God is the judge.

But we who have been reconciled to him, who strive to enter through that narrow gate, also know that that door is not opened forever. So he sends us out to proclaim. So we go and we love and we serve and we share the good news of the gospel. We do this with the hope and prayer that as we love and serve and proclaim that the Holy Spirit would work in the lives of the people we come in contact with so that they too might enter the narrow door.

As we see the kingdom of God growing in our midst, we will celebrate with great joy at the work that God is doing. And it will not matter if we are first or last, Because we will be a part of this awesome work that God is doing. Amen.