Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
This is an interactive manuscript. To follow links, click the highlighted words below.
In Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Luke spends the entire movie trying to get his father, Darth Vader, to return to the light side. He tells him, “I know there’s good in you.” Vader’s reply is “It is too late for me son.”
Yet at the end of the film, Vader is there to face the Emperor and save Luke from dying. With his last breath, he tells Luke, “You were right.”
Vader didn’t seem like he could change, yet he did. There was hope for him. There is hope for us as well.
On the surface, what Jesus says seems to be a simple statement of what is. Good servants will do well with their master and bad servants are doomed for when the master comes.
Yet why would Jesus tell us this if there was no hope? What Jesus is saying is not a simple statement but instead a warning for us to heed.
During this pandemic we have seen the best and worst parts of ourselves and each other. Those light parts should give us hope, although those dark spots in ourselves should give us pause. Yet it is not too late for us to turn back and be the good servants Jesus would have us be. It is not too late for us to turn back to God, especially in those times we need to.