Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
We are unique as Christians in that our Faith does not tell that we are good. Our Faith does not even call us to recreate ourselves into something better.
Our Faith recognizes the truth we see out there in the world. If we look outside, things seem really bad right now, and most of the things going wrong are really our fault as humans.
We’re not called to be good because we can’t be. We can’t make ourselves better because we are incapable of doing so on our own. That is what our Faith recognizes.
We’re really an unlovable mess. But God loved us. That’s the whole reason we have God’s Word here today from Jesus’ lips.
When we couldn’t be good, God, out of Love, paid the price for our sins. When we couldn’t make ourselves better, God, out of Love, came down as Jesus to do the work to remake and recreate us.
Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. God showed how much He loves us through Jesus. Now it’s our turn to share God’s Love by telling this story, by sharing the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe then we can come to except that yes, we are not good people, but God loves us anyway and that by following Jesus, we can allow Him to finally change us through that Love.