the church of the
ascension
in the city of
new york
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Saturday, February 28
Psalm 42 / Titus 3:1-15 / John 1:43-51
My Aunt Therese, a nun for over sixty years, has a habit of teasing me about my weight, a subject I have gone to great lengths to tell her I really don't want to discuss. She gives me a hug and then says, "Well, Stephen, I can barely get my arms around you anymore." (Chuckle, chuckle.) I love my aunt and this drives me crazy every time she does it. So I wonder, after having read Paul's Letter to Titus, if I should ever attend another family gathering where my aunt is present.
Paul instructs Titus that "after a first and second admonition, have nothing more to do with anyone who causes divisions, since you know that such a person is perverted and sinful, being self-condemned." I know Paul is referring to people who do much worse things than chide another about being "generously proportioned"! I would much rather think about my aunt's gentle teasing as some sort of major fault than focus on the way I often argue so much or push people so hard, knowing they don't appreciate me doing this. Am I "self-condemned"? Paul reminds me and you and everyone that we are saved "not because of any works of righteousness that we [have] done, but according to [God's] mercy." Whatever kind of mess I might be, the good news — the Good News — is that God saves us because God wants to, and there is nothing we can do about that. Thank God!
— Stephen P. Hagerty
My Aunt Therese, a nun for over sixty years, has a habit of teasing me about my weight, a subject I have gone to great lengths to tell her I really don't want to discuss. She gives me a hug and then says, "Well, Stephen, I can barely get my arms around you anymore." (Chuckle, chuckle.) I love my aunt and this drives me crazy every time she does it. So I wonder, after having read Paul's Letter to Titus, if I should ever attend another family gathering where my aunt is present.
Paul instructs Titus that "after a first and second admonition, have nothing more to do with anyone who causes divisions, since you know that such a person is perverted and sinful, being self-condemned." I know Paul is referring to people who do much worse things than chide another about being "generously proportioned"! I would much rather think about my aunt's gentle teasing as some sort of major fault than focus on the way I often argue so much or push people so hard, knowing they don't appreciate me doing this. Am I "self-condemned"? Paul reminds me and you and everyone that we are saved "not because of any works of righteousness that we [have] done, but according to [God's] mercy." Whatever kind of mess I might be, the good news — the Good News — is that God saves us because God wants to, and there is nothing we can do about that. Thank God!
— Stephen P. Hagerty
