Through towns and villages,
Jesus went teaching,
Making his way in Jerusalem.
Some said to him,
Sir,
Will there be only a few saved?
He said to them,
Try your best to enter by the narrow door,
Because I tell you,
Many will try to enter and will not succeed.
Once the master of the house has got up and locked the door,
You may find yourself knocking on the door,
Saying,
Lord,
Open to us.
But he will answer,
I do not know where you come from.
Then you will find yourself saying,
We once ate and drank in your company.
You taught in our streets.
But he will reply,
I do not know where you come from.
Away from me,
All you wicked men.
Again there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.
When you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God,
And yourself turned outside.
And men from east and west,
From north and south,
Will come to take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.
Yes,
There are those now last who will be first,
And who is now first who will be last.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you,
Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm sure if I ask you to identify one or two people in your surroundings that are true fair-weather friends,
It won't be too difficult for you to point out those people.
Those who,
When things go well,
They are with you,
They surround you,
And they spend time with you.
And yet when you are going through challenging times,
Suddenly they're a bit busy.
Really they disappear from anywhere close to you.
What do we do when somebody treats us that way?
I guess it is easy these days to just overlook that,
Because let's be honest,
It is difficult enough to connect with people these days,
And to then have to connect with new people is a challenge.
So let's rather stick with the devil we know.
Even if we know when we need that devil,
That devil will be somewhere else.
And it is human.
Oftentimes those fair-weather friends don't really know what to do when we are in trouble,
Because a lot of us tend to be the fixers in the group,
Tend to be those who people can come to,
To get comfort,
To get compassion.
And so when we fall,
We stumble,
Those who know us are strong,
Don't know what to do,
And they retreat.
Again,
It is human.
And are we allowed to judge them for not knowing what to do?
I don't think so.
We are allowed to set some healthy boundaries though.
This is exactly what we see in the tale of the parable of Jesus.
Once the door is locked,
It's locked.
This does now mean that if I lived a sinful life,
A life of disconnect from God,
That I will be denied being with God one day.
If we take this writing from the Gospel of St.
Luke,
Literally,
Yes.
I don't really think my God,
The God that I know,
Is so petty.
I don't think there's any sin,
Anything we can do wrong,
Any choosing of a lesser good over a greater good when we are here as human beings.
I don't think there is anything really that we can do that will diminish God's love for us.
That somehow we will get an opportunity to enter heaven,
Whatever expression heaven may be.
I have no idea.
I do hope though that all our animal companions over the years will be waiting for us there.
That's my idea of heaven.
Our four-footed and two-fated families.
But yes,
So what is this weeping and grinding of teeth?
That Jesus then talks about for those who did not come in when the door was open.
Maybe that is a pure realization of all the karma that we have amassed in this life.
When we truly feel everything that we did,
When we experience the disconnect,
The dissociation between us and God that we had perpetuated over our lives.
We didn't necessarily recognize God in all.
When we worked with other people and we put on holier than thou faces and say,
I can't help you because I'm too busy with the church.
I'm too busy being holy to help God.
We do that.
It's so easy to be caught up in practicalities and being right and doing things right and in a certain way that we don't recognize God standing right in front of us and we shove God out of the way and say,
I have to go paint that wall now because that is what God wants and we shove hungry God out of the way.
That's how we lock the door.
How the door is locked on us as human beings.
And men from East and West,
From North and South will come and take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.
From everywhere,
Everywhere,
Everywhere people will come.
We read earlier also in the letter to the Hebrews that,
Actually,
Sorry,
In the book of Isaiah,
That people will come from all over,
From the unknown parts of the world and he will make them priests and Levites.
They're already saying that anybody is welcome in the kingdom of God.
Everybody and everybody has the blessing,
The grace to enter into communion with the Lord.
To enter into the knowledge that all this that separates us is just pure,
Pure,
Pure illusion.
That in the end,
It is all one,
That God is.
So I don't like grinding my teeth.
I truly don't like it because when I grind my teeth,
It hurts.
Especially then if I want to drink something cold afterwards,
Ice cold glass of water,
It hurts.
So why do we then persist in creating these situations of disconnect?
Why do we persist and insist in creating spaces where we disregard God standing right in front of us?
The Gospel reading today gives us a beautiful,
Beautiful guide.
Don't weep.
Don't grind your teeth.
It's possible to enter into this beautiful space,
Into the house of God.
And how do we do that?
It's easy actually.
Every time you come into contact with a human being,
Every time you come into contact with a being on this planet and outside,
Remind yourself,
I am in contact with an expression of the divine.
I am in contact with an expression of God.
I am now in contact with an expression of holiness.
And see how your actions flow from there.
Amen.
