“Life Improvement Only Through Jesus Christ!”

“Now the tax collectors and ‘sinners’ were all gathering around to hear [Jesus]. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered: ‘This Man welcomes sinners and eats with them’.” Luke 15:1,2

Someone who signed “I.S. of D.C.”, once wrote the following letter to Ann Landers: “I am an independent sightseeing tour guide in Washington, DC. My passengers enjoy visiting the many important places of interest in our nation's capital. When they get back to the bus, I remind them that the Grand Foyer in the Kennedy Center is 60 feet high, 40 feet wide and 630 feet long, more than the length of two football fields.” I then ask: “What is the biggest room in the world?” Some will say the Grand Foyer that they just saw, the rotunda in the Capitol building or the Superdome in New Orleans, which is 27 stories high, has a circular roof covering 10 acres and a seating capacity of 87,000. I tell them the correct answer is: “Room for Improvement.” (from “Edit-O-Earl,” LCMSENEWS@lcms.org)

The fifteenth chapter of Luke's Gospel contains the three “lost” parables: the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. We usually refer to the last one as the story of the Prodigal Son. The whole chapter, however, begins with the verse above. The words of the parable were aimed at the Pharisees and the scribes, who were dismayed that Jesus, whom they thought to be a rabbi, was hanging out with sinners. Their problem was that they thought everyone had room to improve except themselves.

How often do we suffer from the same defect? One of the most popular book titles in all of pop psychology was “I'm Okay, You're Okay.” Many took the title of the book to mean that we don't need to improve our behavior; we're just fine, just as we are. The book also spawned a whole slew of revealing puns, such as: “I'm Okay; You I'm Not so Sure About.”

Over the next three months, leading right up to Christmas itself, we will be hearing in church a series of warnings from our Savior. The last Sundays in the Church Year, plus the Sundays in Advent, all refer to the fact that Christ is coming again. This time, it will be for judgment, and when He comes everyone will have to give an account. Thus, Paul writes to the Romans: “We will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written: ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knew will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.”

Traditionally, in October we focus on the Reformation which gave birth to the Lutheran Church. The Reformation was an attempt to call the Christian Church back to only power for “Life Improvement:” the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses us from all our sins and makes us righteous before God. This year, and really every year, the best Reformation we can celebrate is the reformation of our own hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, our Lord. And the best way to do that, of course, is to be regular in worship, in Bible Study, and in personal devotions.

Yours, thankful for my improved life in Jesus,