When someone says that all religions are the same and lead to the same place - that is like saying all drinks taste the same because they are all water based. To believe anyone can believe anything and wind up in the same place is illogical and dangerous. It does matter what you believe and why you believe it - not just because Jesus says, "no one comes to the Father except through Me" in John 14:6 - but because your soul cries out for a single truth that satisfies as nothing else can because it is THE truth.

To ask the question, "Why THIS Faith?" is to recognize there is a truth beyond all other truths. It is not enough to just hope and wish and follow the crowd. It matters what you believe and why you believe it.

Moses asked God, "what is Your Name? If I am going to go and do what you are asking me to do - then I must know your name so I can tell people Your name!" If you want a simple paraphrase - "I need to know You are who I have been looking for and who the world is looking for."

Frederick Buechner said, “their sainthood (and ours) consists less of what they have done than what God has for some reason chosen to do through them. When you consider that St Mary Magdalene was possessed by seven devils, that St Augustine prayed, "Give me chastity and self-control, but not now," that St Francis started out a high-living rebel in downtown Assisi, and St Simeon Stylites spent years on top of a sixty-foot pillar trying to get away from people - maybe there's nobody God can't use as a means of grace, including us.”

To fully understand what it means to be a saint - the first thing is to stop thinking it’s all about us. C.S. Lewis said, "humility is not thinking less about yourself, it's about thinking about yourself less." Apple trees, rose bushes, sunrises and ocean waves don’t sit around saying, “how can I do something great so I get noticed” - they just do what God called them to do - and all of us go "ooh and ahh.

The time to read God's Word - to let it dwell in your heart and soul and marinate - is not when the lightning is flashing and thunder is booming and the world is coming apart. The time to read God's Word is when all is well - or at least a few things are well with the world and we have five minutes every other day or so to spend with God. Then, when the lightning flashes and thunder booms and world comes apart - instead of running away to find a Bible and frantically thumb through it hoping to find some good news - we run toward the lightning and the thunder as the world comes apart because we know "nothing can separate us from the love of God we have in Christ Jesus, our Lord." It doesn't mean we have all the answers - it means we know who does and He is holding us in His hands.

God does not give answers - He gives Himself. He is the answer. He is the Word we seek, the One that will fell satan.

To sentimentalize something is to cling to how we feel about something or someone instead of holding to the truth. The greatest challenge is accepting that WE are the problem. We may try to point to a particular person or group or church or belief system and how they need correcting - but the truth is none of us are perfect and we all need correcting. That is why Jesus left heaven, get born in a stable, dealt with all our garbage, suffered, died and got resurrected. He didn't do it for "them" - He did it us in the extreme plural.

Sin and grace, lostness and foundness, darkness and light, pain and joy - we divide the world up by these things - but the truth is - where these things come together, that's where the Gospel happens.

We carry around the darkness and sin and pain of this world like a snail carries his shell. We know it's there - but we don't have to look it. We feel the weight of the shell but can still pretend it isn't there. We occasionally try to slide underneath something and discover we don't fit because our shell is too big - but even then we just look for another way in rather than deal with the reality of our shell.

The Christian faith is based on death and resurrection. We die and we rise again. Not just when we take our last breath, but every single time we confess our sins we die to those things that would suck us into the darkness forever - and then God raises us up again and again to new life. At least that is the way it is supposed to work - but sometimes we get sidetracked - and instead of dying and rising, we spend our time pointing out the sins of others and making fun of them so we don't have to deal with the pain and pressure of our sinful shell.

It takes faith to trust in this Book and I know that doesn't always come easy. Just a reminder - this book doesn't save you - no book on earth or in the heavens can do that. What saves you is Jesus and only Jesus. This book just opens up your heart and soul to the amazing story of God's love for you. When you get to heaven you won't need a Bible any more - because as St. John said in his Gospel, "in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God..." - and John wasn't talking about this Book - He was talking about Jesus.

Your challenge this month is to re-engage with God’s Word - read it, study it, mark it up, create a list of questions - for in so doing, you will also engage with Jesus - and that will change your life - and then you get to go out and make a difference in this world.

Can you see what Jesus is sharing with us? If we want to build a perfect kingdom on earth - and put a big gate around it to keep all the bad people out - God will let us. But it may be all we get. Lazarus didn't have to be poor or homeless or dying - he could have been me or you waiting at the bus stop outside the gate on our way to work or driving past the gates taking our kids to school. It isn't Lazarus poorness that gets him into heaven - it's his reliance on God's grace and mercy - which is why the rich man isn't excluded based upon his wealth. We - no matter who we are - "are saved by grace, through faith - and it isn't our work - so none of us can boast - it is the gift of God" - that's what Jesus is trying to get across to us - just how much God loves you - in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

One of my favorite Eugene Peterson quotes is, "when Jesus told parables the people all stood around listening and applauding and when He was done they shouted, 'great sermon - loved it - really spoke to my heart.' The truth was they weren't really listening and had no idea what He was saying - until later that night when they were sitting around relaxing and suddenly - like a time bomb - the truth of the parable plowed through their brain like a runaway freight train. Jesus was talking about them. He snuck a story about them - a not so nice story about them - into the sermon. And now they have to wrestle with it."