Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, February 3, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Lip service just doesn’t cut it. I’m good with words. I love them, in fact. They’re the pallet I use to paint pictures with. But no amount of wordsmithing, no critical mass of devotions or prayers I write, are going to get me into heaven.
You know what’s going to get me into heaven?
God.
“But,” you might say, “Jesus says doing the will of God is what gets you into heaven.”
Except who can do that without God? Who can even be certain what the will of God is? I don’t have faith apart from the Holy Spirit. I can’t discern right from wrong without the Holy Spirit. And even with all three persons of God pulling for me with all their divine power, I’m gonna miss the point and mess up now and again. (And again and again).
Yes, I love my job writing about God, reflecting on scripture, constructing liturgies, telling the stories for kids. And yes, I believe this is God’s will for my life at least for the moment. But even so, it doesn’t earn me a free pass to heaven.
No, the free pass was issued when Jesus went all the way to hell and back for us a couple millennia ago. And it’s for everyone, without exception. So I’m not even going to mention the old “actions speak louder than words” cliché, unless it’s to say that Jesus’ actions have spoken loud enough to drown out death forever. The end.
Do I ever feel like I have to do things “right” in order to be gifted with eternal life?