For years a certain preacher’s father refused to go to church and kept saying that all they wanted there was his name and his money. When he lay dying in hospital, flowers arrived from that same congregation, and he wrote three words on a card: I was wrong. That story opens a sermon about the parables in the twenty first chapter of Matthew (Matthew 21). Jesus tells there of two sons and of the tenants of the vineyard, showing that the invitation to the kingdom goes out to everyone, but what counts is what a person actually does with it. Listen if you have been holding God’s invitation for a long time and still have not answered.
Invited to the Kingdom
Between the Words
When Jesus taught, he often told seemingly simple stories called parables. At first glance, they resembled IMAGES of everyday life. However, when his listeners looked closely at them, those IMAGES became MIRRORS in which they could see their own faces. And as they continued to look at them, the MIRRORS became WINDOWS through which they could view life from a completely new perspective, because in these stories, somewhere BETWEEN THE LINES, important lessons about God and life are hidden.
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