Rev. Don Erickson

My mom is profoundly faithful. She struggles with Parkinson’s, her body has gotten weak, her frame as skinny as can be, her muscle control very limited. But her faith, it is as strong as ever. Her life of prayer as alive and as potent as ever. Her love of God as real as ever.  There’s something else that hasn’t waned as a result of Parkinson’s. Her belief in the reality of the end times. Almost every time she sees me, she’ll say the Lord’s coming back soon, implying that I be ready. Now, she’s been saying this since I was 5 in 1976! And folks like her have been saying it since the beginning of time. But that we be spiritually ready whatever the case may be – that is always good advice. Jesus, Paul, and the early Christians all believed the Kingdom was coming very soon, at any moment.  In our gospel reading Jesus is pointing to the end times when he will return again to forge God’s kingdom. What my mother makes indirect – you better be ready – Jesus makes direct.  "Be dres...

Do you treasure Christ? You get his message. You hear the gospel reading and you likely nod along. Yes, as Jesus notes, treasuring material things is a sad predicament. We can only gather so much, and we know deep in our hearts we can’t take it with us. What’s more, material things don’t embrace us or cry with us in our grief. To treasure material wealth means a sad, empty existence. Thankfully most of us treasure simpler things – the togetherness of our families, the enjoyment of a meal with friends, the love and companionship of a life partner. But let me ask you and myself, too – do we treasure Christ? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this metaphor, the metaphor of a water tank and a fish. For a fish, the water it swims in is all there is. Water for a fish is essential to its existence. The water it swims in is its world. To treasure Christ means to value him so much that he becomes the water, the living water, we swim in. The Evangelical Christian tradition informed my childho...