Rev. Don Campbell

THOUGHT FOR TODAY, MAY 27, 2017: I WON! —WELL SORTA

With the same skepticism with which I have always opened mailings from sweepstakes offering—if I open them at all, I opened the letter to discover that I had won up to $2400. Several checks were made payable to me in the amount of $400, six of which

I could cash—well, sorta. I could not endorse them and deposit them in my checking account. Each was good toward the purchase of such things as overpriced laptop computers, camcorders, and other desirable merchandise, merchandise which can be bought at Walmart or similar stores for much lower prices without the $400 check.

While this is just another advertising gimmick to separate the greedy or gullible from their money, it also may be seen as a metaphor for much that is peddled today in the name of religion. It is, I believe, the false glittery and glitzy promises made by religions that pander to greed and capitalize on gullibility that turns many people off to religion.

Jesus never promised that we would be the sweepstakes winners of a life of health, wealth, and earthly glory. Quite to the contrary, he warned of trials, persecutions, and all kinds of hardships. This is not a gloom and doom gospel in contrast to a health and wealth gospel. It is the gospel of reality. But it is also the gospel of promise, which proclaims that we win no matter what life may throw at us if we live by faith: “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4, ESV)

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:37-39)

We do not “sorta” win in Christ. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us and gave himself for us.