My sins or the sins of my parents?

       How many of us have heard that rousing hymn: "How great thou art"? It is a bit amusing how many times we found ourselves singing that very song but to our own self. How great am I!   Look what I have accomplished! Look at my wonderful children, look how well I have raised them! Look at my house, my car, my school, my neighborhood my this, my that. Look, look, look! Yes how great thou art. 

        There is an errant school of theology that pervades this United States, especially in the conservative right Christian realm, that if you are doing well, it is because God is rewarding you for this or that. That sounds superficially nice but what of the working poor that live good and decent, holy lives? Are they poor by God's hand as well?  We are always looking for reasons, perhaps we always have. Why was the man blind someone asked Jesus, was his own sins or the sins of his parents?

            We may be spending an inordinately large amount of wasted time trying to figure such things out.  Don't you know it does not matter at all?  What matters is what you do with what you have been entrusted with. What matters is how you love.

            So think of the scenario of the average US citizen who makes a decent wage, perhaps less - let's not squabble over it.  But when it comes time to help the poor or perhaps even the immigrants, what do some say? They are poor at their own hands. Let them get out and work. They are lazy some say. Immigrants? Send them away! I will not pay for them? They are sick? Let them come legally, pay taxes or be gone!

           If you are graced you are duty bound to help and not just contribute but to do so generously. Go ahead, Google what all of Scripture says. Help the poor, love one another ( no restrictions ) and welcome the immigrants as you were once such in foreign lands yourselves. Ouch. The sting.  Let us not try to figure out this or that. Accept what you have and share it as God would have you do. Do not squander what you have been graced with, that something that could help a brother or sister. You are the hands of Christ on earth now.

        For fellowship, thankfulness and sharing what we have been graced with, we pray.

Daniel 4:28-37

 All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king said, ‘Is this not magnificent Babylon, which I have built as a royal capital by my mighty power and for my glorious majesty?’ While the words were still in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven: ‘O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: The kingdom has departed from you! You shall be driven away from human society, and your dwelling shall be with the animals of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like oxen, and seven times shall pass over you, until you have learned that the Most High has sovereignty over the kingdom of mortals and gives it to whom he will.’Immediately the sentence was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven away from human society, ate grass like oxen, and his body was bathed with the dew of heaven, until his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers and his nails became like birds’ claws.

 When that period was over, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me.
I blessed the Most High,
   and praised and honoured the one who lives for ever.
For his sovereignty is an everlasting sovereignty,
   and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. 
All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
   and he does what he wills with the host of heaven
   and the inhabitants of the earth.
There is no one who can stay his hand
   or say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ 
At that time my reason returned to me; and my majesty and splendour were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom. My counsellors and my lords sought me out, I was re-established over my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honour the King of heaven,
for all his works are truth,
   and his ways are justice;
and he is able to bring low
   those who walk in pride.