Where are the tax collectors and prostitutes?

What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
” ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

All too often, we have this imagined “line in the sand,” those who go to church and those who do not. As a christian, somehow we are better than the rest of those sinners “out there.” Don’t get me wrong, going to church, learning about God and publically acknowledging God is a good thing. But I think Jesus has some other thoughts to add…
He mentions two sons. What each son says to the father and then what each one does. He contrasts the two sons against one group, Experts in the law (probably the Pharisees) and the other group, tax collectors & prostitutes (rebels & outsiders). Notice that Jesus never makes mention of any differences in status between the two sons. The father in the parable seems to treat both sons equally. But the two sons react differently to the father’s request.
The first son first verbally rejects the father’s request. But after a period of time, the first son does as the father requests. The second son initially promises to do his father’s bidding, but ends up not doing as he promised. So one son denies the father’s request, but the other son is doing nothing more than lip service. (“Sure…” “No problem.” “uh-huh.” “I’ll get to it.”) Neither one of the sons is shown in a positive light. For the longest time, I thought this parable was only to put down religious people, but after more consideration, there’s plenty of god-smack to go all around.

Things that stand out to me:

1. Respectibility & dignity means little without the action to back it up.
2. A sinner is a sinner is a sinner. (It’s all about the grace, baby.)
3. God cares for gangsters & street walkers too…

Application

• Care more about pursuing God’s goals than my own pride / respect / face.
• No “holier than thou” B.S. (Grace and only grace covers over our sins.)
• Going to church doesn’t make you a christian any more than being in a garage makes you a car. (Live it out!)

======= Online Tidbits =======

LiNK
OAK’s Family Group

== EDIT 1.0 ==

I was looking through my footprints and I found that someone was actually looking at my very first posts. So I went back there to see what was so interesting… and I’ve decided to dig up my very first baby step on xanga. Waddayathink?

Haiku of the day:

Office Worker

Sitting quietly,
my brain screams for something
to break down the beige.

=== Edit 1.1 ===

The cuteness from the clip was so pervasive that I feel the need to do something manly now… like push-ups or something. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

ok, ok…. I confess, this video o’cuteness was jacked from knugget. Please refer any recurring dreams of fobby-cuteness (as well as eprops) to her. :-p