1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,500 Welcome to the Lightly Salted Podcast. 2 00:00:03,500 --> 00:00:08,500 These are the readings and sermons of St. John's Lutheran Church of Park Rapids, Minnesota. 3 00:00:08,500 --> 00:00:16,000 They are offered so that the Word of God would shape and strengthen you to be what He calls you to be, salt and light. 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:19,500 You can find us at stjohnspr.org. 5 00:00:19,500 --> 00:00:22,500 Now, on to the Word. 6 00:00:22,500 --> 00:00:31,500 The Old Testament reading is from the 42nd chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, beginning with verse 14. 7 00:00:31,500 --> 00:00:35,500 For a long time I have held my peace. 8 00:00:35,500 --> 00:00:39,000 I have kept still and restrained myself. 9 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:43,000 Now I will cry out like a woman in labor. 10 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:45,000 I will gasp and pant. 11 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:50,000 I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. 12 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:54,500 I will turn the rivers into islands and dry up the pools. 13 00:00:54,500 --> 00:00:59,000 And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know. 14 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:03,500 In paths that they have not known, I will guide them. 15 00:01:03,500 --> 00:01:07,000 I will turn the darkness before them into light. 16 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,000 The rough places into level ground. 17 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:14,500 These are the things I do and I do not forsake them. 18 00:01:14,500 --> 00:01:22,000 They are turned back and utterly put to shame who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, 19 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:24,500 you are our gods. 20 00:01:24,500 --> 00:01:29,500 Hear you deaf and look you blind that you may see. 21 00:01:29,500 --> 00:01:35,000 Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? 22 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:41,000 Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the Lord? 23 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:45,000 He sees many things but does not observe them. 24 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,500 His ears are open but he does not hear. 25 00:01:48,500 --> 00:01:57,000 The Lord was pleased for his righteousness sake to magnify his law and make it glorious. 26 00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:59,500 This is the word of the Lord. 27 00:01:59,500 --> 00:02:02,000 Thanks be to God. 28 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:09,500 The epistle is from the fifth chapter of St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians beginning with verse 8. 29 00:02:09,500 --> 00:02:18,000 For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. 30 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:25,500 Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. 31 00:02:25,500 --> 00:02:29,000 And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 32 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:35,500 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 33 00:02:35,500 --> 00:02:40,000 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 34 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:45,000 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. 35 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,000 For anything that becomes visible is light. 36 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:57,500 Therefore it says, awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 37 00:02:57,500 --> 00:03:01,000 This is the word of the Lord. 38 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:03,000 Thanks be to God. 39 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:12,500 We omit the hallelujah and the season of Lent, and so I ask you to stand in respect of Christ, of whom the Holy Gospel is read. 40 00:03:12,500 --> 00:03:17,500 The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the ninth chapter. 41 00:03:17,500 --> 00:03:25,000 Glory be to thee, O Lord. 42 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:34,000 As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned? 43 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:38,000 This man or his parents? That he was born blind. 44 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:47,000 Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 45 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:54,000 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day, night is coming when no one can work. 46 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:59,000 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 47 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:05,000 Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. 48 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:14,500 Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent. 49 00:04:14,500 --> 00:04:19,000 So he went and washed and came back seeing. 50 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:23,000 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 51 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:28,000 Now, it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 52 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:32,000 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. 53 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:37,000 And he said to them, he put mud on my eyes and I washed and I see. 54 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:43,000 Some of the Pharisees said, well, this man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. 55 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:48,000 But others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs? 56 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:50,000 And there was a division among them. 57 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:56,000 So they said again to the blind man, what do you say about him since he has opened your eyes? 58 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:59,000 He said, he is a prophet. 59 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:03,000 They answered him, you were born in utter sin and would you teach us? 60 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:05,000 And they cast him out. 61 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:11,000 Well, Jesus heard that they had cast him out and having found him, he said, do you believe in the Son of Man? 62 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:15,000 He answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? 63 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:21,000 Jesus said to him, you have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you. 64 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:24,000 He said, Lord, I believe and he worshiped him. 65 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:34,000 Jesus said, for judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind. 66 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,000 This is the gospel of the Lord. 67 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:45,000 He lives me to the old Christ. 68 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:50,000 Grace to in peace from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. 69 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:53,000 Amen. 70 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:57,000 I'm going to start things off by fessing up. 71 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:01,000 This has been a really difficult Sunday to get ready for. 72 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:08,000 One of the reasons for that is our gospel reading, which would be my natural choice for preaching, 73 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:11,000 was something we just heard preached on on Wednesday. 74 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:16,000 Now I know not everyone was here, but it was the story of the blind man. 75 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:22,000 And it's an appropriate story, especially as we focus on that theme, Amazing Grace, right? 76 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:29,000 Because isn't that one of the key lines, was blind, but now I see. 77 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:33,000 Well, I was ready to basically do a Bible study. 78 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:40,000 Really, honestly, it was going to be one of those walking the aisle moments, which I know some of you really enjoy. 79 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,000 The problem is, I had mentioned that to Ginny, who had a little different context. 80 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:49,000 She said, you know how long those sermons can get. 81 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:53,000 Spot on, that's true. 82 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:59,000 Then I came across this in our, we get a subscription Concordia Pulpit Resources. 83 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:02,000 It's an aid for our church body. 84 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:07,000 And I came across this sermon by pastor, Dr. Peter Scare. 85 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:10,000 He's one of our professors at Fort Wayne. 86 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:17,000 And it really sort of did something for me, besides give me a bunch of good words. 87 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:23,000 But it was interesting because he starts out and we're going to be talking about the photo. Anybody know who that is? 88 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:26,000 Bono from U2. 89 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:30,000 Now, a number of years ago, somebody had put me on to this, and I'm guessing maybe it was John. 90 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:32,000 I don't remember who the conversation was with. 91 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:35,000 I've never really listened to U2. 92 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:39,000 Never really been into a lot of rock and things like that. 93 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:48,000 I mentioned how he has a pretty awesome confession of faith that works its way actually through a lot of their music. 94 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:55,000 And as I did some research then, and I did some more now, having this intro, really long intro, 95 00:07:55,000 --> 00:08:00,000 I can still say, I don't really love the band U2, 96 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:08,000 but I can see how much of a force for good they have actually been in the world, especially Bono. 97 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:17,000 He has been extremely large on charity with his influence as well as with his money. 98 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:22,000 He has been for many years fighting AIDS in Africa and really all around the world, 99 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:28,000 and especially supporting some of those extended problems that come from AIDS, 100 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:33,000 especially the poverty and the widows and the orphans created by it. 101 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:40,000 He's done a lot of work to support charities who are desiring and working hard to alleviate poverty 102 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:44,000 and things like sexual abuse, helping victims. 103 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:49,000 There's 43 major charities that he's supported or started. 104 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:57,000 Number of them he's started himself, including he has a clothing line that's dedicated to using the principles of capitalism to help impoverished nations. 105 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:07,000 His clothing line is dedicated to working with nations and poverty to source his materials from them in order to help them. 106 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:12,000 But probably one of his longest efforts has been supporting Amnesty International. 107 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:20,000 This year is the 15th anniversary of Bono recording John Lennon's 1970 song, Instant Karma. 108 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:30,000 All of the profits from that song are going to Amnesty International, especially at the time of the genocide, 109 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:34,000 the humanitarian crisis that was going on in Dufour, Sudan. 110 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:46,000 As of this last June, the song in physical and digital sales has netted $5.8 million to help alleviate those problems. 111 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:50,000 Now, normally I'm a little cynical about some of these things, 112 00:09:50,000 --> 00:10:01,000 but it really is amazing how Bono has used his star power in order to try to actually bring real help to real people. 113 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:07,000 In an article, actually it's a book a number of years ago, 114 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:13,000 it's a conversation book with a writer from France who asks him questions and he answers. 115 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:18,000 He was asked what drives him, what makes him tick, and Bono answers this. 116 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:30,000 It's a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the universe might be looking for some company, a real relationship with people. 117 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:39,000 But the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between grace and karma. 118 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:47,000 Now, it's no small thing to talk about karma, and there's a lot of striking things in that statement to me, 119 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:58,000 but one of them especially is considering he recorded John Lennon's instant karma song in order to help out Amnesty International. 120 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:00,000 What's the idea of karma? 121 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:04,000 The idea of karma is that what goes around comes around. 122 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:09,000 There's a kind of justice at work in the universe. 123 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:12,000 We all sort of instinctively understand it. 124 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:16,000 It's pretty well exemplified in a viral video a while back. 125 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:25,000 A guy in a truck is sort of tailing a lady in front of him, then he decides to pass her and gives her a very inappropriate gesture, 126 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:30,000 and then just a little bit further on he spins out and goes in the ditch. 127 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:35,000 And we're like, yes, that's what he gets. That's karma. 128 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:37,000 He got what's coming to him. 129 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:44,000 And then on the other side of karma is the pay it forward type of movement, sort of building some good karma. 130 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:52,000 You know, you pay for the guy's cappuccino in the truck behind you, or you pay somebody restaurant tab, 131 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:55,000 and you're building good karma. 132 00:11:55,000 --> 00:12:01,000 You're setting the universe and the motion of the universe in your favor. 133 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:08,000 Bona also says this, you see at the center of all religions, and I would like to just add the word man-made religions, 134 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:11,000 is the idea of karma. 135 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:14,000 You know what comes back to you, an eye for an eye. 136 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:18,000 What you put out comes back to you, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. 137 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:24,000 The physical laws, at every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. 138 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:31,000 So, all of that to say this. 139 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:38,000 So it just so happened that Jesus was walking along and came across a man who was blind. 140 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:48,000 And the disciples ask the karma question, who sinned, this man or his parents. 141 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:55,000 And it struck me today, I hadn't thought about this in prepping for Wednesday, but it really struck me today in the readings, 142 00:12:55,000 --> 00:13:03,000 they say Rabbi, Rabbi, teacher, teacher, we have a great teaching moment here. 143 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:11,000 You settle this question for us, this karma question, who sinned, this man or his parents. 144 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:15,000 And honestly, it's a kind of question we're comfortable with. 145 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:20,000 It's a kind of question that attempts to make sense of the world around us. 146 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:24,000 A man has cancer, well, yeah, he smoked for over 20 years. 147 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:27,000 Kidney problems, liver problems, well, drank too much. 148 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:32,000 Heart attack, well, not enough diet, not a good diet, not enough exercise. 149 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:36,000 Car accident, well, they were driving too fast for the condition. 150 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:40,000 Oh, and that texting, we're never going to do that texting. 151 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:42,000 Right? 152 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:52,000 And so a man born blind, was it because of his sin or the sin of his parents? 153 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:58,000 Rabbi, teacher. 154 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:05,000 And so oftentimes, we take this as a teaching moment. 155 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:09,000 I want to give the karma answer. 156 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:13,000 I'd say, well, one common sin infects us all. 157 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:19,000 And certainly sometimes, individual sins have certain consequences to them. 158 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:23,000 But we don't ever do a one-for-one tit-for-tat. 159 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:26,000 We don't look at it generally that way. 160 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:30,000 But yeah, that's a little bit of how the world functions. 161 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:34,000 But the fact of the matter is, death is going to eventually get each and every one of us, 162 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:39,000 no matter how well we live, no matter how righteous we may be, 163 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:43,000 or at least think we are, we've all sinned. 164 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:45,000 All creation suffers. 165 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:51,000 The world is broken. 166 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:56,000 And that's true enough. 167 00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:01,000 You know, if we give an answer like that, we're speaking truthfully. 168 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:05,000 It is something to understand about the world around us. 169 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:07,000 Yeah. 170 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:08,000 And I like this. 171 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:12,000 I'm pretty sure that the focus of this sermon was a chapel sermon. 172 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:16,000 You speak into seminarians, you know, throwing a little quote from Luther, from Piper, from Walther, 173 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:20,000 and you're going to get an A on that kind of answer. 174 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:24,000 Because it is truthful. 175 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:31,000 But it's sort of interesting to notice that Jesus doesn't even offer some sort of dogmatic answer. 176 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:37,000 Instead, he says it was not this man who sinned or his parents, 177 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:46,000 but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 178 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:50,000 Talk about mind-blowing. 179 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:59,000 Rabbi, his primary teaching is that there is something so much bigger going on here. 180 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:07,000 Sin, with all of its negativity, has actually set in motion a chain of events that ends not with disaster, 181 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:11,000 but with a mysterious blessing. 182 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:15,000 Is that possible? 183 00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:21,000 Well, a lot of times we are very comfortable with the principle of karma, 184 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:25,000 especially when all sorts of good things are happening to us, 185 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,000 but run into a situation like this, 186 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:36,000 how long we want to distance ourselves from karma as best we can. 187 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:40,000 Bono also said if karma was finally going to be my judge, 188 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:46,000 then I'd be in deep, we'll say doodoo, not quite the word he used. 189 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:53,000 But then Bono added, I'm holding out for grace. 190 00:16:53,000 --> 00:17:01,000 I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the cross because I know who I am, 191 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:10,000 and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity. 192 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:16,000 It was never God's plan for man to fall into sin. 193 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:21,000 It was never his intention that there would be illness and death, 194 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:26,000 or that men would be born blind. 195 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:30,000 And yet, in the mystery of his grace, 196 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:38,000 the Lamb who was set apart from before the foundation of the earth, as Peter says, 197 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:44,000 the Lamb who was set apart from before the foundation of the earth, the world, 198 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:51,000 the Lord, took the fallen situation and not only had a plan for it, 199 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:54,000 and not only restoring it, 200 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:57,000 but that plan was to make it better than ever. 201 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:03,000 And by the mystery of the incarnation, by the glory of the cross, 202 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:09,000 we have a better relationship with God than we ever could possibly have had. 203 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:14,000 And we have been able, through these things, to be able to see God as we never could before, 204 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:21,000 face to face in a full and sacrificial love. 205 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:28,000 Confident that something far better than even Eden awaits for us. 206 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:35,000 We have been given a love that has been tested, a love that has been challenged, 207 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:41,000 a love that goes far beyond a mutually beneficial relationship 208 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:44,000 and haven't been forgiven much. 209 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:48,000 What can we do but fall to our knees? 210 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:51,000 Having received a love greater than all earthly loves 211 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:59,000 and having been shown a grace that is so much more beautiful than karma. 212 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:06,000 What can we do but follow our rabbi, our Savior, 213 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:14,000 the one who takes us from mere creatures and turns us into children of the Heavenly Father. 214 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:20,000 And He does this in the midst of a world that is still so lost in its blindness. 215 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:23,000 A world that can't see things for what they are. 216 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:31,000 A world that would take the water of the font and consider it just like spittle. 217 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:34,000 Not worth much. 218 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:39,000 But for us, for eyes open to the grace of God demonstrated in Jesus, 219 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:42,000 that becomes a life-giving water. 220 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:46,000 A water that's flowing from the very throne of God. 221 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:54,000 Flowing from the Lamb who once was slain but now lives forever and ever. 222 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:58,000 The world sees bread and wine, 223 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:03,000 but we receive everything we don't deserve 224 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:12,000 as we see the body and blood of the Lamb into ourselves. 225 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,000 Ono's right. 226 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:21,000 It is actually a miracle that the God of the universe is seeking out the company of folks like us. 227 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:24,000 But that's what he's done. 228 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:26,000 What happened to the man born blind? 229 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:30,000 Well, we know that he became an outcast. 230 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:33,000 His own parents distanced themselves from him. 231 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:36,000 The community ostracized him. 232 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:39,000 But the Lord went the extra mile. 233 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:41,000 He sought him out again. 234 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:44,000 This man who knew that he had been healed by Jesus 235 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:50,000 but had no clue who Jesus was because he hadn't seen him in the healing. 236 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:52,000 Our Lord sought him out. 237 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:56,000 And He took his friendship and His mercy and His grace 238 00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:05,000 and turned it into full communion with this man who was blind and now sees. 239 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:11,000 So yeah, sometimes karma seems sort of cool. 240 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:15,000 But you know, we all admit how karma would turn out for us. 241 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:19,000 We do it whenever we gather and confess our sins. 242 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,000 When we speak the truth of what God has spoken to us. 243 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:30,000 When we say that all I deserve is earthly and eternal punishment. 244 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:35,000 But what I get is grace. 245 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:41,000 So with this one I'm with Bono, I'd rather have the grace. 246 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:48,000 And having that grace, it is to impact us and change us. 247 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:52,000 There is one more quote that I'd come up and I'd forgotten to put in 248 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:54,000 because it's fascinating. 249 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:57,000 This conversation he has is fascinating. 250 00:21:57,000 --> 00:21:59,000 He says this, 251 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:03,000 the point of the death of Christ is that Christ took the sins of the world 252 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:08,000 so that we, what we put out did not come back to us 253 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:12,000 and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. 254 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:13,000 That's the point. 255 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:15,000 It should keep us humble. 256 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:19,000 It's not our good works that get us through the gates of heaven. 257 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:22,000 And then a little bit later he said, 258 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:26,000 if only we could be a bit more like him. 259 00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:30,000 The world would be transformed. 260 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:36,000 Transformed by grace, not karma. 261 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:40,000 Amen. 262 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:44,000 May the peace of God which transcends all understanding 263 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:47,000 keep your hearts and your minds in Christ 264 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:50,000 who demonstrates grace in that karma. 265 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:53,000 Amen. 266 00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:55,000 Thanks for listening to Lightly Salted. 267 00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:57,000 We'd love to hear from you. 268 00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:00,000 You can contact us at StJohn's PR.org 269 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:04,000 or look for us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. 270 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:08,000 Our thanks to Eric Mediash at soundimage.org for morning due. 271 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:14,000 God's blessings.