⁴⁷ “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind. ⁴⁸ When the net was full, they dragged it up onto the shore, sat down, and sorted the good fish into crates, but threw the bad ones away. ⁴⁹ That is the way it will be at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked people from the righteous, ⁵⁰ throwing the wicked into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁵¹ Do you understand all these things?”

“Yes,” they said, “we do.”

⁵² Then he added, “Every teacher of religious law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old.”

Matthew 15:47-52

Dear God, the obvious part of today’s gospel reading to focus on would be the parable in verses 47-50, but I want to actually look at verse 52. It’s one thing to be a teacher and another thing to be a disciple. Oh, please, let me be a disciple! I don’t want to be a teacher if I will teach heresy, but I do want to follow you, learn to be more and more like Jesus, and then rest in you and your love, serving you in any way in which you call me to serve.

It’s interesting to find myself in the role of a teacher for others when I have no formal training. But then, even if I had formal seminary training, how much of what I learn there would be errant? Rapture theology, for example. Truth or something made up in the 1800s? Jesus born in a stable. Truth or our conjecture when we layer our 21st-century American sensibilities over the words that are actually given to us. I had breakfast this morning with a friend who went to the Creation Museum and Noah’s Ark Encounter in Kentucky with his family of origin earlier this month. Is everything in their exhibits 100% true? I doubt it. But which parts are wrong. I know that some of my theology is wrong. But which parts?!?

Father, if I teach people anything, I want it to be how to be your disciple in the here and now. Today. If they are your worshipper and becoming more and more like you/Jesus/Holy Spirit today (and then the next day, and the next day, …) then the rest will take care of itself. We need your grace for that. You give it through the part of you that is Jesus and everything he did and continues to do. You give us your presence through your Holy Spirit, whom I pray is here with me now as I pray to you. And as I go through the rest of my day today, help me to be an example of your love and mercy. Help me to encourage others with your voice.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen