One of my dad’s problems is that he has lost all of his eyesight. Now I read his mail to him. His church (which is Lutheran) sends him the sermon and the bulletin each week he doesn’t attend. He didn’t go last week, so I read the sermon to him. It was quite difficult to simply read it to him without comment (although I’m sure the tone of my voice conveyed much).

Following the old Lutheran practice, the text is not taken from the readings for the day and the text is but one verse. In the case the text was “Come, enter the kingdom the Father has prepared for you since the beginning of the world!”(If that isn’t verbatim, it’s very nearly so, as I’m going from memory of the odd new translation his congregation uses). The homilist went to great pains to stress that the separation between sheep and goats had absolutely nothing to do with what they did – despite the appearances given by the preceding verses! He couldn’t simply grasp that those who are of the Kingdom of necessity do at least some of the King’s will while those outside it don’t. It’s the central failing of Lutheranism – the maniacal antipathy toward anything that might be called “works righteousness”. It’s quite frustrating to see it in its native inaction.