The Weekly Update page is extracted from a weekly e-mail sent out by
Assistant Pastor Donna Pollock
Vacation Bible Camp 2019 is history. But for the eleven children who gave their lives to Jesus and asked him to be their savior and shepherd, this is only the beginning! Four more adults (little ones, according to Jesus) were added to this number during the Sunday worship. Fifteen new converts, little lambs, or disciples of Jesus. Isn’t this great?! All heaven is rejoicing. Everything stops in heaven above when one, tiny, stray sheep is located. Everyone begins to whoop and holler with ecstatic praise to God. Greatness has to start somewhere. For some it starts at VBC; for others it starts in the park. Where did God’s greatness overtake you?
Who is the greatest? St. Paul, acclaimed author of much of our New Testament, and whom some ascribe as next to Jesus himself, describes himself as the “least of the apostles” and “chief of all sinners.” So he, personally, disavows any claim to “greatness.” As the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament approaches, some posit Roger Federer as the G.O.A.T., or “greatest of all time.” Or, Tom Brady as the best football quarterback ever.
How ironic to think that when it comes to sheep and goats in the scriptures, the Bible holds goats in low esteem. It’s not the goats that get to go along with the Good Shepherd, but the sheep. The goats are cut out and separated. In the Hebrew Scriptures it’s the fate of the scape-goat to symbolically assume the sins of the people, then to be driven off from the company of others. Cut off from others (the community, the herd), the goat will not survive. Sheep: good; goats: bad.
When Jesus was asked who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven, he put forward a child and commended a life of humility. No one greater, he said. “Unless you become like such little ones, you won’t even be admitted!” That is, don’t even think about who is number one. Instead of being the G.O.A.T., you might be the goat.
Pastor Jeff