Locked out of heaven....

 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them."

I've been seeing a lot of 'blind guides' lately.   Talking about how Pope Francis is too liberal.  Saying that if you do this, you won't get to heaven.  If you do that, you'll go to hell.  Blah, blah, blah.  There was even a guy in Hastings last night selling paintings and books talking about eternal destinations. (I don't know if this is bad or good but I think the guy was sincere.)   I know these guys are annoying.   They picket plays.  They produce crazy people like Megyn Kelly and put her on tv.  (Jesus and Santa are white!!)   The truth is that they have always and will always be around.   They will always be around locking people out of the Kingdom of heaven.

Friday this was actually said on facebook to me:

 Facebook person: You're one of the few people who can God-talk and not trigger my gag-reflex.
That was supposed to be a compliment. Did it work? :|December 13 at 5:07pm · Unlike · 1

Sort of.  Kind of like copying and pasting it sort of worked.   The thing is though there's a reason Christianity hasn't faded into the background (in America anyway) and turned into some kind of foot note of history.   This Jesus guy?  He's deliciously radical.  He's a bit nuts.  He keeps drawing us back in by actually (as opposed to just creating another cliche) going against the crowd.  Even today's crowd.  The guy talking about eternal destinations like it's the point.  It's not.  Really.  Heaven is not the point.  It's freaking great, but it's not the point.   The point is making THIS place better.  Ushering in the kingdom of God.

23'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.

To paraphrase, you tithe your salary, you boycott disney movies and throw hissy fits about plays, and you ignore the important stuff like justice, mercy and faith.    We realize this every once in a while and then forget about it.  We even dedicate entire denominations to nit picking and talking about eternal destinations and if you die tomorrow where will you spend eternity.   A lot of people think that's all there is to Christianity because that's all they've ever heard out of it.   Well, we're not all like that.    Some of us actually read the words printed in red in the gospels.   The God-talk isn't all bullshit.

Matthew 23:13-26 (NRSV)
13 'But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them 15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves 16'Woe to you, blind guides, who say, "Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath." 17You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the sanctuary that has made the gold sacred? 18And you say, "Whoever swears by the altar is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar is bound by the oath." 19How blind you are! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20So whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; 21and whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears by it and by the one who dwells in it; 22and whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it. 23'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel! 25'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.

Pay attention to the important stuff first.  Quit nit picking.  Quit straining out gnats.  It's just  little extra protein.