Wednesday, September 28, 2016

            Driving around Peterborough can be a bit of a challenge these days. It seems wherever you go there is roadwork of some sort or another. In once place it is water-main replacement. In another Bell is working on installing new lines for their Fibe system. In another the City is repairing manhole covers and sewer drains. There is a nearby street that has been under re-construction for months and is still unfinished. Little orange cones are popping up everywhere, like a forest of carrot-y gnome hats blown askew by the wind.

            My question is why do they start something and then not finish the project as expediently as possible? It seems that they are always starting the next thing before they finish what they have been working on.  The City began repairing the curb and sidewalk in front of one of the driveways to my wife’s workplace. It’s not a big job. But it has been over a week and they just got the cement poured for the curb, but not the sidewalk. Who knows when the pavers will arrive!

            We’ve had beautiful weather for working. No more delays, please. Don’t start anything new. Just finish what you’ve started already! This, coming from the Great Procrastinator – namely me.

Jesus told a parable about a man who was building a tower, (Luke 14: 28 -30). It would seem that he may have had quite ambitious plans for a very elaborate tower. He began to build and soon discovered he couldn’t afford the cost to complete the tower. Jesus comments that the man’s predicament is just a little embarrassing. “When he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish it all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’”

Jesus is making a point about Christian discipleship (followership) through this parable. Don’t start down the road with Jesus if you aren’t willing to pay the whole price. Perhaps, one might argue that you and I are always “under construction” in our walk with Jesus and there is indeed truth in that. I am always discovering new and challenging aspects in my Christian faith and practice.

But Jesus was always very honest and forthright about the cost of following him, never shirking from the truth of sacrifice, true grit and even suffering, which to me are the key characteristics of Christian compassion towards others.

It’s fantastic to have the right foundation – faith, prayer, biblical principles, creedal assurances, etc. -  but we are called by Jesus to keep on building up our Christian works (individually and communally) and to strive towards finishing the project(s) of a complete Christian lifestyle and being. “Not that I have already reached this,” Paul wrote, “or have already reached the goal, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own,” (Philippians 3:12).

Some Christians seem to think that their salvation is secure because they have accepted Jesus, and need not do much else after that.  But, in fact, there is much, much more to do so as to increase our loving and grateful response to Jesus Christ’s redemption. “Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means,” (2 Corinthians 8:11).

 

Dale