SHADYSIDE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Holy God, it is interesting that your apostle John did not say whoever does well is from God.  That would mean that you are behind all of our drives to succeed and do well with the agendas of life.  Clearly this is not your point since Jesus consistently challenged the most successful people he met.  So without even a salute to our grammar, you insist on claiming that those who do good are working on your behalf.

This gets us off a theological hook with breathtaking ease.  We don’t have to fret about the motivations, ideology, or religion of those who are working to do what is obviously good.  Even if they don’t acknowledge your Holy Spirit as the one who planted the seed within them that eventually bore such wonderful fruit, it still came from you.  We Christians can just give thanks for the good accomplished by the Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and even the atheist.  Neither diverse religions nor irreligion are beyond your reach to do your own good work.

So teach me to give thanks for the good in the world without fretting that it did not come from a member of my tribe that worries so much about correct theological grammar.  Amen.