Arrogance of the Saved

August 11, 2024 | The Rev. Dan Puchalla, Priest-in-Charge

I think about this cartoon a lot, ever since I saw it floating on social media many years ago, when I was still on social media. It’s just too funny and too true of us religious folk and our institutuions. Confidence in God's love for us so easily becomes an occasion for thinking that God loves only us. Assurance that the Spirit reveals to us the truth quickly leads us to think we have the monopoly on truth. Such is the temptation when reading a line from this week’s gospel: Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me.” It’s so easy to read this to mean that, if we are followers of Jesus, that means that God has specially chosen us and only us.

Too bad for everyone else. Jesus is so lucky to have us!

As we’ll see, though, Jesus actually meant the complete opposite of this thinking when he said this. In fact, Jesus’ teaching this Sunday helps us drill down into the root of such religious arrogance.