A Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 15:1-24
The leader of a very small denomination made the prediction that he would not die before the end of the world comes. But then he did die. The following Sunday the people wondered what the local pastor would say. He opened his Bible to Exodus 32: “God has changed his mind.” The people of Israel had turned to worship a golden calf and the Lord said: “I’m going to destroy them all and start over with you, Moses.” Moses begs him not to do this, and the Lord not only changes his mind, he repents! (Exodus 32:19)
In the following chapter it says: “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (Exodus 33:19). In a similar way in Isaiah 55:8-9, God says: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
