the rest of the story

yesterday, my wife and I went to church with my folks (who are members of basically a community church bordering on being charismatic). The preacher/pastor person who spoke seemed to have a good, cohesive message, and used a scriptural example to demonstrate his point. And then he missed the point completely.

His example was of that of Mephibosheth, the grandson of King Saul, who was crippled and exiled at the end of Saul's reign (and life). The claim was that David sought out Mephibosheth and extended grace and mercy to him, even unconditional love. And the comparison was to God's love. The statement that this pastor made over and over again was that "this kind of love is not dependent on the response of the person to whom it is offered" and the message was that God gives us salvation regardless of how we respond to Him.

We all know this is not true. Or do we? I tried to engage my folks in a conversation about this, and they said that it was implied that repentance is part of the story but it just was not explained in the sermon. I know for a fact that several members of my family don't understand the tie to repentance, and I believe very firmly that the importance of repentance is being lost to whole generations (just starting on a second one). So, if those who know just assume that the full story is being told, who will be left in 20 years to speak the truth and tell the rest of the story to those who are lost?

It was just another moment in a sad weekend.....