Psalm 25:1-7, Deuteronomy 6:4-9 2 Timothy 4:6-8 and John 7:14-17

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith ...” I’ve heard those words from Second Timothy read at a lot of funerals, but there’s one thing that’s not often said about them. They’re more a credit to God than they are to Paul.

I’ve said it in funeral sermons again and again, but I need to repeat it. A central tenet of our faith is that we can’t save ourselves. No matter what we do, no matter how good we are, no matter how willingly we suffer or how well we do it, we can’t earn, or even more than that, deserve, God’s love.

God chose to love us even before we knew of his existence, even before we were born or were a gleam in our parents’ eyes, and that’s one reason Paul’s words are more a cred…