From time to time I have, as most pastors do, a conversation with someone about his or her relationship with God. Most often it is during pre-baptism or pre-marital counseling. Quite often it becomes rather apparent that while these people believe in God they feel very far from him. For many there is a certain amount of fear in their understanding of how God wants to relate to them. It then is my joy to share with them how the incarnate God came to die so that they might be forgiven and receive eternal life. At this point it is my prayer that they will hear this as good news. I try to help them see that they can move from religion to a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ. For some it seems too good to be true. They remain locked in with a distant faith that doesn't change their reality.

One of my pastor friends, Ray Farness, said many years ago in a sermon, "Though vicarious suffering saved us, vicarious faith will not do us any good." Instead, Ray says, we must become like the little girl who came home from church and told her mother that the pastor had spoken about her in his sermon. She said that in fact the pastor had read her name from the Bible. The mother couldn't really believe what she was hearing, so she asked her daughter what verse the pastor had read. She said that it was that verse that says, "Jesus receives sinners and 'edith' with them." We should all hear him speak our names and believe that the gift of the cross is just for us.

Reprinted from By the Obedience of One (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House), p. 80.