What makes this the kingdom of God is not the quality of the people in it. What makes Lutherans blessed is not, as I once thought, that they’re somehow different from the people in the Church of Christ where I was raised. Rather, what makes us all blessed is that, like the landowner in the parable, God comes and gets us, taps us on the shoulder, and says “Pay attention, this is for you.” Dumb as we are, smart and faithful as we are, just as we are. Which is just what I preached that day.
