Never Mind Normal
Published in the Omaha World Herald’s “From the Pulpit”
May 25, 2025
Reverend Eric L. Jay
“Never Mind Normal”
It is an exciting time of year for many people and families around the nation. Students of all ages and their families celebrate the culmination of years of hard work, study, learning, and achievement. We just finished our graduation celebrations at St. Mark Lutheran School, Preschool, and Childcare!
Jesus’ words in John 13-16 could be considered a commencement speech, but not like one you have heard or would expect. While most commencement speeches focus on the greatness within the graduates, Jesus tells his disciples (in my summation), “You’re not ready for what’s coming. You’re going to fail more than you think. You don’t know what you don’t know yet. What you think you know is incomplete. You’re going to have trouble in this world, and you’re incapable of handling it alone. But take heart, I go before you to conquer it all for you. Just follow me. I will never leave you or fail you.”
The disciples made a true confession of faith. They did believe in Jesus and that He came from God, but they had no idea what living by that faith would mean in this sinful and broken world. They could not comprehend just how uncomfortable and how abnormal it would be to live faithfully for God in a world that has forsaken Him.
It certainly isn’t normal today for someone to live their life for Jesus on Monday like they do for an hour on Sunday morning. It isn’t normal today for people to consider their education, job, family, and all of life to be a call from God and the means through which He wants His Gospel to be heralded. It isn’t normal today for people to consider the ministries, events, and fellowship of the church to be the reason they cancel all other plans. It isn’t normal today for parents to raise their children and manage their time and commitments as if their child’s faith and relationship with Jesus is more important than school, sports, dance, TV, video games, or any of the other hundreds of distractions present in our children’s lives. It certainly isn’t normal today for people, or families, or even churches to live out their lives in reverent fear of the sure and certain yet unseen events that are coming in the final Day of the Lord.
Seeing the perfect Son of God hanging on a criminal’s cross, being faithful to His Father even to the point of pouring out His righteous blood for the sins of the world that He did not commit, paying a penalty He did not deserve and a debt He did not owe, is anything but normal. Yet, our hope of salvation and eternal life is found only through faith in the miraculous death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Living by faith in Jesus and anticipating His imminent and final return is definitely not normal. But never mind “normal.” Normal is what will be judged by God. Don’t worry about changing the world, Jesus has already overcome it. Instead, worry first about your soul before God. Worry about the soul next to you if you want to change the world. If you want to do something truly meaningful and eternally significant, be abnormal, live by faith in Jesus Christ as you eagerly await His salvation, and dare to love people enough to speak the Truth of God’s Word.