Thought for the day

This morning's sermon was from the text of the two thieves crucified with Jesus (Luke 23.39-40). I won't go into the finer details of the sermon, but the basic outline was to show the remarkable similarity of the stories of the two people crucified with Jesus, followed by two key differences. One of the similarities is easy to miss; and it was the point the pastor made from that similarity that stuck with me today. One thing they had in common was that they were both men. Now if one was a man and one was a woman, Jesus' turning towards one and away from another could have led people to some horrific conclusions on what the qualifications of inheriting "Paradise" would be. As it happened, they were both men (and both thieves; the same crime) and as such we cannot tie the kingdom to gender (among other "demographics"). But I like how the pastor put it in terms of the life of the Church: "The Church doesn't need another excuse for sexism."