Will God Accept Us Because We Are Part of a Specific Group of People?

By Rev. Ernest O'Neill

And it is the same in other things, whether it's a grizzly bear attacking the summer camp, or whether it's a tornado coming.  We human beings somehow feel that if we are with a whole lot of other people, perhaps it will not get us!  We are used to the idea that if we sink into the group, at least we will all die together -- whatever comfort that is!  But we feel that if you are in a group, somehow you will be included in the group.

Now it is illogical, irrational, ridiculous, and childish.  But we still tend to run our lives on the basis of those illogicalities.  We know that it is illogical -- for we know that a tornado can kill five thousand as easily as it can kill one.  We know that it is impossible for every member of the class to give their speech all at one time, and that we can’t actually be lost in the group.

So in a sense the group does not protect us.  And yet, the yearning to be in a city full of people when there is disaster coming does indicate that there is that primeval desire in each of us to be saved in a group.  We somehow think that in being part of a group we will be included, in whatever it experiences.

And yet, loved ones, it really is not true.  It does not matter what identification we have with that group.  We can never be saved by that.

The consequences of thinking that are serious enough in this life, because the tornado will kill all of us, or the grizzly bear can get every one of us.  Though the consequences are serious in this life, the consequences of that kind of thinking in regard to our relationship with God are tragic and disastrous!