I got my braces off this week. Tuesday morning around 9am.
The technician made a form of my teeth now and told me to come back
for my retainer around 4pm that evening.
Having braces has been painful at times, two years of getting my
teeth in line was harsh. But the pain was deep, not sharp. It was
tolerable and Advil took off the edge.
I cried Tuesday evening. In those 7 hours my teeth had moved
profoundly.
As I drove home in pain I realized that has been my experience
with faith...I go to church, get straightened,
redirected, in line with others... and then I go home
and want to go back to what I've been until that
moment. And I wonder why there is pain in my
life.
Dave Barry is one of my favorite humor writers. He offers sixteen
things that it took him 50 years to learn.
- You will never find anybody
who can give you a clear and
compelling reason why we observe daylight-savings time.
- You should never say anything to a woman
that even remotely
suggests you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby
emerging from her at that moment.
- The most powerful force in the universe
is gossip.
- The one thing that unites all human beings,
regardless of age,
gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that,
deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average
drivers.
- There comes a time when
you should stop expecting other people
to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age 11.
- There is a very fine line between
"hobby" and
"mental illness."
- People who want to share their religious views with you
almost
never want you to share yours with them.
- If you had to identify,
in one word, the reason that the human
race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential,
that word would be "meetings."
- The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests
is to
annoy people who are not in them.
- When God,
who created the entire universe with all of its
glories, decides to deliver a message to humanity, He WILL NOT
use, as messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad
hairstyle.
- You should not confuse your career
with your life.
- A person who is nice to you,
but rude to the waiter, is not a
nice person.
- No matter what happens,
somebody will find a way to take it too
seriously.
- When trouble arises and things look bad,
there is always one
individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command.
Very often, that individual is crazy.
- Your friends love you, anyway.
- Nobody cares if you can't dance well.
Just get up and
dance.
I have a number 17 to add to this list...
You can be united with people around negative...criticism,
complaint, name-calling, degrading... and this is very easy to
attain and cultivate.
Or you can build relationship with people around
positive...cooperation, communication, support... this is more
difficult...but is the road we must take.
I want to talk today about developing a soul. It is easy to
say, "No, that's not soul..." like a hiking guide
telling you what isn't the path... but until I can tell you
what the path is so you can see it and walk it, then I'm not doing my
job.
So today we're going to begin working out exactly what the path
looks like.
And let me warn you...it doesn't come in a wrapped up package.
Today I'm not really going to end with a nice concluding
statement.
I'm just going to end.
Soul work is that way... it's not neat, it requires you to do your
own stuff.
When George Washington died, almost exactly 200 years ago, the
people of the United States did a very unusual thing.
They held separate funeral services in villages all across the
country, and at the center of each funeral was an empty coffin.
The funerals were attended by people who had never met President
Washington or each other,
but they all shared a respect for the father of our country.
When we think about the cross, the means of death for
Jesus...there are crosses in churches all around the world, often
"empty" crosses that remind us that Jesus has been raised
to new life.
But the cross is just the means of death.
I took a confirmation class to a Jewish Temple for service one
Friday night.
The Rabbi recognized us as outsiders and came to welcome us after
the service.
He took us on a tour of the temple, even showed us the Torah.
The kids had questions, "Why is Hebrew right to left?"
One girl had a bomb of a question, " Why don't Jews believe
in Jesus?"
"We do believe in Jesus..." the Rabbi said,
"We do believe he existed, walked the earth and is
certainly more than a prophet. Where we differ with you is
that we have not deified Jesus in the way the Christian church has
done."
So who is Jesus to you? Have you given any thought to this?
I'm sure there are some of you who feel the same way as the
Rabbi. I'm sure there are others for whom Jesus is God in our midst.
And I'm also sure there are some who are saying, "Tell us,
Jonathan, what to believe."
Nope. Ya gotta do your own thinking on that one.
If you ask me which of those describes my belief I have to say,
"Yes."
Both are biblically arguable, both have problems.
For instance if you believe Jesus was just a man, what do you do
with the idea of Jesus dying for the sins of the world?
Conversely, if you believe Jesus was God in our midst, what hope
is there for me, a man, to follow him. If it takes God to make that
commitment, how can I be expected to swing it?
I'd like to invite you to break into groups... who is Jesus to
you?
In our text today Peter offers us three ideas that I think are
foundational to growing a soul.
First, Peter points out that Jesus loved us so much,
he saw us as sinners to die for.
Christianity has a vision: We all belong to one another.
Our sin is the sin of separation...putting asunder what God has
joined together.
Am I my brother's keeper? No, but you are your brother's
brother, or my sister's brother, or my sister's
sister or my brother's sister.
Human unity, black, white, yellow, red, stupid, smart... all of
us, we all belong to one another.
We're not called on to create unity on this planet... we're called
on to recognize the unity that is in the creation and live
accordingly.
It requires us all to be clear about our value... human value is
not an achievement, but a gift.
It's not because we have value that God loves us, but because we are
loved that we have value.
God's love doesn't seek value, it creates value.
I saw a woman at the mall a while back with big hair. Said to
myself, "Big hair went out in 1987...c'mon lady, get with the
program."
Do you hear it? I was valuing her based on her hair....not her
inherent value.
I think much of the suffering we bring on ourselves comes because
we are not clear about our inherent value.
God loves everyone equally, and our job as Christians is to do
the same.
And we're failing at it.... not even a shadow of Christ's
example.
Though, that's not so bad either....if we are not linked in
love...and are linked in sin.
To be unified in sin. Paul said it this way, "All have sinned
and fallen short..."
This is an incredible statement of our relationships with each
other.
If we're no longer unified in love, at least we're united in our
sin, in our need for grace..
Which is not a mean bond...as it does away with self-righteousness.
Peter's not through. The cross also has morphing
power.
Jesus died in the flesh, but was raised in the spirit
(1 Peter 3:18),
a reminder of our own morphing potential when we say
"no" to the destructive forces within us, and
"yes" to the restructive power of the Spirit.
There's more. Don't get mad - get to work.
"Who will harm you if you are eager to do what is
good?" he asks
(1 Peter 3:13).
Cross Christians may suffer as they
interface with others in the public square, but Peter's advice has
logic:
If you're going to take some heat, take it for doing good, not
evil.
Don't waste your energy on useless information or lost causes.
Get down. Get dirty. Get busy.
Peter's final hinge point is equally cogent: Don't wait -
initiate .
"As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use
your freedom as a pretext for evil. Honor everyone. Love the
family of believers. Fear God"
(1 Peter 2:16-17).
I'm gonna stop there and let you chew on growing a soul.
Peace to you.
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