Theme: Why do we call ourselves good? (Or others, bad?)
I really like our sanctuary and this place of worship.
It’s very Christian in some ways
It starts
with the narthex
-a bright,
enlarged space with doors that open to all
-and the
writing is on the wall: “Let the love of
God enfold you.”
It’s an invitation
– not a command nor just a wish,
but an
invitation to anyone who comes,
to let
themselves be drawn into a good/gracious place.
It’s
the love of God – not God’s wrath/judgement
that
we seek to put people in touch with.
No angry
deities on that wall
making
us cower from heaven above
no impersonal
forces
squeezing
the life out of people here below.
That
wall says it’s time for all the world to know
the love of God.
God
loves each one of us – that’s why we are here.
God
loves all others as well – “Everything belongs,”
is how Richard Rohr (a Franciscan brother/spiritual
writer), puts it.
And
it’s the love of God, not our love
that’s the issue here.
It’s
not because
we’re
nice/especially good people
that
we love the world and all life in it.
We may
be that, at times.
But
the basis of our loving/welcoming all –
especially
those who others do not or cannot,
is
what we know of God and of God’s love.
Maybe that’s
why we have two doors into here
through the wall that speaks of God’s
love.
Like
an old-fashioned school house there is
one
door for men and one for women,
two
separate doors for young and old,
for
rich and poor,
for
strong and weak,
two
doors even for good and bad.
There
is a door for anyone
no matter what side of any line you may fall
on.
And
beyond the doors, one sanctuary –
one
place to be together in worship and praise,
one
common and shared place of prayer,
one
place to be together in the presence of God –
because
it’s God’s love, not ours,
that
is the basis of all we do;
it is
God’s goodness, not ours,
that
we come here to remember/ground our lives in
One
problem, though.
The
narthex is not the only way in to the church –
it’s
only 1 of 3 three ways in,
and other
two ways are a lot more ordinary,
not as
mindful of the love and goodness of God,
not as
insistent on reminding us to let go
of
other things we think may qualify us to be here,
or that
we may need to do or be, to give us a place.
I
always come in east-side door, even on Sunday –
and the first
place I go is up to the Minister’s office.
I come
here to work –
aware
of things I need to do,
and
standards I’m expected to live up to.
How
often do you feel same way about being here?
Because even if we come in the front door,
do we
always stop to really feel / see / take note
of
what it is telling us?
Or
does the gospel message on that wall,
and
the gospel feel
of that open, undiscriminatingly welcoming space
become just part of the background of the place –
just a nice decoration?
-----
In my
own church / Christian family upbringing
the
official truth was God’s gracious love for me/all,
but
the more active and powerful message
communicated
in many ways
and
absorbed deep in to my soul
is
that being Christian means
being
good and nice, well-behaved, moral,
not
doing or thinking or even feeling bad things,
not
causing grief to others or to the way things are.
One
thing I really learned in church and in family –
and I
know I’m not alone in this,
was to
lie, cover up,
and hide
things in/about myself that didn’t fit in.
I also
learned to judge /silently exclude those
who
weren’t as good –
or maybe
just not as good at lying
or as
interested in disguising themselves.
A far
cry from what the good news of Jesus
and
the community of Christ are about.
But
that’s what we live with/communicate
especially
when we see Christianity
as a system of morality
and
replace worship of God
with worship – or even idolatry, of
morality.
That’s
what the rich young man is dealing with
in the
story we read today.
Young /
rich he has learned
that in
the world there are winners and losers,
that
good or bad luck aside your fate is pretty well
what you make of it / earn for yourself,
and
that even when it looks like you’ve won
you can never be secure in what you have
won.
So he
comes to Jesus
who
seems to be a Good Teacher, to ask about
winning/losing/security
in God’s kingdom.
He has
done all the good he knows,
but still
feels not secure in his goodness,
so
what other good is there he can do.
Jesus
says two things.
1.why
do you call me good?
There
is none good but God.
In
other words, good/bad
are
not meaningful descriptions of people
even
in the kingdom of God –
maybe
especially in the kingdom of God.
Remember:
there are two doors in,
everyone
and everything belongs,
and
it’s not our goodness, but God’s
that
it’s all about.
2. instead
of trying to be a winner /not a loser,
maybe
what he needs to do is
get
rid of all he has,
all he thinks he has won / relies on / counts
on,
join
the company of destitute / vulnerable –
the apparent losers,
and then
in that place really learn
about love, God, life,
himself
in relation with other people.
“I
think what you need,” Jesus says,
“is to
put yourself in a place where all you can do
is let
yourself be embraced by God’s love;
let the
love of God, for you and for all, enfold you;
then
grow into the real – really true human being
you
are capable of being in the world.”
Not a
command
about one more moral thing he can do
Rather
an invitation
to a new way of being … and of seeing
everything
What
might this mean for us?
What
might Jesus say to us
here/ now, today/in this sanctuary
in our
quest /need to move beyond
the idolatry of morality,
the over-emphasis on Christianity
as being about being good/moral.
3
things came to mind
No
doubt there are more
but 3
is enough for today
1.focus
on the goodness of God –
whenever
we are together/talking about things,
whether
in worship / over coffee /
in
meetings or at dinners,
in our
families or among our friends,
as
much as we can, focus on the goodness of God.
It
might seem a strange thing to have to suggest here
But we
don’t often talk about God.
Sometimes
we talk about everything but God.
Maybe because
some who talk about God,
focus on God as harsh, negative and
judgemental;
or assume a more intimate/cozy knowledge of
God
as their buddy / personal benefactor
than we feel comfortable with .
But
what would happen,
what
change would begin in our life together
and in
how church feels for us and for others,
if we focused
more intentionally /openly
on
God’s goodness?
on the
free-flowing grace of God’s
inexhaustible/ultimately redemptive love for
all?
if we
held/almost repeated as a mantra
that
nice little phrase of Richard Rohr:
“everything
belongs”?
2. to
be honest about ourselves here in church –
honest
about what we think, do and feel
what we need and can give
what we question/ doubt or cannot
believe.
To
move beyond anxiety about
what’s good / bad, what seems acceptable or
not.
To
suspend judgement,
leave that to God in God’s own way and time,
and
just be more open / honest about
who and what and how we are,
in this place of grace and redeeming
love.
One
way of picturing it might be
to see
our Opening Prayer of Confession in worship
as a
sign of how we live all of our life together here –
not in
the sense of always beating ourselves up
with how “bad” we are,
but to
be able to be honest with one another
about how fully human we are
in the
presence of God.
3. to be
open to others –
especially
to the ways God is in /with others,
no
matter who and where and how they are.
Loving
others as God does / because God does,
does
not mean trying to make them / help them
be like us.
This
is a mistake we often make
with people of other religious traditions.
We
made – and still make this mistake
with the First Nations of this land.
We
often – maybe almost always,
make this mistake as parents with our
children.
Do we try
to make people just like us,
because we think
we’ve achieved a special/unique kind of
goodness?
But
why do we call ourselves good?
No one
is good but God.
I
wonder if we can get good at being open
to the ways God is with /in others, apart
from us,
no matter who and where and how
and how different from us they are?
____
Every
time we come to worship –
at
least if we come in the front door
and
take time to really see / feel
the
gospel expressed there,
we are
reminded, “Let the love of God enfold you.”
Let
the love of God for all that is,
be the
cradle and swaddling cloth of your life.
I
wonder what it's like
to be drawn week after week
into that good and gracious a place,
and
then week after week
to let our lives unfold and flow
from the simple and pure awareness
of God’s free / gracious love for all that
is?
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