Your Remarkable Life

The church’s new secretary, Gail, lived in Kansas for awhile. When she learned that I was born in the medical hospital at the University of North Carolina and that I am a devoted UNC basketball fan, she assured me that the Kansas Jayhawks would crush my beloved Tar Heels last Saturday night. She even challenged me. "Wanna bet?" "I guess. What’s the bet?" "Lunch." "Ok. You’re on." Of course, as you sports fans have so helpfully reminded me, the unthinkable happened on Saturday night. Carolina fell apart and Kansas won a stunning victory to advance to the national championship game which they won. At a meeting after church on Sunday, one of the deacons passed me this folded note. On the outside it read, "My Deepest Sympathy . . ." Inside, it continued, "On the loss of UNC to Kansas ! You are in our prayers!" Sweet people in this church. On Monday morning I walked into my office, sat down to make phone calls, looked up and found this Kansas Jayhawks photo posted on my book case. After awhile, I opened my credenza for some materials, only to be greeted by another one. And then I finally walked into my bathroom and tried to look in the mirror, but I couldn’t. There was another one taped to the mirror. I think Gail is really going to enjoy her new secretarial position at the Baptist church, don’t you?

Sometimes it’s easy to tell who the enemy is. Just look for the red and blue Jayhawk. Or in those old cowboy movies, the bad guys wear black hats. In movies today, the enemy is often signaled by ominous-sounding music. In some movies, like the Star Wars series, the enemy even has his own wicked theme music. We know right away who the enemy is.

And in real life it’s often fairly simple to identify the enemy. Drive down an inner city street or through a depressed rural countryside. See the enemy of grinding poverty and despair as plain as day. Turn on the television. See images of that polygamist compound in West Texas where those women and children were abused. Flip the channel. Hear one more breathless pitch for some item guaranteed to make us happy worshiping at the altar of materialism. Or listen to the novelist Walker Percy. He wrote, "Death in this century is not the death people die but the death people live. [People] love death because real death is better than the living death. That’s why [they] like wars of course . . . Why do people settle so easily for lives which are living deaths? [People] either kill each other in war, or in peace walk as docilely into living death as sheep into a slaughterhouse." (Walker Percy, The Second Coming, 246.) Sometimes it’s easy to tell who the enemy is.

But sometimes it’s not so clear. Jesus said, "Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit." Who were/are these thieves and bandits Jesus talked about? That’s not so clear.

One of the elders and I attended a meeting of the Presbytery of the Western Reserve a couple of weeks ago. We spent part of the evening listening to a report concerning a congregation in our presbytery that wants to leave our denomination. They want to become a part of another denomination, one I’d judge to be very close to fundamentalist in theology. The congregation’s leaders allege that our denomination no longer affirms the essential tenets of the Christian faith. So, in response, the presbytery gave a 45 minute report about our denomination’s theology and government. (I thought it was excellent). Then one of the elders from this disaffected congregation spoke. He carried a Bible into the pulpit, held it up, and explained that their congregation believes what’s in the Bible. He made it clear that his church is being faithful to God, and we in the Presbyterian Church (USA) are not. I found his comments to be simplistic and heartbreaking. In our congregation we teach confirmands and new members a few basics for interpreting the Bible faithfully. But not once did I hear this elder talk about any criteria for proper biblical interpretation. Not once did I hear him acknowledge that, in addition to Scripture, we also employ other sources of authority when we make faithful ethical decisions. Not once did I hear him admit that the church’s understanding about slavery, women, and a host of other subjects has changed for the good over the years. How sad. Am I a thief or bandit? Or are the teachers at that church thieves and bandits? God knows.

Throughout the centuries, the church has employed John chapter 10 to label other believers as false. Catholics against Protestants. Protestants against Catholics. Fundamentalist against Mainline. Mainline against Fundamentalist. And the list goes on. Sometimes it’s not so easy to know who’s right and wrong. So we’re invited to be clear about our faith, but also modest. We shall see what God has to say in the end.

Other than awaiting the final judgment of God, is there a reliable test for our faith and life right now? Yes, says the church. Here’s the test. Is the belief and action consistent with God’s revelation in Jesus Christ? Is it consistent with the love Jesus taught and lived? Because our understanding of Jesus’ complex life and teaching is imperfect, our faithfulness will also be imperfect. And claims about our faithfulness should marked by humility. And in John 10 I think Jesus gave us another measure of our faith and life. He said, "I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

Now, we know that many people think being Christian means a restrictive, rule-driven, "no-fun" life. But that’s not what Jesus said. Jesus said those who enter by him will be saved. And the biblical word for "saved," actually means to be given space, to be given room. And Jesus said those who enter by him will "come in and go out and find pasture." In other words, they’ll have freedom as well as sustenance. And then Jesus said he came not to steal, kill, or destroy but to give life. He came to give abundant life. Or it might be translated as extraordinary, profuse, going beyond what is necessary, remarkable life. That’s what Jesus came to give us.

On Sunday evening, we took the Middle School Youth Group on an unusual scavenger hunt. We gave each of the youth a list of questions to be answered. Then we drove the group to meet various members of our church. First, we stopped at the home of a middle-aged couple who have two little boys. And we heard about their faith journey. A few months ago, this couple took in a family of five, allowed them to stay in their home for several months after they had been temporarily displaced from their home. Then we drove and met a retired minister who worships with us. She told us about the joys and struggles of being ordained as a female pastor back in the 1960s. She also told us about how she had served lunch to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. one day, and how meeting him and hearing him speak had shaped her life. Then we drove back to the church and these young folks met a wonderful man in our church who has had a twisting turning faith journey. In younger days he struggled with addictions. But through God’s help and Alcoholics Anonymous he lives one day at a time. And now he serves as one of our deacons.

It seems to me that there’s a common theme to these very different stories; through all the twists and turns of their lives God has been at work with these folks. Life’s not always been easy, but God has been faithful. And, though I’m sure they’d be embarrassed for me to say this, I think all of these people are living the abundant, extraordinary, remarkable life Jesus talked about.

I think you and I in this church are living that remarkable life too. Oh, I know we have difficult times, frustrating times when it doesn’t feel like it. The taxes are due. There’re bills to pay. We struggle with relationships. We know we commit sins and make mistakes. Still, I think, by God’s grace in Christ, we are living this remarkable life Jesus talked about. Sometimes we don’t notice it. But I think we’re living that life.

We’re living that life as we live in the freedom and peace of knowing we are forgiven by God’s grace in Christ. We’re living that life as we forgive others. We’re living that life as we serve in urban Cleveland at North Church and as we serve and give to be about God’s peacemaking in other ways. We’re living that life as we do work with integrity, as we teach the faith to others, as we say our prayers, and as we worship. We’re living that life as we use retirement to serve God. And we’re living that life as we face our own death with the strength and courage of people who trust in God’s unshakeable saving love in Christ.

Yeah, we have to discern right and wrong, good and evil, true and false teaching. But life is so much more than an enemy list. Life in Christ is free, overflowing, purposeful, forgiven, joyous. Thank God for your remarkable life, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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