About the Sermon: Accepting Jesus as He Defines Himself

I absolutely adore my church. God has totally blessed my life with all of the people who have become my family at Shoreline. One of the things I have really enjoyed this semester is our women's Bible study, which meets on Monday nights to talk about the sermon from the day before. Between this and subscribing to our podcast (I love technology), I have been more consistant in carrying the message with me throughout the week.

So this week's sermon, via Brian Colmery, was quite a doosey (how do you spell that word??). We covered all of chapter 7 of the book of John, which is a lot of proverbial ground, making the sermon kind of thick. You can check it out on the website, although the end cuts out because of mic malfunction. One of the things I really appreciate and admire about Brian and Scott (our pastors) is that they are committed to teaching truth. So this week was awesome in that I learned a lot about what is really going on in the chapter. It's not some feel-good motivational speech, but actual truth, from the source. (Here a digression: I'm so over being spoon-fed a sermon. I want something that I have to chew. Maybe even some gristle here and there. As Christians, I think that we go to church for two primary functions: fellowship and teaching. We get to commune together as we also learn more about God. Now, I love a good faith, love, etc. talk every now and again, but why rely on funny stories and some random verses that are pulled out of context, when you could legitimately walk through the Bible (ie: the source). If I read the book of John on my own, there's no way I'd get as much out of it as I do on Sundays...because I don't know all the background, original text, etc. that would make it make sense. Yet at the same time, I've taken home Brian and Scott's messages each week this semester for some further mastication--having learned what the text says, I can work with God throughout the week to figure out how to make that truth a reality in the day-to-day) Ok--back to plain font. I was just finishing up my introduction about how fabulous Shoreline is, not because of anything we do, but out of the grace and blessing of the Lord (yeah, I've been listening to the sermons ;). Now on to my topic...

Brian intro-ed by talking about today's all-too-PC focus on identity: you know, all those cliche terms about "not putting on a mask," and accepting people for who they are. "No judgment." "Whatever works for you." The list goes on and on--and don't get me wrong, these aren't bad ideas--they are what they are...but just stay with me on this for a second...

Here Brian transitions (and beautifully I might add) from intro-anecdote to the main point. Like attention-getter-->bridge-->thesis in a by-the-book essay (sorry, I teach high school English). Throughout chapter 7, we see about 13 different responses to who Jesus is--all of which are people's assumptions or attempts to define Jesus on their own terms.

Here is where my mind, as it is infamous for, begins ticking--my logic follows that clearly the Pharisees and other stupid people living in Jesus day were not as mature, modern, and politically correct as we are today, since they failed to listen to Jesus define himself and take him as is. Just like the Israelites and Moses, it's easy for me to quickly condemn the Pharisees for their ignorant, close-minded behavior. Until I realize that I am EXACTLY like them, I tend to scoff at the nation who walks through a parted sea, then walks away from their Promised Land, thinking that the God who can part seas won't be powerful enough to drive out some 9-foot men. Yet this time I think I have a one-up on these just-like-us-today "back to the Bible" guys. Brian asks us, if Jesus were to come in today, would we accept him? In all likelihood, he'd be way outside our little box of what church people should be. Now this is where I start to get all gloaty about having the upper hand--I'm a theatre person. And as everyone knows, theatre people LOVE all that is weird, freakish, and odd. Now, the train of thought screeches to a halt. "But Meredith," says another of my inner voices, "You and I both know that people today are equally as crappy as back then, so there must be a catch." Indeed, that me is correct.

Lest you too should think that we're somehow cooler than the Pharisees for our open-mindedness, I shall explain. Granted, we probably would let Jesus define himself. We let everyone define themselves--but then we throw in this completely illogical catch: "whatever works for you...oh that's great...yes, that may be true for you, but..." I can be beautifully modern by accepting even the most vile people as they are...but I don't have to like them. Perhaps today we would let Jesus be Jesus, but that can't be where it stops. There are many people in my life who I accept exactly as they are...and then there are the people that I love for who they are.

Let Jesus be who he is...and love him for exactly that. His grace, his peace, his goodness, his power, his wrath. These must go hand in hand because accepting a person does not imply loving every quirk of their personality--their good qualities along with the flaws. While we are called to love despite the evil traits in others, we don't love those traits themselves. What's great is that with Jesus, there aren't any flaws, so we are able to love ALL of him.

On that note, see the next post...