I know that some of you are observant of little details. I know that because you love to communicate those details to me, especially when I haven’t gotten them right. For which 79% of the time I am grateful. We won’t talk about the other 21%.
So how observant are you today? Did you notice that the color changed. What color? The color of the fabric hangings under the sconces. The colors change with the seasons of the church year, helping us to reflect on the nature of particular periods of time in the cycle of salvation history. If you were noticing, you saw that two weeks ago they changed from white to red. That was on Pentecost Sunday. Red is the traditional color for the Holy Spirit.
Now the color is green. We have entered a new season of the church year, a season that amounts to half of a year. The season may be called the Season after Pentecost (we’ll be using that language in the bulletin) or Ordinary Time (ordinary in the sense that there no special times like Lent or Christmas in it).
The first half of the church year (Advent through Pentecost) focuses on the story of God. We hear what God has done for us. We hear about Jesus, his birth, ministry, death and resurrection. We hear about the history of his relationship with his people. We hear about why we need Jesus. Beginning with this Sunday, the focus turns to us. Now that we know what God has done, we consider what we will do in response. The Season after Pentecost is about growing in our faith and action. Hence the green color. It is about listening to God’s call and going forth in faith.
It is humbling to remember that even after all God has done for us we are still sinners in need of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Many of the New Testament passages you will hear read during the Pentecost season focus on the great work we can and will do for God. We have been called to the holy priesthood of witnessing to God’s grace. We can, and do, fall prey to the possibility that we are something special, and when we least expect it God may use us for some exquisite piece of gospel work. Even us, who still have a part of us that is no different from those who have not yet devoted themselves to discipleship, that propensity to go off and do things our way rather than God’s way. The result of that is a messy life. Just ask our first parents, and their children. Just ask the Israelites idling in the Sinai desert like we do in a Columbus freeway tie-up.
Augustine, who became bishop of Hippo in North Africa at the end of the 4th century, wrote in the preface of his book, The City of God,
“[The city of God, i.e., the church] must bear in mind that among her very enemies are hidden her future citizens.... In the same way, while the City of God is on pilgrimage in this world, she has in her midst some who are united with her in participation in the sacraments, but who will not join with her in the eternal destiny of the saints.”Life is messy. Jesus told us that.
Peg Hoppes writes that she once knew a woman who wanted to be a Christian. She believed in Jesus, had even been involved in church at different times in her life, but wasn’t attending anywhere. She wasn’t ready to make a commitment. She had many excuses, but her real problem was that she did not think she was good enough to be in the presence of God and Christians. She wanted to get right with God first, then she might go to church. She was never ready. She never understood that Christianity was not a group of holy people, but a pack of forgiven sinners who gather to hear the Word preached and to receive the Sacraments so that they could know the love, mercy and grace of God through Jesus Christ his Son. The woman did not want to step into the presence of God until she found a way to hide her imperfections.(1)
God knows our imperfections. God sees into the very depths of our beings; we can’t hide anything from him. He sees beyond our masks; he has known us since before we were born. God knows, and God loves us anyway. The only difference between those who are inside the church and those outside are the ones inside know that they are there by God’s grace. Those outside are like Adam and Eve, trying to hide from the very God who would be their salvation.
As the psalmist wrote,
If you kept track of sins, Lord—
my Lord, who would stand a chance?
But forgiveness is with you—
that’s why you are honored.
God’s forgiveness is available for us. Not when we think we have earned it, not when we think we have finally rooted out all our sinfulness ourselves, not on our timetable, and not by dint of our effort. Without God’s forgiveness, messy life is even messier.
Brené Brown is a research professor in social work at the Graduate School of the University of Houston. She went into social work because she thought she could clean up some of human messiness. In the midst of her graduate research she discovered results that upended her ideas. It was shame, which translated into the fear of disconnection, the “I’m not blank enough” syndrome. Fill in the blank: pretty, tall, rich, smart, good. After six years of interviews and research, Dr. Brown realized that she had two basic groups of people: those who believed themselves worthy and those who didn’t.
As she studied those who believed themselves worthy she found several common elements: they lived whole-heartedly (courageously), they had compassion to be kind to themselves and then to others, they were willing to let go of who they thought they should be in order to be who they were, and they fully embraced vulnerability.
Brown says, “They didn’t talk about vulnerability being comfortable, nor did they really talk about it being excruciating – as I had heard it earlier in the shame interviewing. They just talked about it being necessary. They talked about the willingness to say, ‘I love you’ first, the willingness to do something where there are no guarantees, the willingness to breathe through waiting for the doctor to call after your mammogram. They’re willing to invest in a relationship that may or may not work out. They thought this was fundamental.”(2)
This is the world we live in, a vulnerable world, a messy world. As Dr. Brown notes, “We are the most in-debt, obese, addicted and medicated adult cohort in U.S. history.” It’s a vulnerable world and we try to numb it. The problem is that we cannot selectively numb emotion. None of us can say, here’s the bad stuff – vulnerability, grief, shame, fear, disappointment – we don’t want to feel these.
People who have no hope collapse under the weight of the mess of life. Trying to numb it all only intensifies the weight. Whole-hearted, courageous, compassionate, daring, vulnerable people have hope. In the words of the psalmist,
I hope, Lord.
My whole being hopes,
and I wait for God’s promise.
My whole being waits for my Lord—
more than the night watch waits for morning!
Because God is the author of salvation, because all life comes from God, because as we who are followers of Christ know that Christ’s mercy and saving grace meet us in our vulnerability, we can affirm the words of the psalmist, we can endorse them and proclaim them to one and to all.
Life is messy. We can’t clean it up ourselves. We live with it, live through it with the help of Christ who dove into human messiness wholeheartedly, with extreme compassion, and with flair. He joined us in our vulnerability, so that we may know true hope.
Israel, wait for the Lord!
Because faithful love is with the Lord;
because great redemption is with our God!
He is the one who will redeem Israel
from all its sin.
Brené Brown and Jesus would say, “You know what? You’re imperfect, and you’re wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.” Jesus would add, “You are mine, because life is messy. I love you. Make the most of the mess.”
(1) Peg Hoppes, “A WORD FOR TODAY, June 3, 2015,” awordfortoday@yahoogroups.com.
(2) Brené Brown, “The power of vulnerability,” TEDxHouston, June 2010; https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability/transcript?language=en#t-1087072.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright © 2015 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
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