Do you like to complain? I am so good at it at times that I think it must be a spiritual gift! I actually know better, and it is one of things I battle the hardest in my life.In Philippians 2 Paul says that we should do everything without complaining and arguing and that we should "shine like stars" in a sin-darkened world. That's quite a call and challenge! We are called to be positive, joyful people, but it's not the superficial "everything's great!" approach that ignores the reality of problems and pain. The approach Paul calls for is rooted in a very painful reality, and in spite of it, we can be joyful. That's what my sermon is going to be about this week. We had a really good class last night that is going to help in my preparation.
Yesterday was a really good day; busy but good. Lots of things happened but the most memorable moments came from my OCU classes. Both classes gravitated toward the hardest question concern life and God: WHY? The mother who lost her only son to a murderer asked it. As a community-building exercise I asked, "What is your greatest fear?" Some said spiders, others heights; predictable stuff. The woman who lost her son said, "my greatest fear happened, so now I don't really have any." Wow.
We talked about how to really understand Jesus today. In the course of the conversation I mentioned that the church is called to show Jesus to the world. This led to a great conversation, though somewhat depressing, about hypocrisy. One person in the class has lots of visible tatoos. She is seeking to better understand God, but she is put off by "Christians." She said that people (Christians) in Wal-Mart sometimes make comments about her and that she will "go to hell for all those tatoos." She says it happens a lot. Makes me sad and somewhat sick. We have lots of work to do.
Speaking of work...today we load a semi with 700 bags of BHRP corn that will be shipped to a 3rd world country. Then I need to work on the sermon I mentioned above. Today is my "off" day from running, but I will try find time to ride my bike for a while as cross-training.
5 comments:
Sounds like you are having a great class, wish I was in it.
Pat A
i am really puzzled by the comments that she would go to hell for the tatoos. are they vulgar or something? i though jesus said to come as you are?
RR
No, not that I can tell. I haven't really looked too closely (ha ha). She just has several that are very visible. I asked her about those comments, and she didn't really understand why people would say such things.
I told her that it goes back to Leviticus 19:28. This passage says not to put tattoos are your body. I would have to look at it closely, but I am pretty sure it is talking about tattoos that would be related to gods of the Ancient Near East.
It is sad to me that people claiming to follow Christ can be so rude. Even if you believe tattoos are wrong, why would you condemn a total stranger? I can see Jesus embracing a lot of the tattooed, body-modified people in our culture today.
I'm not interested in tattoos for me, because as someone said: "Why would you put a bumper sticker on a Rolls Royce." ha ha ha!
i've hung out most of my life with the tattooed and scarred, including myself. I've found a common thread in most people that have body mods, is it makes you feel unique and special. i've found that most folks (not all) have a need to feel included, accepted, loved. Even as far as secretly maybe even wanting to be noticed when naturally they are overlooked while at the same time exclaiming that they like to be alone and un-noticed (which is just another way of saying "hey i'm right here"). In general to me it's a way of reaching out for someone, or anything.. and of course for some it's simply Art..
And yes RR is right on. Jesus will accept us all just as we are.. That attitude is what us church folk need to take in order to complete our the tasks given to us by God.
Good luck with your class. It's sounds like it could be a very blessed class..
JPG
Thanks JPG for those great insights and words. I really appreciate your sharing that.
We all have this need to be noticed and needed. I think God made us that way so we would live in community. We all need to be better "accepters" and encouragers. Jesus, as always, is the best and purest example. He ate with "sinners." Thank God!
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