Yet a quick read through the gospels will show us Jesus constantly involved in the lives of the trouble and the poor and the sinners. If we follow him, then it is clear we need us to take some kind of stance on behalf of the Good News of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. In fact, trying to make a difference in the world is what we are called to do! Why? Because the world is totally messed up! A picture of humanity all caught up a hell of its own making is bluntly described in Eugene Peterson’s his rendering of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the text we heard as the second lesson this morning:
"It is obvious what kind life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotion garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on." (Galatians 5:19-21 page 401) Well, Eugene, I don’t think you have too. You’ve pretty well described my wife’s workplace!
Let’s say we are wanting to make a difference in such an atmosphere. How shall we proceed?
Some Christians operate under the assumption that Christians are called to be Lords of the "Truth". It sort of comes down the question, if you’re going to take a stand for Christ out there, just how obnoxious do you have to be to be a Christian? In the conflicted fray of the world, some Christians act on the belief that we are primarily called to defenders of the faith. Such Christians will promote and argue over truth claims. My religion is better than yours. Let’s you and me fight, then, and join the fray of the sins of the flesh seen everywhere in the world.
Christians can be pretty obnoxious, and actually think that’s a virtue!--all the way from displays of piety in the workplace, to over zealous missionaries and door-knockers, to good old Saint Olaf of Norway, who about a millennia ago found the key to effective evangelism: be baptized into the Christian faith or I’ll chop your head off. Hey, it worked! Somehow I find it hard to square in-your-face promotion of the faith with Jesus’ style reflected in the gospels. In fact, usually the only people Jesus did get mad at were the self-righteous promoters of what they assumed was the one true faith!
However, our typical "quietistic" Lutheran style is not one I find in Christ either. Let’s get at what I mean by an analogy. In the world of the Internet people who only read the online discussions and news-server messages without ever typing anything in response are called lurkers. Well, our good old Lutheran style amounts to being lurkers in the chaos of daily life. Sometimes it almost seems that a successful Lutheran life is one in which the first time others find out we belonged to a church is when they read our obituary! Caught right in the middle of office politics, neighborhood muddle, broken relationships, broken lives, and trouble all around, we are chronically tempted to just observe and say or do nothing, giving no sign we’ve ever heard of the Good News of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. Thus faith becomes the best kept secret in the workplace or neighborhood.
For example, a member of our congregation related how he worked for months with a whole bunch of other employees and never was there any mention of faith or church. Then one day he had to tell them that he needed to bow out of a special evening event because of a church commitment. The shock! Turns out that everyone one of the guys he worked with attended church regularly! Clearly, we can do better than keep our faith in Christ a secret. I think all the guys at the office left that day with something to think about.
If we can agree that neither being Lords of the Truth nor Lurkers in the Chaos is a viable option for followers of Christ, what other choice is there?
Let’s call it being Links to Life. By that I mean living, and when necessary, speaking on behalf of the Good News. It really is impossible to hide a living faith! For a living faith is overflowing with the presence of God. It is the gentle life in the Spirit described in Eugene Peterson’s take on Galatians 5 this way: "But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people."
How do we get to be that way? Pray, of course. But focus it along the lines of Ram Dass, who says the proper attitude of one would be truly helpful is "not about being somebody, but about becoming nobody." One who has been a social worker for 30 years, and has seen it all in terms of human need and degradation, told me what Ram Dass says is really the truth. To really help someone, you have to set aside a lot of opinions and prejudice—and a lot of ego. In my view, this only means following Christ in the way of the Cross, dying to self that others may find life! Like Christ, only spiritual nobodies see that even the worst of person in the neighborhood or office is still a sacred, though broken, child of God. Unless we are able to approach others that way, we’d best not even try to help.
Case in point: In a time when you feared your life was falling apart, ever had anyone really and truly listen to you and accept you just the way you were? Then you have been blessed with the ministry of a Christlike nobody. But what is usually the case? When a broken person finally lets on to a problem, all the wannabe "Somebodies" start running off at the mouth with pious platitudes, Bible verses, suggestions on how to fix the situation, and will make quick attempts to comfort, heal or convert the poor sufferer right on the spot. Worst of all, the wannabe "Somebodies" will start talking about their own problems! If we would truly help others, we don’t need to have all the right answers or always be right! Instead, we need to be put into a right relationship with God, by the work of the Spirit. Then, at home, work, or in the neighborhood when someone is finally ready to deal with their life issues, we will be able to be a "Nobody" like Christ: our egos out of the way, just there like good soil, as with God-based attentiveness, compassion, and acceptance, we listen and listen and listen until the troubled ones in our lives find in us a link to the everlasting life of God. What higher purpose on earth could we have than that? Amen.