In our texts this morning what we
have are proclamations from God.
Proclamations about who Jesus is,
“You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”
And because we are baptized into
Christ Jesus these are proclamations that we share as children of God.
Proclamations about who we are, “Do
not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”
In our baptisms God proclaims to us
these Biblical truths.
That we are God’s forever, and no
matter what we can’t lose God.
Because we have not chosen God, but
God has chosen us.
God has called us by name and
redeemed us.
I know that these are concepts that
seem far from everyday life.
There would seem to be an easier way
to talk about God in our lives.
I have heard people talk about
television preachers like Joel Olsteen.
People seem to like these popular
preachers because they supposedly give messages about “everyday life”.
On the other hand, I have been told,
that lots of mainline protestant pastors get caught up in theological
explanation that don’t seem to have a lot to do with life.
I don’t think that is the difference
at all.
Joel Olsteen, and other preachers
like him, gives a message about self reliance.
He tells people that they can have it
all, if they believe enough, if they are good enough, all their dreams can come
true.
I think people like that message.
It is a message based on self.
I can’t give you that message this
morning, or any Sunday morning really.
I can’t give you that message because
it is not a Biblical message.
I also can’t give you that message because
it is not totally the truth.
We all don’t make our own way.
We all can’t will ourselves to be
better, or do better.
We cannot accomplish all of our
dreams.
Some of who we are is defined by where
we are born, what social economic class we are born into.
Some it has to do with who are
parents are.
Some of it has to do with luck.
I offer as proof the amount of people
who bought a lottery ticket this weekend in hopes of winning the $900 million
dollar jackpot.
Why buy a lottery ticket if we can
will our way to be anything we want?
If that was true wouldn’t all those
who bought a ticket simply will their way to being a millionaire?
One of the ad campaigns for the
lottery, it actually says, “Luck Happens.”
People bought tickets in the hopes of
getting lucky.
They bought it in hopes of paying off
bills, helping their families lives improve, giving some to charities they
believe in.
They bought a ticket because life
wasn’t all they wanted it to be, all they thought it should be.
The life they have actually worked
really hard for isn’t good enough, so they need luck.
What we often hear.
What the world proclaims to us.
What we hear over and over again in
subtle ways, and sometimes in overt ways, “You are not good enough.”
“Your life is not good enough.”
The things that you have actually
worked really hard for don’t matter enough.
There needs to be more.
You should be in better shape.
You should have more money.
You should have smarter kids.
You should want more than this
ordinary life.
I got a letter from Portico, this is
the ELCA group that handles pastors retirement and health care, a while back.
It was a letter about my retirement.
And basically the message was, “You
haven’t done enough for retirement. You will be broke and old someday.”
The message was I was failing at
retirement and I haven’t even got there yet.
And this was from Portico which is
supposed to be a ministry of the Church!
You see there are all sorts of
proclamations like this in our lives.
They tell us we should be better.
They tell us we are not good enough.
And then the world tells us we don’t
have what we want because we have not worked hard enough for it.
And then some religious person tells
us that we don’t have because we don’t believe enough.
And we make ourselves crazy,
depressed, and anxious because we don’t have the life that we think we need, or
even believe we want.
Or we work harder and harder trying
to get that life only to find out that is not very fulfilling either.
Some people win the lottery and their
life gets worse.
Life is so much more complicated than
simply get rich and life will be fine.
Even rich people have problems.
And those can’t be solved by money,
fame, or buying more things.
And I can’t tell you that life will
get better if you only believe more because it simply isn’t true.
What I offer you instead of a life
trying always to be better, to do more, is the everyday wonder and magic of
God’s grace.
I offer you the life of a baptized
member of God’s family.
What that gets you is a proclamation
from the creator of the universe.
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed
you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”
Do not fear that you are good enough,
have done enough.
Do not fear that you are worthy.
Do not fear that you don’t have
enough.
Do not fear that you haven’t saved
enough for retirement.
Do not fear that you are a failure.
You are mine.
You are loved.
You are good enough.
I wonder if we go through our days
thinking about that fact?
Do we live our lives under that
truth?
Because that is what grace is about.
It is about knowing that what we do
will never be enough.
We can never do enough to make life
better.
But what we cannot do, God has
already done.
I really do believe in the core of
myself that if we could really live under that grace our lives would be truly
better.
Not superficially better, but really
better.
We would love more and judge less.
We would give more and horde less.
We would try more and worry less.
Because you see often times we don’t
try because we worry about failing.
But failing at something is not the
problem.
It is the idea that we would never do
it because we might look foolish.
My daughter this week tried out for
the spelling bee in her class.
Truth is she is like her father and
not very good at spelling.
But I was proud of her, not because
she won, but because she was not afraid to fail, and tried anyway.
That is what our Baptisms can do for
all of us.
It can help us to know that even in
failing we are worthy, and loved.
That is true to life.
It is the real experience that we
have.
Not that if we just try real hard,
and believe we will succeed.
But that sometimes even when we try
and believe we will fail, and that is ok because at the center of our lives, at
the center of the universe is a God that has proclaimed us loved, redeemed.
A God who has called us by name, and
we know we belong to God.
I hope you all go out this week and
fail.
And that in the failure you remember
that your worth is not determined by what the world proclaims about you, but
about what God has proclaimed about you.
Amen
