Seeing with the Heart
In Sunday's Bible lesson, 1 John 3:1-7, we were reminded of our identity as God's children and called to express this identity in holy living.
As I was preparing the sermon I found it interesting how John spent a considerable amount of time talking about our new God-given identity. He seemed to sense a resistance among God's people to really grasp their truest, deepest nature.
During the sermon I used a full-length mirror as a prop to help us imagine seeing ourselves as God sees us. At the end of the service I moved it into the narthex (front entrance) and invited people to look at themselves and remind themselves, "I am a child of God".
The response was very interesting. A few people bravely stood in front of the mirror and repeated these words. Many walked past it. When I invited some the invitation was brazenly rejected. And when I greeted others saying "you are God's child", the response was often a meek "I hope so".
Not the response I expected. Somehow I thought we were more confident that the folks John wrote too. But here at St. Andrew's there was also a resistance to embrace our truest, deepest nature.
Part of it, I'm sure, has to do with modern culture's obsession with youth, and the impact this has on those that are aging. Some of us refuse to use the mirror to peer deeply, because we are so troubled with the surface reflection (if you struggle with this, click here for an interesting article on aging beauty). The refusal to see beauty in God's gift of life is troublesome at many levels. But also is our hesitancy in owning our God-given identity, expressed in the response: "I hope so".
So what is it that makes you shy away from looking at your own reflection? And what makes you hesitant in declaring, "Yes, I am a child of God"?
Maybe we should tape John's words to our bathroom mirrors and our kitchen refrigerators. Maybe we need the daily reminder: "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1). My Sunday morning experiment tells me that this is one of those instances where we all need to trust God's word about us, rather than our own personal feelings.
As an added thought, have you ever wondered what our resurrected bodies will look like? I think most people assume that they will be a fit 20 years old, beautiful as runway models. But consider what Jesus looked like after his resurrection: unrecognisable on some level, yet able to be identified through the scars he received in his life.
If our resurrected bodies have gaps between teeth, too-thin hair, and too-wide hips, and we are going to own these bodies forever--how might we begin to accept them now?
*photo of the outrageously blooming cactus is courtesy of Keith Boughton
4 Comments
Thanks for your comment Klaas. Methodist preacher William Willimon talks about the continual conversion of the church--that is we need ongoing transformation (the renewing of our minds as Saint Paul puts it) to truly grasp and embody the Good News of Jesus Christ. This is something we participate in for ourselves and something we help others with too. I will never forget the scene in "The Help" where the African-American nanny repeated tells the neglected child of her white employer: "You is smart, you is kind, you is important." We need to constantly remind ourselves and others of our counter-cultural identity, if we are going to be able to truly accept it and live it out in our (post) modern world.
This morning as Dave S. and I were having coffee he asked me if I had read this blog. As it happened I had not.
As it also happens I am reading it in the middle of preparing my sermon entitled, "Called." I believe and I hope that the people of our congregation believe that they are "the children of God." It is just that we are Presbyterian and by historic definition we are not prone to overt demonstrations of belief. I am going to invite the congregation to consider that they are all "called of God." Called to be the children of God. Called to the Spirit. And called to service. Steve, in the blog, you sound a little down hearted. I think that God is beginning to teach use new things. At least new things for us and it may be bumpy road for us all.
Dave--I agree that Presbyterians aren't "prone to over demonstrations of belief" at least in the arena of their faith. This has at least something to do with a culture that tells us that faith belongs in the private sphere (even while it tries to convert us in so many other ways!). I worry that if our faith is rarely claimed or declared aloud that we will inevitably miss the security we have in our identity as God's children. My hope is that we ALL will grow and that our faith will be something we own both privately and publicly--not in an obnoxious way, but a joyful manner.
About
-
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church
After listening to the sermon “God’s Love and Ours” (July 8) and then reading the Blog “Seeing with the Heart” (July 10) I was surprised and disappointed that as professing Christian people there was not more confidence in recognizing and identifying oneself as being a Child of God. This was especially so as we had just listened to Bible readings from 1 John 1:1-7, John 1:12 which was followed by a sermon that this is the case! It was on my mind during the week and as I reflected on this I was thinking of James 1:22-25 which also has a mirror image. There James says we need to do more than just listen to the Word in order not to deceive ourselves. I was drawn to this passage because James used the “mirror” to reflect an image of oneself which Pastor Steve also used in the Worship Service with the full-length mirror. Looking in that mirror after the worship service and not recognizing that one is a Child of God is like James says - it is like knowing what you look like and then soon forgetting or like hearing God speak through his Word but not doing what it says. I think some of us need to read those passages again and then look in that mirror again and be reaffirmed that we are Children of God.