If you have played the game "telephone" before, you know that stories can morph and change. Each time it is repeated, it can change, so by the end, it’s a whole new story. But, if the same message is repeated over and over again, it stays the same and gains significance and relevance. Like a favorite book, movie, or TV episode that are worth repeating over and over again, Sara Miles says reading the Bible is like that too. The more you do it, the more significance and relevance you get.
There is power in these stories from the Bible- they give us the strength to BE LIKE JESUS, something we are supposed to be into as followers of Jesus. Sara Miles writes: "In stories . . . Jesus tells his disciples to live by the upside down values of God's kingdom. . . he tells us that we, too, are called to follow him in breaking down all worldly divisions that get in the way of carrying out his instructions. . . .So do it God's way instead, Jesus teaches. Say yes. Jump right in. Come and see. Embrace the wrong people. Don't idolize religion. Have mercy." (p. 3 Jesus Freak).
In “insider church.” a.k.a. theological language, we have a phrase: in Jesus, the word of God was made flesh. This is fancy theological language for the fact that it was not good enough for God to just be God. God wanted to be real to us. And guess what God chose to do when God became one of us? God embraced the wrong people - the outsiders. We love that. Because who does not feel like the outsider at one time or another? No one at the Village was willing to say they were never the outsiders, not at either service.
Have you ever watched “It Takes a Thief” on the Discovery Channel? This is not the movie or dramatic TV show. This is a reality TV show where a group of ex-cons help a family secure their house better. The thieves try breaking into the house to show where the vulnerabilities are. (Frighteningly, our kids love it. Thankfully, we don’t think they’re getting ready for a career in crime). Ultimately, the premise is that they are trying to show you how to get the best security system so your house will be safe.
Cheri & I imagine that we are like those people, except rather protect our belongings, we are trying to keep our differentness hidden from God. Whatever it is what we don't like about ourselves, or that makes us feel bad (our lack of discipline about eating, praying, working out, etc for Kurt), we are trying to hide it from the world and God. It's like we're trying to make our life a secure house so no one can get it. And God is like that security-system company, always trying to find a way in, because God loves us - and God knows that hiding is no good. God wants to be inside our house living with us. So God is trying every open window and every open door.
Jesus says, every need we have is an opportunity for God to step into our lives. That's what he was trying to tell folks with this story that read from John's Gospel today (John 9: 1-3 for those of you who are following along at home). In the story, as Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him.
The people wanted to blame someone for the man being blind, sadly something people still do today, as if it was a result of sin. Seems to us that Jesus was saying - No one sinned, some people are just born blind. But because he was born blind, God's works can be revealed in him. Hmmm. . . what might those works be? Perhaps a miraculous physical healing, or perhaps compassion of others around him. Maybe the story of a man overcoming a great challenge in life, to show the rest of us, that we too, can overcome the challenges in our lives that are not so obvious a physical blindness.
Have you ever known someone who has faced a great obstacle in life, maybe a physical illness or disability, and became stronger because of it? Now, don't go down that path of thinking that God causes bad things to happen so that then God can heal us. Neither of us believes that. Bad things just happen, because of natural forces, human sin, and for reasons we can't explain. But we don't believe God causes bad things to happen to teach us a lesson. (Another sermon for another day Cheri says). But there ARE bad things in the world. Like the blind man. And the people, well they wanted to BLAME someone.
You see, it seems to be the human condition that we draw lines. We need to make insiders and outsiders. Because if we can point to someone that is outside, then we get to define ourselves as inside and then we can feel good about ourselves. It is a stupid human game we play. But Jesus he just kept coming along, saying, "enough of that." His was such a radical love. He kept coming and hanging out with the outsiders and making them insiders and soon no one could keep up anymore with who was "in" and who was "out" because Jesus said, "In God's family everyone is in."
Jesus said, those things that make us feel like an outsider, are opportunities for God to find us - because God is like that person trying to find an open door or window into our closed up house. The Bible is full of stories of Jesus going to the person who was the outsider and saying: I want to be with you. And that means God wants to be with each one of us. Each one of us matters to God.
What we are creating here at The Village is that kind of Christian community - where we reminding folks that everyone matters to God -- the kind of community where we RUN TOWARD anyone who is being cast out. We STAND UP for anyone who is being beaten down. ANYONE.
We're going to do something important this week. You've all seen the news reports. We are finally getting some public attention to the problem that has been there all along. Gay teens and those perceived to be gay, have been committing suicide because they are being harassed by other children and adults. It's been happening for a very long time. Finally, it's getting the world's attention. Someone, it is believed that this started with one young woman, invited us all to wear purple on Wednesday October 20th to show we care. And it’s spreading like wildfire, more than 1 million people have signed up on the internet that they will do so. Even Kurt’s office came to him with the idea of wearing purple on Wednesday.
We are going to host a rally and prayer vigil right here at the Village at 6 p.m. We hope you will be here. We hope the news media will be here. Because you just don't know what gay teen or adult might see that - and see it as a sign of hope - that a group of followers of Jesus took the time to say "enough." STOP THE HATE. We are going to pray for an end to the hate and we are going to stand up and be public right here on a busy street corner and bear witness that God loves some folks that have felt very unloved. I hope you will make every effort to be here and bring lots of your friends with you. There is power in numbers.
We invite you to pray about what next steps The Village might take. We are looking at reviving the PFLAG Chapter in Toledo. PFLAG is Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays. It is a support group for the loved ones of adult GLBTQ persons. We have a very thriving Rainbow Area Youth (RAY) group in Toledo. We could and should support them more. We could do more to help Equality Toledo with its Safe Schools project. Members of the Village are already working in Bowling Green on the One Bowling Green election effort, to maintain anti-discrimination laws in Bowling Green.
Finally in the bigger picture, we invite you to pray for The Village Church. Toledo, Northwest Ohio, and ultimately all of our country needs more churches that embrace the outsider. We are part of a movement, my friends. What we are doing here, is not just planting one church.
The world is changing. People are hurting, and the old way of being church is not keeping up. We are part of an experiment in new way of being church. We are building the plane as we fly it, sometimes a scary experience. In some ways, God is trying to break into the windows and doors of the old closed up church institutions and God is saying: my people are hurting-DO SOMETHING. Embrace the wrong people.
God is putting us in a position to lead the way. We are inviting each one of you to be a leader in this movement. God is giving us an opportunity here at The Village, to be a different kind of community and to model that community for others. We say we want to follow Jesus and change the world. Well that means we will turn the world's values upside down. We will work with God to seek out the people who are hurting the most and embrace them. We will speak up when others are being harassed and no one else is speaking up. We will care for the people that no one else thinks are worth caring about. Because here is the thing: God thinks we are worth it, and God thinks they are worth it. So let's do it.
Let's follow Jesus and let's embrace the wrong people. As we say in our worship celebrations each week, “We are imperfect people who make mistakes and God loves us anyway” and “we are followers of Jesus AND WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD”.
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