Oh Geez, I’ve Gone All Human Again by Leslie Eppler & Kurt Young

Leslie went to seminary to get all educated about who God is and she read a lot of books. She pulled a whole gaggle of books from her bag (some of them Cheri’s) showing us ones about Creation, the Laws of the Old Testament, Original sin, How to worship correctly, How to write and preach a good sermon (Leslie says she needed to study that one a little more before today), and more.

She explained “we learned to ask all kinds of questions and read books by some scholars and some who thought they were scholars who thought they had figured out the answers. You know, questions about poverty, sexuality, feminism and other stuff like did Adam and Eve have belly buttons or do dogs go to heaven?” As Christians, we’ve spend a couple of millennia trying to figure all this out. All the rules, doctrines and dogma.

Christian history is filled with thinkers wondering and writing about who God is; and making complete messes and tangled webs of the subject. And to try to straighten out and to come to some sort of consensus we take the next step, we make rules and tell each other what to think about these things. After all, we are only human, right? We need some rules to help us along and keep us civilly right?

Well, there is some truth to that, we do want to drive on streets where everyone generally respects the traffic laws. Imagine the whole world deciding, those first few seconds and last few seconds of a red light are, at best, a courtesy thing (Kurt has driven in a city where this seems to be the case, believe me, it is not fun, exciting, but not fun). However, what has happened through the ages is that Christians making up all these church rules (only members can receive communion, only X can be ministers, ministers can’t dance, you can’t play cards, you have to give X dollars a week to the church, etc) , Christians spend a lot of time telling each other how they will or will not be righteous and holy.

Here's the problem, we can't live up to the rules. We’re human and we screw up all the time. Sometimes big; a lot of the time just a little. Jesus own followers did that. They picked grain on the Sabbath. They dared to work on a day of no work, so they could eat. And you know what, Jesus forgave them. But they, and we ,kept making mistakes, over and over again. One of Kurt’s favorite segments of the Old Testament (the part of the Bible written before Jesus’ birth) contains multiple of the line “ and the Israelites did what was evil in the sigh of the Lord”.

Leslie works somewhat of a stressful job, she has to manage 30 to 40 people with all different expectations and personalities in a very small space. They have rules that some do like. And there are a lot of folks that get on other folk's nerves, including mine. Her goal at that job is to remain calm, compassionate, balanced and unbiased at all times…(wait.) That didn't happen once. Ok, Ok, that's a lie. It didn't happen twice… she says she screws that up a lot. She gets tired and hurting and her buttons get pressed. She is not the compassionate example of Christ always. Even though she is a minister (gasping is appropriate).

We all have stuff like that. Some times in our lives it is bigger stuff, more devastating things: maybe its an addiction, or an affair. Maybe it's abuse. We carry those things with us and know we haven't met the standards of society or the church and we swim in our guilt and pain.We believe that we can't show those things to anyone and we can't go before God, because we are too sinful. But that is why God became one of us.


That is why the first Chapter of John speaks to us (for those who could not join us, we read John 1:1-5; 9-14 from the Message during worship), “14The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.” God said, I love the HUMANS I created so much that I want them to know this and I want them to know me. I am going to go to them, because they are afraid to come to me. They have forgotten how much I love them. So God came in the form of Jesus and lived with us; ALL OF US: the Average Joe, the ones who had secrets, the ones who had been abused, their abusers, the murderers, the thieves, the liars, the untouchables, those with mental illnesses, those with egos as big as gods… Jesus lived with all of us. Jesus became human. And he hung out with “The Wrong People”. Jesus lives in our neighborhood, and what’s more, HE WANTS TO LIVE THERE.

Why? For one simple reason. God loves us and wants to be with us. All those centuries of reading, writing, fighting over dogma and doctrine. Trying figure out who God is. All the many years of schooling and books, .;. they are important… Leslie would trade her education or her chance to read and study these things… She cannot and must not forget THE MOST IMPORTANT thing, and the ONLY THING THAT MATTERS… GOD LOVES ME GOD LOVES YOU. Who is God? God is love.

As we start our new year, both individually and as a church, we must not forget God's love for us. We will reach out and tell that to others, and sometimes will fall into the trap of not believing we are worthy of it ourselves…how can we tell? It is when we have a hard time forgiving ourselves or others. Let's make sure we keep this message foremost in our hearts and minds this year. God loves us.

Take a minute a feel that love. Just sit there, and no matter what you feel about yourself, no matter what your brain may tell you about you, and accept this: GOD LOVES YOU. Sit there silently for a minute and try to accept that. Sometimes, that’s easy, often, that’s not easy. If you’re somewhere where you can, and know the words, trying saying (if you’re like Kurt and can’t sing) or singing “Jesus Loves Me”. Yes, we know it sounds a little hokey, but you need to hear those words, the ones the world and life will deny you.

If you need a place to repeat that message to you, and don’t we all, think about joining us here at the Village. We’re at the corner of Monroe & Central. Our worship celebrations are at Sunday at 9:45 AM and 11:30 AM and we believe God loves us all, no exceptions, no conditions.