Part 6 -- Discipleship Arm Dance: He Announced His Purpose

  10 Pentecost 2013

Father Adam Trambley

July 28, 2013, St. John’s Sharon

The Discipleship Arm Dance – Part 6:

He announced his purpose

This week we are going to continue working through the Discipleship Arm Dance.  If you know it, join me:

Jesus was baptized by John.

He came up out of the water.

He received the Holy Spirit.

He heard the voice of God, “You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

He went into the wilderness.

He defeated the devil.

He came out of the wilderness.

He announced his purpose.

He chose four others.

He taught them everything they needed to know.

He sent them out.

So far, we’ve looked at the first seven steps.  We’ve talked about the surrender to God in the context of a local church, and the need to step out into the life God has in store with the support of the local church.  We’ve thought about the Holy Spirit coming down and filling us, and how we can hear the voice of God tell us we are his beloved when we allow God to come into our entire lives.  We’ve looked at what it means for Jesus, and for us, to go into the wilderness and defeat the devil, and just how we might win that victory.  Today, we are focusing on “He announced his purpose.

After Jesus comes out of the wilderness, he begins preaching.  His message is “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”  Luke describes him as further laying out some of what he means when he says the Kingdom of God is at hand: the blind see, the oppressed go free, captives are released, the good news is preached to the poor, and the time of the Lord’s favor is proclaimed.  Jesus’ purpose is to let everyone know that the Kingdom of God is right around the corner, and people need to be ready for it.  He expels demons so people are free to be part of the Kingdom.  His parables help people to understand the Kingdom so they can be ready.  His healings and feedings strengthen people to live into the Kingdom.  Even his eventual death and resurrection were important steps that allowed all of us to follow him into the Kingdom of God. 

After his baptism, Jesus lived the rest of his life, day-by-day, for his purpose.  He turned people’s hearts and lives around so they were prepared to live into the coming Kingdom of God.  As he got close to other people, he helped them live out the same purpose. 

But he was living out his purpose, not just some purpose statement he made up.  In different gospel accounts, what he says is phrased a bit differently.  Here it says the “Kingdom of God”, there it reads the “Kingdom of Heaven.”  Sometimes, “believe the Good News” is added.  How later Christians talked about isn’t nearly as important as the fact that Jesus did it.

So we, too, as we get to this point in our own discipleship -- having committed to God, being filled with the Holy Spirit and defeating the devil -- we, too, announce our purpose.  By announcing, I don’t mean we send out a press release, or buy some TV time.  Announcing our purpose means first and foremost being clear about what our purpose is so that we can live into it with the rest of our lives.  The announcement, per se, is first to ourselves and to God, and then to others by way of explanation for why we are living the way we are.  But figuring out what our purpose is and living it is, of course, is much more important than how we understand announcing it.

Our purpose is that goal which is going to give every day of our life meaning, and which everything else in our life is going to work together in service of.  Three components are going to contribute to our own personal purpose.  The first is that, as followers of Jesus, our purpose will fall under his and be some way of preparing ourselves and others for life in the Kingdom of God.  Second, our purpose will also support the purpose of our particular local faith community.  For most of us here that are part of St. John’s, that purpose is “Worship God; Care for People; Grow as Christians.”  Finally, our purpose is based on our own particular gifts, passions and experiences. 

The first and most important contribution to our purpose is Jesus’ proclamation that the Kingdom of God is at hand.  We know that Jesus work two thousand years ago and his abiding presence with us today is the way for us to enter into that approaching Kingdom.  If we really believe that we are destined to live for eternity there with everyone else willing to come, then our purpose includes preparing ourselves and others for Kingdom living, beginning immediately.

Now we can help that preparation in many ways, and God has created us for particular ones based on our own circumstances.  Some people’s purpose is proclaiming the good news to those who don’t know it.  Some people’s purpose will include teaching the details to people who are interested.  Some people’s purpose will involve preparing people by feeding them, or healing them, or being with them in time of need.  Some people’s purpose will be praying for those God is inviting in.  But whatever our individual purpose blossoms into, the roots are grounded not in this life, but in the Kingdom of God coming near.

Once we ground our purpose in Jesus’ purpose, we join with our local church in pursuing its purpose.  Why?  Because we can’t be Christians by ourselves.  We live out of faith in Christian community.  This community believes that God created St. John’s to prepare ourselves and others for his Kingdom as we “worship God, care for people, and grow as Christians.”  This statement of purpose is a way that we live out the Great Commandment and Great Commission to love God, to love our neighbor and to go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them.  While St. John’s purpose is still fairly broad, it helps us organize our individual purposes as we work together, and it provides a godly purpose while people are here before they have been able to discern their individual divine purpose.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, our purpose has to do with our own particular gifts, passions and experiences. For some people, these qualities of their life are so clear that as soon as they dedicate themselves to God everything else falls into place.  The musician who wakes up every morning to write worship music.  The gourmet cook who finds any excuse to fire up the church stove.  The recovering addict who wants everyone to know how much better life is clean and sober, and is able to communicate that message effectively.

But many of us may not be so clear about the specific purpose of our life.  So God has given us guidelines.  The 3 Colors of Ministry is one resource that helps us determine the gifts we have, and to think about where God might be giving us new ones.  We have just finished a couple of spiritual gifts exploration groups, but others are likely to start in September.  If you’re interested, let me or Madge know. 

Then, next to spiritual gifts, our passions are God-given motivations that help define our purpose.  Who do we love to work with?  What do we want to change?  What fills us with joy and excitement?  I know Christians that would do anything for children.  I know other Christians who have devoted their lives to helping seniors.   Others feed people.  Still others dedicate their lives to prayer.  I have an American friend from the Valley who has a huge heart for the Mexican people, and will do anything she can to help prepare Mexico for the coming Kingdom.  If God gave us a particular love for someone or some group, our purpose may very well involve helping them in particular live into the Kingdom of God. 

Of course, the particular experiences and circumstance of life will also help us define our purpose.  Where we live, where we work, who is in our family, and any number of other details contribute to our purpose.  People who have children, and especially those who adopt children, have their growth and nurture in the knowledge and love of the Lord as part of their purpose.  Those who have faced a particular tragedy or overcome a difficult situation may be able to reach lost people in similar circumstances.  Cancer survivors helping those undergoing chemotherapy or widows reaching out to those who have recently lost loved ones.  Each and every one of us is in a specific situation with God-given gifts and passions that help us know how we can worship God, care for people and grow as Christians such that those around us are ready to enter the coming Kingdom of God.

Notice that Jesus didn’t announce his purpose until after he surrendered totally to God in his baptism and defeated the devil in his life.  We won’t find our purpose until we do the same.  If we are still living for ourselves, or if we are still bound by the devils in our lives, then we can’t live out God’s purpose.  If we are living out God’s purpose for our lives, then we are praying in the morning to allow us to share the good news with someone, or feed someone who is hungry, or teach a child something about God’s love, or organize the efforts of people doing good in the community, or help one addict stay clean for the day.  If by the time we go to bed we haven’t done something that prepares people for the Kingdom of God, we don’t consider our day a success.  While we still lived for ourselves, before we defeated the devil in our life, our day might have been considered a success if we had a good dessert, or if nobody got mad at us, or if we made money, or if people said they liked us, or if our addictions were catered to, or if we felt pain free, or if our team won the game.  Once we live for God’s purpose, we give thanks to God for everything good in our lives, but they are blessings, not ends in themselves.      

If this all sounds like a pretty high standard of Christianity, it is.  Remember that this entire discipleship arm dance is about how we can develop our own life in following Jesus to the degree that we can help unchurched people whose lives may be a complete mess also come to follow Jesus.  The things we are talking about are not church as usual, but how we as a church transform lives.  When we live out our purpose, people, including the unchurched, will recognize what we are doing.  We may have an opportunity to explain it in words, but usually we won’t have to.  Our living out God’s purpose for us will draw others to us, and help them move from a life focused on this world to lives focused on the kingdom.

Before I finish with the arm dance one more time, and it won’t be too long, I promise, I thought I’d offer an illustration of announcing our purpose by telling you how I see mine.  As best as I can articulate, my purpose is to develop religious communities that increasing live like the Kingdom of God.  Mostly I do that through prayer and also through strategic planning, organization and leadership development.  Right now, that purpose plays out mostly at St. John’s and the Shenango Valley.  Practically, this purpose means that success for me is praying for everyone in this parish every day and walking around the community praying for a couple of hours every week.  My purpose also tells me, based on my gifts, experience, and passion, to look for groups of people where the right question, the right encouragement, the right challenge, or the right structure can help them better love each other and serve the community because that’s where I can be most effective at helping people live into the Kingdom of God.  This particular purpose informs all my work in the parish, in the diocese and in the wider community.  My purpose is probably fairly different than most of your purposes, but that is a good thing.  Because when we are using all our unique, God directed purposes to worship God, care for people and grow as Christians, we will be living out God’s plan for this parish in ways that prepare ourselves and others to live into the coming Kingdom of God.

OK – everybody:

Jesus was baptized by John.

He came up out of the water.

He received the Holy Spirit.

He heard the voice of God, “You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

He went into the wilderness.

He defeated the devil.

He came out of the wilderness.

He announced his purpose.

He chose four others.

He taught them everything they needed to know.

He sent them out.

        

Part 5 -- Discipleship Arm Dance: He Went Into the Wilderness, He Defeated the Devil, He Came Out of the Wilderness

  9 Pentecost 2013

Father Adam Trambley

July 21, 2013, St. John’s Sharon

The Discipleship Arm Dance – Part 5

He went into the wilderness; He defeated the devil; He came out of the wilderness

(Part 1 Here, Part 2 Here, Part 3 Here, Part 4 Here)

This week we are going to continue working through the Discipleship Arm Dance.   

 Jesus was baptized by John.

He came up out of the water.

He received the Holy Spirit.

He heard the voice of God, “You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

He went into the wilderness.

He defeated the devil.

He came out of the wilderness.

He announced his purpose.

He chose four others.

He taught them everything they needed to know.

He sent them out.

We’ve looked at the first four steps so far.  We’ve talked about the surrender to God in the context of a local church, and the need to step out into the life God has in store with the support of the local church.  We’ve talked about the Holy Spirit coming down and filling us, and how we can hear the voice of God tell us we are his beloved when we allow God to come into our entire lives.  This week we are going to focus on three lines: “He went into the wilderness.  He defeated the devil.  He came out of the wilderness.” 

As soon as Jesus heard God assuring him that he was his beloved Son, the Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness.  Two weeks ago we talked about how the Holy Spirit lets us feel God’s love throughout our being, and then starts burning away all the parts of our life that aren’t fully compatible with God’s plan and purposes for our lives.  The Spirit blowing throughout our lives takes us into the desert, shows us the devil we need to defeat in our lives, and provides what we need to do so.

For Jesus, he was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness.  He did not necessarily expect to go.  But he chose to surrender to God and the wilderness was stop numero uno on the divine road trip.  If Jesus had stayed at home, the opportunities to figure out what he needed to deal with would not have come.  Imagine being the only Son of a perfect Jewish mother.  Maybe God knew that a little separation was needed before anything else could happen.

Then, once Jesus was in the wilderness, he defeated the devil.  Now we wouldn’t necessarily expect Jesus to

need to defeat the devil in his own life.  He hadn’t sinned and didn’t have any addictions.  He hadn’t ever seen a raunchy R-rated movie or played Texas hold-um with the rent money.  But even Jesus had pieces of his life that needed to be solidified before he could hope to live into his purpose.  While Jesus’ temptations are paradigms for all temptations, they also are very specific to Jesus.  Turn stones into bread.  Guess what, Jesus had to decide that the powerful love and provision of God that he knew and could bring about was not just for his own comfort and the comfort of those around him, but had to serve a higher purpose.  Otherwise he spends his life and God’s gift as just a local bread distributer.  A noble calling, but not Jesus’ calling.  Throw yourself off the temple and order angels to save you.  Jesus had to decide that having angels at his beck and call was not to glorify himself through reckless stunts but to allow him to achieve God’s purpose and glorify God, even if the stunts would have made great television.  Finally, gain all the kingdoms of the world if only bow down and worship the devil.  Jesus had to think about just how much better everyone would be if he made the compromise that gave him all worldly power instead of leaving it with all the current kings and governors, and then he decided to forego that path and follow his Father’s way of self-giving love.  Jesus couldn’t have been ready to feed and heal people, to cast out demons, and to rely on angelic support in difficult times unless he had stared down all the temptations he would later face and knew exactly what he needed to do.  He defeated the devil and began his ministry with eyes open.

Then he came out of the wilderness.   Coming out of the wilderness is hard.  Jesus had just spent forty days overcoming everything difficult, and now angels were finally waiting on him.  The wilderness was now a comfortable place, and instead of enjoying it, Jesus has to come out and begin his ministry.

You and I have our wilderness experiences, too, and usually we are driven into them.  They are usually those times when our regular routines of life get totally changed around and we have to face trying circumstances.  If we have given ourselves over to God, then the Holy Spirit is going to work with those trying circumstances to show us the places where we have to defeat the devil in our own lives.  The circumstances themselves are generally not what we need to overcome, but our difficulties make us face the pieces of ourselves that we need to change if we are going to live out God’s purpose.  Now I’m not saying that when life is difficult the Holy Spirit is at fault.  I’m just saying that when life is difficult, the Holy Spirit is going to drive us into looking at the devils in our life to defeat.

Now these wilderness places we are driven into probably aren’t going off to a cabin for a retreat.  Retreats are important for many reasons, and when we take times away from our life and give them to God he uses it.  But, for example, I spent eight days in January on a silent retreat.  I needed to do it for a number of reasons, and spending that time in prayer was huge.  But that retreat wasn’t the same kind of wilderness that I’ve faced for the past two weeks since I tweaked my back and have had to tell some folks I couldn’t do things I had planned to do.  For me, being quiet isn’t that hard, but feeling like I am letting people down or am unable to keep a commitment because I’m not up to it really ties me up in knots inside.  Yet I know that if I care too much about disappointing people or trying to keep their opinion about me at a certain level, then I’m in danger of caring more about what people think than about what God wants me to do.  So my challenge in this minor wilderness is to defeat that devil of caring too much about other people’s opinions so that I can care more about God’s opinion, since the two somehow don’t always coincide.     

But that is just one example of the kind of wilderness we face.  Sometimes we face financial crises, either of our own over-spending or a job loss or health crisis or significant personal problems or other difficulty.  If we are paying attention, the Holy Spirit will show us what we need to defeat in that wilderness.  Maybe we find ourselves angry and lashing out at those we are supposed to love and support.  Maybe we find ourselves increasing our alcohol consumption.  Maybe we sink into depression and despair.  Maybe we realize we haven’t had an honest conversation with our spouse about how to set priorities and make financial decisions.  Maybe we beat up little kids on their way to school and steal their lunch money.  Whatever our own weakness and temptations are, we clearly face them in the wildernesses of our lives when things get difficult.  Then when we starkly see our choices, if we defeat the devil, we shouldn’t have any trouble when our normal rhythms of life are re-established.

So just how do we defeat the devil in the wilderness?  Doing what we know we are supposed to do – prayer, worship, scripture, confession, seeking support and council from godly men and woman who can help us.  Opening up to someone else, especially someone who has faced and overcome similar struggles, can be exceptionally helpful.  Being honest with someone and getting support and sometimes good advice can be essential. 

I also want to talk about one specific tool today for the kind of accountability that helps us defeat the devils in our lives.  In your bulletins you’ll find a blue sheet describing LifeTransformation Groups.  Now Life Transformation Groups aren’t the only way overcoming our temptations in the wilderness or of being accountable to others, but they are a simple and powerful way of doing so.  In fact, beginning to work in a Life Transformation Group actually helps take us into the wilderness to do what we need to do there, and some people have found Life Transformation Groups to be the natural next step after we have turned over of life to God.  

A Life Transformation Group is designed for two or three people and has three components.  The first is accountability in living a Christian life.  You can see the questions on the page are pretty exhaustive and cove a whole lot of ground.  They give an opportunity for us to work with other Christians to discover and defeat whatever devils are lurking in dark corners of our lives.  The second component is scripture reading.  We read about 25-30 chapters of scripture a week, which means that as we are emptying ourselves of our sinfulness, we are filling ourselves up with God’s revelation.  Then we pray for those we know who need to have their life transformed and invite people to join us.  As the group grows to four and beyond, it multiplies into two groups and keeps going.  Between now and September a number of people connected with the parish are planning to begin Life Transformation Groups.  If you have questions, or are interested, let me or Deacon Randy know. (Or go on-line to CMA Resource's website at http://cmaresources.org/article/ltg where you can get more information and order your own materials.)

Of course, after we’ve defeated the devil in our lives, we, too, need to come out of the wilderness.  We need to incorporate the gains we’ve achieved in the wilderness into our everyday lives.  Sometimes that work is difficult, but our work in the desert is intended to change our lives when we come out.

Now when we think about unchurched people we want to share the good news with and disciple, our perspective has to shift.  Mainly, we have to recognize that for people who haven’t been in a church all their lives, coming to St. John’s may very well be their wilderness.  They could be in an uncomfortable place with new people where they are opening themselves up to a new way of life.  Our job is to help them defeat whatever devils they face when they are here.  But that work is not necessarily the same work we generally think about when we think of church work.

Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, and that time period is about what it takes to support someone in defeating a devil in their life.  To help someone may take a variety of forms.  They may need someone to call daily to see how things are going and get the support and encouragement they need.  They may need someone to call, a lot at first, to say, I’m really mad right now and want to hit somebody, so help talk me down and say a prayer with me.  They may need someone to give them rides to twelve-step meetings every day for a month.  They may need someone to be in a Life Transformation Group with, or to pray with on a regular basis.  They may need someone to share a meal with regularly if they have recently been widowed.  They may need good people that they and their family can be friends with, especially if they are isolated from their own extended family.  Whatever they need, we will probably be required not just to be at church with people, but to share part of our lives with people.   St. John’s knows how to be more than a Sunday morning community, because many of you have been getting together with people from church more often than Sunday morning for years.   Helping others defeat the devil may mean having the relationships we are accustomed to having in a way that is intentionally open to new Christians.  Then, those new folks we are discipling can come out of the wilderness and restart the rhythms of their day-to-day life in ways that incorporate a church family.

Jesus was baptized by John.

He came up out of the water.

He received the Holy Spirit.

He heard the voice of God, “You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

He went into the wilderness.

He defeated the devil.

He came out of the wilderness.

He announced his purpose.

He chose four others.

He taught them everything they needed to know.

He sent them out.

Part 4 -- Discipleship Arm Dance: He Heard the Voice of God, "You Are My Beloved Son, with Whom I Am Well Pleased"

8 Pentecost 2013

Father Adam Trambley

July 14, 2013, St. John’s Sharon

The Discipleship Arm Dance – Part 4: “You are my beloved”

(Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here)

This week we are going to continue working through the Discipleship Arm Dance.   

Jesus was baptized by John.

He came up out of the water.

He received the Holy Spirit.

He heard the voice of God, “You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

He went into the wilderness.

He defeated the devil.

He came out of the wilderness.

He announced his purpose.

He chose four others.

He taught them everything they needed to know.

He sent them out.

Two weeks ago, we talked about Jesus was baptized by John, noting his total commitment to God and God’s purposes in the context of a local family of faith.  Then last week we looked at He came up out of the water, as describing Jesus’ assent to continue with the new life God had in store with the support of that local community of faith.  We also discussed He received the Holy Spirit, noting how the Holy Spirit’s fire causes the warmth and heat that move us into the next few steps.  This morning, we are going to talk about He heard the voice of God, “You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

As the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus as a dove, the heavens open up and Jesus hears the voice of God.  Now we might not be surprised that God calls Jesus his beloved Son or that God is pleased with him.  The centerpiece of our faith is that Jesus is the Son of God.  Certainly “beloved, Son and pleased” fully apply to Jesus in every sense.  But just because we expect God to say this to Jesus doesn’t make the sentiments any less real.  Jesus is God’s beloved child, and God is pleased that he has just committed himself to God and his purposes.

Now to transfer this divine voice from Jesus to us could seem like a stretch.  Most of us were not products of a miraculous virgin birth.  Most of us figure we’ve done things that have not pleased God.  And most of us don’t feel beloved by anybody way too much of the time. 

                                                             

But scripture assures us that we all are children of God and that he does love us.  And he is pleased with us, especially as the Spirit is filling us and we begin that life of commitment to him and his purpose which is good for us and what we really need.  God is like any parent that gets pleased when their children actually allow themselves to receive that incredible parental love.  Unfortunately most people most of the time don’t hear God’s voice telling us that we are his beloved children. God is saying it, but we refuse to hear it.  And the things we are doing that are getting in the way of hearing God generally don’t make the Almighty too pleased, either.

Our basic problem is that we have too many places in our lives where we try to hide from God.  Maybe we don’t trust God; maybe we don’t trust ourselves; maybe our life experience has taught us not to trust period.  When we actually surrender ourselves fully to God and his purpose, the Holy Spirit can fully fill us.  We’ll feel that divine warmth throughout our entire being that assures us that we are God’s beloved children in whom he is well pleased.  But if we don’t want to give parts of ourselves over to God, then we can only hear God speaking in the pretty areas we’ve shown him.  And we know how insecure we feel in love that hasn’t actually embraced the parts of ourselves we aren’t comfortable with.  We’ll never really hear God’s voice saying just how beloved we are when we only share the parts of ourselves that we like with him.  But God really does love all of us, at least all of the real us that is beneath all the barriers we set up to keep him and others out.  

These walls we set up between us and God take any number of forms and come from any number of causes, but I think they mostly resemble badly behaved toddlers in the sandbox.  Sometimes we throw sand at Grandma when she is trying to come give us a hug when we’ve scraped our knee.  Sometimes we decide to eat the pie we’ve made out of mud when Mom and Dad have a picnic table full of vegetables and a freezer full of ice cream for dessert.  Sometimes we try to push all the other kids out of our sandbox.  And sometimes we dig a hole and try to hide when the fire and roasted marshmallows are about to begin.  All that the grown-ups want to do is demonstrate their love for us, and all we do is find ways to keep that from happening.   Too often we act the same way towards God.

What do these walls that we hide part of ourselves behind look like from our perspective?  They take a number of forms. 

Sometimes our walls are sins that we aren’t willing to even want to give up.   The most famous example is St. Augustine’s sort-of-prayer, “give me chastity, but not yet.”  Maybe we say, “You can have all of me God, but not my smoking breaks” or “not my chocolate” or “not my gossiping,” or “not my yelling at my family members (or not my passive-aggressive behavior) when they don’t do what I want them to.”   Sinning, though, isn’t the issue.  God knows we aren’t perfect.  The issue is not opening our habitual sins up to God’s light.  If we do, we’ll hear him tell us that we are his beloved children anyway, and then he’ll offer opportunities as appropriate to change.  But if we decide our sins keep us from God and choose to hide behind them instead of asking for forgiveness, we are like the children screaming and kicking sand while God waits for us to let him get a loving word in edgewise.

Others barriers we set up between us and God are sometimes called parts of a false self or inner vows.  These walls resemble a little kid playing a super-hero and refusing to be who he really is.  The false-self barrier is like God saying, “Adam, I love you,” and me saying, “There is no Adam here.  I’m Batman.  Check out my cape?”  Often these false selves come up because we were hurt somehow, usually when we were little, and we decide, in order to protect ourselves, to act in ways so that we don’t get hurt again.  Maybe when we were little when people were unhappy we got scared, or worse, so we decide to be the person who keeps everyone happy, no matter what the cost to us.  Maybe we always felt that things were out of control growing up, so we decide we are the person who is always in control.  Maybe we were taken advantage of, so we decide to be the person who never appears weak or vulnerable.  Maybe we were always criticized, so we decide to be hyper-critical of others before they can judge us.  

Now these false selves are not who God made us to be.  They are always about protecting ourselves and never about loving God or others, or about living into the divine purpose we were made for.  And our false selves aren’t God’s beloved children.  They are kind of our own Frankenstein monster creations to keep the villagers at bay (or if you are under twenty-five, sort of like our own zombie apocalypse avatar that looks strong and powerful, but is only a character we made up to fight zombies and really isn’t us).  As long as we refuse to acknowledge that these roles we are playing aren’t really us, we won’t feel God’s love.  The beloved child of God is the scared little kid behind these masks we wear.  Once we offer our false selves to God and let his strip them off, we can feel how much he really does love who we really are, and how pleased he is when the real us opens up to him.  Then when we slip and put back on the costumes, we know who we really are – beloved children of God – and our protective armor becomes much less important to us.         

One other enormous barrier to believing we are God’s beloved children and that he is pleased with us is shame.  Shame is the debilitating lie that says “I am a bad person.”  When we feel shame, we cannot believe that we could be someone that God would actually love. 

Now shame and guilt are different things.  Guilt is about what we do and shame is about who we are.  Guilt can be an appropriate feeling.  When we’ve done something wrong, guilt is what makes us take responsibility for our actions and seek to make it right.  If we burn a bridge, guilt says, “I burned a bridge, so I have to go and apologize to the people who live on the other side of the chasm and build them a new bridge if I can.  If I can’t, I need to pay someone who can, and if even that is impossible, I need to be forgiven and trust God to make this right somehow and change my behavior so that I don’t play with flamethrowers on wooden trestles anymore.”  All of those feelings are meet and right.  But shame says, “I am a no-good, nasty bridge-burner that deserves to rot in hell.  I’ve separated loved ones across a canyon and I’m no longer worthy to be part of human society.   I am just an evil person that is an embarrassment to my family, my church, my friends, and my employer.  I’ll put on a nice façade going forward, but inside I know I’m total junk.”  I want to tell you that all of these feelings are lies.  We believe them because we have been conditioned to believe them since we were little.  Parents and other authority figures love to use shame to keep people in line, especially if they are dealing with lots of shame themselves.  We hear, we even say, “You should be ashamed of yourself.”  But no one should be ashamed of themselves.  Maybe they should feel guilty.  Maybe they need to take responsibility for their actions.  Maybe if they are children they need to be in a different environment that is more appropriate to their needs.  But no one should feel ashamed of themselves because everyone is a beloved child of God. 

Jesus always lived and taught in ways that lifted up love, not shame, and focused on forgiving the guilt of sin so that the appropriate feelings of guilt didn’t lead to the devastating feelings of shame. 

Shame is hard for us to deal with, especially when we’ve internalized it.  Shame leads to setting up all the barriers we’ve discussed above, as well as many others.  Shame makes us feel like we aren’t worth God’s time, and that we aren’t worth God’s love.  But the answer to shame is to offer ourselves over to God  -- even, or especially, when we believe we are worthless and totally unable to be loved by so wonderful a God as our God.  If we can just take that incredible risk, if we can just open our shame-filled selves up to the light of God, we won’t find that we are worthless.  We won’t find that we are evil.  We won’t find that we are an embarrassment or a disappointment or piece of trash.  We will find that the voice of God, which is powerful truth, tells us “you are my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased,” because nothing is more pleasing to God then his children opening themselves up to receive his love. 

We’ll close with the arm-dance again, but pay special attention after “He heard the voice of God.”  When everyone says “You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” try to hear God speaking through all these voices not just to Jesus, but also to you. 

Jesus was baptized by John.

He came up out of the water.

He received the Holy Spirit.

He heard the voice of God, “You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

He went into the wilderness.

He defeated the devil.

He came out of the wilderness.

He announced his purpose.

He chose four others.

He taught them everything they needed to know.

He sent them out.