A Reflection of God
“A Reflection of God”
I Thessalonians 2:9-13
CCUM Rev Carolyn Waters
October 30, 2005
Verse 12 of our reading from Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica is enough of an attention getter, and good works challenger to fill the morning!
Hear the words again: (We were) urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into God’s own kingdom and glory.
“Lead a life worthy of God.”
WOW. Not pleasing to God, but worthy of God.
It’s a phrase that brings me face to face with my own stuff as I reflect God in the world.
NRSV translation says: Lead a life worthy of God.
Another less reputable translation says:
Walk in a way worthy of God.
Either way, for me it’s a challenge to imagine that my life might be a reflection of God’s presence in this world.
In other words, I think that Paul thinks that I should live in such a way that God would be living through me.
I think that’s what he means. Challenging, as it is to live in such a way that God is living through me………through you.
My 92-year-old mother Lucile had her gall bladder taken out last Thursday afternoon. She was sick when I visited her last week. She told the doctor she had been sick for several weeks, but a funny thing about communication, unless you do it doesn’t! Because she hadn’t told any of us she had been sick, she almost got too sick for anyone to be helpful.
So, having been sicker than she needed to be, after the surgery went well, and she didn’t die, her old self kicked back in. (by the way she spoke to me on the phone Thursday morning you would have thought it would be the last time I’d ever talk to her.)
And this is how the old self goes for my mother: when she isn’t in control she’s a mess. When she is hungry she’s a triple mess, and when she isn’t in her own space she is impossible.
Friday morning, once again talking to her one the phone……….she was being a real grump. Now I visit a lot of people in the hospital. Sometimes you have good reason to be a grump…………..but even when that is true, being a grump produces less attention from those who need to care for you.
It would be in my mother’s best interests to treat the people caring for her in a kind way. She will get far better results in being cared for. I know from my own experience that when my mother is a grump (there are other words I might use for this behavior!)………I have absolutely no desire to be around her.
So, I said to my church going, Baptist upbringing, and Southern Methodist mother…………… “Mom, how about if you act like the next 4 days of how you act will determine how you are treated once you get to heaven. Nothing else up to this point matters, it’s only about how you treat others for the next four days.”
Silence……………total silence. She knew exactly what I was talking about.
Then she started laughing and said, “You’re just trying to get me to be a nice person!” And I said to her, “Isn’t that what life is all about?”
One evening an old Cherokee chief told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.”
“The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee chief simply replied, “The one you feed.”
We feed what we live on. Too often we are feeding a part of our spirits and souls that produce the very opposite of what we desire from others and ourselves. Too often our choices keep the evil wolf alive inside of us.
--Philip Yancey wrote an article called: Humility's Many Faces, in Christianity Today, December 4, 2000
He used this illustration:
For most of his life Albert Einstein had the portraits of two scientists, Newton and Maxwell, hanging on his wall as role models to inspire him. Toward the end of his life, however, he took them down and replaced them with portraits of Albert Schweitzer and Mahatma Gandhi. He needed new role models, he said -- not of success, but of humble service.
When I think of what it might mean to be intentional bout reflecting the presence of God in the world, my whole demeanor changes. The challenge is that I so often forget. I get caught up in the daily, the ordinary, the pushes and pulls………..or buttons get pushed and not unlike my mother I can become grumpy………..it’s hereditary you know!
But then a passage like this shows up in my reading and I’m reminded about what’s most important.
Of all the character attributes we might give God, the primary one I would give is God’s persistence at loving. God seems to never give up on us. God seems to show up again and again through our recorded religious history, and in our contemporary lives. Whether it’s pushing the people through the Promised Land, staying with the stragglers after the crucifixion, birthing a church in a climate of conflict and religious intolerance………..God is persistent with loving, God seems to never give up on us.
For the past 6 or 7 weeks our choir has been singing “Bambelela” as a choral introit.
I don’t know what that arrangement does for you, but I can tell you what it does for me. It wakes me up in the middle of the night. Really! I can’t make up stuff like that.
At three in the morning I’ll be laying in bed wishing I could go to sleep and all I can hear is Bambelela, Bambelela, Bambelela, Bambelela.
I told Ben he was haunting me in the middle of the night. Then he told me the story of Bambelela. I want him to tell you that story.
(Ben’s story and sing)
To lead a life worthy of God is to never give up on God’s presence with us.
To lead a life worthy of God is to never give up on the possibility of hope for those in our world who need so much.
To lead a life worthy of God is to recognize that God is forever waiting for us to notice that God in with us in everything we do, every person we meet, every decision we make, every choice that goes wrong.
To lead a life worthy of God is to rest in the desire that we recognize there is something beyond us that is more important than we are, that there is something within us that brings out the best of who we are, and that there is something among us that keeps us together as a community of faith.
To lead a life worthy of God is to believe in the stories of old that tell us over and over again that we will not be abandoned, that we are not alone, that God is with us and that God never gives up on us, even if we have given up on ourselves.
And finally, to lead a life worthy of God is perhaps to be haunted by God’s presence in the middle of the night…………saying, “Never give up!”.
I Thessalonians 2:9-13
CCUM Rev Carolyn Waters
October 30, 2005
Verse 12 of our reading from Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica is enough of an attention getter, and good works challenger to fill the morning!
Hear the words again: (We were) urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into God’s own kingdom and glory.
“Lead a life worthy of God.”
WOW. Not pleasing to God, but worthy of God.
It’s a phrase that brings me face to face with my own stuff as I reflect God in the world.
NRSV translation says: Lead a life worthy of God.
Another less reputable translation says:
Walk in a way worthy of God.
Either way, for me it’s a challenge to imagine that my life might be a reflection of God’s presence in this world.
In other words, I think that Paul thinks that I should live in such a way that God would be living through me.
I think that’s what he means. Challenging, as it is to live in such a way that God is living through me………through you.
My 92-year-old mother Lucile had her gall bladder taken out last Thursday afternoon. She was sick when I visited her last week. She told the doctor she had been sick for several weeks, but a funny thing about communication, unless you do it doesn’t! Because she hadn’t told any of us she had been sick, she almost got too sick for anyone to be helpful.
So, having been sicker than she needed to be, after the surgery went well, and she didn’t die, her old self kicked back in. (by the way she spoke to me on the phone Thursday morning you would have thought it would be the last time I’d ever talk to her.)
And this is how the old self goes for my mother: when she isn’t in control she’s a mess. When she is hungry she’s a triple mess, and when she isn’t in her own space she is impossible.
Friday morning, once again talking to her one the phone……….she was being a real grump. Now I visit a lot of people in the hospital. Sometimes you have good reason to be a grump…………..but even when that is true, being a grump produces less attention from those who need to care for you.
It would be in my mother’s best interests to treat the people caring for her in a kind way. She will get far better results in being cared for. I know from my own experience that when my mother is a grump (there are other words I might use for this behavior!)………I have absolutely no desire to be around her.
So, I said to my church going, Baptist upbringing, and Southern Methodist mother…………… “Mom, how about if you act like the next 4 days of how you act will determine how you are treated once you get to heaven. Nothing else up to this point matters, it’s only about how you treat others for the next four days.”
Silence……………total silence. She knew exactly what I was talking about.
Then she started laughing and said, “You’re just trying to get me to be a nice person!” And I said to her, “Isn’t that what life is all about?”
One evening an old Cherokee chief told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.”
“The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee chief simply replied, “The one you feed.”
We feed what we live on. Too often we are feeding a part of our spirits and souls that produce the very opposite of what we desire from others and ourselves. Too often our choices keep the evil wolf alive inside of us.
--Philip Yancey wrote an article called: Humility's Many Faces, in Christianity Today, December 4, 2000
He used this illustration:
For most of his life Albert Einstein had the portraits of two scientists, Newton and Maxwell, hanging on his wall as role models to inspire him. Toward the end of his life, however, he took them down and replaced them with portraits of Albert Schweitzer and Mahatma Gandhi. He needed new role models, he said -- not of success, but of humble service.
When I think of what it might mean to be intentional bout reflecting the presence of God in the world, my whole demeanor changes. The challenge is that I so often forget. I get caught up in the daily, the ordinary, the pushes and pulls………..or buttons get pushed and not unlike my mother I can become grumpy………..it’s hereditary you know!
But then a passage like this shows up in my reading and I’m reminded about what’s most important.
Of all the character attributes we might give God, the primary one I would give is God’s persistence at loving. God seems to never give up on us. God seems to show up again and again through our recorded religious history, and in our contemporary lives. Whether it’s pushing the people through the Promised Land, staying with the stragglers after the crucifixion, birthing a church in a climate of conflict and religious intolerance………..God is persistent with loving, God seems to never give up on us.
For the past 6 or 7 weeks our choir has been singing “Bambelela” as a choral introit.
I don’t know what that arrangement does for you, but I can tell you what it does for me. It wakes me up in the middle of the night. Really! I can’t make up stuff like that.
At three in the morning I’ll be laying in bed wishing I could go to sleep and all I can hear is Bambelela, Bambelela, Bambelela, Bambelela.
I told Ben he was haunting me in the middle of the night. Then he told me the story of Bambelela. I want him to tell you that story.
(Ben’s story and sing)
To lead a life worthy of God is to never give up on God’s presence with us.
To lead a life worthy of God is to never give up on the possibility of hope for those in our world who need so much.
To lead a life worthy of God is to recognize that God is forever waiting for us to notice that God in with us in everything we do, every person we meet, every decision we make, every choice that goes wrong.
To lead a life worthy of God is to rest in the desire that we recognize there is something beyond us that is more important than we are, that there is something within us that brings out the best of who we are, and that there is something among us that keeps us together as a community of faith.
To lead a life worthy of God is to believe in the stories of old that tell us over and over again that we will not be abandoned, that we are not alone, that God is with us and that God never gives up on us, even if we have given up on ourselves.
And finally, to lead a life worthy of God is perhaps to be haunted by God’s presence in the middle of the night…………saying, “Never give up!”.
posted by Rev Waters | 1:36 PM
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