|
Beloved in Christ,
Like most people, I am at my worst when I believe I
have something to prove. When I think I need to prove to others that
I am smart enough, or good enough, or right enough, or likeable
enough, or worthy of love, or whatever, then everyone who is different
than me is a threat, every criticism is an attack, every disagreement
is a battle I have to win. That gnawing
feeling we all carry somewhere inside that we are deficient in some
way is called shame, and when we live from this place, our whole life
feels like a fight.
Our reading from 2 Timothy this week urges us to stand
before God as “a worker who has no need to be ashamed.” The heart of
the gospel of Jesus Christ is that we are loved, immeasurably and
unimaginably, not because we have proven ourselves worthy, but simply
because we have been created by the God who is infinite love.
To be sure, we are called to act morally, to live
righteously, and to reflect holiness. But not in
order to convince God and others that we are good enough. Our
actions, like the Samaritan leper’s gratitude in this week’s gospel,
are a response to what God has already done for us. We don’t act in order to win our freedom,
we act because we have already been set free.
Our current culture and politics frames life as a
binary battlefield with only winners and losers. It secures that
field by constantly poking at the shame inside us. You don’t have
enough. You haven’t done enough. The world, or the nation, or the
church, or your family, would be fine if you just tried harder
and did more. It’s all a lie. Following Jesus is about subverting
that lie with the gospel of God’s limitless love.
If you are discouraged by the state of our nation, if
you want to be a force for healing and good, then instead of just
fighting harder in a world designed to lock us in perpetual warfare,
try standing “before God as one
approved by him. A worker who has no need to be ashamed.” Try
starting each day, each conversation, each encounter in that
place.
When we set down the struggle to secure some imagined
freedom, and accept that we have already been set free, we find,
finally, the power to join God in setting the whole word free with
irresistible joy, with unshakable hope, and with revolutionary love.
Grace and Peace,
+CWL
The Right Reverend Craig Loya
Bishop of Minnesota
Church in Minnesota
|
