John Carter or Gordon from Sesame Street?

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where this is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled
as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

This is the Prayer of St. Francis. It is a prayer of surrender. Not giving up, but giving yourself over completely to the will of God so that God can use you the way God designed you.

God loves your uniqueness, your “one-of-a-kind-ness.” each one of you has been gifted with your own set of talents and inclinations. God simply asks that you use those to love God and others.

Alex and I at Big Rapids 1st United Methodist Church

I was in Big Rapids yesterday for the “Bishop's Day” conference. During the opening worship I noticed a couple of the musicians, as well as a few members of the congregation had one or both hands in the air, moving in a pulsing motion that went along with the lyrics of the song. They had their eyes closed, and it looked like they were experiencing something that I was not. Not only was I not feeling the music as they were I found that I was caught up in analyzing what was happening rather than sing at all. This has always been my struggle. Methodist are known for their great music and here I am a pastor in the church and what I feel doesn't match the look on those worshipers faces. I ask myself: what am I missing. Then I came across an article about a woman named Agnes (Leadership Journal, Fall 2011. Dark Nights of the Soul. When God seems far away. Spiritual thermometers and prayer in the darkness by John Ortberg).

“From the time she was a young girl, Agnes believed . Not just believed: she was on fire. She wanted to do great things for God. She said things such as she wanted to “love Jesus as he has never been loved before.”

Agnes had an undeniable calling. She wrote in her journal that “my soul at present is in perfect peace and joy.” she experienced a union with God that was so deep and so continual that it was to her a rapture. She left her home. She became a missionary. She gave him everything.

And then he left her.

At least that's how it felt to her. Where is my faith?” She asked. “Deep down there is nothing but emptiness and darkness...My God, how painful is this unknown pain..I have no faith.”

She struggled to pray: I utter word of community prayers- and try my utmost to get out of every word the sweetness it has to give. But my prayer of union is not there any longer. I no longer pray.”

She still worked, still served, still smiled. But she spoke of the smile as her mask, “a cloak that covers everything.” This is the way it was for 50 years. We know Agnes as Mother Teresa.

The point worship in not necessarily to feel something. Though if you do feel something, that's great. But getting something is not our purpose here. Mother Teresa served God and humanity with great love, all the while longing for a knowledge of the presence of God which she did not feel. The point of worship is to honor God; to be in the presence of God; to surrender oneself to the glory of God; to love God. Then to respond to God's great love by going back out into the world using your unique, God given design to love your neighbors.

These are the commands of God.

Love God. Love your neighbors. That's nice isn't it? That's something you could teach on Sesame Street aside from the God part that is. Remember Sesame street? I do because I have a two -year-old in the house and he really likes Sesame Street. Remember Gordon, the bald headed fellow? He is still on. He was on when I was a kid. He is there to help understand concepts like sharing and compromise. Gordon is great but my older kids are no longer interested in Sesame street. They like a little more action. There is a Disney movie out right now called John Carter. Its a movie based on a series of science fiction books written in the early 1900's. The title character John Carter isn't so much like Gordon on Sesame street with the compromise and the sharing. John Carter is the “ has what it takes to get the job done,” kind of guy. He is a civil war veteran who masters the ability to teleport himself to the Planet Mars where the reduced gravity gives him relative super strength and so he becomes a hero fighting the bad guys.

So here's the question? If you grew up coming to church. Was the message to be more like Gordon from Sesame Street or more like John Carter?

In the Gospel Lesson today Jesus went to the temple. The Temple you remember, the place where people go to show God that they love God, the place where those who want to be close to God go. Because that is what God wants, right? God wants people to love him. God wants us to use the gifts, talents and personality traits to love him and to others. And so the temple was the place that was designed for this purpose. People came from miles around. Jesus came to the temple and found people not with their hearts set on loving god but rather they were selling animals and changing money. They were profiting from the worshipers. Even worse than that. They were standing in the way of people loving god. They were the gateway that all must pass through. They had to have the “right' animal. They had to have the “right” kind of money for the temple treasury.

Jesus got a little excited. He made a whip and drove the animals out. He knocked over the tables of the money changers.

Sounds like Jesus got angry. Sounds like Jesus is the “ has what it takes to get the job done,” kind of guy. But that's not all that Jesus was. We don't read in this account or in any account that Jesus ever hurt any one. This is no advocacy of violence. There are times when Jesus was gentle and compassionate. There were times when Jesus was stern and direct. There were times when Jesus felt at one with the Father in heaven and there was at least one time when he felt that the Father had left him. But through everything Jesus, gave of himself for the singular purpose that people. You and I can freely come to the throne of God with confidence. There is no barrier. There are no obstacles. With Jesus there is freedom. We are free to be the people that we have been created to be.

This statue is in Big Rapids, MI.  Shaw is an important
figure in Methodism.  The plaque shown below
Doesn't do justice to the extraordinary person she is.  

So How is it with you today? There are lots of ways to be other than Gordon from Sesame Street or John Carter. The point is to be exactly who God created you to be so that God is honored for who God is.