Message Recap

The message this week was illustrated using the perspective of two pieces of art, one looking up at the cross, the other as Christ looking down at the crowd. The message was that first we need to come to a place of recognizing the work done for us on the cross, and then we need to see ourselves as one in the crowd looking upon the cross. The faces in that piece looked shocked, stunned by what they saw, stunned because they recognized that Christ is taking their place, stunned because they saw themselves for who they are and for what they deserved, stunned that someone would actually die for that which is despised, broken, wounded, or undesirable about us, not for what is good, stunned because they saw someone taking upon himself their own unworthiness in an act of sacrifice. Our pastor indicated that we need to see ourselves there. Note that he is talking to a room full of Christians. I've heard Christians say, “Since I am saved then I no longer sin as I’ve been declared righteous.” But I believe there is a real danger in that kind of thinking. First of all, it sets one up to project their sinfulness onto others, it affects one’s ability to take correction and to grow and it denies the ongoing power of the cross. And it’s scripturally unsound. But we feel better believing ourselves to be the “good guys” on this planet. I can honestly tell you that each Easter, and every week in between, I’ve learned to get very comfortable with my own internal discomfort. I am well aware of how flawed I am and my continued need for God’s mercy shown for me on the cross. I am not removed from the knowledge of my flawed self so that I find the work of the cross is no longer for me but I can see why other people need it. No, that's not me at all. Call me stubborn, a slow learner, stuck in my ways, difficult (I am used to that one), call me anything but "not saved" Because that is what some people believe, they believe, "If I still struggle that means I am not saved.” We are called to stop sinning but we never will. But we shouldn't be satisfied to continue, we should be drawn “further up and further in.” As we grow as Christians we are drawn further along, deeper into this thing called our faith, confronting layers of ourselves the whole way. Sadly, today many churches are not drawing people further up and further in both in the knowledge of scripture and the depths to which we are fallen. And they are discipling followers who have only confronted the surface of who they really are and are satisfied with that. It doesn’t make us bad; I think it just makes us weak. One professor from way back Robert Webber, who attended an Episcopal church, would always say, “Each week I flee to the Eucharist,” meaning, I believe that he recognized his need for constant renewal. And why else would God’s mercies be new every morning unless we needed them daily. We cannot do much good in this world unless the cross has a continued power to make us see who we really are, to see where we’ve been maybe and to catch of glimpse of what we are meant to be as we move onward in that direction.