"Christian' Beliefs That Can Drive You Crazy"

This morning we are continuing a 3-part sermon series on "Christian" beliefs...that can drive you crazy !

Last Sunday we were reminded that we each have a responsibility to do what we can to get our needs met...not because it's really "all about me" in the sense that "I" am more important than any one or anything else...but because I can only serve God and love other people genuinely when I am whole and healthy and filled spiritually. Having needs is not wrong or bad, and getting them met is not selfish-it's good stewardship.

This morning I want us to think about personal stewardship some more...specifically the stewardship of our circumstances: how we use them, how we respond to them and how we choose to change them.

Since game shows are, once again, all the rage, I want you to pretend for a moment that you are a contestant on a game show called "Break In." You have a partner in this game, and your partner has already secured, for you, a $1,000,000 in cash as a prize. It's yours. All you have to do is get it. To get it, you have to find a way to break into an old, jammed, rusted safe where the million dollars is locked up.

What are some of the things you could do? Chip away all the rust around the door...try to figure out the combination...pay a locksmith to open the lock for you...blast the door off if necessary? It might take a while...you might need special tools or a monetary investment in some expert help. It might be pretty hard work to break in to claim the prize. But who among us wouldn't go for it with strong persistence?

Now let's turn this whole scenario around. Each of us is partnered with God in the "game" of life. God has already secured a "prize" for us that is worth way more than a million dollars. Not even, for right now, taking into consideration the "prize" of eternal life but focusing solely on what has been secured for us in this life: there is a "prize" of wholeness, peace, security and freedom. If we could possess those things, wouldn't we surely feel "like a million bucks?"

Well, partner God has secured that prize for- us. Only the name of this game is not "Break In" it's "Break Out." You see, in this case, our emotional baggage, our spiritual distortions, our physical dependencies and our limited thinking have enclosed us in what we think is a "safe place." But the truth is, our "safe" is old and jammed and rusted. We're on the inside and the "prize" of wholeness, peace, security and freedom is oil the outside. That's the challenging news. The good news is that we have the tools we need to "break out" on the inside with us. And we have our partner God available to offer guidance, to give encouragement, waiting and wanting to partner with us so that we can "break out" and claim the prize!

The process of "breaking out" of our old, jammed, rusted "safe place" has been called, in church tradition, "sanctification." Now that's a 3 dollar and fifty cent word that simply means "the process of spiritual renewal and growth into wholeness." And it is a process that people of supposed faith often not only resist but have helped to distort into one of the great false assumptions of Christianity: that no matter what is happening in our lives, we should just "give it to the Lord." Too many of us have learned and taught and believed that "faith" is about "letting go and letting God"...do everything! That if we just pray and read the Bible and listen to Christian music and talk a good game, then everything else is up to God. The aspect of faith we have overlooked is the partnership we have with God.

Now admittedly, there is a paradox in all this that many Christians understandably have trouble comprehending. On the one hand we are told that we are unable to save ourselves, but we're also told that we must be active participants in our process of growth and change.

On the one hand, the Bible says that if we try to save our own lives, we will lose them. We are not able to change by ourselves, and we are, by nature, falling short of what God intended for us. In a profound sense, it is God who both initiates our growth into wholeness and carries it to completion.

With only the one truth - that we cannot save or change ourselves - and without its partner that we must be active participants in our- growth and change - sincere people will ask God to heal them of their depression, take away their anxiety, relieve their alcohol addiction, deliver them from bulimia. Haven't they turned to Christ as Savior, to the One who promises abundant life? They are disappointed, confused, and frustrated when God fails to deliver the abundant life they requested.

The parallel truth to our powerlessness is that we must aggressively press forward, diligently working at our growth and change in order to take hold of that wholeness, peace, security and freedom that God has secured for us. The Bible is clear in explaining the active role we have to take in our own growth : "Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress." ( 1 Tim. 4:15) "Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called." (1 Tim. 6:12) "...press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called [us all] heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3:14)

James, the brother of Jesus, wrote the words we heard in the reading this morning: "...faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

Folks, the truth is that God is very much present for us...but if we don't do our part, growth will not happen.

My very favorite healing story about Jesus in the Bible is one that clearly illustrates this partnership in which we must be engaged. It's told in the Gospel of John, chapter 5.

"...Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie-the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, 'Do you want to be healed?' [First piece of the partnership - a genuine desire on our part for real change in our lives to happen!]

'Sir,' the invalid replied, 'I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.' [Excuses, excuses! Part of the rust on that old, jammed safe!]

Then Jesus said to him, 'Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.' ["Hey, partner! There's a supreme effort you're going to have to make here!"] At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked." [Jesus secured the healing; the man had to claim it and be willing to do his life very differently!]

Many of us Christians adopt a passive attitude toward our spiritual and emotional growth, especially if we struggle with emotional pain, character weaknesses, life situations chat need changing, or dreams that need to be realized. Some of us often have a "let go and let God" view of our healing and growth process.

The false assumption "I Just need to give it to the Lord" can make and keep Christians crazy. To the contrary, there is an active role for us to play in spiritual and emotional growth. Many of us are stuck because we don't see ourselves as partners with God in cultivating that growth.

Now please hear me clearly. I know that there are circumstances in our lives, sometimes, over which we truly have no control. There are accidents, illnesses, actions on the part of others that we truly have no power to change or alter. But, as a big ole totally human being myself, I also know good and well that a lot of the time the "circumstances" of our lives are very much our own doing - and are very much within our power to change...if we want to badly enough. There may be 100 things we can't fix or control...but I'll bet that one hundred and first thing is well within our power.

The truth is that change and growth are simply hard work. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes persistence. Sometimes it requires using special tools and techniques or paying an expert to help us do the job. But if we'd do all that in order to claim the million dollar prize on the "Break In" game, shouldn't we be all the more willing to do what it takes to break out of the old, jammed, rusted "safe" in which we are trapped? It's not enough, Christians, to just "give it to the Lord." The Lord will say, "Hey! I gave you this life in the first place! Partner with me to make the best and the most out of it now."

This is an issue of personal stewardship - the stewardship of our circumstances. How do we use them? How do we respond to them? Will we choose to change them - at least the ones that are within our power to change?

I suppose if you aren't into game shows, there's always educational T.V. This past week was the annual "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel. As you may know, there are lots of false assumptions out there about sharks. Almost as many as there are about Christians! Sharks are seen as strong and savage beasts but, in many ways, they are really quite vulnerable. For instance, in order to breathe, sharks must keep moving forward. The moving water passing through their gills is their only means of taking in oxygen. If they stop moving forward, they may die.

This might not be the first time Christians have been compared to sharks. And maybe it's a fair comparison. We're often misunderstood. There are lots of false assumptions about what it means to be one. But one thing is for certain: if we stay stuck in one comfy little place and stop moving forward - spiritually...we will die.

Keep moving forward. Use the tools God has given you. Claim the prize of spiritual wholeness, peace, security and freedom that is yours...that is all of ours...to claim. In the game of life, you are already a winner...you may just need to "break out" in order to see it! Amen.

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