Today’s Scripture Reading (November
18, 2014): Galatians 2
I am broken.
Oh, I try not to be, I pretend that things are well, but the reality is that
they are not. I have hurts that have built up over a lifetime of living,
decisions that I have made that I wish I had not made – or at least that I had decided
to do something else in a different direction. Specifically, I have admitted
that I am a little more like the Apostle Peter than I really want to be – too often
it seems that my mouth is in full gear while my brain is still in neutral. I
would much rather emulate John, or Paul, but I don’t – I am Peter. I guess I should
take comfort in the fact that Peter had such an important role among the Jesus’
first disciples.
But none of
this effort, this trying not to be, has changed the essential core fact – I am
broken. And the more that I come into contact with people and the more that
people walk into my office so that they can share their stories, the more I
realize that I am not alone. In fact, I want to make the assertion that in some
way we are all broken, we all have pains that we don’t want anyone else to know
about, and I suspect that even those who come and share their pains and hurts
with me are hiding something else just under the surface, the secret that has
become a monster under the bed that they just can’t bear to let anyone else know
about. This is the essential human condition. It is a condition that we have
convinced ourselves that no one else has to bear, it is our punishment – and our
punishment alone.
Basically,
we are all still in Junior High trying to be one of the cool kids. But there is
so much holding us back. And the one thing that we don’t know, and that would
ease our pain if we could only bring ourselves to believe it, is that even the
cool kids believe that they are somehow standing on the outside looking in;
knowing for certain that even if they are accepted as part of the popular crowd
now, there are still secrets, monsters hiding in the closet that if anyone
found out about would ensure their banishment from what is cool for the rest of
their lives.
So Paul
writes “I have been
crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
In this pivotal verse much of what holds Pauline theology together is clearly
stated. And the biggest message from Paul is simply this – it is not my personal
identity that has been saved. My personal identity is what I have to be saved
from. It was a message that even the Apostles had to come to understand – I no
longer live, but Christ lives in me. I am being remade day by day – rebuilt moment
by moment - into what God had always intended me to be. Oh, it is not, as some
seem to believe, that once we are in Christ we all become carbon copies of the
same individual. God has still gifted us in many areas, but in those areas we
are also becoming more and more like Christ.
One comment
that I heard when I was teen and has stuck with me through the years is simply
this – I may be the only Bible that those who meet with me today will have
read. My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to go and be “Jesus with
skin on” to a world that needs him (and it never needed me as much as it needs
him). And all of this is possible because of this one simple truth - I have been crucified with
Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the
body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Yes, I am broken – but then again I am also crucified, and God is
rebuilding me into who he needs me to be
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading:
Galatians 3
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