As we come to celebrate the New Year we recognize that transitions are hard. Though in many respects the New Year is an arbitrary date, it is an invitation to have a do-over giving yourself the chance for a fresh start. In that spirit, we are going to have a service called “To Dare Rebirth.” Part of this service comes from a tradition found in one of our sister denominations, the United Church of Christ. I liked the service because it pulls three very difficult passages and pairs them with three of the most hopeful. The balance and “dance” between light and dark that will be going on through the service will be an invitation for us to reflect on the past year and give closure to that which needs closure in order to move forward with freshness and strength in the New Year.
Often times in our lives we forget how important closure is for our health. Because of the fast paced world and our feeling like we struggle to just keep up, we often do not allow ourselves the luxury of closure; rather, we just move on to what is next. The problem is that one thing we know as humans is that without the feeling of completion we often carry worry and frustration over. Eventually, if we do this too many times, it can affect the way we think; it can also affect the way we feel. About six years ago now, I had a call from a woman who needed to talk with someone. I encouraged her to come into my office, but she said she was afraid to. After talking for some time and hearing her past, I realized why she could not talk to me in person. It seemed that every experience she ever had with a man was abusive in some way. Through listening to her story there was a pattern that developed to where she would find herself looking for the same type of relationship over and over, filling a cycle that she felt she could not break, and the hurt of the past was just building. Now she had accidently met a guy who she had feelings for, and she knew he was different from the men she had previously known, but she was too afraid because of her past to do anything about it. Thankfully I had connections with a good counseling service that helped her for free! A few months later the woman came to my office, thanked me for listening to her saying “You were the first person I ever told that stuff to and once I said it I felt like a weight was lifted off my chest. Then the counseling center helped me to work through everything else. Thank you so much!” What she and I learned that day was how important it was to find closure, especially if the past is painful. It was interesting how her past was disabling her from living into the future. Granted this is common in abusive situations, but it was also interesting how she was able to go forward with her life once she found help to not get in the same situation and process the past as well as closure for the past. This allowed her to begin to date the guy, and a year later they got married. What was really interesting was that because she had the counseling and the closure she was able to talk to her fiancé and let him know of her past. While it still came out from time to time, because she was able to talk about it, and own it, she was able to live her life. I know this is an extreme example, but think about how many little things in your past hang around and don’t let you fully accept the future? Think about how many times we let our past guide our judgment or even push people away? This is why we need to take time to find closure and move forward with our lives in a healthy way. I hope that you can come this Sunday and find this to be a time of closure for you.
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I remember, oh about 20 years ago now, taking a J-term class on Leadership Development in college. I did not need the class to graduate, but a bunch of my friends were taking it so I figured why not. One of the first classes in this intensive split the class into two sections. We were given instructions and told to follow them closely. Both groups were given the same instructions, with one exception. One group was told they had to follow the instructions; otherwise, they would be penalized.
Both of the groups finished the task. It was quite menial, but that was not the point of the task. While there was no real difference in outcome, the group without the penalties worked together better and felt that the experience was overall much better. When asked how likely they would be to work with their group again, 90% of the group without the penalties wanted to stay in their group while 75% of the other group wanted to switch. As the lesson went, what we saw was that while both ways produced similar results allowing flexibility though not penalizing the process made for a happier group. This is at the heart of what John is explaining about Christ’s relationship with the law, which is at the heart of the passage this week. As it were, Christ did not come to abolish the law, but to offer a different way from the strict adherence that was being taught. It is important to remember that the law is what it is, and while Christ does not come to abolish the law, he does come to offer a different way of understanding it. Rather than the law being the directive to life that must be followed, the Law becomes more of a instruction manual that helps the individual find their way through the world. In other words, for Christ, the ultimate importance is that we have God central in our deeds and life, and this cannot be attained if we let the law be our sole guide. This is what Christ gets to when he heals on the Sabbath. There were two laws in conflict, so he reconciled the two towards what is best for God and performed the healing. While it went against the rules, it allowed for those to come into stronger belief. What is better, following the law, letting someone suffer and that person may never know God’s love, or healing the individual and they come to have a strong possibility of coming to God? Seems clear the better answer. Now if we were to ask Christ if he kept the Sabbath, ultimately he would say that he did, but just not the way most interpreted it. Unfortunately, as Christians many groups within our faith have come back to a place where the law must be adhered to fully, so much so that there is not much room for the holy spirit, or grace, to work. This means that like the experiment I told you about before, those who have no room for grace just do not have the full connection to what Christ is about and let anger and derision be their guide. But, when we live by Grace, the Grace taught to us by Christ, people often find life to be much more full and enjoyable. As you prepare for worship this Sunday, think of the moments of grace in your life and how they have worked to strengthen your relationship with God. |
AuthorRev. Dr. Bryan James Franzen Archives
September 2018
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