Article: Being Real
This past weekend, we began our annual sermon series on our mission statement at Community Lutheran Church.
Our mission statement is in four parts. We are REAL PEOPLE, who follow an INCLUSIVE GOD, who gives RADICAL GRACE so that we can be on path of INSPIRED GROWTH.
This past week, Pastor Brian preached on the first part of our mission statement, “We are REAL PEOPLE” and he talked about the Woman at the Well found in John 4 (if you want to read the whole story).
This woman (who had a past) was real with Jesus about her life. Jesus invited her into his life and mission because he didn’t judge her situation (inclusive God). She experienced that as radical grace and the proof of that grace was manifested in her running to town to tell people about Jesus. From that point on, she was a believer in Jesus and on a path of inspired growth.
It all begins with being real. For example, before Saint Paul became a Christian, he first hunted down Christians, but he acknowledged his “realness” when Jesus confronted him on the road to Damascus in Acts 9. Paul didn’t fight or deny his hatred. Instead, he went to Damascus to reflect on his physical and spiritual blindness until he was baptized and healed by a follower of Jesus.
In that moment, Jesus took the first step towards Paul (like the woman at the well) but neither of them denied their past. However, they both embraced their future in Christ.
Life in Christ begins when we can acknowledge our weaknesses and brokenness. That is Jesus’ entry point into our lives.
So, let me ask you, are you being REAL with yourself and Jesus?
Jesus even talked about it this way, without using the word “real”.
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
Jesus said, “I tell you that this man (the tax collector), rather than the other, went home justified (accepted) before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14
Jesus told which person he drawn to. The one who was real about who he was.
Let me repeat what I wrote earlier, life in Christ begins when we can acknowledge our weaknesses and brokenness. That is Jesus’ entry point into our lives.
The story Jesus tells us reflects that.
This isn’t a passive exercise. Which person in the story are you? Are you real or are you building an argument about how good you are?
Remember, even on our best days our goodness pales in comparison to God’s holiness.
Isaiah the prophet puts it in stark terms, but he is absolutely right.
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. Isaiah 64:6
Don’t build on yourself by building yourself up. Build on the solid rock that is Christ our King, so that you find the rest and acceptance everyone so desperately needs.
But that begins by being real, not by pretending you are the best.
God bless,
Pr. Ben
