Turn to the person next to you (even if you’ve known them forever): "Hi, my name’s _____. I am so much better than you."
BOASTING EXERCISE :) Repeat after me...
-I am the best! I am the best! I’m so much better than you. ** [clap, clap]
-My school is the best! My school is the best! I’m so much better than you! **
-My car is the best! My car is the best! I’m so much better than you! **
-My city’s the best! My city’s the best! I’m so much better than you! **
-My kids are the best! My kids are the best! I’m so much better than you! **
-My country’s the best! I’m so much better than you!
-My story’s the best! My story’s the best! I’m so much better than you! **
-My church is the best! My church is the best! I’m so much better than you! **
-My faith is the best! My faith is the best! I’m so much better than you! **
We can go on and on; I won’t make you. (But watch for this out there there week. Maybe not so sing-songy, but...)
How was this exercise for you? Was it familiar? Is that the way you normally talk about yourself? Or at least think about yourself? [pause] Or was this foreign and even troublesome for you? How many didn’t participate in the exercise? What’s funny about this exercise is that not participating might just be the best illustration: “I’m above it. My piety’s the best. My seriousness is the best. My humility’s the best...”
Paul’s concludes his letter to the Corinthians with this “deflating” word from God. God doesn’t “pop” us, destroy us. God deflates us, and that might just be the greatest gift of all. That’s grace. God deflates us with this word: [slowly] “My grace is all you need to boast in. Or maybe more appropriately: my grace is all you need to rest in, to rely on.”
In this world of “keeping up with the Jones’”, God’s words seem so strange -- “What do you mean I don’t need to boast? That’s how we do it in our culture/world/country!” -- and yet they bring us comfort.
God is making work, not of our boasting, not of our “puffed-up-ness” -- a great Greek-rooted word for this is “hypocrisy”, which means to pretend and act the part -- God is making work, not of our hypocrisy and our puffed-up boasting, but of our weakness, our deflated-ness: “My grace is sufficient. And my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Richard Rohr in Falling Upward: “I have prayed for years for at least one good humiliation a day...” [pause]
As I was thinking about these questions and this exercise, which was fun -- this morning in the dark -- I bumped into the wall on my way though the dark from the bathroom to the closet. “I’m so much better than you” [slam, bump].
On a more serious note/illustration: Lutheran shooter. I appreciated that our church body isn’t being smeared in the news (they could easily have a hay day with that). But we know it, and St. Paul (St. Deflated-ness) Lutheran Church, where Dylan Roof was confirmed -- they know it. One good humiliation a day...
God uses us in our sorrow and our brokenness -- even while God doesn’t intend us or will us to sorrow and brokenness -- God uses us in our deflated states. In our mourning and in our confession, God binds us together, God turns us into instruments of peace and hope, even in the face of the most unspeakable violence. [pause]
Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone. Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord. Deflate thyself. Better yet let God deflate us. And then let God use us for peace, for good, for life, for hope.
Come back to earth. Join with others. Be OK with your weakness, your shortcomings, your doubts, your struggles. God uses what little we have, and works it for good. Paul invites us to be honest and come face to face with our weaknesses, for when we are weak, we are strongest in Christ.
We follow a leader who deflated himself, who embodied the exact opposite of “puff-up-ness” -- who emptied himself on the cross. Who comes back to earth time and again, in many and various ways to join with others and join us to himself in bread and wine, water, word and witness. We have the audacity and the faith to follow that One, who in weakness became strong. Who in death, won new life, for us all.
In our weakness, we become strong, because in our weakness, we lose our selves and must rest in God. In our weakness, we need each other. In our weakness, we connect.
I love that illustration of the huge power outages we had here in San Diego a few years ago...and how we all ended up (at least in my neighborhood) just coming outside and sitting together in front of our homes for the evening. Block party.
What a great deflating that was.
And then the lights came back on, and we puffed ourselves up and plugged ourselves back in...and went back inside to stand alone, like isolated, helium balloons.
The apostle Paul knew that the church can’t be the church in the world without God’s people showing up, unplugging, deflating, and coming outside. Then God’s got something to work with! Mother Therese: God can’t fill what’s already filled. That’s why St. Francis was so adamant about giving everything away. [pause]
We can boast, but we boast only in Christ’s emptying himself. God’s grace is sufficient. And in that weakness, there is strength to hold us, love to nurture us, breath to fill us, hope to carry us, and peace to guide us. In that grace of God is the forgiveness of our sin, the deflating of our illusions, the dropping of our masks, and the shedding of our self-centered boasting and pride.
In Christ, we are safely...grounded. In Christ we are rooted in love. In Christ, we have the slate wiped clean. In Christ we are joined to one another, and given new life, life in the Spirit, this day and every day.
We got our self-serving boasting cleared out of here. And we too will pray for “one good humiliation a day.” So having been graciously deflated, what does this new life in Christ look like for you today?
AMEN.
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