Celebrating who you are. As part of this sermon, if you took
your hat or cap off after the announcements, I want you to put
them back on for the duration of this sermon. You can do that now.
Celebrating who you are. Middle age is when you know all the
answers and nobody asks you the questions. One of hardest things
in life is when to start middle age.
Celebrating who you are. At recess, out on the playground at
school, the teacher said to one of her students, "You look pretty
dirty, Suzie." To which the girl replied, "Thank you. I look
pretty clean, too."
Celebrating who you are. Harry Truman back in June of 1948 said
of himself, "If I felt any better, I couldn't stand it." And
Lyndon Johnson, back in July of 1965 said of Harry Truman, "The
people of the United States love and voted for Harry Truman not
because he gave them hell, but because he gave them hope."
We need to celebrate who we are, and help each other to make
sure we each do that.
Many people don't feel there is anything about themselves to
celebrate. Even when someone else tells them something they like
about them, something they appreciate about them, the person still
doesn't feel like there is anything to celebrate.
Often parents don't recognize that they don't make their son or
daughter feel like there is anything about themselves to
celebrate. Often parents get too caught up in the rules of
behavior, get too caught up in disciplining that they don't help
the child or youth celebrate who they are. It's especially hard if
you have a child who is a bit of a rebel, or a child who is very
creative and non-conforming. It's hard to help them celebrate
their individuality and appreciate themselves when they aren't
like the rest of the kids. Parents know how hard it is growing up
and the challenges that children face and they want the child to
fit in with the others and not be rejected.
There are lots of adults who have low self esteem. There are
many adults who, despite particular gifts, put themselves down
because they feel they lack other gifts, or lack the gifts that
other folks will really appreciate.
Many folks, for a variety of reasons, don't feel they can
celebrate, feel good about themselves without help from something
like drugs or alcohol. Unfortunately, when a person has had too
much to drink, they often can't remember who they were that they
wanted to feel good about. And often, when they have had too much
to drink, they become something less than a person to celebrate.
Our society is full of artificial helps to make one feel good
about themselves. But none of them ever help the person feel good
about who they really are-who God created them as. Often, the only
way someone can feel good about themselves is to make someone else
feel LESS good about who they are. It is often done without
thinking.
It happened in our story today. Mary and Martha. Martha is a
doer and is good at what she does. But in order for one's doing to
have a spiritual basis, one needs to pause and listen and learn
from the Lord at times. But Martha can't celebrate that Mary is
doing that. She wants Jesus to tell Mary to get up and help and
not sit and listen. Martha wants Jesus to confirm that Mary should
be doing what she, Martha, is doing. Martha needs that so she can
feel good that she has not chosen to sit and listen, but to
continue working. But Jesus doesn't fall into her trap. He
celebrates what Mary is doing. He says that Mary has chosen the
better part. Martha could have done the same. Sometimes we make
our tasks seem so important so we can feel good about ourselves,
and then we lose our perspective and there isn't anything else
that will make us feel like we have worth. We can't see that
sitting, listening, absorbing any spiritual thoughts has any
value.
Thus, when folks can no longer do what they did to make them
have that sense of worth, they can't feel good about themselves
and they can't see any other gifts. They never let themselves
celebrate the totality of who they really are. Jesus said, "The
Sabbath was created for man, not man for the Sabbath." That means
that God created a day of rest for man, for humans; he didn't
create a day of rest and then create man to hold that day as holy.
The Sabbath day is holy, not because it is a day set aside to
worship God (and the Sabbath day can be any day, just as long as
it is set aside for the purpose for which it was intended). No,
the Sabbath was created for humans to rest from their labors and
contemplate the goodness and blessings of God so that they will be
strengthened in their living, and what they do will glorify God.
Martha, as it says in the lesson, was 'distracted by her many
tasks.' We can let our doing get in the way of our being. We can
get so wrapped up in our doing, that we can't celebrate who we are
apart from that.
Some people can't see this. Some people can't see that they
don't really feel good about themselves. Some folks just can't
see, can't accept that they rely on external things to make them
feel good about themselves. It doesn't matter that others tell
them, say, they are drinking too much. They can't see it. It
doesn't matter that some folks say they are concerned they are
taking too many valium to just cope. It doesn't matter if you
point out to some folks that they're overeating to the point that
it's unhealthy. They can't see that they do it to feel good about
themselves.
You don't have to be thin to feel good about yourself; we all
have different builds, different body frameworks, different
metabolisms. But if we're overeating to feel good about ourselves
(and many don't recognize this) then we're using artificial means
to celebrate who we are. There are some folks who starve
themselves to be thin so they can feel good about themselves.
There are names for all these artificial means, and unfortunately
when they get to those stages when it becomes like a disease, a
disorder, or an addiction, it's very complex and very serious.
Even when it gets to that stage, the essence remains the same
and is always part of the treatment for recovery: to feel good
about yourself and feel loved as who one is a created child of
God-to feel that without any artificial means-and to recognize
that at our very core every one of us is constantly seeking God,
and if that is unfulfilled in any way, we strive to fill that
emptiness in any way we can.
So, we need to do two things as a people gathered in Christ's
name-do them when we're here and do them when we leave here until
we return.
First, we must celebrate who we are at our core: a loveable,
worthwhile human being. Even if no one ever showed us that we were
loveable, we would still be loveable. That's the message of
Christ, what Jesus says to each of us: "I love you no matter how
you look, no matter what you do, what you don't do, what you can
and can't do-I love you and was willing to die so that you would
believe that. I was willing to die to break the power that the
devil had over you to make you think you are not loved, that you
are not loveable. I will fill your heart with my love. It is there
for the taking. You can use it to feel good about yourself, but
you will never feel completely good about yourself unless you
share with others the love I have for you. You must help others
know they are loved. There's nothing more powerful in this world
than love."
When the love Jesus has for you spills over and out to touch
another person, a person who doesn't know about that love, and the
love that is there in that person is activated-BAM! What a
connection! What a burst of positive energy for the world. (and it
spills over to others from you because you feel you have worth,
feel you have value, feel Jesus' love for you). And when you know
you are loved and another person knows they are loved and you
connect-DOUBLE BAM!! (I'm talking about Christ love, agape love,
not erotic love or the love you have for family or friends.) That
love energy spreads like wildfire to the hearts of others beyond
the two of you. It's powerful. It's transforming. It's what will
turn a life around. It's what will turn the world around.
Truly, I hope for you today that you can celebrate who you are,
right now, right here. In part that was why I asked you to wear
favorite hats and caps today. So often we celebrate who we are
through things we wear, especially hats and caps. And in part it
is why I asked you to bring a friend to worship today. Our friends
help us celebrate who we are, and we do that for our friends, too,
help them celebrate who they are. We help each other see what
Christ sees in each of us, no matter what. Friends know each
other's shortcomings and love each other in spite of them.
And what a friend we have in Jesus! Jesus makes his love known
to us through friends, through family, through the family of
God-those of us gathered together in Christ's name. And we are
empowered through the Holy Spirit to feel Christ's love within us
and to help one another feel that love, to help one another to
know we are loved as we are. If we're caught up in some negative
way, some addictive means of trying to feel good about ourselves,
we need to help each other remember that Christ has broken the
bonds the devil has on us through those artificial means, and
Christ's power and the power of the Holy Spirit can come to us, to
you, be made real for you, through support groups and helpful
tools and the love of friends and family.
I know God loves me. I don't say that easily. I did not have an
easy childhood or youth. I have had to struggle to know and
understand and believe in that love that Jesus has for me. I have
often had to struggle to overcome the grip I believed the devil
had on me. (He doesn't have a grip on me-it's the way he tricks me
to believe that.) I am never free of the devil trying to get a
grip on me, and he can trick me any time I open the door to not
seeing who I am, a child of God, loved by God-any time I take my
focus off my friend, Jesus. Anytime I let myself feel I am less
than what God created me to be, I can fall into the negative
belief that I'm in grip of the devil.
We don't talk about the reality of the devil much in the
Lutheran Church, but Luther knew he was real. The words of one of
Luther's greatest hymns, "A Mighty Fortress" tells us just how
real he knew the devil to be, and yet he knows how the victory is
won-through believing in the love that Jesus has for each one of
us as individuals.
God loves you, and, so do I. In closing let's turn to the LBW,
the green book of worship, to hymn number 439, "What A Friend We
Have in Jesus," and sing, without the organ, verses 1 and 2. We
need to hear each other singing this, and we need to believe it
and help each other believe it.
"What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to
bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! Oh,
what peace we often forfeit; oh, what needless pain we bear-all
because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!....Have we
trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never
be discouraged-take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend
so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every
weakness-take it to the Lord in prayer."
Turn to Jesus, the one who loves you, and believe in yourself,
the person God created you to be. God created you to shower love
upon you and wants you to celebrate who you are. God didn't create
no junk.
Amen.