"There Is a New Creation" - June 14, 2015

II Corinthians 5:16-21

           I recently filled out one of those surveys that McDonald’s does: the kind where you follow a link, answer a dozen questions, and get a verification code for a buy one/get one egg mcmuffin.  Normally, I admit, if I do one of those, I tend to skip the essay questions.  I don’t know why, but this one time, when I told them that I was neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with my dining experience, and they asked me why, I stopped to think about it.  This is what I told Mr. McDonald, or Mayor McCheese, or whoever reads them.  “I was neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, because I don’t really expect much when I go to McDonald’s.  I want something quick and cheap, and that’s really about all that you are set up for – which is fine with me.”

I felt badly about that afterward, not because I didn’t mean it but because I did.  Not every meal has to be a candidate for a magazine review.  Not every restaurant has to get a “Best of …” award.  However, I am beginning to think there may be something wrong with just writing off any part of life whatsoever.  If I look at it in a certain way, I can see my attitude bordering on the kind of bleak outlook that the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes displays.  There the low expectations show up in poetic form and we read:

“Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,
   vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 
What do people gain from all the toil
   at which they toil under the sun? 
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
   but the earth remains forever. 
The sun rises and the sun goes down,
   and hurries to the place where it rises. 
The wind blows to the south,
   and goes round to the north;
round and round goes the wind,
   and on its circuits the wind returns. 
All streams run to the sea,
   but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
   there they continue to flow. 
All things are wearisome;
   more than one can express;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
   or the ear filled with hearing. 
What has been is what will be,
   and what has been done is what will be done;
   there is nothing new under the sun.”  [Ecclesiastes 1:2-9]

In my own defense, there is a certain kind of comfort in that, and even a kind of wisdom.  I mean, what’s the point in getting all upset over things when they just are what they are?  People are people, and they’re going to do human things.  We are all going to make mistakes and fail to learn from them.  We’re all going to disappoint one another sometime.  Get over it, already. 

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

[Romans 3:23]

The Bible says so.

            Then, too, that may be a stimulus to being more understanding and compassionate toward others.  Jesus asked,

“Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye?” [Luke 6:41]

If you know that you yourself are prone to weakness, maybe you will be more forgiving of others’ weaknesses.  Think of the whole Josh Duggar situation.  Without dwelling on details, one of the big problems there is not just that he did things which should never have been done, and not just that it was handled so poorly by his parents and by the church and by the police.  What puts the final nail into it is that the people who allowed misconduct to go uncorrected and the victims to go without proper help then proceeded to set themselves up as examples of the Christian family.

            Ah, who but Jesus is perfect?  No one.

            And yet… Did you hear me justifying the whole “it-is-what-it-is” attitude by saying it may somehow open the door to making people better?  Maybe there is more to it all, and no matter how blasé we are, or think we are, there is still the lingering suspicion that if we are made in the image of God, that we should be able to expect more from ourselves, and maybe even of other people. 

Jesus showed us what human life can really and truly be like.  He was understanding of our weakness, but he also looked for and brought out the best in those who met him with trust.  Someone like Zacchaeus, a tax collector who probably had committed his share of extortion along the way, found himself promising,

“Look, half my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything I will pay back four times as much.” [Luke 19:8]

Time and time again, people have heard Jesus’ voice, not condemning them for their shortcomings, but encouraging them to do better, and to become the people they were meant to be from the beginning.  It’s one of the consequences of meeting Jesus heart-to-heart, that a person is changed, and their outlook on the world and on their place in it can no longer be, “So what?” or “Here we go again.”

            In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul put it this way:

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  [II Corinthians 5:16-21]

That is a big challenge, but guess what?  With Jesus’ help, you’re up to it.