Sermons

Generic Prescription

The Rev. Beth Ellis

Visiting our grandma’s home as children was better than Disneyland. Long before our two brothers arrived, my sister and I spent summers there, exploring the vast grove of evergreens that made up her backyard, pulling up vegetables in the greenhouse, and playing with the Newton’s Cradle she kept on her coffee table.

But far surpassing all these diversions was the old dresser in Grammy’s bedroom. That fabulous old dresser held drawer after drawer of fancy purses, gloves, scarves and string after string of costume beads. To Aimee and me, it was a treasure chest, for its contents transmogrified us into elegant ladies of an era gone by. More importantly, of course, we were no longer mere children, but “grown-ups”. Those costumes we wore back then were the lens through which we were able to see the world a bit differently. With the power of a scarf and a beaded purse, we could determine our own destinies; we were independent and we were not bound by bedtime!

The era of those gloves and purses we played with was much more structured than the one in which I grew up. Perhaps one might say that every generation sees a gradual decline in the social structures that separate groups of people. Yet whether it is religion, money, sex, race, age, or any other factor, every culture still depends heavily on its own way of keeping people separate. Every nation on earth can easily tell you who are its “haves” & “have-nots”, its powerful and its weak, its “in crowd” and its outcasts. So even at the tender ages of 6 and 7, my sister and I knew that it was much better to be grown ups than to be children.

In every culture on earth,
Men are more powerful than women
Adults are more powerful than children
The wealthy are more powerful than the poor
The fair-skinned people are more powerful than the dark-skinned
The able-bodied are more powerful than those with disabilities
The healthy are more powerful than those who are ill.

Okay, so you already knew all that. In fact, it’s so terribly obvious, that some might even say, “Well, of course!” as though these hierarchies were just a fact of life, and not social rules created by human beings.
These rules that draw dividing lines between us are what drives the greater part of many people’s lives: If they are among the powerful, they struggle to maintain their standing, or to rise even higher.
If they are among those without power, they struggle to somehow gain it, despite the odds.

It was just as true in the early Church as it is today. We hear this morning in Saint Paul’s letter to the Galatians a few of the divisions of his society: men versus women, Jew versus Greek and slave versus free.
Two of these distinctions are obvious to us, though a lot has changed since Paul was writing his letters.
Women had no power to speak of in those times.
They belonged to their husbands, with little more rights than slaves. A woman could sue her husband for divorce, but her husband had to grant it.
Slaves had no rights.

As for the third distinction: the early Christians did not see themselves as a new religious group. Jesus was a devout Jew. So were the early followers of Christ, who called themselves followers of “The Way”. But from its very beginning, this group was trying to decide who was in and who was out. Some said that only Jews, or those who converted to Judaism, could be part of their group. Others said that Greeks and other Gentiles could also be followers, without converting.

Paul’s letter, or Epistle, tells us that the followers of Christ are no longer to be divided by distinctions of sex or class or race. Faith in Jesus removes the barriers between believers makes them equal. The Bible is full of reassurances that God loves us faithfully, despite the fact that we are chronically unfaithful in return. So Paul’s point here is not to show that God loves us all, regardless of our social status. Paul writes that, as believers in Christ, we are no longer bound by the law, but instead justified by faith. As a devout Jew, strict adherence to the law of Moses was required to be right with God. Within that realm of adherence were many other distinctions that created a secondary hierarchy of purity, and therefore, power. Paul is saying that Jesus’ death on the cross replaced the need for temple sacrifice to forgive our sins, and that believing this is all that is required.

As Paul writes, we are not set on equal footing as Christians to change God’s view of us. It is you and I who are meant to change our view of each other and God. Left to our own devices, human beings will consistently put selfish desires above all else. Then along comes God to turn things upside down. So faith is what makes us see things from God’s point of view, instead of our own.

Prescriptions are always written for individuals, taking into account a person’s unique deficiency or ailment, and the specific remedy required to heal it.
Imagine trying to wear someone else’s prescription lenses to read. At best, you’ll get a good laugh at the distortion. What God gives us through Paul’s words in Galatians is the only truly generic prescription ever written.
The lens of faith which Christians must wear does not distinguish among sorts of people.
There is only one kind of people: the beloved children of God. And every one of them is equally in need of a change of perspective!

That doesn’t change God’s attitude, but hopefully it changes ours! To begin with, how different would your life be if you weren’t so consumed with jealousy over what others have that you do not?
How different would your description of wealth be, if you believed you were an heir to the kingdom of God, and that your treasure was where your heart is?

How differently might you spend your days, if you believed that whatever you had done, or left undone, to those in need, you were doing to Christ?

Faith in Jesus is what justifies us before God as Christians. All the good things that we do are our joyful response to that gift of freedom. But they do not get written in some heavenly record book for “extra credit”. There are no “brownie points” in God’s economy. Human beings only want that kind of a system when we’re convinced that there’s a finite supply of goods to be had. The world tells us there’s only so much money, power and fame to be had, so we’d better fight for our share. But there is no limit to God’s forgiveness and love. We do not have to battle each other for the prize of Jesus’ love, grace or favor. To Him, we are each the favorite son or daughter, the most precious child. And since His love for us is truly infinite, we can begin to live in peace with each other, instead of in competition. We can look at one another through God’s eyes, replacing suspicion and jealousy with compassion and generosity.

It’s easy to say that we are followers of Christ. The follow-through is much harder. Like a new pair of prescription lenses, faith takes an adjustment of perspective. Wear the lens of faith, and you can’t view people by category. All you see are God’s children. Your own family. It brings so much more meaning to all that we think and do. Our whole lives become an opportunity, either for spreading abundance or scarcity. With practice, you’ll learn not to remove the lens when it’s inconvenient.

Respond with kindness, even when it wasn’t shown to you.
Share from a sense of abundance, even when others are selfish.
Work with a joyful heart, even when the job is thankless.
Smile like you’ve got something to be grateful for, even when others hate you.

Jesus loves you.
He loves the ones who love Him, and the ones who don’t.
He loves the ones who say they follow Him, and the ones who really do.
He loves those who think that they are His favorite, and those who know we all are.

Amen