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God Is …
Our youth minister at First United Methodist Church of Allen used to say this phrase ad nauseam:
“Who you are is God’s gift to you. Who you become is your gift to God.”
The best teachers know that repetition is essential when instilling a concept into a young person’s head, so even though my eyes would glaze over I not only remember this phrase by heart but I believe it whole-heartedly. There are two concepts inherent within that bring me comfort and challenge.
1 – God is Dynamic
Notice that I did not say “God Changes,” I typed “God is Dynamic.” Dynamic is defined in two ways:
- Characterized by constant change, activity, or progress.
- Positive in attitude and full of energy and new ideas.
Thomas Jefferson was a deist who described God as a “watchmaker” who winds up the machine and lets it run without interfering. But this is not the God we see when we read and interpret scripture.
We see a God who is constantly on the move. God empowers prophets to speak the hard truths to the powerful people, while simultaneously reassuring King David that God will never forsake God’s people. God takes on flesh in the person of Christ Jesus, all the while planning to give us the Holy Spirit so we can take on the work. God moves through men and women. God works through Jews and Gentiles. As the song “Waymaker” says to God, “You never stop working.”
Pastor Keri Lynn gave us a reassuring thought on Sunday: “The resurrection means that you are good enough for God right now, as you are.” This idea comes from Romans 5:8-10, which reads:
“But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.”
Just in the single act of giving Jesus to and for us, God’s AMAZING love is shown to any and all of us, right now; no matter who and no matter what. But that’s not the end of the trick. Because God’s dynamic love isn’t just about the NOW moment, it’s about the WOW moment.
In a magic trick, the final part is called “The Prestige.” If “The Turn” is meant to be AMAZING, “The Prestige” is meant to transform your perception of the world. Which leads me to the second concept present in such a simple phrase…
2 – God Has More For You
God’s dynamic love is justifying, for sure. But Jesus doesn’t stop with the forgiveness of our personal sins and call it a day. In the transformational “Sermon on the Mount” found in Matthew 5-7, Jesus gives radical commands such as:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”
He finishes up very subtly (said with sarcasm):
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Which means God thinks we are dynamic too.
We are good enough for God right now, but we also must admit we have room to grow. The love that God has for us is “The Turn” that shocks us out of the ordinary, but “The Prestige” is when God calls us to be extraordinary.
To do extraordinary things like love our enemies, pray for our enemies, ensure that the poor are taken care of, and other radical teachings of the man they call Jesus – whom we call Savior, Lord, and Messiah.
A number of years ago I was an assistant youth director who got tasked with accompanying some of our youth down to El Pino, Honduras. The youth were in charge of leading Vacation Bible School while the adults built housing for traveling pastors who were coming to the church, which also acted as a seminary. Our first stop was a luxurious day and a half on the island of Roatan, where I got to know one of the adult gentlemen named Jim. Jim was born for mission work, given his love for both hard, manual labor and uncomfortable environments (he loved to go primitive camping). But this was the first mission trip Jim had ever been on. We spent a good chunk of the day visiting, during which I learned all of Jim’s very candid thoughts about the “lazy, drugged-up leeches” that he believed the people of Honduras to be.
Just in case you didn’t get the gist of his comments, Jim was not very excited to be going amongst the Hondurans, even though he was willing to help them. One of the Associate Pastors, Louis, had heard some of Jim’s comments and privately told me, “Oh, don’t worry about Jim, he’s always been that way.”
Which suggests that God is done with Jim. That Jim will never be able to fully love and embrace the Hondurans of El Pino the way Jesus commanded him to.
Wrong.
A week went by and Jim worked side by side with the two clergy from the Honduran church and several men from the village. Jim even joined in a few games of futbol with me and the kids of the village. I knew God was doing something in Jim’s soul because on Thursday, as he was drinking a Coke with the Honduran men, he glanced over at me when I caught him laughing at the joke told in broken English. I remember fondly Jim nodding his head to me with a sneer that suggested, “Don’t say another word about this.”
I didn’t need to.
When we got back to Atlanta Jim became THE voice for our partners in Honduras and from what I heard after I moved, Jim became the lead organizer for 8 more trips back to El Pino.
God may love us right here and right now, but God has more for us than right here and right now. And that involves our commitment to put ourselves in the way of grace. AMAZING can turn to transformation if we’ll let it. Which is why:
“Who You Are is God’s Gift to You. Who You Become is Your Gift to God.”
Peace,
David Lessner
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