Are We Normal?
Good Morning Friends,
Our family got back earlier this week from a vacation in British Columbia in and around Vancouver. The focus of the trip was the 17th International Handbell Symposium with bell ringers from China, Singapore, Australia, Korea, Japan, Canada, United States, Germany, Puerto Rico, and Great Brittan. The purpose of the event was to bring greater harmony and peace in the world through music. Most of the trip was on the unceded territories of the Coastal Salish people who also play percussive instruments. They are a group of ethnically and linguistically related indigenous Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest known as the First Nations. They performed for us as part of the experience. I met many of them and found them to be a kind and gentle people who had been abused by a government that had policies to eradicate their culture. A process of reconciliation is now taking place. As for their spiritual side, they practice a kind of animistic nature worship…and this is practical given the harsh environment but also inchoate. Interestingly they hold the belief that if they die at sea, they are reincarnated as a whale. As a memento I purchased from one of the artisan’s carvings of a whale that was in the shape of a bell. It was designed to be a Christmas ornament. Then I purchase several wooden carvings of animals with words such as courage, healing, creativity, grace, wisdom, freedom, solidarity and faith carved into the wood as well. Somehow they have developed a belief in love as the source of life and a Great Spirit that created us to be part of the sacredness of life. So not all of their beliefs are foreign. Then to add to the diversity immediately following the Symposium was the Pride Parade with 600,000 LBGT people and friends closing down half the city. Somehow the combination of factors paints a picture of a great diversity of a not so common people developing a culture that continues to leave behind what was familiar to open up to something new. And so this morning the whole experience prompts me to ask a question of you and me. Are We Normal?
Scripture: Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin), so as to live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God. You have already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry. They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation, and so they blaspheme. But they will have to give an accounting to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.
1 Peter 4:1-4:5 (NRSV)
For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not those who are inside that you are to judge?
1 Corinthians 5:12 (NRSV)
But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33 (NRSV)
There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.
Proverbs 14:12 (NRSV)
Message: I guess no one really wants to be considered abnormal. We all want to be above average. For average is not really normal. There is no doubt that we are all unique and are individual. There is no one else like you or like me. But the real normal that the Bible or Christianity seems to emphasize is that we are all sinners. And ultimately we will each have to make an accounting as to what we believe and what we have done. So I should really be asking what normal Christianity looks like and ultimately whether we really want to be normal in the way the world thinks of it. The normal thing for a Christian to ask is what action will bring more honor to God not what will bring more personal pleasure. When the will of God is involved it is not about pleasure. It is about pleasing God. And that makes Christians…true Christians a pretty rare expression of humanity. And frankly with all our cultures and backgrounds and regional mannerisms this is difficult to comprehend. We have so many conflicting interests…so many cultural backgrounds…so many ways of defining success. And here I think it helps to realize that the world view is normal for the world but not for the Christian. The reality is that Christianity is not the norm in most of the world. Certainly what people do in our home towns might be considered strange in other cultures and countries. But I think we are looking for something in harmony and character with the nature of God that crosses culture. Maybe the problem is that we have been living subnormal for so long that we have come to believe that normal in the Biblical sense…in the spiritual sense is abnormal. We are taught that the pleasure principle should rule. And for sure the normal Christian also enjoys pleasure, and does not like displeasure. But that is not the purpose for the Christian in life. For the Christian the purpose in life is to glorify God. And that means not just being informational about Jesus or even inspirational about how God has changed us but transformational to the point our story becomes the story of others. The goal and therefore the hope is that the many stories of many people would somehow converged into one story. And perhaps by design Christians are everywhere salted into the cultural salads and soups of the world adding flavor that helps us savor the joy of life. Friends, serving God does not make one strange. It makes you fulfilled and confirms your election as one of those saved. Yearning for God is the most normal and natural thing in the world. The normal thing for the Christian is to share it in a way that transforms.
Pray we not fall into the trap of trying to justify our Christian life using the measurements of a world view.
Pray we find real joy in being a Christian. Pray we realize that it is not normal for the Christian to live in self-imposed misery. Pray we realize that it is normal to live as we have been designed by God. Pray we realize that the world is much more diverse than we can ever imagine. Pray we believe in a love that surpasses all understanding and cultural divides. Pray we discover a new normal that has God’s mission for us written on our hearts. Pray we stand up for love. Pray God give us the eyes and heart and mind of Christ to feel and see.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 