Sermon

Lady Gaga and Paul

Scripture Text:

Romans 8:1-11

Sermon:

I wonder if St. Paul and Lady Gaga would like each other?  They’re both pretty passionate people, they both want people to know God loves them, they just go about it in different ways.  I say this because the reading today reminded me of the title track of Lady Gaga’s current album: “Born this Way.”  She sings:

I’m beautiful in my way

‘Cause God makes no mistakes

I’m on the right track baby

I was born this way

On the other hand, Paul says… **“Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God”** (in the translation we’ve been reading from The Message).  A bit different.  And then in the translation we usually use, Paul’s words sound even more harsh: “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.”  Not that our bodies are corrupt things but that there’s something in our humanness that will always push us toward a harmful kind of selfishness or self-abuse.

We live in the meat of our bodies.  We’re full of the wonder of muscle, bone, and emotions because of that, but we’re also we’re trapped inside our own skins.  Our bodies give us so many gifts, and yet our individuality, our separateness from God can be lonely, broken, and confusing.  But for some reason, this is how God made us, and let us not forget, made us in God’s own image.

And so, Paul says, “Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God.”

That’s very hard, because that’s not what Lady Gaga or Oprah says.  It sounds harsher.  But maybe it’s a little more realistic.

Because inside ourselves in can get pretty crowded.  It can get junky.  Lots of stuff collects in us, stuff that doesn’t really help us.  And our human bodies and minds can’t always be trusted to figure everything out.  In the end, I’m not sure it helps to focus inward, even if there’s a lot that needs fixing in there.  (Now, therapy can be a wonderful thing, and far be it from me to keep you from seeking out some good old-fashioned talk about how you got to be the way you are, because that can be valuable.)  In the end, the way we save ourselves from ourselves is by getting out of ourselves – and if we’re following a Christian path, to teach ourselves to focus on God instead.

But here’s the thing, this is the story of Jesus, too.  He lived in the meaty, emotional island of a human body and mind, too, but he was also God.  God came to earth and inhabited a human body, like a parent hugging a child in love and understanding. God held us close.

According to Paul, that’s the whole of why Jesus came and was incarnate on Earth.

Not to show us how to live a good life so that we can be good and deserve God’s love.

Not to appease a perverted sense of divine justice where God can only love us only if blood is shed.

And not for Jesus to have the crap kicked out of him for sin, so that we have to feel eternally both grateful and guilty.

See, the thing is, Jesus came to show us through his cross just how much God already loves us. And to show us through his resurrection that his love is more powerful than anything – than our sin, our confusion, our loneliness, and even our death.

God wants us to know how much God already loves us.

Paul says:

It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself?

Lady Gaga is right – God created us, and God loves us.  And maybe I need to study her lyrics more, but I don’t see in her words what I see in Paul’s – that being ourselves to the Fullest isn’t always the best idea.  Because we’re not always wonderful creatures – we have weaknesses, we fail, we have fears, we have sadness and loss.  What about all those things, Lady Gaga?

Now, a change of scene:  there’s a pilgrimage trail that goes through northern Spain called the Camino de Santiago, or the way of St. James.  People have been walking it for more than a thousand years.  Part of the tradition of that walk is to pick up a small stone or pebble back in your hometown, as a symbol of something in your life that’s broken and that you can’t fix, and to carry it with you on the trip.  You carry it and carry it, but then, near the end of the trail, which is a great cathedral, there’s a cross on top of a tall pillar, and you drop your stone there, where it belongs, at the foot of the cross.  The cross has a huge mound of stones at its base, probably ten feet high.

And so, I want to invite you to do something similar.  Take a piece of paper that the ushers will hand around.  Tear it in two pieces.  Imagine that one piece is like the stone you’d carry on the Way of St. James, and write on it something that’s been making you feel guilty, something you regret, or something that’s broken and you can’t fix.  Then, crumple it up, bring it up here and throw it away in this trash can.  If walking up here is tough, ask your neighbor to carry it up for you or the ushers and I can help.

Now, take the second piece of paper, and knowing how deeply you’re loved by God, who created you, write down something you now dare to do, a challenge you feel able to embrace, an act of generosity or bravery you feel you can take on, knowing that no matter what happens, whether it’s an amazing success or a it’s failure, that you are already deeply and completely loved by God.

Take that piece of paper and carry it with you through this week as a sign of God’s love for you, for your sake and the sake of the world.  What will you do with your life, knowing how much God loves you?  How will you focus your attention outside yourself?

Paul says:  Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.

Eat your heart out, Lady Gaga.

Amen.

 

Uploaded on July 10, 2011 in by RevHeidi

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