Acts 16:16-34/ John 17:20-26
One of my
favorite and what I think is the most beautiful metaphors for the Christian
family is that of a Mosaic. If you have
ever seen or made a mosaic, you know that it is usually made up of small pieces
of broken glass or tile. When you make a
mosaic, there are a couple of different ways to do it. You can be neat and orderly using clippers so
that you can get pieces the exact size you want. Or, you can use my preferred method and put
the tile in a heavy cloth bag and go after it with a hammer. The result is still the same- broken pieces.
To me, these
pieces, represent us. God created
humanity to be made in the perfect image of God. Because of sin: individual, cultural,
institutional and governmental, and because of the impact of these sins on our
life circumstances, we have become broken.
Each time we sin, each time we sin against others, each time we
encounter the sin of the world, we experience a blow with the hammer. Each blow breaks us. Each one causes a sharp edge to form. After a while, it seems that we are so broken
and so far away from the perfect image of God that we begin to feel
useless.
We walk down
the street all the time and find broken glass.
It is trash, useless, not good for anything except being thrown in the
trash or recycling bin. We see it and
don’t want to pick it up. The edges are
sharp and dirty and we are afraid of being cut.
When we have been broken by sin we too feel dirty with sharp edges and
we too run the risk of cutting those who get too close. We lash out, say and do things we wish we
hadn’t. We sin against others because
someone has sinned against us. We feel
broken so we want others to feel broken and so the cycle continues. Sometimes this happens and we don’t even know
it. We act out of reflex, annoyance, and
frustration.
Our
scripture from Acts today shows us the brokenness of humanity, even Paul has
this side to him. He and Silas are
walking through the city of Philippi, preaching and teaching the word of God to
their new found friends and acquaintances.
They are not causing any trouble per se- minding their own business when
a slave girl with the gift of divination begins following them around.
She is
clearly broken, possessed by a demon that gives her the gift of fortune telling
and her owners are taking advantage of her.
Every time the girl sees Paul and Silas, she yells out, “These are
servants of the Most High God! They are
proclaiming a way of salvation to you!”
Paul might
have found this amusing at first. He may
have even appreciated the free advertisement and partner in evangelism, but
after days of this go by, he has had enough.
He is annoyed, frustrated, aggravated, and his broken edge begins to
appear. Without
really thinking, he lashes out- reacts to his own sharp edge, he doesn’t act
with compassion or care for this girl, no he acts out of selfish
irritation. He has had enough and he is
going to put a stop to it- so he commands the demon to leave the girl and it
does! In doing so, he does cut her free
from this burden in her life, but at the same time, he unwittingly cut her
owners.
They respond
in kind and slash back and cut at him hard and deep. Instead of accusing him of material damages,
economic hardship etc. they charge Paul and Silas with subversion against the
Roman government- treason! The Roman
officials cut swiftly, they don’t ask questions, they act first, think second;
beating Paul and Silas with rods and locking them in the inner most cell of the
prison until they could completely cut them out of the community in the
morning. They were considered just a
piece of broken glass, trash, to be discarded.
It is in
this deep dark prison cell where Paul and Silas have a chance to think and
reflect on the day. How quickly things
got out of control, what role they played in the outcome, what they could have
done different. They realized in that
moment they stepped away from God, allowed their brokenness to get the best of
them and are paying the price for doing so.
They correct
course, as we are all called to do when we hurt, exploit, lash out, act
selfishly, cut people, and sin against others too. They turned to God, prayed, sang hymns,
allowed God to smooth their rough edge and allowed themselves to once again be
made one with Christ Jesus. This not
only changed their perspective but it changed their actions.
When the
earthquake happened, they could have simply run for the hills, escaped and left
the Jailer to face their punishment for them, which was the custom at the
time. But instead they acted with
compassion. In their actions, testimony
and love for God, they showed the jailer their love for him and his family-
saving his physical life as well as his spiritual life. Their refusal to succumb to the sin of
selfishness, blame and self-righteousness led another family to be united into
the family of God.
We know this
same lesson to be true in our own lives, even in our own families and amongst
our friends, and church family. We feel
the pain of broken edges when we seek self-will over God’s will. We know the regret we feel when we hurt
someone, when the desire to be right overpowers being with the one who is
Right, and True and Good.
We know what
it feels like when someone lashes out at us and when we lash out at others,
when someone we love does or says something that hurts our feelings or we hurt
someone else.
But, I hope
you also know what it feels like to be united with Christ and united in
Christian love to one another; the joy of being prayed for, the feeling of
blessing you experience when someone goes out of their way to love you and when
you go out of your way to love someone else.
I hope you know the peace that comes when someone offers to wash your
wounds- to listen to your pain, comfort you in all your brokenness and love you
despite your all too often rough edges. This
is what Christ hopes and prays for you too.
Jesus’
prayer in our gospel lesson today is for us to experience this unity in
Christ. Jesus knows that division and
brokenness are a part of this world.
John knows it is a part of the church in his life and ministry and we
are all too aware of this same brokenness not just within our own lives and within
our own church but between churches and denominations.
We see the differences, the broken edges, the
flaws of each other and so maybe we decide that we don’t want Jesus’ prayer for
unity to come to pass. Especially if it
means we spend eternity next to that person or group. Or we want unity, but only with those whose
brokenness looks like our brokenness- only wanting unity with those who think
and act just like we think and act.
We live in a
world full of division; them and us. Republicans
don’t want to be in heaven next to Democrats and visa-versa. Methodists, and Baptists, Catholics and
Protestants, Jews and Muslims, Pro-war advocates and pacifists, pro-life and
pro-choice- the list can continue forever with each dividing line breaking our
unity with God and with each other.
All the
fighting, the blaming, the disdain and bickering causes fissure lines, sharp
edges and us to become smaller and smaller, less and less as God created us to
be. And soon, we become so small that
all we have are sharp edges and all we do is cut one another, even people we
profess to love.
When Jesus
prayed this prayer, he wasn’t ignoring our differences but instead celebrating
them. It is when we learn to recognize
that our differences are what make us beautiful that we begin to see ourselves
and the church as Jesus sees it. When we
begin to focus our lives on Christ instead of what makes us different or better
than the person next to us we allow ourselves to be grounded in Christian love
which then in turn makes it easier to love those who are most difficult to love.
When we see
a mosaic- there is always a bed of plaster, a line of led, or a swipe of
grout. This grout is our relationship
with Christ. It is what holds all of our
broken pieces together. It is when we ground ourselves in Jesus, that we are
less likely to cut someone we love because our sharp edges are encased in the
love of Christ. Jesus turns our individual pieces, things that
on their own might not seem all that valuable and makes it beautiful by placing
it in community with others who are just as broken as everyone else. This is
church, this is Christian community.
This mosaic doesn’t
manipulate or insist on conformity of practice or belief. Instead it celebrates our differences, even
the hard, sharp edges. It knows that
uniformity and conformity are not the purpose of our creation. It knows that it is the different colors,
shapes and sizes, the things that make us unique are what make the mosaic
beautiful.
And the end
result is a masterpiece, a work of art, something more beautiful and valuable
than it would have ever been in its individual pieces and parts.
A
relationship with Christ makes it possible to be in relationship with
others. This isn’t always easy and
sometimes it takes a while to find the perfect fit in just how God wants us to
be in relationship but when we give our brokenness to God, we discover that God
makes beautiful things, even out of us.
Jesus wants
each of you to be a part of this beautiful mosaic. Jesus wants you to know that it is your
uniqueness that makes you beautiful- not your ability to blend in with the
world around you. Jesus knows you are
broken, knows why you are broken and wants more than anything to encase you in
his love. Jesus knows it hurts when others cut us and when we cut them but when
we remember that they are just as broken as we are and just as loved by Christ-
the wounds are a little less deep and heal more quickly.
There will
still be pain, there will still be scars and broken edges, but when we learn to
love like Christ and allow ourselves to be loved by Christ we are able to
better understand the work of art God designed us to become. Praise be to God! Amen
