Becoming Real

 June 26, 2016 2 Corinthians 4:1-5:10 Becoming Real Ministry Celebration Sunday Today is ministry Sunday. On this Sunday, I want to acknowledge the transitions and changes going on in the life of our church. Today, only some people will be called forward and acknowledged. But this day is for all of us. I want us to look at how far we have grown, how far we have come as a congregation. This is the first time in 7 years that we have been able to have a confirmation class. And yet we have nurtured these young people to this point. Jacquie came to us two years at a student pastor and now it is time for her to move to the next phase in her journey. But none of them got to this point by themselves, and just as God has transformed them, God has transformed each of us. We have all grown in our relationship with one another, and with God. So the lesson for today is that God is not through with us yet, we still have a ways to go. We spend a lot of time talking about the money that we do not have, the things that we cannot do. But we don’t always realize how far God has bought us. 4 years ago, you all were two separate congregations with no thought of coming together. 3 years ago, we agreed to become one church- but had no idea of what that means. Today we are one church, with one mission, working together, understanding that our future is in walking together and accepting the new challenges of life. We are growing, and anything that grows is alive. Being alive means having some good days and some bad days. It means having some ups and down. Being alive means having some pains. As a matter of fact, growth can sometime be a painful process. My inspiration for today’s sermon is this storybook. I have several children’s books on my desk as reference. My favorite is the Little engine that could. But recently I added this one – the Velveteen Rabbit. I am sure we have heard of this story it is a classic. Would someone like to share the story…… When I reread the story I realized that there were a lot of lessons from the bible in the story. I am going to share 6 of those lessons today. 1. Comes from the title of the book – the title is The Velveteen Rabbit – how toys become real. In times of transition, we move from one state to another state. But everything we do in life is in search of a real relationship with God. It is about us becoming real authentic sons and daughters of God. Life is about all of us learning how to become real. All thoughout the book, real is always in all caps – the show us how important that journey is for all of us. 2. The second lesson comes from an important conversation that the rabbit has with an old and wise toy – the skin horse – who has been in the nursery so long – that all of his fur is gone. The Horse introduces the concept of becoming real. What is real the rabbit ask. It is a thing that happens to you when a child loves you for a long time. It does not often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, who have to be carefully kept. High maintenance people don’t get very far in life. In order to grow you have to be flexible, you have to be open to new things and new ideas. Being open means being vulnerable, being open to criticism, being able to risk being wrong in order to learn what is right. 3. Does it hurt asks the rabbit? Let me asks you – does being alive hurt? Will any of us leave this earth without being hurt in some way? Have you noticed that you more you love, the more pain you feel in life? But have you noticed the to be hurt and to survive makes you a stronger person. When you are real you don’t mind being hurt says the skin horse. 4. Along with the hurt comes scars. Scars can be painful, but they are also ugly to look at. I was just looking at all of the scars that I have on my body, many of which are never going away. Not only we have physical scars, we also have emotional scars, At least the scars have started to heal, but what about the wounds – those parts of us that have not healed. The Skin horse says that by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are real, you can’t be ugly except to people who do not understand. 5. In the story, once the boy loves the rabbit for awhile, the rabbit becomes full of himself and is convinced that he is real. Until the day he comes in contact with some real rabbits. Rabbits that move with no motorized parts, and with parts so perfectly made that you cant even see the seams. He gets a vision of what a real rabbit looks like. Lesson 5- is that God will always give us a vision of a better version of ourselves and our lives. God will always show us the future that we can step into. When we get a vision of the future – we feel so inadequate in our present state. And yet that inadequacy can either stunt our growth or it can give us the inspiration to grow and to become more. 6. The end of the story is very bittersweet. The little boy gets scarlet fever, and the doctor tells Nana that they must burn all of old toys, escpecially that old rabbit that still holds all of those bad germs. The rabbit is put in a bag with other toys to be burned. While waiting his fate, the rabbit remembers all of the good times he spent with the boy, and he starts to cry. Out of his real tear – as it falls to ground a flower blooms and a fairy comes out of the middle. She is the fairy of old toys. When toys are old and no longer wanted, the fairy appears and makes them real. When he was useful, he was real to the boy – but now it is time for him to be real to everyone. How many of us have dreams, hopes for the future? How many of us have plans for ourselves, for the church. Dreams start our in a very special place in our hearts. They are real to us, but no one else knows about them. We don’t want them to get dashed, we don’t want them to be attacked or taken away from us. So we hold onto them. We keep them close in our hearts, we protect them, we keep them to ourselves. But the only way that our dreams will become reality is if we let them go and if we let others touch them and help us to make them real. Imagine if God thought like us? Imagine if God had held onto his dreams and never let his son come to earth? To be real, to be alive to be killed? Where would be? The story of the Velveteen Rabbit is a lot like the story of Jesus. The bible says in the beginning was the word, and the world was with God. Jesus was with God in creation. When the angel announced the birthto Mary – Jesus knew whatwas going to happen. On Christmas morning when Jesus sat in the manger, who knew that Easter was coming. He knew that coming to earth meant pain, suffering and death from those he was trying to save. And yet he came anyway. He loved us anyway. Being loved means having you fur rubbed off, being ugly – it is all a part of being a human being on this earth. I am putting word into Jesus mouth – but I can imagine if someone asks him was it worth it – he would have said yes. Did he really need to die on the cross – yes. Was it worth it to try and save ungrateful people? – yes. If he had it to do all over again, would he? What would he do differently? Would he walk away from all of the snide remarks about him? Would he really walk toward Jerusalem or would he walk away? Would he really endure the pain of the cross again? Would he get so close to these people? Would he die for all these ungrateful people? Yes he would do it all again, yes it was worth it to be loved to death. The reward for it all – new life, not just for him but for all people. Not just a renewal of heaven, but all of earth. It wasn’t just about him and his dream but it was God’s dream that his people be saved. Imagine if God was not willing to give his dream away and to trust it to people – where would we be? Imagine if Jesus was not willing to feel pain and to be hurt, where would we be? Being real is always bittersweet – but the reward is eternal life, peace and joy. I want to end with the words of 2 Corinthians. We endure all of this, because it is the only way to eternal life. One day we will no longer have earthly bodies, but spiritual bodies. All of our tears will be wipes away. We will experience a total transformation. But it is our pains, that make the joy of resurrection so great. So make never be afraid to grow, to fail, to live, and to love. Amen. That that doesn’t kill us will make us better persons!