Humble Courage

2 Peter 3:8-15aNew International Version (NIV)

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation

How many of you have seen the movie Dumb and Dumber? There are so many great moments in this movie but the one that comes to mind today is one in particular.  Lloyd asks his love interest if there is any chance that she would be with him and he asks her the odds of them being together to which she finally responds 1 in a 1,000,000.  You see Lloyd’s face sink a little bit and then it perks back up as he says, “So you’re saying there is a chance?!”  For whatever reason this came to mind as I was thinking about this scripture this week.  Verse 9 says, “...he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”  I believe this is saying that God is giving us a chance, and not just one chance but many chances.  I have heard people going through difficult times say that they felt like God was giving up on them.  I have heard people say that God doesn’t love them.  I am sure most of you have heard someone say something similar to this but verse 9 says that God does NOT want us to fail.  That is not God’s plan or will for any of us.  God does not want any of us to perish before we get an opportunity to come to repentance.  God does not wish for nor delight in our failings.  Instead, God only wants the best for you.  God is kind of like an overprotective mother (and since she isn’t in here, I can say “like mine”) because He only wants the absolute best for us.  I am saying that God gives us a chance, if not numerous and endless ones.  But it also requires some work on our part.

Our scripture this morning tells us that we “...ought to live holy and godly lives as we look forward to the day of God and speed it coming.” God is patient.  The reason the day of God has not already happened is because God does not want us to perish.  He wants everyone to have a chance.  That is the work we have in front of us.  We are the hands and feet of Christ.  We are called to get the word out, to spread the message of God’s love and grace so that everyone will have their chance at repentance.  We can speed up the day of God by effectively doing this.  With the hostility, hatred, and bitterness of the current state of our country and the world, it seems like we have been slipping in our duties.  There is so much animosity in our nation’s capitol.  There are protests in our larger cities, some of which are not at all peaceful.  It appears that we are getting ready to put more boots on the ground in the Middle East.  Up to this point in my ministry I have not spoken on these issues because I didn’t really know how to approach them.  I couldn’t come up with a “perfect” anecdote that wouldn’t upset anyone.  Then I realized that by not saying anything, that I am more of the problem than the solution.  I do not have the perfect anecdote or solution but I have realized that no one does.  The issues that divide this country and our world do not exist simply because there are differences.  This hostility and hatred exists because we rarely take time to see things from a perspective different from our own.  We rarely take time to place ourselves into the situations of others.

I believe that the biggest issue facing our country and world today is due to our skewed view of what justice means.  God and church are losing its foothold in society.  As church going people, we have a tendency to blame society for this breakdown.  We blame society instead of looking at our shortcomings as a community of believers.  I said last week that we must always be looking inward so we can be more effective outward and I believe that to hold true.  Have we done the best possible job spreading the love and grace of God?  No.  We have taken God and made Him fit nice and neatly into our lives when it is convenient for us.  We have not spoken up on issues of injustice.  We sit quietly as others speak negatively about other groups of people.  I am guilty of this.  I have not made “every effort to be found spotless, blameless...” nor have I done the best job that I could to help others be “at peace with him.”  It does not matter who was wrong or right in Ferguson.  The only thing that truly matters is the fact that race is an issue at all, whether that issue is perceived or reality.  The issue is really our perception of what is just.  If the Church was as effective as it possibly could have been, Michael Brown and Officer Wilson may have not been in that situation in the first place.  

I attended a retreat this past weekend and I learned something very valuable: believe it or not, I can be wrong.  There are things that I hold to be true about faith, the Bible and its meaning that you may not and visa-versa.  But each of us hold those beliefs to be true.  We make those beliefs the foundation in which we build our morals which help define our character.  Those beliefs are at the absolute foundation of who we are and what we become.  So it shakes us to the core when someone challenges those beliefs.  It rattles us in a way that very few other things can.  Just the mere thought of the possibility that those beliefs could be a little off can anger and upset us.  But if we are going to be effective Christians in today’s world we must acknowledge the fact we may be wrong on some things.  This does not mean that we have to give up those beliefs.  It just means we have to be willing to explore and critique those beliefs.  We so badly want to think of faith as an absolute but faith at its very core is something that is not absolute in the truest form of the word.

I know I have thrown a lot at you this morning so far but here is what I encourage you to take from all of this: be humble and courageous in your beliefs.  Be courageous in the sense that  you live by faith. Be courageous in speaking of God’s love and grace.  Stand firm in beliefs that you  have developed. At the same time, be humble.  Be willing to explore the other side of the argument. Be willing to make slight changes and improvements to those beliefs.  In order for us to effectively minister to God’s people in today’s world it is absolutely imperative that we can shed the injustices and prejudices in which we live in.  You can continue to stand firm in your beliefs but do so in way that allows for a conversation.  It is only through that conversation that we can build a relationship to which we can effectively share the greatness of God’s love and grace.  Our scripture this morning closes by saying, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation...”  God has been patient with us.   He has allowed us to develop the beliefs in which we stand on through the gift of free will.  However, since that free will is ours, we must be willing to acknowledge that it could be skewed. God has been patient with us so I am encouraging you to be patient with others because it could mean their salvation.  Effective ministry starts with each of you.  In order to be effective, we must be willing to see others as God sees them.  God sees through race, religion, culture, and gender and if the Church is going to continue on into the future we too must see through those things.  If we truly desire peace, then we must see one another as God’s sees us. So yes, I am saying "there is a chance" at finding peace.  Amen.