It's All About Me!

There is this popular phrase today that is tossed out often.  It is “It’s All About Me!”  I often use it myself generally with a smile on my face.  We use it in jest; however, often it is in humor that we say what we really feel.  I remember clearly an event that I felt was truly all about me.

I was asked to be the main presenter in Edmonton, Canada, at the Canadian National Youth Worker’s Conference.  More important to me than what I was going to say was what I was going to wear – not my presentation of words but my presentation of my appearance.  I searched and searched with girlfriends for just the right thing to wear to each session I’d be leading.  Most important was the first session – the opening keynote address.  I would be flying from Seattle to Edmonton for the last leg of the trip and whatever I wore on the plane, I would be wearing for that first time I spoke to the attendees.  I was very happy with the outfit I had on and how wrinkle resistant it was.  I would walk off the plane and into their hearts during that speech.  I’d become a world renowned presenter forever and ever flying all over the world due to that outfit I had on.    Well, just before the plane took off a man was helped onto the plane and sat down next to me.  I was in a middle seat and he was on the end.  He was just released from a Seattle hospital and flying home to Edmonton.  He had a bandage on his head, was frail and not in the best of shape.  I am not proud of myself for saying this but I immediately scooted over as close as possible to the person on the other side of me.  I didn’t want my clothes messed up in any way.  Soon the man started to fall asleep.  His head leaned onto my shoulder.  He started snoring and his head felt like a ton of bricks on my shoulder.  I was mortified but had nowhere to go and I couldn’t possibly wake up a sleeping, sick man.  So there we were.  Flying companions.  I got off the plane in a hurry not wanting to be near the man any longer.  I couldn’t wait for the opening presentation.  I stood and gave my best introduction to ministry ever!  There was resounding applause.  I was smiles from ear to ear.  What a success I was!  It was truly all about me!

In today’s Gospel lesson the Jewish people, it sounds, felt life was truly about them.  They were free.  They were not slaves.  How could Jesus insinuate they were slaves.  They were appalled at his words.  Freedom was all about them. 

Yet was it really?  They were slaves to appearances, to doing everything right in worship.  They had been slaves in Egypt and in Babylon and now under Roman oppression.  They did not see their oppression as they were blinded by thinking that everything was all about them.

In 1517 a man named Martin Luther was not free.  He was in great bondage; great chains tied him to sin.  He tried everything to get away from those chains, away from the sin and guilt he felt, but nothing worked.  He felt getting rid of his sin through doing good works was all about him

…. until

he read in his Bible and learned in his heart that it is only through Christ that we are made free as it says in our Gospel lesson today:  “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.  The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever.  So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

So here comes the rub, the shift, the change. 

We see that it is truly not all about us.  It’s not all about me.  It’s not all bout the Jewish people.  It’s not all about Martin Luther.

It’s all about the Son, Jesus Christ!

Our sins are gone.  Our chains are released.  We are set free from the bondage of sin which encompasses appearances –

Our appearances in clothing,

Our appearances in our actions

Our appearances to others.

How freeing!

No more worrying about how we look, what we say or how we act.

On October 31, 1517, which is now known as Reformation Day, Martin Luther began the shift from it being all about him to it being all about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Luther at that time was very concerned about the sale of indulgences – a piece of paper the church was selling to get people who had died and were residing in purgatory into heaven.  These pieces of paper – indulgences- had the people focusing on what they could do to get loved ones and themselves into heaven.  It was all about them at that moment.  They were trying to control God.  Luther stood up against that and many other things that took the focus off of God.  He protested these things that turned people inward focusing on themselves.  Those protests formed the Protestant religion that showed people it was all about God. It was all about the Son making us free.

That freedom comes at an expense though.  We are free from our sins.  Yet that freedom was very expensive.  It cost God, God’s son’s life.  Jesus died for you and for me.  To free us from sin.  It’s important we remember that.  It’s important we remember that our sins nailed Jesus on the cross.    In some Lutheran start up churches and many non-denominational churches they are doing away with confession and forgiveness at the beginning of the worship services because “it doesn’t feel good.”  It reminds us of what we do wrong.  That I am a poor miserable sinner as the old confession used to say.  And it is true.  I am a poor miserable sinner yet at the same time I am a glorious saint forgiven of my sins as I’m told to go and sin no more.  Of course we know that we can’t go and sin no more.  But the expectation is that we will go with that mindset and try our best to avoid sin because our Jesus, our Savior broke the chains of sins for us so our thanks to Jesus is trying to sin no more.  We do our best because it is all about Jesus.

So, there I was giving that keynote speech.  Basking in the limelight of applause for me.  Just then someone came up to me and told me how much they needed to hear the words I had to say.  It was such an encouragement to them in their ministry.  They knew those words were from God.  (I knew, too, because I hardly knew what I said because I was so happy with and preoccupied with how great I looked!)  They said that God had truly used me even though I was a soiled and stained woman.  I had a look of confusion on my face at that point.  Me?  A soiled and stained woman?  They pointed to my jacket where that sick man’s head had lain on the plane.  There was blood and drool as big and plain as you can imagine.  My swelled head started to shrink back to normal size as I felt the humility I should have felt all along.  I realized that it wasn’t about me – my appearance, my actions, my thoughts.  It was about all the words the Holy Spirit had given me to say to these people.  It truly was all about God.  How freeing.  God has wiped away my sins.  I don’t have to do anything because God has done it all.  Thanks be to God!