The full-on no-holds-barred Gospel

Picture this: It's a dark and stormy night.

The rain is pouring down in buckets.

A man dons a full-length trenchcoat, a gentlemen's hat, and an umbrella. And then he heads out into the cold, wet night.

At first he hides behind the umbrella and the collar of his coat. But then, something happens. . . something about the raindrops hitting his black umbrella - something about the cuffs of his trousers getting wet - something about the rhythm about it all. . .

That something, is delight. He becomes delighted by it all. Delighted about being soaked in the wetness of God's grand creation. Delighted about being soggy. Delighted about how the rain glistens on the pavement in the soft glow of the streetlights.

He becomes so delighted that he drops his umbrella and lets the rain pelt his face, and run down his neck. His delightfulness grows and grows until he starts to hear the beat, and move to the beat - the rhythm behind the raindrops. The da-da-da da-da-da-da - and then overcome by delight he breaks out in song: "I'm singing in the rain, I'm singing in the rain!"

Can you see it now? Of course you can! It's Gene Kelly singing and dancing in the rain!

My favorite part is when he hikes up his jacket and starts splashing around in the deep puddles - and lost in delight he fails to see the policeman who's staring him down, sure as can be that he's drunk as can be!

Delight. Wonder. Being lost in it all.

At first glance, our Gospel lesson doesn't seem to be too full of delight and wonder: Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.For I have come to set a man against his father,and a daughter against her mother,and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;and one's foes will be members of one's own household.

Yikes.

Yesterday all the mutual ministry folks from Allegany and Garrett counties got together for a training on preaching. We talked about how preaching is proclaiming the Good News, and how we should find the Good News of God in the Sunday lessons and then proclaim that Good News in our sermons.

Again, at first glance, it's almost impossible to find Good News here. Families torn apart? Family members set against each other? So much for Jesus and 'family values!'

But, here's what's going on: In Jesus' day, and in the few decades after his death and resurrection families were torn apart and set against each other. Some family members were overcome by what God had done in Jesus that they came to believe in him as Lord and Messiah. Other family members didn't come to this conclusion, and therein came the conflict. Many Christians had to make a conscious choice: believe in Christ, or stay in the family.

Currently we're in the middle of a Bible Study on the Book of Revelation. Revelation was written by a man named John as a letter to seven different churches which are in modern day Turkey. It is clear in John's letter to them that there were people in those Christian churches who were being turned over to the police for detention, torture, and execution by members of Jewish synagogues and pagan temples. It's probably the case that the people who were turning the Christians in (for practicing an illegal religion) were old friends and familiy members. They had heard that their old friends and relatives had joined this new religion, and in their anger, hurt, and betrayal they turned them in.

In that context: I came not to bring peace, but the sword makes sense.

What Jesus is asking of us is total commitment. He wants us to revel in God's Presence, and be overcome with delight and wonder in the resurrection in the same way that Gene Kelly was overcome. He wants us to dance with our joy, kick up our heels, and splash around in our baptismal waters.

Jesus wants - demands to be #1 in our lives. He doesn't want to be #3 or a close second. He asks that we make him the most important part of our life - even more important than the preservation of our own life. He wants to be above our job, our recreation, our favorite NFL team or NASCAR driver. He demands to be more important than our parents, our spouse, and even our children.

This doesn't mean that we're to abandon our families or foresake our employment. This doesn't mean a collapse of 'family values.'

For we will not be the best spouse we can be without God. We will not be able to parent our children without him. And we'll be better employers and employees if we belong to Jesus.

It's an easy thing to say: "Sure, yeah, Jesus is important to me," but it's much more important , and much, much harder to actually live it.

The easiest way to judge whether or not Jesus is #1 in our lives is to ask ourselves, where's our time and our money going. For where those two are, there will our hearts be also.

Does Jesus have our time? Do we take seriously the need to pray. Study. Serve our neighbor with love? Does Jesus have our money? Do we give to God the most minimal amount to assuage our own guilt, or do we give sacrificially?

God wants all of us. And he wants all of us joyfully, not reluctantly. He wants us to be overcome by his love for us, that we are overcome by our love for him. He wants us to be overcome in that love so much that we revel in his grace, and lift our face to heaven so that we let that grace run down own face and necks and dance around like a fool.

You want Good News today? There it is.