Toys, Trash and Holiness

The scriptures referred to are 1 Peter 2:2-10 and Acts 7:55-60.

My earliest memory is standing on a pew in church. Everyone is singing a hymn which I don't know and so I sing a song I do know: “Old MacDonald Had A Farm.” My mom, who could still hear in those days, looks down from her hymnal and smiles at me. So I was really surprised when a recent episode of Young Sheldon depicted the same situation and the same song! I guess I'm not the only kid who came up with that solution.

My mother is a large reason that I not only have gone to church most of my life but in a way, why I see Christianity as I do. When we were small my parents attended a Disciples of Christ church a block and a half from our home. At some point we stopped going to church at all. I don't know why. My mom did read the New Testament to us at bedtime. Then about the time my brother and I were approaching our “tweens” my mom felt we should be part of a church so we shopped around and ended up in a Presbyterian church. There my brother and I were baptized. We went to Sunday school and I sang in the choir and participated in the youth group. I got into theology, again thanks to my mother who lent me a copy of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. His writings greatly influenced how I see God and the world. I decided I wanted to go into the ministry and again my mom guided me, finding Wheaton College. My path to becoming clergy got interrupted for a while by marriage and kids but I went into nursing, my mother's profession. A lot of what I am is due to my mother.

Mothers not only give birth to us; they have a large influence on our lives. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's mother was a natural storyteller, raising him on tales of brave knights and chivalry. Later, when he was a successful author, Doyle felt that the Sherlock Holmes stories was keeping him from writing greater, more important works but he delayed killing off the great detective because his mother really liked the character. The prayers and piety of St. Augustine's mother, Monica,was a big reason he didn't dismiss Christianity out of hand when he taught philosophy. He eventually did become a Christian and he wrote his great book, The Confessions, in response to her death. And of course, Mary was able to get a reluctant Jesus to save the wedding at Cana by turning water into wine. It's hard to say “no” to Mom.

According to data from the Pew Research Center, mothers are much more influential in shaping their children's religion than their fathers. More than half of all Americans raised in interfaith families follow their mother's faith; less than 1/3 practice their father's religion. Indeed women are, in the words of the Christian polling company Barna, the backbone of US churches. They keep things running. In fact, in view of how good having an active faith is for both one's physical and mental health, I wonder if that is a factor in women living longer than men on average. And conversely, do men's consistently lower involvement in religious activities have an effect on their lower life expectancy, not to mention their greater rates of criminal activity and incarceration?

That said, you can lead a child towards faith but you cannot make them partake of it. You can teach them the rituals but it is harder to impart the substance of belief. Bonnie and Clyde both had very religious mothers. One member of their gang was surprised that the infamous couple said their prayers before bedtime. That didn't stop them from violating most of the commandments, especially those against stealing and murder. And it didn't help that their mothers never refused gifts from Bonnie and Clyde, despite knowing they were bought with ill gotten gains that often cost lives. Did they never talk to their kids about the numerous Bible passages where Jesus and the prophets decry empty religious rituals that are detached from moral behavior? It doesn't look like they modeled or expected them to live lives where belief resulted in changed behavior.

Consistency between what you believe and how you live is a hallmark of holiness. Today's passage from 1 Peter twice calls us to be holy. In verse 5 it says, “like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” And in verse 9 we read, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” We are called not merely to worship and praise God but to be like God. You know, holy.

The Greek word for “holy” means “consecrated” or “set aside for God's purposes.” We don't use the communion chalice for coffee hour. We only use it for its sacred purpose: to contain the wine for the Eucharist. And in the same way we are to be holy in the sense of being set apart for God's purposes.

I found an illustration of this in, of all places, the Pixar movie Toy Story 4. The plot revolves around a new toy created by the little girl Bonnie during craft time in Kindergarten. She makes him out of a plastic spork and pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks. She calls him Forky and when she writes her name on his foot, he becomes alive. She gets upset whenever she can't find him. But Forky thinks that he is just a disposable piece of trash and keeps trying to throw himself away. Woody, the sheriff doll, must convince him that he is now Bonnie's favorite toy.

As 1 Peter says, “You are a chosen race...” God chooses us, not because of any obvious outward merit on our part, but because of his gracious love for us. And he has chosen us to be a “holy priesthood.” Now what does that mean? Priests basically connect people to God. When people are alienated from God, priests help reconcile them. They reassure them of God's love. They help them pray to God. They help them repent or change their thoughts and behavior so as to be in harmony with God's ways. They help them in their everyday walk with God.

At the time 1 Peter was written the Christian church didn't have priests. The first “ordained” order of clergy was that of deacons, like Stephen in our reading from Acts. Deacons were appointed to do frontline charitable work. They originally did the food distribution to the poor. (Act 6:1-6) The next order to be created was the bishops. They oversaw the house churches and presided over the Eucharist and baptisms. When Christianity spread to the point that a city would have several churches, more than the bishop could lead worship at on any given Sunday, from among the elders of a local parish one would be chosen to act in the bishop's stead. He represented the bishop to the people and represented the people to the bishop. It is from the Greek word for elder, presbuteros, that we get the word “priest.” You could be forgiven for thinking of the priest as kinda like the local branch manager of the church and the bishop as the district manager. Deacons are in charge of special projects and in some cases can act as assistant manager.

Unfortunately people came to delegate to the priest all their religious duties, aside from showing up on Sunday for worship. And, yes, it makes sense to have someone with specialized education and training in charge of certain functions in the church. And, no, you don't want everyone baptizing whoever they decide in whatever way they want or for everyone to preside over their own private Eucharist, so they need not meet with and commune with other Christians. But just because we reserve some things to the clergy that doesn't mean everyone else is off the hook in terms of serving other people in Jesus' name.

Luther called it “the priesthood of all believers.” We are to represent Christ to all we encounter. We have been adopted as God's children and people expect us to act like him. And they are quick to notice when we act in un-Christlike ways. In which case, we drive people away from God. That is the opposite of the purpose for which he called us.

As a priest presents the body and blood of Christ to us, we are to present Christ to others in concrete ways. God knew we needed more than mere words and so his Word became flesh and lived among us. (John 1:14) We need to show God's love with more than just flowery sentiments. As James says, “And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' and yet you didn't give them the things the body needs, what good is it? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.” (James 2:15-17) We need to show God's love and care in food pantries and homeless ministries and parish nurses and community gardens and addiction ministries and outreach to those who are sick or immigrants or in jail. Jesus didn't just preach but healed and fed people as well. We must not neglect the material needs of people. The physical gives form to the spiritual and the spiritual gives meaning to the physical. We must minister to the whole person.

In fact, at a recent video conference put on by the Humanitarian Disaster Institute, at my old alma mater, Wheaton College, they came up with a fairly comprehensive approach to this crisis. Their step by step manual for giving spiritual and emotional care during a disaster is based on what they call the BLESS method. They break down the 5 core needs as Belonging or relationships, Livelihood or health and finances, Emotional or mental health, Safety or issues of violence, self-harm, and suicide, and Spiritual or what they call meaning-making and religious behaviors. It gives practical ways to help remotely as well as agencies to contact should matters require what you can't personally provide. You can check it out at spiritualfirstaidhub.com. What I like is that it covers just about everything.

Another thing we should do as a royal priesthood is to intercede for all people with God our King. Prayer is no substitute for action as James pointed out. But prayer does things other than just let God know what is on our mind. It makes us look at what's in our hearts. And it reminds us that we are to not only pray for friends and loved ones but also that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. (Luke 6:27-28). In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus taught us to say, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” (Luke 11:4) Remember Jesus prayed on the cross for those who were in the process of crucifying him. (Luke 23:34) So, yes, God wants you to pray even for politicians and people on Facebook and Uncle Bob and Aunt Heather, with whom you disagree sharply. It's a good spiritual discipline.

Is that too difficult? Remember we associate priests with making sacrifices and sure enough our passage says that as a holy priesthood we are “to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” What kind of sacrifices? In Hebrews, we are told, “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” (Hebrews 13:16) But it goes deeper than that. In Romans, Paul says, “Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1) Rather than offering a dead animal, we offer our living selves, body and soul, to God. As Jesus put it, we are to disown ourselves and take up our cross and follow him. We give up all rights to ourselves and dedicate ourselves to serving God.

There is an Old Testament precedent for this. When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, God finally got Pharaoh to let them go after the death of the first-born. The Hebrews were to sacrifice a lamb, smear its blood on the doorframes of the house so that death would pass over the family. Thereafter, all the firstborn of Israel were considered God's. So each one had to be redeemed with a sacrifice (Exodus 13:2, 13) as we saw Mary and Joseph do with Jesus. (Luke 2:22-24) The firstborn was kind of living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service.

We tend to think of sacrifice in terms of giving stuff up. But that is only part of the story. In English the word “sacrifice” comes from 2 Latin words that literally mean “to make sacred or holy.” That is why Paul talks of us being living sacrifices. We don't give up our lives as in giving up our existence but as in giving up our self-centered lives and letting them be made into Christ-centered lives.

The problem with living sacrifices, someone joked, is that they tend to keep crawling off the altar. In Toy Story 4, Forky keeps throwing himself in wastebaskets. At one point he deliberately gets lost while the family is on vacation and despite the possibility that he too will be lost and separated from Bonnie forever, Woody goes after him. Woody has to convince him to give up the idea that he is trash and accept that he is now a beloved toy whose new purpose in life is to play with and be enjoyed by Bonnie.

A lot of people in this world think others are trash and are not shy about telling them so. And if you hear it enough, you can start believing it about yourself. But no mother wants her child to think of him- or herself as trash. And the best way I can think of to change that is to bring them to a community where they are recognized as beloved children of God, created in his image to enjoy him forever and therefore having inherent worth. And that inherent worth is reinforced by the fact that, as any parent would, God paid the ultimate price to save us. Jesus gave his life to give us life.

We all want our kids to be the best that they can be. We want them to be good and do good. And so does God. He wants to make us “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people.” At the end of Toy Story 4, we see a group of toys who dedicate themselves to helping other toys find kids to love them. And that's what God wants us to do: to go into the world to find those who are lost, who consider themselves trash and reveal their true purpose and bring them to the One who made them and loves them and want to enjoy them forever.