Loving God, send your Holy Spirit to be in our minds and in our hearts as we gather together this day, and transform us into participants in the new creation you have initiated in Christ; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Many of you are probably familiar with the British sit-com, Keeping Up Appearances.  The show revolves around Hyacinth “Bouquet,” which many people mistakenly pronounce as “Bucket.”  She desperately wants to be accepted by all the right people and tries to appear to be at least upper-middle class, in spite of her poor working class background.  However, as you can imagine, it is hard for her to hide her obviously lower class family members.  She has a senile father who often behaves inappropriately or bizarrely.  She has a son, Sheridan, who is never actually seen and who may or may not be homosexual.  And, she has sisters who are quite obviously not as refined as Hyacinth would like to be.

    Of course, as the show is meant to be a comedy, many hilarious situations ensue.  The thing is, though, can you imagine how much energy it would take to spend your whole life trying to be somebody else and trying to hide your more embarrassing family members?  I get tired just thinking about it!  However, when I hear Paul talking about “those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart” (2 Cor. 5:12), this show was just one of the things that came to mind.  The phrase “living authentically” also comes to mind, which is quite the opposite of what Hyacinth tries to do.

    As it happens, there are two real life situations that have come to light just within the past few weeks in which outward appearances did not match what was in the heart, and the results in both cases were devastating.  When I was in Ontario last week I visited with friends who lost their daughter to suicide at the end of February.  Their daughter Mandy was 16 years old when she took her own life.  She was actively involved in dancing, and had just submitted a video for a TV show she was going to be part of.  She had strong opinions about politics and many other things, had thousands of followers on Twitter, and wouldn’t hesitate to step in if she saw somebody being bullied – even if it was one of her friends who was doing the bullying.

    However, at the same time, Mandy had struggled on and off with depression.  She also knew in her heart that she was lesbian, but had only come out to certain people.  She had been active in her church youth group until the day when the leader told them that they needed to pray for gay people so that God would heal them.  After that, she never went back to that church.  Yet, she still believed in God, and she believed that God doesn’t make mistakes and that she was not a mistake.

    In the end, though, she just couldn’t keep up appearances.  To others, and to her family, she seemed to be happy, and excited about dancing, and surrounded by good friends.  But in her heart, she didn’t see any way out of the darkness, and took her own life, not having shown any of the warning signs that people so often talk about.

    The other situation, which has been far more public here, is the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.  My suspicion, which has been voiced by others but may never be confirmed, is that the shooter, Omar Mateen, was also desperately trying to keep up appearances.  My suspicion is that he was gay, but he was part of a religion that told him that this is not acceptable, and he was part of a family that told him that this is not acceptable.  My suspicion is that he acted, not only out of hatred for others, but out of self-hatred.  My suspicion is that he was looking for approval, even if it came from ISIS.

    Keeping up appearances takes a lot of energy, and many people come to the point where they simply can’t do it any more.  However, this is where we come to the human point of view versus seeing things through God’s eyes.  I have heard Jesus described as one of the most integrated and authentic people who has ever lived.  While there were people who wanted him to hang out with all the right people and become an earthly king, he never hesitated to spend his time with those who were poor and vulnerable and even despised.  Humanly speaking, he was of humble birth, from a no-name, no-good town, and a failure as a Messiah because he ended up getting himself killed.

    This is thinking about Jesus from a human point of view.  However, as Paul writes to the Corinthians, everything is seen in a new way when we are made a new creation in Christ.  This new creation starts from the inside out.  The new creation happens in the heart, where God’s forgiveness and love are comprehended and a new way of seeing comes to light.

    The thing is that, as members of the body of Christ, we do not have to keep up appearances.  We are not asked to pretend to be something we’re not or to show everybody how good we are.  We are not asked to pretend to be happy when we’re not or to hide our more embarrassing family members.  We are not asked to suddenly become holier than thou or to make sure that we associate with all the right people.  We are simply asked to be participants in the new creation in Christ.

    The love of Christ, which Paul points to as his main motivation, is for all people.  As Eugene Peterson puts it in The Message, “One man died for everyone.  That puts everyone in the same boat” (2 Cor. 5:14).  And so, no matter who you are, or where you are from, or what your sexual orientation is, or what you have or have not done, Jesus came for you.  God acted through Jesus Christ in order that we might be reconciled with God - forgiven, friends with God, and a new creation in Christ.

    Way back in 1 Samuel we learn this: “The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (16:7).  May all of us be empowered to live authentically as people who have become a new creation in Christ.  May we be able to recognize that all of us are works in progress: not perfect, but forgiven; not good, but always growing into Christ; not entirely saintly, but empowered and gifted by the Holy Spirit.  And may Christ become more and more visible in our lives from day to day, as God continues to transform us into a new creation in Christ.  Amen.

Pentecost 5 (NL summer)                        2 Corinthians 5:11-21
June 19, 2016
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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