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One of the observations made by folks from the lower 48 who visit our great state is the lack of fences. Take a drive in the Alaskan country and you don’t see many fences. We are proud of this fact and it helps us define ourselves as free people. At least we like to think that we are more free than lower 48 folks with all their fences. The truth is that fences can be good. They define boundaries. They tell us where we can go and where we cannot go, and in so doing, offer us security. There was a study done of elementary children playing on school playgrounds. What the researchers discovered was that on playgrounds where there were no fences the children tended to play near the center of the playground. But on playgrounds where there were fences they tended to use the entire ground available to them for play, even right up to the edges near the fence. The disciples had felt the security of a fence around their master. He was the Messiah. He was the Son of God. And so when they found a man who was exorcising demons from people using the name of Jesus they promptly told him to stop. Who did he think he was? Using the name of Jesus like that? Thinking that Jesus would be pleased with their actions they told him. And what did Jesus do? He said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able to soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us." Wherever Jesus went he encouraged people to expand their fences, to enlarge their thinking about God. And why not? Isn’t God more than what we think God is? When you think of God what image comes into your mind? The face of a kindly old man? Do you see a bright light? Do you envision God as a woman? What color is God’s face? Is it white or black or brown? When we stop and think about it, is not every one of our images of God a distortion? We are finite, fallible human beings thinking about a God who is infallible and infinite. It doesn’t matter what your image of God may be. God will always be more than your image. But this doesn’t stop people from claiming that they understand everything there is to know about God. Some people take a part of who God is and make sweeping generalizations. For example, some Christians may emphasize the grace of God too much. It doesn’t matter what you do, they say. God’s grace is always there to forgive and forget. While it is true that God’s grace is always there to forgive this doesn’t mean that we have no responsibility to live in this grace, to act in moral and ethical ways with others, to follow through with our commitment to God and the Church. If you are a Christian, if you have given your life to Jesus Christ, then you have a responsibility to live differently in this world. You’ve heard the story of the blind men holding on to a part of an elephant. One man held the tusks and claimed that elephants are hard and smooth. Another had his arms wrapped around a leg and said that elephants are round, rough, and leathery. Still another had hold of the tail and stated that elephants are small and hairy. Each man encountered a certain part of the elephant but still made sweeping statements about elephants in general. When we experience God it is always just a part of who God is. The Bible says that we see as in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face. God is like the most beautiful diamond in the world, a diamond so big that we cannot possibly view it all at the same time. And so we examine a facet of the diamond, appreciate it, contemplate it. But we don’t need to build a fence around it and claim that we know all there is to know about the entire diamond. God is always bigger than the fences we try to build around God. The reason folks build fences around God in the first place is because of their fear and insecurity. Security is one of the basic human needs. I need it. You need it. But a problem develops when we need too much security. When we build a fence around God out of our own deep need for security it becomes so easy to move beyond fence construction to box building. We build boxes around God when we need a lot of security. Boxes are those places where we have pretty much defined God. We know the boundaries. We know where God is and where God isn’t. And we expect and want others to join us in our boxes and experience God together. But what we are really saying is, "I need to feel needed. I want God to be simple and understandable. I want to be with people who talk and think like me." The problem with this kind of box building is that it may offer us the security we need for a time. But the security of the box can easily become a prison. We need security, but we also need freedom. We need roots but we also need wings. And we won’t find much freedom in a box. A parable is told of a boy who lived in a box. He loved the space inside his box. The darkness was comforting and helped him feel secure. One day he heard some noise outside of the box. Some children were playing skip rope and having a great time. The boy listened to their laughter for a long time. Their play stirred something within the boy’s soul and he found himself wanting to be with them, playing and having a good time. So he poked a hole in his box. Now he could see the kids as they played. Oh, how he wanted to be with them. Suddenly the children noticed the box. "Hey, there’s someone inside this box." And they called out to the boy, "We know you’re in there. Why don’t you come out and play with us?" The boy was too terrified to answer. Suddenly he couldn’t bring himself to come out from under the box. What if they call me names? What if they make fun of me? What if they hurt me? So the children returned to their play. And the boy returned to his favorite corner of the box. A tiny shaft of light streamed into the box from the hole he had made, connecting him to the world outside. But the boy huddled in the corner and wrapped the darkness around him. Fear is one the biggest reasons we build boxes and stay inside them. It becomes easy to cling to the familiar, even if the familiar is darkness and fear. What boxes have you been building around God? What do you feel at the thought of venturing out beyond your understanding of God? It is scary to move to a new understanding of God especially when we have lived in a comfortable box for our entire lives. This brings up an issue I have struggled with over the past few years. It involves our children and how we as a church teach them about God. It is not uncommon for children to grow up in the church having learned the Biblical stories as historical fact and then to feel shocked and betrayed when, as an adult, they discover that maybe the creation story or the tower of Babel or the flood story didn’t happen exactly as the Bible says it did. Part of what is happening here is our Western Enlightenment view of the world, a view that forces us to analyze and understand everything. The ancient Hebrew people would never ask the question of whether the stories they heard around the campfire actually happened or not. The authority of these sacred stories rested in their own experience of God and their humanity. They knew they were sinful, rebellious people. They marveled at the beauty of God’s natural creation. They were able to see God in virtually everything in their world. Biblical stories reflected this experience. So I have ventured out from my childhood box. Actually I was pushed. Seminary did a good job of forcing me out of my box. What would have been helpful if the Church had said to me when I was a teenager or young adult, "It’s okay to build your faith with the boundaries of a fence. But we want you to push against the walls as you grow. We want your fence line to be a bit fluid and flexible. There is so much of God out there to explore." A story coming out of WW I tells of three soldiers. A Protestant, a Roman Catholic, and a Jew were marching toward the scene of a furious battle. When they were a few yards from the front line a shell exploded near the Protestant young man, killing him instantly. After the battle the two friends took the body of their buddy to a nearby Catholic parish house and asked the priest if he would bury their Protestant friend. The kindly priest consented to perform religious rites over the body, but he said the boy could not be buried inside the parish cemetery, because it was consecrated for use by members of the Catholic faith. However, the priest offered to bury the boy near the cemetery fence, so he would as near as possible to sacred soil. When the brief burial service was over the two soldiers returned to the war. When the fighting subsided the boys were given a few days furlough. So the two decided to visit their friend’s grave. They met the priest and he led them to the cemetery. To their astonishment he took them inside the fence and showed them the burial plot where their dead comrade rested. The two soldiers protested that there must be some mistake. This could not be the right grave. They had seen him buried outside the fence. But the priest smiled and gently said, "There is no mistake. This is your young friend’s grave. And it is exactly where he was buried. You see, I was not permitted to move the boy’s body. But I could move the fence." Perhaps we all need to ask ourselves some hard questions. How firm is my fence around God? Is it really a box? And is it time for me to venture beyond my fence to explore some of the mysteries of God? Could Buddhists or Muslims teach me something about God? Could my Pentecostal or Charismatic friends at work give me a glimpse of God I have never seen? It’s okay to move out beyond our boxes and fences. God can handle it. With a supportive community of faith, so can we. But it’s important to return to the place from which we came. And when we return to the security inside our fences, maybe we will be inspired to be like this parish priest and move our fence to include more of the mystery of God. |
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09.28.03 - Fences and Boxes (Mark 9:38-41)
