Remember these? Back before iPod’s, CD’s, cassettes and 8-tracks, there was something we flower children used to call “vinyl.” These strange vinyl music disks came in several different forms, with an A side and a B side. If you bought a single on a 45 like this, there was always another song thrown in on the other side of the record for free. Usually the B side song was much less popular and often less pleasing. But you could always tell a true fan by the number of B side songs they knew from their favorite artists.Last Sunday I challenged us all to redefine what we consider to be a normal Christian life. As we listened to the Apostle Peter speak to people after his healing of a crippled beggar outside the temple, we heard him ask, “Why are you surprised by this?” Why does this display of God’s power surprise you? Why would you think this abnormal? And as we saw how Peter modeled noticing the beggar, trusting the Savior and expecting God’s power to appear, I challenged us all to use Peter’s example to reconsider what we consider to be normal in our Christian lives. Perhaps life is supposed to be more surprisingly powerful than we thought…
Later, as I was standing in line for my flaming hot bowl of BFF chili, Kale Johnson said to me, “You know what my friend says, Pastor? He says normal is just a setting on a dryer.” And the very good point Kale was making was that “normal” can be a pretty pointless, relative term. If I only compare myself, my behavior and my spiritual experience to that of other floundering sinners around me, normal is always going to be a completely meaningless word – just another setting on the dryer. With this shallow standard of normalcy, I will be building my house on sand, and, as Bruce Cockburn sang, “the trouble with normal is that it always gets worse.”
But – if I’m intentionally trying to allow Almighty God to define normal, well then we’re not just talking about a silly setting on the dryer anymore, are we? Now we’re talking about an absolutely powerful and perfect standard of life, love, behavior and relationship to which we must all pay very scrupulous attention. This is what we gather here to discuss every Sunday.
But there was a problem with my message last Sunday which should have bothered all of us. The great problem with my message last Sunday was that we only talked about the A side of this new, wonderful, surprisingly powerful Jesus normalcy we’re called to embrace. Last Sunday we dreamed of healing for beggars, God dramatically leading Pastor Kevin wherever he should go and other glorious displays of power. But that’s only the A side of the record, isn’t it? There is definitely a B side to the normal Christian life we are called to fully embrace as well.
And this B side of the record isn’t nearly so popular or pleasing…
When I pray for God to surprise me, for God to help me recognize His hand and working in my life, I am not only praying for pleasant and easy things. I am embracing the Cross. I am humbling myself and offering my life as a sacrifice – burying myself fully into His death, trusting fully that only He can raise me to new life. I am embracing a very costly and precious grace!
Let us never forget that this very same Peter, who encouraged us all not to be surprised by God’s glorious power, is the exact same Peter who wrote these words in 1 Peter 4:12: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful [fiery] trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.” Don’t ever be surprised by the wonderfully powerful things God will occasionally do in and around your life, but also, don’t ever be surprised by the painful, fiery and difficult stuff you’re called to endure either. Folks, don’t forget the B side of this thing!
John says almost exactly the same thing in 1 John 3:13, but even more bluntly. John said, “Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.”
We are not settling for the world’s definitions of normal here. Just as Kale said, we are not supposed to content ourselves for just another silly setting on the dryer. I challenge any of us in this room to read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 and come away with the idea that Jesus was calling us to settle for anything normal. Happy are the poor, the mourners, the humble, those hungry for justice, the merciful, pure, peaceful and the persecuted. These are the ones who are going to discover what this following Jesus thing is all about. You are the light of the world, the salt of the earth. Your righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees – it must blow away even your highest ideals of religious normalcy. Forget murder and violence – I don’t even want you to get angry and call people names. Forget just avoiding adultery – I don’t even want you thinking lustful thoughts. When you make a marriage promise (or any other sort of vow), I expect you must keep those promises. You aren’t looking for equal justice/vengeance on your enemies – I want you loving those enemies. We’re not settling for this world’s definitions of normal and that is a very different kind of life. These sorts of divine standards of normalcy will always bring a B side into our surprising lives.
When Pastor Kyle Lake finished praying his "Surprise Me God" prayer at a baptismal service in Texas in November 2005, he grabbed a microphone and accidentally electrocuted himself. While we can argue all day about why God would ever allow/determine something like that to happen, while we can dismiss events like that as just tragic coincidence or circumstance, at a minimum, things like this simply remind us all there is a mysterious B side to this thing.
The great prophet John the Baptist was called by God before he was even born to serve as the forerunner for Jesus. To the best of our knowledge, there was never a moment when feisty John was not radically faithful to his calling. He lived like a wild man, accomplished his mission beautifully and, at the end of it all, he got his head chopped off in prison as a party favor for a sleazy dancing girl and her evil mother. There is a B side to this thing!
The Apostle Paul, truly the first theologian of the Christian church, said in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28: “I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides [all this], I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.”
Well, now there’s a victorious Christian life, right?
Folks, there is a B side to this thing! I challenge any of us to walk through the pages of Scripture and not immediately see the B side of our great “surprise me God” conversation. Many Christians fall all over themselves trying to rationalize or argue away all the hard stuff. Many of us are horrified at the frequently terrible demands grace places upon us. Many of us have such a wimpy view of God and such a distorted, selfish view of God’s love, we cannot conceive of God allowing us to be surprised by anything painful or difficult. A great many of us act shocked and surprised whenever we are called upon to suffer or do something hard for the Kingdom of God. Peter says, “Don’t be!” And Pastor Kevin says, “Grow up and see the B side!”
Last Sunday, I shared several dramatic, personal stories of my own powerfully surprising moments with God over the years. I told you of God’s frequently miraculous leading in my life. But what I didn’t tell you was that there was a B side to those stories directly proportionate to the miraculous drama of God’s initial callings. My almost twelve years of military service were hard – it was a very difficult period of my life. My years of pastoral ministry have always been difficult – I challenge any pastor anywhere to say otherwise. While I am honestly grateful for every bit of it, while most of my life has been more wonderful than I ever imagined it ever would be, mine has not been an easy life. It isn’t supposed to be an easy life. Do you see?
In Zimbabwe today, the poorest of the poor spend their days panning for gold in grimy, dirty rivers in the grim hope they might recover just enough dust to buy a loaf of bread. Yet an anonymous letter from a pastor in Zimbabwe in the most recent issue of World highlights all the ways he has seen God moving in the midst of the tragic societal collapse that is Zimbabwe. He said God “may paint strangely at the moment, but paint He does, and one day, the picture will be seen to be perfect. In the meantime, LORD, make us obedient brushes.”
LORD, help us to faithfully and courageously embrace even the B side of surprise! Help me understand this constantly surprising life is not really about me! Even as we are gloriously, powerfully surprised by the picture you are constantly painting, make us obedient brushes.
I don’t say these things to discourage or depress us. I say these things because you and I must fully understand Almighty God’s enormous, double sided definition of normal. We must fully understand what we are attempting here at Elim Church is wonderful, powerful and surprising, but it is not ever going to be easy. There will always be another sticky issue for our new Leadership Team to settle, because there is always a B side to this thing.
In 1978, when I was learning to enjoy worship in a dirty grass hut near Milot, Haiti, I adopted Philippians 1:20-21 as my life verse. “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
When we beg Almighty God to surprise us, we are fully embracing life or death as equal victory.
We are saying “yes” to whatever and, surprisingly discovering our declaration worth it!
May we embrace all sides of God’s surprises with equal abandon and excitement!
Amen.
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