Sunday, March 22, 2009

Sermon: "The Visible Cloak"

Scripture: Ephesians 2: 1-10

Reverend Larry M. Gerber

There is a legend about a Cherokee youth's rite of passage.

One day at dusk, his father would take him into the forest, blindfold him and tell him to sit on a stump and remain there for the whole night, not removing the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shined through it. The youth could not cry out for help to anyone. Once he survived the night, he would be deemed a man. He could not tell the other boys of this experience because all young Cherokee males had to come into manhood on their own in the same manner.

The boy, naturally, would be terrified. He could hear noises of all sorts. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. A human might even come along to do him harm. The wind would blow the grass and earth, and shake the tree stump, but the boy would sit stoically, not removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!

Finally, after a horrific night, the sun would appear and the young man could remove his blindfold. Only then would he discover that his father was sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

Have there been times in your life that you have felt that you were all alone, sitting on a tree stump in the middle of the forest, in the dark and blindfolded, with haunting sounds all around you? Have you ever felt that however dark your life might be that Jesus is sitting right beside you with his cloak around you for protection, or do you feel vulnerable, as if the whole world is watching you?

Harry Potter has his Cloak of Invisibility, which he throws on to make himself disappear at critical points in his magical adventures. It shields him completely from being seen by other people, and it cannot be worn out by time or spells. It becomes such a prized possession that Harry decides to keep it at the end of the seven-book series, and pass it on to his descendants.

Don't you wish that you were a member of Harry's family?

There are times when we'd all like to disappear. When we try to say something funny in a large group of people, and nobody laughs. When we begin to tell a story and forget the punch line. When we get angry with someone and make a big scene and look foolish to those watching. When we are the one to spill the pitcher of water right after we are reminded that the lids come off if we don't hold on to them at a church supper.

If only we had that Cloak of Invisibility!

At other times, we want to be shielded because we are ashamed of our actions or embarrassed. We don't want people to see what we are doing. We prefer our privacy, where we can hide our activities from others. In the words of Paul to the Ephesians, we are "following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient" (2:2).

This is strange and supernatural language, like something out of the magical world of Harry Potter. But we know what Paul is trying to communicate - we are well aware that we often behave in a very worldly way, under the influence of powers and spirits that lead us away from God. We live in "the passions of our flesh," we follow "the desires of flesh and senses," we let our ambition, greed, jealousy and anger get the best of us (v. 3). We know that we are heading in the wrong direction, and that we ought to turn around.

But changing direction is tough. We would rather just vanish. Poof! Become invisible.

For those who want to disappear, science is in the process of providing some help. Researchers have demonstrated that they are now able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around an object. These materials deflect light waves around a body, like water flowing around a smooth rock in a stream. The key is to keep the light from bouncing back, because if the light is reflected then the object can be seen. This research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office - the Army, of course, is very interested in gaining a fighting advantage by making its people and equipment invisible.

The bottom line is that if you want to be invisible, you have to find a way to bend light around yourself. If light is reflected, then you're going to be seen.

It is clear from Paul's letter to the Ephesians that God wants the divine light to bounce off us, instead of bend around us. Paul says that "God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ" (v. 4). We become alive with Christ when we are baptized into the Christian community - in the words of Paul, "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ" (Galatians 3:27). As Christians, we are invited to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires" (Romans 13:14).

So we are "clothed" with Christ, writes Paul, and we "put on" the Lord Jesus Christ - this is what it means to be a properly dressed disciple of Christ. Jesus becomes for us a Visibility Cloak, one that reflects the light of God and makes us visible to the world.

For the purposes of Paul's message, bending light and becoming invisible is bad. Reflecting light and being visible is good. It's all about putting on Jesus, the Visibility Cloak.

Now for those of us who don't feel we deserve this special garment, Paul stresses that it is "by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God - not the result of works, so that no one may boast" (vv. 8-9). The Visibility Cloak is a free gift of God, given to us to cover our many sins and shortcomings. We don't earn this cloak, and we certainly don't deserve it. Instead, God gives it to us so that we will reflect his light to the world.

All we have to do is wrap ourselves up in it.

God's not interested in hiding us, and he certainly doesn't want his light to bend around us. Instead, he clothes us with Christ so that we will be visible signs of his presence in the world. By grace, God moves us from darkness to light, from invisibility to visibility, from an undercover existence to an elevated seat in the heavenly places (v. 6). He takes pleasure in showing us off, as signs of how loving and powerful and creative he is.

Paul wrote: "We are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life" (v. 10).

So what does such a life look like?

As people who reflect the light of God, we can do some good and meaningful work in the world. All across our country, there are people who have put on their Visibility Cloaks in some dark and unexpected places.

God's light is reflected in prison. Catherine Rohr, a private-equity investor, visited a prison in Texas and discovered inmates who were repentant and worshiping God. She decided that prison was a "storehouse of untapped potential," full of men who were brimming with business savvy. Rohr launched the Prison Entrepreneurship Program, which now offers business training to prisoners. According to Christianity Today, the program has graduated 420 students with business plans they can use on their release, in fields such as landscaping and real estate. Rohr tells them, "You've taken so much from the community; it's time for to give back." And it works - one former inmate formed a faith-based moving company called "Moved By Love."

God's light is reflected on the baseball field. Twenty years ago, Bob Muzikowski moved to Chicago and landed in a working-class neighborhood near the infamous Cabrini-Green housing projects. After seeing an abandoned lot that had old backstops, he began to work with neighbors to organize an official Little League. "I had no doubt that God wanted me to play baseball with the kids of Cabrini-Green," says Muzikowski. "They were, after all, my neighbors." He has worked to get three Little Leagues going, and in each of these places the renovated baseball parks have become vital centers for youth sports, and social hubs as well. Muzikowski shuns the label of social reformer, and believes he is simply trying to be a good neighbor, following the instruction of Jesus to love your neighbor as yourself.

God's light is reflected in book clubs. In 2001, a band of 12 mothers in the San Francisco Bay area founded a book club for themselves and their daughters. The mother-daughter book club took off, with the purpose of instilling in girls a love of literature, and it is still going strong today. The club gathers for meals, for relationship-building and for conversation about social and ethical questions. There are a number of professing Christians in the book club, but religion is not the point. "There's still a value in the printed page," says one of the mothers, "still a value in friendship where you see each other face to face. And there's still a value of getting together and dialoguing on contemporary issues."

None of these followers of Jesus is trying to be a star. Instead, they are acting more like moons, reflecting light to others. They have put on their Visibility Cloaks and are now shining in a Texas prison, in a Chicago housing project and in a San Francisco book club.

Is God reflected in your life? We are mid-way through the Lenten Season, a season of darkness: the time when Jesus was in the wilderness alone, yet not alone, sitting on the tree stump in the darkness, but He had the cloak of God around him. He was not afraid, but took that time of darkness to reflect the light of His Father. He was not afraid of the darkness because he knew that his Father was standing by him. Do you feel the cloak of Christ around you?

Remember: Invisible is bad. Visible is good. Each of us has been created by God for a life of visibility, "created in Christ Jesus for good works," wherever we live and work and play (v. 10). So don't hide. Don't disappear. Don't vanish into darkness. Put on the Lord Jesus, and reflect the light of God to others. He Leadeth me o Blessed thought...hymn #128.

Sources:
Associated Press. "Scientists say invisibility cloak now possible." FOXNews.com, August 11, 2008. foxnews.com.
Beaty, Katelyn. "For the love of lit." Christianity Today, September 2008, 34.
Bolsinger, Tod. "Reflecting God's light to coworkers." The High Calling of Our Daily Work, June 17, 2007. thehighcalling.org.
Greenburg, Brad. "No more shortcuts." Christianity Today, September 2008, 30.
Keefe, Derek. "Going to bat for his neighbors." Christianity Today, September 2008, 33.