Yesterday I mentioned that the sermon we were given was about loving others as Christ did. Christ gave up his glory in heaven to enter a world of impurity, filth and poverty. Palestine was full of peasants, and the life of a peasant is not glamorous. There is another part of this: our giftedness, our talents, our comforts are not for us. They are for others.
To live a life worthy of our calling is to live for others. Husbands work to provide for their family, and care and protect their children, grieving even as they discipline and challenge them. Wives live not for spiritual growth but serve and care for little children , then their grandchildren, and then the great grandchildren.
It is not for ourselves. Our qualifications and possessions are not a sign of our worth.
And neither are any spiritual gifts that we have.
1I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, bone God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
7But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8Therefore it is said,
“When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;
he gave gifts to his people.”
9(When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,13until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
It may be that my generation and the one that followed (I’m the oldest kid of four and the youngest is clearly Gen X: I’m what some call Gen Jones: a teenager during the punk rock period), because we, in general, have been able to provide for our children, there has been a fair amount of protection.
This is good. The alternative is abandonment and abuse, and I get paid to deal with the consequences of that. But we were fed a lie, and we taught it to our children.
That what mattered was self-esteem. It was less about possessions: we mocked our parents for wanting the three “Bs”, a bach (holiday home), a boat, and a BMW. We wanted to develop, become spiritual, to grow. Oprah made her money preaching this daily to the women of my generation. It is their narrative.
It was reinforced in schools by a cult of self-esteem: that what mattered was that you felt good and were validated. People were not put into places of discomfort (but for the military and those made enough to train until injury — which included me). The virtues of humility were discounted.
And the children of the elite are entitled, destroying those who made this narrative. Discounting them. Rejecting the limits of the human state, thinking that they can recreate themselves into Bronies.
This is not living as Christ wants us to. We need to live for each other. We need to support each other in times of stress, even if it means that you are hacking banks down and replacing stoves (which is the agenda at casa weka).
For in looking after others, and doing the tasks that push ou to the limits, you glorify God and use those good things he has given you well.
Do that.
Deny this narrative, for it leads to destruction.