April 10
DebDay 27: Don't copy me.
I have a character flaw (okay, several.) I like being different, standing out.
Not necessarily with everything. With moving here I have followed the crowd in procuring several down jackets of varying heft. I've certainly succumbed to wearing Carhartt's. But...I still make my feeble attempts to be different.
Everyone in Alaska wears trucker hats. Our family of churches even offers our Radiant logo on trucker hats. Those hats are excessively cool. They really are!
And I can't pull it off. They make me look like an over-aged poser. And the flaw in me? I don't want to pull it off. Just not "my" (insert "signature") look.
I wear flat caps. (Insert unsolicited plug for Boston Scally Co. here.) I wear flat caps...because no one else does. At least not up here. Maybe in Boston.
So if you love me, don't buy anything from Boston Scally.
Maybe related, Good Friday and Easter are high Christian days...and potentially days of higher stress for pastors. This year in particular.
We're all trying to serve our churches and communities. We're all trying to consider saying and doing things we didn't say or do last year. We're all praying for changed lives.
In this case, (we're not talking about hats anymore), my standing out, trying to be innovative, interesting and profound can run the risk of deflecting attention from Jesus. As we remember and celebrate God's great expression of supreme love, the sacrificial death and resurrection of our Savior, we each celebrate individually.
And collectively.
1 Peter 2:9-10 says, "But you (plural) are a chosen race, a royal priesthood (together), a holy nation (multiple us), a people for his own possession (all of us), that you (us) may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you (us) out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you (us) were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."
Having received God's mercy (not getting what we did deserve), because Jesus died a most unmerciful death in our place, we now belong to the Father. Together, we are His.
And it is for us now to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into the truth and hope of His gospel light.
Light helps us see things for what they really are.
So today, Good Friday, and then Easter Sunday, we proclaim the One who truly stands out - the King of kings, and Lord of lords.
The collective us, the chosen, ransomed and redeemed, I am more than happy to blend in with. I'm okay to not be any more noticeable than you or anyone else.
May WE have a reflective, somber yet joyous Good Friday.
-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau
