A Southern Baptist Monk

Proper 14B

Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2

St. Matthias

August 10, 2018

I decided to be perfect when I was 13 years old.  It was a combination of 2 things that led me to this change in life.  First, I was in 7^th grade and we were living in Georgetown, KY.  There was a Roman Catholic Convent we passed on the way to school every day.  I supposed it was about the holiest looking place I’d ever seen.  I had seen Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music and so I knew what I thought all nuns looked like and how they acted.  I decided to be like Julie Andrews and someday to be a monk.  I read in the Encyclopedia that monks lived in monasteries and there was one just an hour away in Bardstown, KY. It was a pretty big step for a Southern Baptist kid and I don’t think I had ever actually been in a Catholic Church – much less a convent or a monastery.  I told my parents and was rather surprised when they kind of took it all in stride.  They told me you had to be really good to be a monk and I should start with cleaning my room and being nice to my brother and sister.  This perfection thing was not going to be as easy as I thought.  I wasn’t sure I could be that holy.

Then soon after that, the youth group at Faith Baptist Church was having what was called a lock-in because we were locked IN the Church so our parents wouldn’t have to wonder where we were or what we were doing on a Saturday night.  I went because this girl I liked was going to be there and I hoped that she was going to notice me.  She was in 8^th grade.  The youth minister decided we would play this game that involved drawing Bible verses out of a hat and memorizing them.  It was a pretty typical Baptist kind of game.  I got a part of one of the verses we read earlier today – “Therefore be imitators of God”.  It wasn’t exactly, “Jesus wept” but it was still pretty easy to memorize.  We were supposed to tell how we could live out our verse every day.  So how do you imitate God?  It’s not like I could create something or part the Red Sea.  My best friend at the time, Rusty, said that since God was perfect that meant that we were supposed to act perfect.  I was afraid this meant I was going to have to continue to be nice to my brother and sister all the time. 

Being perfect is just one of those things that we think is required when it comes to being holy and religious.  And being holy and religious is one of those things we feel like we are supposed to be – but don’t quite know what to do - or how to do it.  Rusty and I decided that to be perfect meant you couldn’t do anything wrong which is what we thought sin was all about.  So, if you are going to be perfect then you can’t sin or do anything wrong and so if you just focus on not doing bad stuff - then you should be perfect.  Tell the truth, don’t steal, no evil talk, and don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God - but we weren’t sure what that meant.  Add in acting like Julie Andrews in a convent and what we came up with was that we were supposed to walk around looking somber and trying not to think or do anything wrong.  WE TRIED.  At Scott County Junior High our friends thought we were acting weird.  My brother told me in no uncertain terms that I WAS acting weird.  My sister just refused to acknowledge my existence in her world and told me to go away.  We gave up our quest after 2 very long days and with the sure and certain knowledge that we had not been perfect.  We were not very good imitators of God or Julie Andrews I’m afraid.

And I think this is part of why we make living the Christian life so hard – and I DO think that we are the ones making it hard.  We keep trying to DO way too much.  But what if we started focusing more on BEING Christian?  The Apostle Paul tells the Ephesians – BE kind to one another – SPEAK the truth – SHARE with the needy – be imitators of God.  My mother always used to tell us that in order to get a friend – you needed to be a friend and I think this is what the Apostle Paul was trying to say.  Being holy is more about BEING Christian rather than just doing good deeds and not doing bad things.  If you want TO act Christian – Be Christian.  One of the silliest statements I hear people make regularly is that you don’t have to go to Church in order to be a good Christian.  OH, you can do good deeds and not do bad things all day long – but that doesn’t make you a Christian.  To be Christian means you BELIEVE in God and Believing is made real in Faith.  We are Christians when we love our neighbors because we know that Christ first loved us.  We are Christians when we pray for others – not just put them on the prayer list – but pray for them ourselves every day believing that God hears our prayers and moves in the lives of the people we love.  We are Christians when we gather together at the altar – break bread in faith and share the common cup. Being Christian is about living in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and that happens when 2 or 3 of us are gathered together here at St. Matthias.  I’ll bet that was what those nuns in Georgetown, KY did at the Convent and I doubt any of them thought they were perfect.  I am pretty sure now that imitating God is far more than creating the world or parting the Red Sea – it’s about being who God created us to be.  We won’t be perfect – but we will know God’s love.  We may never be as holy as I thought nuns and Julie Andrews were, but we will be WHOLLY God’s own forever. 

The convent in Georgetown is now closed – I think it is a community center.  I never did make it to Bardstown.  But I looked it up on the internet.  The Trappist monks of the Abbey of Gethsemani are still there.  They make some pretty wicked Kentucky Bourbon Fruitcake and fudge.  You can order it online.  It may not be perfect, but it does sound pretty holy.  AMEN.