Chapel Talk
January 23, 2008 There's a private school in a quiet little village near our city. It's not exactly 'posh', but the school has housed an heir to the throne. On Monday morning I spoke to 300+ students and faculty at their morning chapel session. Yeah, I know it's now Thursday. I've been thinking.
As I was preparing for the talk I had the disturbing realization that I had to speak from the rich young ruler story. Some things you just can't shake, and this was one of them. So I did just what I was asked to do. I skipped the cheap shot and suggested that Jesus was asking a question, and the question was, "Who are you?" I talked about homelessness and suggested that we couldn't know what matters and what didn't until we lost those things that didn't. I said we couldn't really know who we were until we had the wisdom to know what matters and what doesn't. I quoted Jesus. I quoted Pete Townshend. The kids listened politely. And then it hit me: God loves those kids more dearly than you or I could ever imagine. They are all so incredibly young, and beautiful, and privileged, and he loves them so much it hurts. I was in awe. I am still in awe. I am stunned.
Afterwards I was talking with one of the faculty, and I asked him what the biggest challenge facing these kids was. His answer astounded me. He said that there was so much pressure on them to get into the right university that they had to have the best marks possible, and that put a tremendous amount of pressure on those kids to conform. That just blew me away. I've been thinking about that for three days now. You see, I always knew that poverty, injustice and oppression could stifle the voice of the poet and the artist within, could silence one's true voice from being heard in society, in the world. But I never imagined that wealth and privilege could stifle one's true voice from being heard, either. Poverty exacts a toll, but so does wealth, it seems. The pressure on these kids to meet an increasingly difficult standard, year after year, is enormous... and they're just kids. Conformity or Catastrophic Failure - that's their choice in life. And yet the whole time I was there I felt like I was immersed in God's amazing love for them; I don't know how to describe it - like it was a prophetic or ecstatic experience, like it was another reality I had somehow drifted into. God was there, and he loves them with his fierce and wonderful love. He loves them too.
Jesus was right - it's more blessed to give than to receive. Implicit in that statement, however, is the realization that you receive through giving. I spent the time and effort to pray over and work through a 20 minute message. I got up early on a Monday morning and trekked out of town. It was all such a trifling effort on my part, so little to give for so great a gift. Why? Because in an Anglican chapel that was at once modern and ancient, with wooden beams rising overhead and with brilliant sunlight streaming in through soaring windows, God poured out his love once more, bathing his children in his enormous and unending desire for their hearts to return to him. For a moment - for just a moment - I saw the heart of God ...and I will never be the same again.
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Reader Comments (7)
"Behind Blue Eyes"? "Won't get fooled? Or something else?
I was saying how Pete bared his soul, that he described his 'rock bottom' experience in life and then asked the question 'Who are you?" He was saying, this is who I really am, so who the f#$k are you?" The point being that we have no way of knowing who we are until all the things that aren't who we are get stripped away.
I'm told that when sung by Roger Daltrey the song came out differently - Pete was originally screaming "Who are you?!" at God.
Call me nuts, but I've shared a few Uncle Pete prophesies here and there. Like <a href="http://theagentbfiles.blogspot.com/2007/01/same-as-old-boss.html">meet the new boss</a>.
This issue of position and expectation comes up in my mind frequently. I see people like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez (and yes, the current President Bush) and wonder sometimes why they don't change their ways. Of course,they probably don't want to do so. Then again, could they really? They should, but the pressure of their position presents a definite challenge.