07/26/2009 FOOFIE’S EGGS: MISSING WHAT’S MOST IMPORTANT
FOOFIE’S EGGS: MISSING WHAT’S MOST IMPORTANT
“... and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God..
Ephesians 3:19 (NRSV)
Foofie was the name her granddaughter gave her. Foofie was a delightful older woman whose easy-going nature, warmth, & absent-mindedness endeared her to persons. Foofie was always thinking of others, but never really thinking, if you know what I mean. I say that because she was particularly naïve, & often acted on impulse.
Foofie was a clown, literally, I mean. Clowning was her hobby & she was a natural.
For Morrisville UM Church’s anniversary celebration 25 ago years ago, the organizers decided upon a talent show to be held in the sanctuary immediately after morning worship. Many of Foofie’s friends, having seen her previous acts, asked her to be the event’s finale.
On that big day, Foofie donned her make-up & costume, & put on one of her well-rehearsed & best-loved routines. She was thrilled that her beloved church family chose her. After decades of clowning, she filled the bill with every bit of heart & zeal she possessed, playing to a full house.
There were pantomimes & magic tricks, & a few practical jokes. She made balloon sculptures & threw a bucket of confetti into the crowded pews.
For the closing act, she wanted something big & memorable. So, she decided on a genuine crowd-pleaser that she had never tried before. It was the old stand-by of tossing fake eggs into the crowd.
It is almost inconceivable that such a seasoned performer as Foofie had never done the egg routine before, but she hadn’t. Most of her career was spent at family picnics & strolling around carnival midways. She never played to such a big, stationary audience before, but the egg gag seemed simple enough in theory.
I’m not going to tell you that Foofie accidentally substituted real eggs for fake ones. I am telling you that Foofie did not realize that the eggs which clowns throw at people are not real eggs. There were no substitutions!
Well, you can imagine the scene. Everyone expected fake eggs when Foofie began tossing them, but after she lobbed the first two or three, & folks realized what was happening, terror reigned in the pews. The projectiles were splattering all over people’s Sunday best. Parents were ducking & dodging, holding up hymnals & pocketbooks to shield themselves & their children from the exploding missiles. Persons were screaming in horror. Little ones cried inconsolably. The bluing agents in certain women’s Friday hairdos were ruined by goo-ey yolks. It was a scene out of a “B” grade 1950’s horror movie.
If all of this wasn’t bad enough, poor Foofie mistook the panicked screams for joyous guffaws. She thought people were laughing, & a few were! Oblivious to the larger reality she was creating, Foofie just kept pitching the raw eggs – the entire dozen! It concluded with most of the congregation streaming out of the sanctuary doors like Japanese in the streets of
One can hardly imagine that Foofie was so clueless. You had to know her. Granted, her naïveté strains credulity, but 350 Methodists will testify to the event & list other supporting evidence that illustrates her well-meaning, innocent character.
We, too, often miss the obvious. The prayer in today’s lesson from Ephesians is a prayer that baptized church persons would know the love of Christ – not unbelievers, but persons who already claim belief. “How can someone miss that?” you ask. Well, sometimes we do.
Take a few seconds & think about answers to these questions.
- What do you expect from church?
- What do you want from faith in God?
- What does God expect of & want from us?
You can answer the first two questions yourself. It’s the purpose of the Bible, & preachers & teachers of the Bible, to help answer that third question.
What does God expect of & want from us? The answer? “To know the love of Christ.” It’s rather short & simple, isn’t it? “To know the love of Christ.”
Is that what you expect from church? Is that what you want from faith? Persons come to church expecting all sorts of things, don’t we? We have some big expectations of church & God & faith!
The one thing God expects is for us to know the love of Christ.
Do you know the love of Christ? If you do not, if you are unsure, if you have grave doubts, I’m not judging you. I am saying that if you do not know Christ & experience his love, stop. Stop. Get off the ride. Make finding his love your quest.
If you don’t know the love of Christ, if you are unsure, if you possess more doubts than assurances, my friends, this affects everything in your life (especially if you regularly sit here & are reminded of who Christ is, but find yourself saying, “I don’t believe a lot of that stuff”). Your task is to become convinced that Jesus is who he claims to be -- not who someone else says he is, not who the world tells you he is, not anyone else’s expectations -- but it’s your life mission to encounter the living Christ yourself. Read, study, counsel, question. Make it the desire of your life until you know him & his love.
Much of this you can do on your own.
I think of some of the young men I’ve come to know in the group we started last September. Some of them came because they recently began seeking after Christ. Jesus was not a new name to them. They had been to church when growing up. They came to a point in their lives, though, where they went on a quest to genuinely know Jesus. Coming to church & joining the group were initial steps, but reading the Bible on their own, studying the scriptures in a Bible class, reading Christian books that enlighten who God is & what God’s kingdom is about, engaging in conversations that probe & question & wonder, all lead to knowing the love of Christ.
I’m impressed because I know how busy these men are. I also know what an observable difference there is in their lives & relationships. They are not (what are often called about some church folks) “functional atheists.”
What do I mean by “functional atheists?” Well, I cannot take credit for the term, but a functional atheist is a person attached to a church, but who does not allow Christ & the things of God to influence life 24/7/365. Although God is Lord of all, functional atheists compartmentalize God to be God of very little in their life.
Granted, all of us have areas that we’ve not let God into at some time or another. We humbly confess that fact, but sincerely work on those areas. We’re going on to perfection, although we haven’t arrived, as John Wesley often said. But those areas where Christ is not Lord in our lives are in the minority or quickly moving there. For the functional atheist, the areas of life where Jesus does not reign are in the majority & there is little desire to change them.
The men I’m talking about, as well as others of you, do strive to make Christ Lord of your lives, the totality of your lives, not just a few parts of it.
That’s our prayer today. The prayer in our lesson from Ephesians is a prayer that the persons who claim belief in Christ would become his sincere followers. Belief is a first step. Discipleship is the real goal. The job of the church is to make disciples (Mt. 23:19ff). Is that your expectation, that we would make you a disciple?
The author of the Letter to the Ephesians is on his knees in prayer over this matter. He’s serious. One can pray standing, sitting, or laying down. Kneeling, though, represents big-time prayer. Did you ever notice in the books of Luke & Acts how many times persons kneeling in prayer are facing life & death matters (Lk. 22:14, Acts 7:60, 9:40, 20:36, 21:5)? The most famous example is on the eve before his crucifixion when Jesus kneels in prayer at the
The prayer request, then, is for God, as the agent of inner strengthening, to help us understand & know Christ. Christ is real & all of his blessings are real. It’s just that many folks do not realize who he is & what his blessings are. The prayer is for persons to come to such realization & own that “blessed assurance” for themselves.
Many persons in ancient times, & still today, only see God as someone with whom to engage in transactions. Other world religions, & sadly, many church-goers, only relate to their god on the basis of reward & punishment, need & want, good & bad, powerful & powerless. That’s not completely wrong, but there’s so much more.
Jesus Christ came to change that way of thinking & relating to God & give us more. Jesus came so that we might have a personal, even intimately personal, relationship with God. That’s why we sing, “what a friend we have in Jesus.” This was a ginormous (gigantic + enormous) difference – an entirely new way to conceive of God. A personal, living, breathing God with whom one could have a real, personal relationship was unheard of. Yes, the prophets laid the groundwork & prepared the way, but Jesus actually did it. Today, we almost take it for granted. We assume every religion is like this. No way.
Read about all sorts of spiritual practices, from ancient Greco-Roman mythology to the great world religions, & nowhere will you find such a God as Jesus Christ. --- We look to find him. He comes to us before we seek him. We’re worried that our mistakes get in the way. He forgives us before we sin. We want to know him. He knows us before we were a twinkle in our parents’ eyes. He’s different. He’s someone to get to know.
Oh, yes, humans have tried to make Jesus into the image of other gods. We’ve even tried to make him into our own image. We’ve called him a great teacher, a stupendous miracle-worker, a superior intellect, a man of exceptional morality. We’ve accorded him great respect, but not always crowned him Lord of all in our lives. We’ve had a hard time imagining that the God of the entire universe – of all that is, was, & forever will be – deigns to love us so much that he wants (God wants!) a personal relationship with you & me & everyone else. He doesn’t want us to merely have an academic knowledge of his existence & engage in transactions, but a one-on-one, one-to-one, life-transforming experience of his Son’s love each & everyday, from now into eternity. That’s what he wants for us. That’s what he wants with us.
This is the prayer prayed for us in Ephesians 3.
It seems so obvious, so simple, but the fact that these verses are earnestly prayed for us reveals that we, too, like Foofie, often miss what is the most important. Don’t let that happen, anymore.
In the Name… Copyright 2009 by G.D.Knerr at