M'bird Preview 2

A sermon by M'birder RJ Heimen was the genesis for this talk.  RJ said that one of his parishioners suggested that divorce was a good thing, because the second marriage can be so much better given what you learn from the first.  This set RJ to thinking about the changes in his marriage, and so it did for M'bird devotees Debbie and Ellis Brazeal.

This is their 30th wedding anniversary, and they wouldn't be together (and in Ellis' case, maybe even alive} but for the Law/Grace theology of Luther and M'bird.  During their first marriage, Debbie and Ellis believed in a marriage based upon a "cause-and-effect" universe and a "self-created identity," as so poignantly described by David Browder in his M'bird Devotiinal of April 16.

Ellis was certain that, if he worked hard and led his family in all thngs Southern Baptist, he would have a good, even great marriage.  But, as Browder explains, life doesn't work that way.  Ellis' "chasing after the wind" left him in a year-long state of suicidal depression.

Debbie believed that, if she worked hard to make Ellis and others happy, then all would go well.  Her self-created identity didn't work any better than Ellis'.  Debbie wished that Ellis would die or that God "would take her home."

Then God, the rescuer and redeemer, stepped in. The "One whose property is always to have mercy" resurrected two dead and lifeless people and thereby their marriage.

Ellis learned that grace, not law, was the basis for all relationships.

 Ellis learned that he couldn't use the law (it's hard for a lawyer to be a Christian) to bring about the type of marriage that he wanted.  In fact, per St. Paul, the law creates rebellion rather than love.

Debbie learned that her identity was as a beloved child of God, an identity which she already possessed an didn't have to create.

This talk will lead us through Debbie and Ellis' three marriages.  As they told M'bird: "if our talk gives hope to just one other couple, it will have been worth it.  If our talk allows one person to forgive another person for 'being who they are,' it will have been worth it."

Their son-in-law is a huge Wes Anderson fan, and one of his favorite movies is "Rushmore."  There's a song by The Who which Wes uses in the film to reflect the breath-taking forgiveness and reconciliation wrought by the law/grace experiences of the characters.

Enjoy:  https://vimeo.com/204160661

Mockingbird breakout preview

Nietzsche said that he would only believe in a "God who dances."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkk0YodJqH8

As Mockingbird devotees, and survivors of three marriages, Debbie and I have come to believe in a dancing god.  Yet, this view of God only came after years, many years, in which we didn't.

A romantic courtship, with breathless excitement and anticipation of an American-dream marriage, quickly turned into a marriage of unmet expectations from both sides.  Indeed, each of us hurt the other (albeit unintentionally) in the very fashion that would cause the most pain.  We unknowingly tread upon the past hurts and expectations that each of us brought into the marriage.

Our marriage devolved into separate lives with no hope of reconciliation--none.  We certainly didn't believe in a dancing God--in one who could bring dance into our marriage.  We believed in a God who rewarded effort and wise decisions. We thought we had married the wrong person.  In fact, we each wished that the other was dead or that we were dead.

But then, the dancing God, the M'bird God, stepped in.  By God's limitless grace, we both began learning of a God who knew the depths of our dark hearts--the true extent of our sinful flaws, but loved us nonetheless with His limitless, eternal love.

Over the years, as we became more convinced of God's unfathomable, eternal love for us, we began to love each other.

My favorite parable is the kingdom one concerning the "treasure in the field."  Virtually always, the "treasure in the field" is construed as the Kingdom of God.  Yet, when you review the parables surrounding it (the lost coin, the lost sheep), it becomes abundantly clear (as I first learned from CI Scofield) that we are the "treasure in the field" that Christ sold everything (gave His life) to purchase. The character of a kingdom is determined by the character of the king.

This King is the savior and redeemer of individuals, of marriages, and of all creation.  As Sally Loyd Jones writes in "Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing:"

"God made everything in his world and in his universe and in his children's hearts to center around him--in a wonderful Dance of Joy!  It's the dance you were born for."