"Sneaky Sneakers"1
09-28-08
The other day I was walking my dog with one hand, pushing a stroller with the other, when wham! Someone or something collided into the back of me then proceeded to fly out of control, tumbling into a fence. As I was reeling in the dog, checking on a baby, and checking on the unidentified flying object that caught me from behind, a boy with a sheepish grin, apologized and off he went. I thought to myself, "What just happened?" It was in fact, the boy himself that had nearly brought me to my knees. As I watched the boy continue down the hill, he appeared to be levitating just above the ground. He had on what appeared to be everyday blue and silver sneakers, but he was skating not walking. He was wearing a pair of "Heelys." Have any of you heard of the Heely? I bet you’ve seen them. They are some sneaky sneakers. Hidden inside the heel of each sneaker is a removable, wheel made of high-performance polyurethane. Each wheel has the same structure and sophisticated technology as the inline skate wheel. This means these sneaky sneakers can really move.
The Heely came out in 2001 and sold 500,000 pairs in its first year. Malls and Schools didn’t and still don’t quite know what to do with them. Organizations that traditionally ban wheeled transportation such as skates, skate-boards, and scooters can’t very well confiscate a kid’s only pair of sneakers. But try scooting into school rolling on a conventional wheeled apparatus and watch the teachers pounce. Heelys are atypical, because while they look like sneakers, they behave like skates. Helmet-less riders zip down school hallways, and up mall aisles. Meanwhile, back in school committee boardrooms, there are public safety and litigation issues to consider. Schools now find themselves in the middle of an absurd public policy debate: When is a sneaker not a sneaker, and when is a skate a shoe?
The question sounds ridiculous, but it isn't really. We struggle with the same type of question in our Christian faith. Time and again, Christians contend with contradictory issues concerning how someone appears vs. how [s]he behaves. In chapter twenty three, Matthew quotes Jesus as saying, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence ...First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean" (Matthew 23:25-26). Jesus is telling us to get our spiritual priorities straight - what's on the inside matters.
Now if a sneaker has a hidden wheel, in it, then it is not what it appears to be. Yet at first glance, we can’t see the inside of shoes. The same is true of people. When we look at each other, we can’t judge much about what is going on in our hearts by outward appearances, or even our words. We can however, glimpse the state of each other’s souls by the way we behave.
If a shoe rolls like a skate, then, well, it’s a skate. If a person is a Christian in words only, is that person a Christian? Jesus tells a story of two sons: There was a man who had two sons. He said to the first son, "Will you go and work in the vineyard today? The vineyard is a mess, and there is so much work to be done: picking up the rocks, planting, pruning, picking grapes, producing wine. Will you do the work in the vineyard today?" If we use the story as metaphor, the father, God, is asking his son, "Will you care for the sick and dying, the blind and the lame? Will you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison?" The older son said, "Of course, you can count on me." And the older son went off to the vineyard...where he conducted a worship service, and then held a Bible study in the Old Testament, and then enjoyed some wine and cheese and fellowship with his friends who also had come to the vineyard. That older son, the second one mentioned in the story, didn’t really do what he was told. He had no intention of working in the vineyard.
The vineyard was still a mess and there was much work to be done; and the father asked his younger son, who promptly said, forget about it dad. In the metaphor, Jesus has approached people from the lower rungs of society to see if they would do the work. He approached the tax collectors and tanners; the pimps and the prostitutes and asked them the questions, "Will you do the work in my vineyard? It’s a mess. The world is a mess. Would you care for the sick and dying, the blind and lame? Would you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in jail?"
And the tax collectors and prostitutes said, "Are you crazy? Who do you think we are? Get real." They started to walk away from the mess, but took a second look, had a change of heart, and went and did the work that needed to be done.
And Jesus looked the Pharisees in the eyes and asked the penetrating question, "And which of the two sons was faithful to the father’s will?" In his story about the two sons in today's text, Jesus makes clear who is obedient and who is not; who follows the real rules and who only pretends to. The son who does the work, although he initially claims he won't, is obedient. The other son, the one who lies, telling his dad that he'll get the job done, but doesn't have the intention of doing so, is disobedient and defiant. In the end, it's not what the sons say that matters eternally. It's what they do. Yes, this is a "don’t just talk the talk, but walk the walk, kind of story." The sons’ behavior is the issue. The one son lies to his dad, as if his dad isn't ever going to discover just what type of person this son is, "Just tell 'em what they want to hear, then do what you want."
I think we get ourselves into trouble sometimes with the same attitude. We get into trouble partly because the Christian faith is a visible faith. It isn’t a private system of spirituality. Christianity is a doing religion. Faith and works matter. Historically, what we do and how we behave matters. Sometimes we say the right words, but then life gets in the way and our commitment to each other and to God takes a back seat. And although we aren’t necessarily transparent to each other we are all transparent before God. While it is possible to only be partially honest with each other, we are not able to hide anything from God, not actions, intentions, or thoughts. What is going on inside matters a whole lot!
Our lives as Christians can be complicated. Christianity comes with a readily available language that we can use authentically and sometimes not so authentically. Christianity comes with certain expectations, both scriptural and denominational, that can be hard to live up to. Christianity comes with a community of people to be accountable too. For as much as our faith is supposed to bring faith and comfort, it also adds a certain amount of pressure to our lives.
Why? Because what is on the inside matters. A whole lot of people put too much stock in what appears, rather than what is. Sometimes it is too raw, too vulnerable to be who we are, to share what we really think. Sometimes it is easier to merely "talk the talk," with good intentions that don’t actually lead us anywhere. Instead we continue to appear to be good Christians. We say the right things, participate in the right activities, and give to the right charities. We read the right books, speak the right words, look the right part, never expecting to be caught…never expecting to have to deal with what is going on at a soul level. But like the Pharisees, or like a sneaker that rolls, the truth becomes plain to see. Jesus points to the prostitutes and tax collectors, whose appearance isn't religious but whose hearts are in the right place. These people aren't synagogue people. They are outcasts. They're barely tolerated, and often despised. Jesus says the prostitutes and tax men are closer to God than us holier-than-thou church folk. Why? Because the prostitutes and tax collectors see, hear, and believe. They know squat about the law and care little about rules, but they know enough to recognize the truth when they hear it. Once they hear it, their hearts change. Once their hearts change, they live their faith."2
I think it is possible to do what we are called to do, without being who we are called to be. Part of being a disciple of Christ is to work from a place of authenticity. Sometimes our heart just isn’t into this whole faith thing, yet we act as if it is anyway; and/or, so often we cover our brokenness up by pretending to be devout and righteous and downright proud of it. We fill in our days and time doing the things we are told to do, without ever examining our own lives. Yet, I believe that a part of the transformative power of the Gospel comes from a transformed disciple sharing his or her own story of relationship with God. We can’t share what we don’t experience. What is on the inside matters. Admittedly, the Heelys are pretty cool and lots of fun, but they are not what they appear to be. They're too sneaky to be true sneakers.
Some of us sitting here today are struggling with the inside and out. The struggle is okay, as long as it doesn’t cease to be important. Seeing the heart is God's job anyway. Our task is simply to do, in an un-sneaky way, what God asks us to do. And leave the rest to God. By the grace of God, do what you are called to do, but don’t forget to become who you are called to be. Thanks be to God. Amen.
1This title was borrowed from an Homiletics article by the same title, found in the Sept- Oct. 2008 edition.
2Thank you for the words of Rev. Bob Kaylor, Senior Minister of the Park City United Methodist Church in Park City, Utah.
Blessings,
Melissa