Knowing What is Normal
Today, my good friends Joseph and Ashley begin their global move eastward toward Niger where they will spend the next 27 months serving in the Peace Corps. I will miss them terribly, as most anyone who knows them will. It is rare in life to meet people whose daily lives speak so loudly that you can’t help but hear them. Everywhere they go, their mere presence humbly, politely interrupts the room.
This last week at our Sunday gathering I asked the question, “What does your faith lead you to do?” In the Gospel of Mark, Mark tells a story about four friends who (as Mark writes literally in Greek) “unroof the roof” to get their friend who is paralyzed before Jesus. Jesus sees their faith and honors them and their friend.
Some have described this kind of faith as chutzpah. Chutzpah is “headstrong persistence, brazen impudence, unyielding tenacity, bold determination, or what in current English terms might be referred to as raw nerve,” (Brad Young, Jesus, the Jewish Theoolgian, p 171). Faith like this is celebrated in the Jewish faith tradition.
The writer of Exodus tells a story of Moses who stands between God and Israel when God wishes to wipe the Hebrew people off the face of the earth. The rabbis describe this event by saying that Moses grabbed God by the shirt and said, “Sovereign of the Universe, I will not let You go until You forgive and pardon them,” (b. Ber 32a). Moses has chutzpah. So much so that he grabbed God by the collar. After this God “repented.” Moses shows tenacity, and God changes his mind.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a story of a friend who shamelessly bangs on the door of a friend at midnight because he needs some food. The friend inside the home finally gives the man outside what he needs due to the “shameless audacity” with which he banged on the door.
All of these actions seem to smack of the kind of impudence, tenacity, determination, and raw nerve that Young speaks of. I suspect however, that if we were to ask Moses or the four friends about their actions they may just shrug them off. Not because they are feigning humility. They would shrug because this kind of shamelessness is what comes with deep abiding faith. The kind of faith that says, “I know God.”
Saying, “I know God,” is much different than someone who can say, “I believe in God,” or “I believe a certain set of beliefs about God.” It is in knowing (and being known) that one is able to live a life that is shameless, unapologetic, centered, and immensely humble. When people with faith like this (those who know God) act; their actions seem to be amazing and audacious – yet for them it is just everyday life.
It is said that when JFK was president, his young children would often walk into the Oval Office in the middle of meetings he was having with heads of state. They would shamelessly crawl up on their father’s lap, put their arms around his neck, and sit with him as he discussed matters of international importance.
This act, while amazing in our eyes, was the simple act of children who were shameless with their dad. They knew him and he knew them. While audacious in the eyes of some of JFK’s guests, it was just another day in the life of the Kennedy family.
Over the last several weeks as I prepared my teaching about faith, and what it leads us to do, my mind was with Joseph and Ashley. They would have been embarrassed if I had used them as an example of this when they were in the room (so now I am doing it on my blog after they have left). Yet when I preached on Sunday, and saw them sitting in our building for the last time for the next two years, I thought to myself, “They do not even know they are audacious.”
When I consider their life, and how amazed people are when they get to know them, I contrast that with the way they view themselves. They only see themselves as a beloved son and a beloved daughter, who - as a married couple - get to be a part of the adventure that is the Kingdom of Heaven. What they do is, in their mind, just normal everyday life. Normal for them, because Joseph and Ashley know God.
It is this kind of faith that leads them to act with chutzpah, which for them, is the most normal thing imaginable. What a compelling life.
*Joseph and Ashley, you will no doubt read this and blush ... please know that Beth and I will miss you, and wait with anticipation to see where this season leads you both. Much love, Michael