Authenticity: A Willingness to be Naked

Form another blog. These are not my words but of course that of the
blogger. Since it is a blog then of course you can comment there as
well as directly to here.

http://reachingdekalb.net/wfeetw/?p=93


This past Sunday in my sermon on Mark 5.21-43 I talked about Jesus
teaching Jairus, His Disciples, and his followers to reach out with a
hand of faith, which is illustrated and demonstrated by the woman who
had been bleeding for twelve years. This woman had confident assurance
that if she just touched Jesus she would be made well. I explained how
the woman contrasts the hopelessness of Jairus, and that faith is the
antidote for fear. In fact, there is a chiastic, or “sandwich”
structure to Faith versus Fear (Fear v. 33, Faith v. 34, Fear v. 36)
as well as the “hand” sandwich in Mark 5.21-43 that highlights Jesus’
use of the woman’s faith to teach Jairus, and everyone else on the
scene.
Concluding my sermon I asked, “What do we fear?”

I suggested three things: God, The World, and Community.

I made a comment then and wanted to develop that a bit further this
week. I said that the biggest knock against Christians is that we’re
hypocrites. Hypocrites because we dress up and put on a mask for three
to four hours a week while we’re at church sweeping all the dirt of
our lives under the proverbial rug.

So, I wanted to talk for a second this week on Authenticity, which
too, is one of The church in DeKalb’s nine core values.

Last December I began reading Genesis again and was struck powerfully
by verse 2.25 in a way that I had never been previously. The Creation
Story says that Adam and Eve were created by God, in the image of God,
and that they were naked and “not ashamed.”

Immediately I began to reflect on what it would be to be naked and not
ashamed. Of course not physically naked (I don’t even take my shirt
off at the pool! (1 Timothy 2.1a : ) ). I responded to God, “Hey, I
want to be naked and not ashamed.”

God’s response: “You can.”

Thinking further it finally hit me. I can be naked, spiritually,
emotionally, experientially, (but not physically) because Jesus became
naked for me. Jesus lived the perfect life that I couldn’t and died
the death that I should have. Naked and shamed He took my sin and made
it His own…”that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2
Corinthians 5.21).
Authenticity means a willingness to be naked. Willing to not hide sin
and guilt and shame because before God He says to us, “You are my
child, in you I am well pleased.”  The imputed righteousness of Christ
means that through, and because of, the Gospel (L, D, B, R) God looks
at us as He looks at Christ.

That means that if we can be naked before God, and naked because there
is no shameful thing to cover up, we can be naked before anyone. We
can fully bear our sorrows, struggles, idolatry, and sin before our
friends, our Community Group, our church, and our community to see.
And not in some bumper sticker cheesy way; “I’m not perfect just
forgiven” sort of thing. But a true desire to be holy yet knowing that
in failing to be sufficiently holy according to God’s standard that
Christ is our sufficiency. And, too, Authenticity means not pretending
to be people that we really aren’t. Using words bigger than our
mouths, showing off, putting on a performance so someone will think
we’re smarter, stronger, and more ‘put together’ than we really are.
We’re saved by grace, all of us, which means we’re all people who fail
to varying degrees and have been saved not because of anything we’ve
earned or deserved but because of the Goodness and Love of God.

What are some ways that we can build an authentic, safe, community.
Ways that we see the Gospel as the true change agent in our lives.
Ways that work to continue to transform us back into the original
image of God we were created in…naked?