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My heart beats for love. I want to be different. I want to be who I am called to be. WORTHY and LOVED!

Sunday, July 2, 2017

“The Gospel in Storybooks: A Porcupine Named Fluffy” Genesis 17: 5-15 John 15: 16

Growing up I loved books. My parents have always been avid readers and definitely passed that trait along to me. Even now the librarians in town see me coming and pull my books off the reserve shelf so they are ready for me. I still buy books as gifts for my nieces and nephews, friends and family. 
Books came to us in lots of different ways - through readers clubs and as gifts. Picked up in grocery store lines and from the library. The running joke in my family is that when I moved I took all of the good ones with me, but we still have shelves filled with children’s storybooks at my parents.
Story is a powerful thing - both for children and adults. I think this is one of the reasons Jesus used stories as teaching tools to illustrate what he was trying to say about the Kingdom of God. Stories open up our emotions and imaginations so we can connect deeply with what Jesus is trying to say.
For the next five weeks we are going to be looking at Gospel truths that are found in children’s storybooks. As noted before when we have engaged the world around us for illustrations of the power of the Gospel, we are not saying that the storybooks we will be looking at are the Gospel. Rather, we are saying that God made the world and God can use so many different things to make the Kingdom of God known, including the simple, beautiful stories in these books.
This week, as we kick off this sermon series, we look at one of my favorite storybooks, A Porcupine Named Fluffy by Helen Lester. This is a book about Mr. and Mrs. Porcupine who had a son who they treasured dearly. They thought long and hard about what they would name him, before settling on the name Fluffy. However, for Fluffy the name became problematic as he grew up. He didn’t think that he was living up to his name, so he tried to become like fluffy things, clouds and pillows. When that didn’t work he tried to change his appearance so that he would look fluffy, which didn’t work very well either.
The Bible has a lot to say about names. Names are important because they are to be a reflection of who we are. However, I think that we have lost some of the power of names in our culture. Did you ever notice that when you used to ask people about their name they would tell you a story - of a dear family member or friend that they were named after? Now it seems more names are coming from lists of what are popular at the time instead of stories. We have lost some of the power of names.
But it wasn’t that way in the Old Testament. During today’s scripture lesson names were of the upmost importance. But before we jump into this particular story, we need a little background. The Old Testament tells the story over and over again about the need for the people to re-establish a relationship with a holy God. It’s the story of God who made way after way for the nations to come to the Holy One, but repeatedly they turned away, wanting to go about things in their own timing and by their own means. 
One of the ways that God tried to draw the people back was by forming and relying on covenants. Covenants are promises, blessings, or commandments, made between two or more parties that can essentially say what is expected of each party. One of the images that comes to mind often with the word covenant is the promise God made with Israel when rescuing them from the hands of the Egyptians, saying that they would be his people and he would be there God.
But well before that covenant was made, we had this mornings covenant between God and Abram. Abram is being told that if he leaves that land that he has known and follow where God leads, God will make him the father of nations. His name will be great and will be known by kings and rulers. The sign of this covenant, the blessing of God, was to be the circumcision of males, as an outward sign of an inward promise. 
What I love about this promise that God is making with then Abram, soon to be Abraham, is that God has to know that this promise is being made with broken people. Even as great as Abraham will become, God knows that he isn’t perfect. He and Sari are certainly going to screw up along the way, yet God chooses them anyway, and takes their brokenness and redeems it for the sake of the nations.
As another sign of this blessing, God takes the opportunity to re-name Abram and Sari. They will know be known as Abraham and Sarah, claiming them as God’s very own. See covenants aren’t initiated by the people, friends, they are started by God and are above a sign of God’s faithfulness towards us. And the re-naming isn’t initiated by Abram and Sari, but by God.
Maybe Abram and Sari didn’t sense the disconnect between who they were and their name, like Fluffy did in the story, but God did. God took the moment to claim and re-name this couple as a way of saying, “you once were…, but now you are….”. God was reminding them not only that they are God’s but that God is in control.
Here’s this couple, well into their 90s, past child bearing years, being told that they would  be the father and mother of nations even though they currently didn’t even have one child. But God is in control. God is telling them that their name would be made known, even though currently they weren’t known to anyone as they wandered from place to place, but God is in control. They were told that they would have a place because of God, even though right now they were nomadic, but God is in control.
As Christians we don’t necessarily get new names when we come to accept Christ as a sign of the covenant God has with us, though this is certainly the case in some Christian households and traditions. Notice in the book, when a porcupine named Fluffy meets a rhino named Hippo, they both stop searching to become like their name, but instead are accepted as they are. That is how it is with us, brothers and sisters. When we come to Jesus, as broken as we may be, Jesus says “you are mine”. When we come to Jesus, we are reminded that it isn’t by what we have done, but by the love of God. In the Gospel of John we find, “you did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appoint you to go and bear much fruit.” 
Our covenant with Christ, like that covenant Abram and God made so long ago, changes us. We may not have  a name change, but our lives change. How we perceive ourselves change. God takes the brokenness in our lives and uses it, yes even our brokenness, for the sake of the Kingdom of God. People around us notice the change in our hearts and God uses us to spread the Good News.

Friends, have you entered into the life changing relationship with Jesus yet? If not, today is your day to say that God is in control. Have you accepted that God takes your brokenness and redeems it for the sake of the Gospel? If so, then go out and proclaim the name of God. Tell your story of how God has claimed you and changed you, by the love of Jesus Christ, and go forth and bear much fruit. Amen. 

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