God’s Secret Service

Back in July, the blog Calacirian featured a joke that its author Sonja had received via email. It goes like this:

A friend was in front of me coming out of church one day, and the preacher was standing at the door as he always is to shake hands. He grabbed my friend by the hand and pulled him aside. Pastor said, “You need to join the Army of the Lord!” My friend said, “I’m already in the Army of the Lord, Pastor.” Pastor questioned, “How come I don’t see you except at Christmas and Easter?” My friend *whispered* back, “I’m in the secret service.”

Now Sonja takes this joke and proceeds to talk about community, and what the author has to say is very good. I encourage you to click on the link below and go read it. I want, however, to go in a different direction. It seems to me that all too many people in Church are in God’s Secret Service. And what I mean is simply this: Far too many “Christians” are all but invisible to the world as followers of Christ, and this includes many who attend church all the time and not just on Christmas and Easter.

God does not need Secret Service Christians, he needs followers of Jesus that the world can recognize as such. People who reflect the love, grace and mercy of their Savior to a world filled with hate, judgmentalism and vengeance.

When reading Calacirian’s post, I was reminded of a sermon by Richard Holloway in his short book The Killing: Meditations on the Death of Christ (which is one of my favorite books, as well as one I revisit almost every Lenten season).

Amazon.com: The Killing: Meditations on the Death of Christ: Books: Richard Holloway

ISBN: 0819213675
ISBN-13: 9780819213679

I took Holloway’s writing and adapted it for one of my own messages, which was also named after his own sermon: The Secret Admirer. The sermon’s conclusion is as follows:

———-

The person for today is called the “secret admirer,” and I feel we are often tempted to become just this when it comes to our own feelings about Jesus.

The story of the death of Jesus starts in the Garden of Gethsemane.
It was a private garden on the Mount of Olives, and must have belonged to a wealthy person.
He was a secret admirer of Jesus, and he probably told Jesus to “Use the garden anytime you like, go there to rest from time to time, try to get away from it all whenever you can.”

We don’t know how often Jesus used it, but we do know he spent his last night on earth there, in torment and agony, praying until a gang of temple guards and Judas came to arrest him.

When they came for Jesus, there must have been quite a disturbance, what with the disciples running off, Peter drawing and using a sword, and one young man escaping capture by throwing off the cloak a guard held and fleeing naked away down the hill.

The ruckus must have disturbed the well-off people who lived around the garden.
But as far as we know none of them came out to see what was going on.
They were too world-wise for that.
They knew how to keep out of trouble.
They knew it would be dangerous to get involved in someone else’s business.
So they closed their windows,
shoved their heads under their pillows,
and waited till Jesus had been taken away.

And so did the secret admirer.
He did not intervene.
He liked Jesus, admired him, but he did not want to get mixed up in it all.

And the temptation is to be like this secret admirer.
The fact is, we have all been secret admirers of Jesus.
I know I have been.

There has never been a time in my life when I have not known Jesus,
but there have been many times when I have wanted to keep Jesus at a safe distance away.
I have not wanted to commit myself,
make myself look stupid or religious or out of the ordinary.

I have liked Jesus, admired him, but I have kept it hidden.

Public commitment to Jesus might be more than embarrassing.
It might even be painful.
It might entail doing things others disapprove of or would mock me for.
So at these times I have kept my head down.

I knew something important was going on.
I knew that I was avoiding the challenge.
Inside myself I was a little ashamed.

Because love for Jesus is a difficult thing to keep secret.
But I have tried to do it, and have succeeded at times.
You see I have been a secret admirer of Jesus.
I know that others have been as well.
Perhaps even you.

A LightGirl Funny published by Sonja on 26, July 2007

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