F. Harry Daniel
Second Presbyterian Church
Sermons: February 11, 2007

"Would You Consider Changing the Pronouns?"

It is a poignant picture: four friends carrying on a stretcher a fifth friend. They are filled with high hopes because they are taking him to Jesus of Nazareth, the healer. But they cannot get their friend to Jesus. The crowd is spilling out the front door of Jesus’ house. But if you remember those models of Capernaum that you made long ago in VBS, you will remember that there is an outside stair or ladder to the flat roof made of saplings and branches with clay patted over them and baked in the hot sun. These persistent friends dug down through the roof and lowered their friend into Jesus’ presence. It must have made for an interesting scenario down below when suddenly, plop, in front of Jesus is a man on a pallet. We admire such commitment to another.

But then the text says the most extraordinary thing: "when Jesus saw their faith…he said to the paralytic, my son, your sins are forgiven." Their faith! We think of faith as highly individual. It is a matter between God and one human being face to face. No we, only an I. But ponder this: the beginning of the paralytic’s new life both of healing and of forgiveness came to him because of others. This story is a marvelous picture of a we caring for an I.

One of the goals of human maturity is learning to say "I." That denotes individuality, distinctiveness, uniqueness. The development of an independent, self-reliant personality is life’s first task. On the other hand, one of the goals of mature Christian discipleship is learning to say "we." We are mosaics of others, living and dead. No person is an island. There is no self-made person. I am a we and so are you. When we tell our life stories, they are full of others. We live and we die in the context of others. At least we ought to!

But I is never satisfied. It is imperialistic, controlling saying I and my over life and other human beings. My rights, my importance, my money, my power, my life. I do, I did, I think, I say, I want. I judges all. We live in an individualistic society that is one committed to catering and manipulating I’s. We live in a nation of 260 million supreme beings and each one is a jealous god. Each I is free to make a religion that satisfies. When I comes to church, it can be difficult. In church, I want my needs, my desires, my wants met. In some churches I know, education is I’s course in self-improvement. Faith is reduced to me and God, one on one, and the order is important with God second. This can be seen in some of our favorite hymns: "I come to the garden alone…." "How Great Thou Art" has a phrase "O Lord, my God when I…" Many praise songs are dominated by I.

We have known better. When we baptize infants in this church, a we speaks for an I. Though I suspect that some of you console yourselves, like Baptists, that I (the infant) will claim it later. But that happens only if a we gets involved.

I is idolatry. I have Jesus in my heart. It is I and Jesus who have the say. Too often Christians rent or lease Jesus a room in the house of I as long as he does what I want or need. Sometimes we use careless language: "make him Lord," as if I have made him something. Scripture and the gospel declare in no uncertain terms: he has made us something.

I wants a designer faith that pampers I. Therefore I is always seeking to muscle its way in. It can even corrupt we: we want, a bunch of I’s wanting I’s way. I can do this even in thanksgiving to God. Remember Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the publican: "I thank you, O God, that I am not like this….! Life is a matter of watching the pronouns.

I has gotten the story wrong. I lies. I could not exist without we. You and I, as individuals, we needed a we to give us life. Are not our lives the result of so many we’s? Our we-ness literally creates my I-ness and yours. I cannot exist by itself, it needs we. Mutuality and community are the birthplace of individuality. They are vital to I’s existence.

The good news of the gospel is that there is a we with our I. That we consists of God and our neighbors. God is with us. Jesus did not stress the word I. He taught us "Our Father…" Paul followed in his train speaking with his co-workers: "we give thanks to God for you all." And most astoundingly, God is a we, we all have a triune experience of God: Christ accepts us in grace, the Father loves us with an unconditional love, the Spirit brings us into community with all of the living.

We human beings are not self-defined. We are God-defined, God-claimed. God is the giver of our identity. I know myself in community. I didn’t form or make me. I am not self-chosen. Nor do I define God and shape the Christian faith like silly putty. Each and every life is claimed, corrected and redeemed by God. I makes no sense apart from God. I have no faith to speak of that is not God-given, God-created and that does not include you and countless others. The meaning of the Latin word religio is to bind together. That’s what religion does. We are never ourselves alone. Life is tough. I is not going to make it. We, like the paralytic, need friends to get us there.

I am a part of God’s story. God is not a part of mine. The old doctrine of the priesthood of all believers calls us to be priests to each other. How does an old hymn put it: "nothing in my hand I bring, simply to your cross I cling." That is an I that sees itself in God and is beginning to learn how to say we.

Watch those pronouns in Romans 14:7-9: "we do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves." Watch those pronouns in Psalm 67: "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us…let the peoples praise you, O God." Worship is always first a we!

Nobody is an I in church. You are not called to do it by yourself. We are members one of another. We can’t be Christian by ourselves. My life and yours are rich blends of others. Homecoming at a church remembers and celebrates that: the living, the dead are a rich heritage here. I has no history, it more often than not has a severe case of amnesia. We have a history. I am not only me, others belong also and life is a calling to make space for others.

We are a part of God’s story: the triune God who created us for God’s self and who has taken the initiative with us that we might know ourselves chosen, precious, called, claimed by God who in Jesus Christ has come to us and taken us into the fullness of God’s own life. This is the God who has given us the promise that this one will be God with us, for us, among us always and that neither death nor life, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from God’s love. What a story and not an I in it!

And what is our response but the giving of I to a we: the triune God!

Therefore, would you all consider changing the pronouns of an old hymn to put I in its place in God’s love and grace? The hymn is Amazing Grace; the words of the five verses are in your hymnal on page 280. Hymns grow and change. Notice that verse 5 got added at some unknown point and that its pronouns are rightly plural. Verses 1 and 2 do I right. I need God to change me. I can’t do it. But we still have a tough struggle with I. I need others if I am to make it. Therefore recognize that fact and change the singular pronouns in verses 3 and 4 to plural. Why? Because it's true.

Then, verse 5 makes glorious worship in which I no longer needs to shout or compete to be heard. I has found its place in we.

And the triune God smiles and Father, Son and Holy Spirit are pleased.