The Velveteen Benediction--November 11, 2021

The Velveteen Benediction--November 11, 2021

"Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.  Amen." [Hebrews 13:20-21]

It's about so much more than we usually settle for.  The Christian life, that is.  We have a way of zeroing in on just one part of a bigger whole and missing just how big a promise, and how deep a gift, is given to us through Jesus.  

Because in the end, the Good News is really about being made whole... complete... fully ourselves and fully alive.  It is about all of us becoming Really Real, so to speak.

Far too often, you hear the Christian faith either reduced to a matter of post-mortem fire-insurance (how to get to heaven when you die) or made into a pawn of political parties who aim to get more voters and dollars to support their platform by casting themselves as the "godly" choice.  But when you hear the writer of Hebrews talk about it, you see the Christian message is about so much more than getting into a celestial country club after you die or winning political power in this life.  It is about how all of us become wholly holy, how we are made complete and thus more fully alive.

I can't help thinking, then, about that beautifully wise passage from The Velveteen Rabbit about how the toys of the play room become Real.  You probably know that speech of the Skin Horse to the title character. When the Velveteen Rabbit asks about how to become real, and whether it happens all at once or slowly, the veteran voice of the play room says, "It doesn’t happen all at once.... You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand."  And of course, that's just it--it is Love that makes you beautiful, Love that makes you really Real, Love himself that makes you finally, at last, complete.

That's what we are aiming for in this life, as well as in the life beyond the grip of death.  We are seeking to be whole at last.  Complete.  Really real.  That is so much more than just making sure we've reserved a spot in heaven, or leveraged our piety for political points.  It is what life itself is really all about.  That's what the writer of Hebrews blesses us with here--he calls on the living God to make us "complete" all the way down to our actions and choices in every day.  He doesn't stop with wishing, "May God let you into heaven when you die," or "May God help you fight a culture war and take back your country in the name of your religion," or any such rubbish.  He gives us a benediction of wholeness: that we would become--even if it takes a long time, as the Skin Horse cautions it might--Really Real.

In the end, however, becoming Really Real isn't so much about our effort to rack up brownie points with God or accrue political capital with a base of voters.  It's about what Love does to us--how Love makes us to become most fully ourselves. We should be prepared, then, to have Love reshape us, into the likeness of Love himself, Jesus.  Our sharp edges will be worn down, and most of our hair will have been loved off, to borrow the Skin Horse's way of talking, as God's own hands hold us and mold us and bring about a new creation within us.  We will find our own selfishness and bitterness worn down.  We will find our capacity for love and empathy strengthened.  We will find that the things which never really mattered have all been stripped away.  And instead we will be the kind of creations God has meant for us to become all along--fully alive, fully loving, and fully beloved.

When I think about what the point of being a Christian is these days, that's what captures my faithful imagination.  I don't think about, "How to get to the VIP room in the afterlife?" and I sure as heaven don't think about, "How can I leverage my religion to score political points and get my party more raw power or influence?"  Rather, I find myself like the Velveteen Rabbit, longing to be Really Real, and convinced that the love of God in Christ Jesus is making me just that--what I have been meant to be all along.

That's worth giving my life to, as far as I can tell.  That's how we become whole... complete... real.

Lord Jesus, make us as Really Real as you are, shaped by your cruciform love.