14 Remind them of this, and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening. ¹⁵ Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth.

As Christians, and certainly as denominational churches, we do a wonderful job of separating ourselves based on this or that theological percept. You can baptize children; you should only baptize adult believers; anyone can receive communion; only members of a certain church can partake of communion; evangelism is great as long as it doesn’t involve me; evangelism is something that all believers must be an active participant in; sin is best dealt with privately; sin must be dealt with in the community of faith. Wherever you are standing, whatever position you have, there are bound to be more than a few individuals who think you’re flat out wrong. We are sinful creatures and until all things are made new, this is the reality that we deal with.

One of the most pointed ways that I have come to understand this is as St. John’s has participated in the church softball league the past five summers. The differences between churches were not evident when the games were being played. But as soon as the last out would be recorded most everyone would gather for a time of devotion where scripture was read and reflected upon. I cannot explain to you how many times it felt as if me, and the folks from St. John’s, especially in the first few years of the league, were being told during those messages, that we needed to convert, and be born again. When you looked at the ecclesiastical make-up of the league, that’s not all that surprising as we were, and continue to be, the only main-line protestant church affiliated (what? Catholics and Methodists don’t like softball?). This was how it felt, at least to me, over those first few years.

However, especially over the last two years a shift has begun to take place. During this period of time the people who weren’t too sure as to our Christian chops began to recognize that that we, and our church, while it might not be ‘right’ in terms of its theological stances, is still an avenue through which the Spirit of God is being felt in a positive way both in our community and the world. Despite the differences that were there, a mutual appreciation of the work that God has called us to, began to be forged to the point that there were several people who asked me to pray for them. It might not sound like a lot, but I think it’s a big step. It’s allowing all of us to realize that despite the differences in language and belief that we do have, that God is so much bigger, and absolutely more important.

It may seem strange to be taking this sort of slant considering that our passage this morning was actually trying to articulate and then defend orthodoxy. Simply put, fights over language and how this language is implemented are part of our church history and have helped to create who we are as a community of faith today.

In the same breath, if we allow these things that we disagree upon to become the things that define us, then we have lost where our focus is to be kept at all times. The author rightly states in verse 8 that we need to "remember Jesus Christ". So often in our rush to prove we’re ‘right’ we lose our focus on Jesus and what we end up creating is something that is in contradiction to, or at the very least not lined up with, the loving grace of God Almighty.

At a regional synod meeting that I was at, the President of Synod, who is an elder down at New Hackensack, talked about how staying focused on Jesus is what we need to first and foremost. We don’t need to worry about being this or that kind of church because if we are focused on Jesus then we will do the work that needs to be done, and say it in such a way that the presence of God is able to be experienced.

I’m not sure what she was referring to in specific, but my guess is that there are a whole lot of churches who are in a state of envy looking at other communities of faith and saying, "well, our Sunday School isn’t as active" or "our worship would be so much better if it was like the one across the street." And when churches do that sort of thinking then they are not focused on Jesus: they are focused on the world. I firmly believe that you can have a congregation that is wonderfully alive and only have 50 people on a Sunday. I also equally believe that you have a church of 250 and be all but dead. It’s all a matter of where your focus is.

Obviously, this state of envy is not limited to congregational bodies. The same happens with us as individuals. We look around at others and we think, "they’re so much better then I am" or "they seem to have it all figured out, if I could only be them".

The point of life, or life together in a congregation, is not to be the best by some standard that we have set up in our heads to determine what is good or successful. If we try and live that way we will continually come up short because you know there is always going to be someone better.

Instead, we need to use the gifts that we have been given by God. If we do that, if we become committed to actually living as God would have us do, then it isn’t a rat race anymore: it’s about being the best that God would have us be and if you can’t be excited about that, then my guess is that you will never be satisfied regardless of the level success that you actually achieve.

Be your best. Don’t try and be somebody else. Don’t try and create a façade for yourself with the feeling that the false front will make you more appealing to the world or to God. It won’t. All it will end up doing is leaving you feel vacant and devoid of anything real, anything substantive. Be your best.

The way the author in the passage phrases it is "do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed". If you are using the gifts that you have been given so that the glory of God is able to be felt by the world, then you have nothing to be ashamed of. In terms of the softball team, I think our unabashed belief that we were worshiping and serving as God would have us do allowed them see that we weren’t faking it and ultimately we quit wondering about the semantics, the various words and descriptions that we use to separate ourselves, and recognized that God was at work in all of our lives, albeit in different ways.

You have the opportunity to be the best you can be. Why would you blow that opportunity to try and be the best somebody else? God has given you, and will be providing you, all that you need to strive forward into the future confident, not in your abilities, but in the ability of the Almighty to work through you. Be your best. You can do it. Now believe it as God believes in you.

God, everything we need, all the tools and resources that wee need to be the best we can be are at our disposal. You have enabled it to be so. Grant us the strength to take those tools and use them so that we might be the best we can be. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.