"Baggage......................"

Originally a 1935 Broadway musical, “Jumbo” became a movie in 1962 and opened with Jimmy Durante walking down the street with an elephant behind him. When a policeman stops him to ask about the elephant, the comedian gives him a puzzled look and inquires “What elephant?” …With such introduction our assistant pastor began his sermon Sunday morning, the message pointing to a claim that, inside all of us, is a different kind of pachyderm, one that goes with us in all that we do and all too often throws its weight around in our daily life. The identity he assigned to the beast was “self-ishness”, making clear from the “get-go” that such term embraced a whole lot more than merely not sharing our toys with the other kids. Indeed, word reflection a condition common to us all, one wherein the inner man is always wrestling with a need to be heard, to be first, to be right, and one which being “born-again” was, in no way, a solution to the problem. In emphasizing that latter point, Steve went to the Gospel of Mark, that portion where Peter confesses Jesus to be the Christ and then, just a few verses down the road, he finds himself, not just rebuked, but also called “Satan” by the Messiah he has endorsed… I agree. What’s more: If we, as individuals, so stumble down the path, in need of His rod and staff to correct our navigation, isn’t it just as probable that the Church, as an institution, can “miss the mark as well? Martin Luther thought it to be so back in 1521; and, from there, we’ve evolved into a multitude of opinions all claiming to be following the truth. Maybe it’s not as much about being “right” as it is being “re-adjusted”, being “disciplined by the Holy Ghost anchor-line in our belly” more so than being “doctrinally dead in our head”…..