Do you remember back with WWJD was popular? It was on
t-shirts and bracelets and bumper-stickers. It was everywhere. Well, right at
the height of its popularity, right when it seemed as if all the real Christians were defined by WWJD and
all the pretend Christians were
looking at the real Christians’ t-shirts and feeling guilty about it, I heard a
preacher decry the whole WWJD movement as anti-Christian. “It’s law, not
grace,” he declared in the pulpit one Sunday. I was in college at the time, and
it took me a few years of thinking and living to figure out what he meant, but
I’ve since found that he was exactly right. Asking, “What would Jesus do?” is
to pretend that we’re the messiah and that anything less would be rejected by
God. In fact, God loves us even though most of the time we pretty much do the
opposite of what Jesus would do. So to try to define the Christian life by
would the Christ would do in whatever situation we find ourselves in is only a
recipe for guilt-ridden disaster.
There have been lots of other bracelets and t-shirts since
then. FROG stands for “fully rely on God.” PUSH reminds us to “pray until
something happens.” But I’m looking to start a new movement, and I’m having
1000 t-shirts and bracelets printed that say “WWMJS?,” which stands for “what
would make Jesus smile?”
That’s something I can live my life by. What would make
Jesus smile? That doesn’t mean, “You’d better get it right or else Jesus will
be mad at you,” because I think Jesus smiles a lot when we get things wrong—the
way a loving mother might smile even when her son screws us pretty badly. What
would make Jesus smile? In my mind, Jesus is the kind of person who liked to
smile a lot, who was always looking for a good joke, and who could warm your
heart just with a quick radiant smile.
Pretty often, people come to talk with me about the
direction in which their life is headed. Usually, in those moments, things are
unsettled, and they are looking for a new job or grieving the loss of a loved
one or making their way through a divorce. It often seems as if they want some
sort of new focus to help them define their lives by something other than the
crisis at hand, and, when they ask me what they should do—what God would want
them to do—I just shrug my shoulders and say, “What do you want to do?” Is it to
take up golf? Is it to run a marathon? Is it to start a new business? Is it to
go and spend a week on a silent retreat in the middle of nowhere? Ultimately,
it doesn’t really matter to God. All he cares about is you.
The other day, in the middle of one such conversation, I
thought of today’s gospel lesson (Matthew 5:13-16). Jesus says, “You are the
light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting
a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives
light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others,
so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
What does it mean to be a light? What does it mean to let your light shine?
That isn’t merely a message for apostles and evangelists. Jesus didn’t only
mean that you should tell other people about the saving love of God. He also
meant that you should play more golf if it makes you happy…that you should go
run a marathon if it gives you fulfillment…that you should trek off into the
woods if that’s really where you want to be. You have a light to shine. And
letting it shine means taking whatever gifts and talents God has given you and
using them in a way that brings you joy. The world wants to see you living like
that, and Jesus does, too. I think that’s what makes him smile.
A long time ago, in the sixteenth century, a twenty-year-old
woman named Teresa entered the Carmelite convent in Avila. During her first few
years there, she became very ill and was even partially paralyzed for several
years. While sick, her prayers were intense and focused, but she noticed that,
once she regained her health, her relationship with God lost its intensity. Her
sister nuns, although obedient to their vows, also seemed to have lost their
focus. So Teresa set out to reform the order. Under her leadership, the nuns
were no longer allowed to leave the convent and socialize with the community.
They spent most of their waking hours praying and studying scripture. Teresa
even had the nuns go barefoot—a spiritual discipline of humility and poverty
that still defines the “Discalced” or “Barefoot Carmelites.” And with this
newfound focus, Teresa discovered a deep relationship with God that brought her
to new insights, which she wrote down and which have become favorites among
many Christians: “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but
yours, no feet but yours…”
Jesus smiles when we discover the purpose within us. Jesus smiles
when we find the joy that is letting our light shine. Living the Christian life—whether
as a cloistered nun or as a parish priest or as an interior decorator or as an
amateur golfer—means getting in touch with the person God has made us to be and
then giving our hearts to become that person more fully. In Christ, God has set
us free from the pressure of guilt and disappointment. In Christ, God has
declared that we are his beloved children. We are called by Christ to be the
people we were made to be, and that is what makes him smile.
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