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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion Get a Smaller Glass! March 13, 2010 |
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Frontline Devotion for Saturday, March 13, 2010 by Don Wernly
Luke 7:31-35. “To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’ For John the Baptist came neither eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’ But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”
The verses preceding today’s text talk of John’s disciples coming to Jesus asking who he was. When John the Baptist’s disciples left, Jesus addressed the crowd about John. Those in the crowd who were baptized by John believed but the Pharisees and experts in the law who had not been baptized refused to repent. A parallel passage to today’s reading is Matthew 11: 6-19. The Concordia Self Study Bible says flute playing symbolized a wedding and signifies Jesus while the dirge symbolized a funeral and represents John. God sent both to use different roles to have humankind repent. But for some, neither approach worked.
For those folks, nothing is ever good enough. They criticize everything they see and hear. It is as if being critical and finding fault gives them a measure of superiority in their own eyes. They are better than everyone around them. John, the God like man, came with a message of repentance. He lived in the wilderness, dressed in rough clothes, and ate spartanly. One would think this kind of self rigor and self denial would resonate with those who scrupulously followed the law. But no, John is viewed as a demon so his message is lost. Jesus, the God man, comes like one of us and is rejected for what he eats, what he drinks, and who he associates with.
Jesus’ generation is our generation. His comments about John and himself target his contemporaries as well as us. A glass sits on the counter containing half its volume in fluid. For some the glass is half full. For others it is half empty. We have all run across the half empty folks. Given a gold brick it probably wouldn’t be shiny enough. Theirs is a sad lot for little if anything in life brings joy. Their only joy is to find fault. Worse are those who not only revel in fault but are true obstructionists who criticize any who try to make things better. Their hypercriticism is pernicious. Lyndon Johnson, referring to the battles over civil rights, said, “Anyone can tear down a barn. It takes a carpenter to build one. We need more carpenters.”
The political comedian, Mark Russell, said this of the critical people who would rather destroy than create, “Is your glass half empty, then get a smaller glass!” Brilliant! Mark Russell gets the laugh but he also nails the human condition. And, he exhorts those who cannot get past the glass as being half empty to put the same volume of liquid in a smaller vessel so that it is unquestionably more full than empty. In essence, do whatever it takes to get beyond your negativity.
It is easy to criticize, whether watching a sporting exhibition, attending a live concert, listening to a speech, or for that matter, warming a pew during a sermon. I do it, we all do it. “How could that player have been so stupid?” “That note was off.” “How could he say such a thing?” But we weren’t in the game, we were not trying to make music, and we were not up before a large, potentially cranky audience, trying to get a point across. In those instances, we were on the sidelines not creating but rather deconstructing.
So for today and everyday, be a glass is half full person. See the good wherever you look. Get beyond the messenger and take the message to heart, curb your desire to criticize and nurture your abilities to create. Jesus was a carpenter, Jesus was a creator. Be a carpenter like Jesus. And for those days when you’re tempted to slide….get a smaller glass!