Living a Pure Life

Rev. Dr. N. Graham Standish

April 20, 2008

Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander.  Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  For it stands in scripture: "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner," and "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

I want to start by sharing a story with you.  Once upon a time, a long time ago there lived two very happy people called Tim and Maggi with their two children, John and Lucy. To understand how happy they were you have to understand how things were in those days. You see, in those happy days everyone was given, at birth, a small soft Fuzzy Bag. Anytime a person reached into this bag he was able to pull out a Warm Fuzzy.

Warm Fuzzies were very much in demand because whenever somebody was given a Warm Fuzzy it made him feel warm and fuzzy all over. People who didn't get Warm Fuzzies regularly were in danger of developing a sickness in their backs, which caused them to shrivel up and die. In those days it was very easy to get Warm Fuzzies. Anytime that somebody felt like it, he might walk up to you and say, "I'd like to have a Warm Fuzzy." You would then reach into your bag and pull out a Fuzzy the size of a little girl's hand.

As soon as the Fuzzy saw the light of day it would smile and blossom into a large shaggy Warm Fuzzy. You then would lay it on the person's shoulder or head or lap and it would snuggle up and melt right against their skin and make them feel good all over. People were always asking each other for Warm Fuzzies, and since they were always given freely, getting enough of them was never a problem. There were always plenty to go around, and as a consequence everyone
was happy and felt warm and fuzzy most of the time.

One day a bad witch became angry because everyone was so happy and no one was buying potions and salves. The witch was very clever and devised a very wicked plan. One beautiful morning the witch crept up to Tim while Maggi was playing with their daughter and whispered in his ear, "See here, Tim, look at all the Fuzzies that Maggi is giving to Lucy. You know, if she keeps it up, eventually she is going to run out and then there won't be any left for you."  Tim was astonished. He turned to the witch and said, "Do you mean to tell me that there isn't a Warm Fuzzy in our bag every time we reach into it?" And the witch said, "No, absolutely not, and once you run out, that's it. You don't have any more." With this, the witch flew away, laughing and cackling.

Tim took this to heart and began to notice every time Maggi gave up a Warm Fuzzy to somebody else. Eventually he got very worried and upset because he liked Maggi's Warm Fuzzies very much and did not want to give them up. He certainly did not think it was right for Maggi to be spending all her Warm Fuzzies on the children and on other people. He began to complain every time he saw Maggi giving a Warm Fuzzy to somebody else, and because Maggi liked him very much, she stopped giving Warm Fuzzies to other people as often and reserved them for him.

The children watched this and soon began to get the idea that it was wrong to give up Warm Fuzzies any time you were asked or felt like it. They too became very careful. They would watch their parents closely, and whenever they felt that one of their parents was giving too many Fuzzies to others, they also began to object. They began to feel worried whenever they gave away too many Warm Fuzzies. Even though they found a Warm Fuzzy every time they reached into their bag, they reached in less and less and became more and more stingy. Soon people began to notice the lack of Warm Fuzzies, and they began to feel less warm and less fuzzy. They began to shrivel up, and, occasionally, people would die from lack of Warm Fuzzies. More and more people went to the witch to buy potions and salves even though they didn't seem to work.

Well, the situation was getting very serious indeed. The bad witch didn't really want the people to die (since dead people couldn't buy salves and potions) so a new plan was devised. Everyone was given a bag that was very similar to the Fuzzy Bag except that this one was cold while the Fuzzy Bag was warm. Inside of the witch's bag were Cold Pricklies. These Cold Pricklies did not make people feel warm and fuzzy, but made them feel cold and prickly instead. But they did prevent people's bag's from shriveling up. So, from then on, every time somebody said, "I want a Warm Fuzzy," people who were worried about depleting their supply would say,"I can't give you a Warm Fuzzy, but would you like a Cold Prickly?" Sometimes, two people would walk up to each other, thinking they could get a Warm Fuzzy, but one or the other of them would change his mind and they would wind up giving each other Cold Pricklies. So while very few people were dying, a lot of people were still unhappy and feeling very Cold and Prickly.

The situation got very complicated. Warm Fuzzies, which used to be thought of as free as air, became extremely valuable. This caused people to do all sorts of things in order to obtain them. Before the witch had appeared, people used to gather in groups of three or four or five, never caring too much who was giving Warm Fuzzies to whom. After the coming of the witch, people began to pair off to reserve all their Warm Fuzzies for each other exclusively.

Another thing which happened was that some people would take Cold Pricklies, which were limitless and freely available,  coat them white and fluffy, and pass them on as Warm Fuzzies. These counterfeit Warm Fuzzies were really Plastic Fuzzies, and they caused additional difficulties. For instance, two people would get together and freely exchange Plastic Fuzzies, which presumably should have made them feel good, but they came away feeling bad instead. Since they thought they had been exchanging Warm Fuzzies, people grew very confused about this, never realizing that their cold, prickly feelings were really the result of the fact that they had been given a lot of Plastic Fuzzies. So the situation was very, very dismal, and it all started because of the coming of the witch who made people believe that some day, when least expected, they might reach into their Warm Fuzzy Bag and find no more.

One day, a man with a happy smile came to this unhappy land. He had a big bag of Warm Fuzzies gave them out freely, even when not asked. The witch spread a rumor that this man was going to give away all the Warm Fuzzies to undeserving people, and that they would run out.  So the grownups became concerned and decided to pass a law prohibiting the free distribution of Warm Fuzzies. The law made it a criminal offense to give out Warm Fuzzies in a reckless manner, without a license.

            That wouldn’t stop this man, and he kept giving out Warm Fuzzies.  Eventually, the authorities had him arrested, and when he wouldn’t agree to stop giving them out, they killed him. But then an amazing thing happened.  He came back to life, and he spread Warm Fuzzies ever more throughout the land.  And worse, more and more followers were joining him in spreading Warm Fuzzies.  No matter how much the authorities tried to stop the man, and so today there is an unlimited supply of Warm Fuzzies for anyone who is willing to ask and to trust the man.  (Adapted from the story, The Warm Fuzzy Tale, by Claude Steiner).

This story is such a simple story, but it is so profound.  And it is a true story.  It’s not true in the sense of historical truth, but it is completely true in the sense of life truth.  Too many of us treat love as though it is a limited commodity, and as though it has limited application for life.  You know what I’m talking about.  So many of us believe in love, talk about the importance of love, but then we find reasons to limit our love.  We find reasons to do exactly what Peter tells us not to do:  acting with malice, guile, insincerity, envy, and slander.  Oh,… we don’t do it in big ways, but we do it in small ways.  For example, how often are we guilty of criticizing others?  We don’t calling criticizing.  We call it “critiquing.”  We think of it as offering truth.  But the reality is that it is criticizing.  There are times when we act in two-faced ways for our own advantage.  Again, we don’t think of it as being two-faced, but we act in that way whenever we tell one person one thing, and another another thing.  We also are insincere when we pretend that we care about a person, but really don’t.  And we may not even try.  It gets back to the root of criticism.  We see what’s wrong in them, rather than trying to love them.  We also give into petty jealousies.  We don’t mean to, but something inside of us is always envious of what others have that we don’t.  And we gossip.  We all do it, and gossip combines all of the above into a bad mix.  Whenever we do any of these things, we give out cold pricklies. 

Unfortunately, we justify our negativity by saying that it’s just the way the real world works.  As a result we divide the world into the false categories of the sacred and the secular, thinking that the secular is reality, and that the sacred is just an ideal.  We think that we have to be critical, political, deceitful, and distrustful if we are going to survive in the real world of work.  The problem is that this belief simply isn’t true.  In actuality, the real world works better when people act out of love, compassion, encouragement, and by sharing warm fuzzies.  Research in everything from business to family therapy to community health shows that sharing love increases productivity and health. 

For instance, there is an economic and business researcher, Tor Dahl, who has studied the impact of encouragement on productivity.  He says that there are basically two poles of leadership:  bullying and encouraging.  What he found is that encouraging, positive leadership created the conditions that allowed production to increase by up to twenty times that of organizations led by heavy-handed, bullying leadership.  In other words, leaders who encourage workers, care about them, create positive conditions for them, and praise them for their work consistently produced up to twenty times more than those led by leaders who use threats, criticism and scorn.  Why?  Because bully leaders tend to lead people to deep dissatisfaction.  Encouraging leaders still set goals, deadlines, and high expectations, but lead people to creative possibility. 

These principles aren’t only true in business.  They are also true in families and marriages.  Parents who praise their children, encourage them, and create positive households raise children who do better in school, are sick less, have better relationships themselves, and tend to have more productive careers later in life.  Marriages that are positive tend to last.  For instance, how many times do you hear divorced couples complain, “Omigod, my husband was just too nice.  He was always encouraging me, doing nice things for me, and sharing the load with me.  I just couldn’t stand it anymore!”  Or, “Man!  My wife was just too good at making me feel good, listening to me, and helping me live a better life.  I had to get out!”  Those are never the complaints.  When people act in positive ways in their marriages, their marriages are positive. 

The same principles are true in school.  Teachers who teach in an encouraging and positive way, while still holding students accountable, always get a better response than those who criticize.  No matter what field we are talking about, being positive and encouraging leads to a better life, which is what Peter is saying in our passage.  He is telling us that Christ leads us to a positive life.  But we keep choosing the negative way. 

Christianity embraces the idea that love, compassion, encouragement, kindness, generosity, and self-sacrifice transform the world, and transforming the world is what Christianity is all about.  Think about what Christianity stands for.  It’s about opening ourselves at the deepest levels so that God can move us from cynical to spiritual, from being the world’s people to living as God’s people.  The great example of this is the cross.  The cross was once a symbol of oppression, violence, and extreme punishment.  Crucifixion was a ghastly way to die.  People would be flogged terribly, and then put on crosses where the combination of heat and cold exposure, loss of blood and fluid, and suffocation (from holding arms outstretched, which slowly collapses the lungs) would slowly kill them over several days.  Crucifixions were always done in public, too, to remind people of Rome’s power.  Yet Christianity has transformed it into a symbol of hope, resurrection, redemption, and love.  It has become so transformed that we no longer see the cross through Roman eyes, but through Christ’s. 

You and I are being called to a way of life that is meant to bring love and transformation to every part of life.  We are called to transformation, love, and grace.  And we are called to share it.  Are you willing to live your life in a warm, fuzzy way?