I taught recently on the passage in scripture where Jesus says “I am the true vine.” My main thesis, given that it was graduation Sunday, was that there are a lot of things you can give your life to, and in fact there are some things you can give your life to that are really good.
But, are those things true?
Jesus, in all of his I Am statements, is making the very radical claim that there are a lot of options, but only one way that is ultimately true.
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I read this post the other day, and I thought, as one who works with millennial, that there were many useful insights.
One thing the author says never to say to millennials is “stop being so idealistic…the real world doesn’t work that way.” I agree with the heart of this sentiment: we shouldn’t be killing the spirit of the next generation. Don’t be a wet blanket.
But, I also see idealism wielded as an ultimate trump card. A way to justify our own behavior and to do our own thing without being accountable to anyone, especially someone older, and potentially wiser, than ourselves.
[For the sake of integrity, I have used this trump card myself on too many occasions.]
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Of course, I also see a tremendous amount of cynicism, especially in my peers. A friend who just left the ministry told me a story about talking to another pastor who asked him, in so many words: “Doesn’t it feel so good to be out?!”
That kind of stuff kills me…I don’t ever want to be there.
Pastors do see the good, the bad, and the ugly, and there is a lot of the bad and the ugly, but we also know and preach and teach the good news about Jesus, which is fundamentally hopeful.
[For the sake of integrity I can be one crotchety, cynical mess at times.]
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Back to the vine. Jesus constantly cuts across the grain of all the false narratives we can construct for ourselves.
Idealism sounds so good, and presents itself in such a positive light, but it quickly runs off the cliff of reality, becoming a balloon floating on the wind with nothing to anchor it down.
Cynicism wallows in “reality,” but in a way that keeps everything at arm’s length to mask the pain we feel, and as a result becomes an un-reality.
The true vine gives life and sustains us because it is true. It is reality. Jesus, the good news of his resurrection, is what is real, and what is true, and what is sustaining.
I see too many people choosing to avoid reality: the reality of their situations, of the decisions they’ve made, of the challenges they face.
But avoiding reality leads us to shallow perspectives and prevents us from ever maturing.
Choose what is real.
stephenboutrywords 