Sunday, February 13, 2011

An Old Fear; A New Lens

The Pastor opened with the title of his sermon this morning:
The Blessing of Rejection

He spoke of how he doesn't even like the sound of the word. Go ahead, try it for yourself. Say it a few times. "Rejection, rejection, REJECTION!"

Even as he spoke, I thought about the sound it makes...like the "Paid" stamp at my desk. Each time you push it, you hear the head rotate down and then strike the paper firmly before rolling back to it's starting position.

Can you hear it? Rejection. Rejection. RE (the head rolls)JECT(paper strike)ION(the head returns to rest).

I live in fear of rejection. Have for as long as I can remember. There is an 'audio loop' in my head that says to me...'you are not enough', 'you are going to fail', 'everyone will see you for who you really are...and they will leave.' It is a lie...my heart tells me so...but this monster refuses to die. Even when it sleeps, all it takes is a look, a word, from someone I love and he rises to rumble around in my head once again.

So, I sit and I listen to the Pastor's words thinking to myself, "How can rejection ever be a blessing?" And then he breaks the bread of Romans 11. Israel rejected the gospel; but God never rejected them...even today, a remnant remains...just as Paul himself believed, so do a minority today.

Where is the blessing in rejection?

For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Romans 11:15

The reconciliation of the world...the reconciliation of myself, a Gentile, to the Lord Almighty. And in the fullness of time, the majority of the natural branches will be grafted back in.

Rejection = Blessing...only in God's economy would that ever work out!

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgements, and his paths beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Romans 11:33-36



Edited on Monday, February 14 to link up to the "Hear It On Sunday, Use It On Monday" community at Graceful!

3 comments:

Kim Turnage said...

I have that same audio loop running in my head. We need a big REJECTION stamp we can hammer down whenever it winds up and drones on.

How can rejection ever be a blessing? When we reject the words of the one who comes to steal and kill and destroy for the truth of the one who says (again and again and again), "I will be your God and you will be my people."

May the miracle you seek be borne out in you!

Deidra said...

"He came to his own, and his own received him not." Jesus knows about this, too.

I could hear that rejection stamp you wrote about. Made me cringe.

Michelle DeRusha said...

I'm thinking on this long and hard this morning, Fonda. Of course rejection of Jesus was preordained -- Isaiah predicts it will happen that way. In our rejection of Him, he dies to save us from our sin. It's upside-down, unexpected, a reversal of the way we think the world should work. But it was only in His suffering and rejection that we are reconciled with God.

This is deep!!! Thank you for making me think this morning!

And thank you for linking up. I'm sorry the links were non-existent for a good long while yesterday. Word has it the linky guy was having major server trouble, so it had a trickle down effect. Hopefully it will be fixed by next week!