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One of my passions is fencing, and by that, I mean the sport with swords. Because I started fencing when I was young, when I went off to college and joined the fencing team, I was one of the more experienced fencers, so I was often called upon to help teach and coach others.
I took it personally hard whenever a teammate was struggling in a tournament, and it took me many years to figure out why. When I looked at my fellow fencers, I didn’t always see where they were at the time. When I looked at them, I saw their potential. I saw the heights they could reach, even if they weren’t quite there yet. I saw where they were heading, not always where they were, and honestly, I just wanted what was best for them and for their fencing ability.
Years later, I had this turned around on me. As a seminarian, I once again ended up helping lead undergraduates on our fencing team. I was a little older, a little wiser, and much more knowledgeable of myself, my coaching style, and my shortcomings.
But, like those fencers I helped years ago, I wasn’t always aware of my own ability. One day, our coach came up to me and said “these guys here don’t really know how good you are.” I was a little taken aback and said “Oh yeah?” Our coach went on to tell me how I could be, well, at a lot higher level than I was then at my fencing. I wasn’t sure I believed him in the moment, but his words, clearly, stuck with me. That’s around the time that I, finally, started doing much better in tournaments then I ever really had done before.
Now I’m not at the level my coach saw in me at that time, but I do have the confidence with more time, work, and effort that I will get there. That is all thanks to my coach seeing potential in me, the potential to change and to be better.
In my years of ministry, I have worked with people who are wonderful and delightful as well as people who are frustrating and difficult, as I am sure you all have too. Whenever I’ve gotten advise on how to deal with the more difficult folks who have come my way, I’ve always heard “well, you can’t change him or her.” I will not and cannot believe that, and I hope my experience I’ve just shared with my fencing demonstrates why. I cannot believe that there are some of us who don’t have the ability to change for the better, no matter how old we’ve gotten or how stubborn we may be. I haven’t given up on those others.
That may sound naive, but as I read through our Scripture this morning, what I see is that God hasn’t given up on us either.
Today, we hear a lot about the Law. The thing is, we don’t do a very good job of following the Law. Looking at what Jesus, in particular, says, who of us hasn’t been angry at our siblings? Who hasn’t insulted someone else? Which of us here hasn’t committed some sin, in one form or another.
God could have looked at us and said “Forget it. I’m done.” God could have left us to our own devices. God could have even destroyed us and started anew.
But God didn’t do that. God came into this world as a human being and died for us so that we could have a bridge back to Him.
God died so that we could be made anew, reborn even. God died so that we could turn back from those things that led away from Him and took us to the path of sin and destruction. God died so that, as we say in our Baptismal vows, we could reject those ways of evil and death and instead take on the mantle of Christ Jesus.
God died for us because He saw the potential in us to move away from our wretchedness and embrace the greatness with which God made us. God died because He saw that all we needed was a bit of kickstart into living our lives in service to our Lord.
That is the reality we teach in the church. We learn that through Baptism, we are reborn and that we are made a new creation in Christ Jesus. No, we haven’t reached that potential that God sees in us yet, but we are working to get there, to be the best servants of God that we can be. We are called to continue to grow in love and service to Jesus, even when it takes a lot of time, work, and effort to do so. We continue to grow and be better at loving God and others even when we know we cannot do so on our own.
If you know in your heart of hearts that you are one of those people that others say will never change, don’t listen to them. God sees your potential. God died for you so that you wouldn’t have to stay the same, but so that you could be more fully His. If you are sitting next to someone right now who you know others say will never change, then help that person. That is our call as Christians. We are called to see the potential in others just as God sees potential for us. God died for us because He will never give up on us. That is the depth of God’s love, and it is the depth of love that we are called to show for others.
I have often said that Scripture is not a tool to condemn others, but ourselves, and it is. It can be hard to face that judgement. It can be hard to realize that we are not, in fact, perfect. Our hope is that God is walking that journey with us and helping us along the way. We may not be perfect servants of God now, but with the help of God and with the love that He shows us, our hope is that we one day will be because God continues to love us, form us, and develop our potential within us.