Performance Review

Mark 1:4-11

From the reading in the link above, we will be focusing particularly on these words. “And a voice came from heaven “You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

These words from God the Father to God the Son, Jesus Christ show the Father’s approval of and delight in His Son’s life.

Whether we admit it or not, we all seek the approval of somebody in our lives. Whether we’re seeking the approval of our parents, kids, professors, peers, siblings, spouses, friends, enemies, bosses, co-workers, employees, and yes we also tend to seek approval from God.

I think ultimately, all of us would rather have approval and compliments than disapproval and insults.

So what would people say about you? If you had to have a performance review of your life, what would they say? Joe has led a pretty ok life? Sally has been atrocious? Matt is perfect? Maybe you don’t know what to expect.

Have you ever had a performance review? I’ve had a couple, they can be nerve-wracking, but for those of you who’ve never had one, I have a clip to show you from the best place to find a performance review, The Office,

Performance Review – 1:45-4:51

Now obviously this wouldn’t probably happen in an actual performance review. I hope and pray that people as ridiculous as Michael Scott aren’t managing any companies, but we see in Pam that she doesn’t know what to expect. The reviews from Michael can be erratic, unfocused, unpredictable simply because that’s who Michael is. It has very little to do with who Pam is.

I think that if I were being reviewed by one of my friends, peers or whoever that if they were truly honest, my performance review would be the same way, random, up and down, not very steady. And that would be because of who I am, not because of who they are.

How would yours be?

Raising the stakes a bit. If a voice were to come out of heaven and speak to the whole world about you, what would it say?

On one hand, it would probably say something very similar for all people, perhaps it would begin with, to paraphrase Romans 3:23 “For You have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Indeed that’s what it should say for me.

That’s the reality of life, we are all sinners and don’t deserve praise from our friends, bosses or God, but that Romans passage doesn’t stop there. It keeps going.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, AND all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Because of Jesus death and resurrection, we no longer need to fear the punishment for our sin. We no longer need to fear being unaccepted by God. God has accepted us because of what Jesus Christ did for us in dying and rising for the forgiveness of our sins.

So that voice that comes from heaven wouldn’t be a voice of disappointment. It would be a voice of approval. This is my beloved Son or Daughter, whom I love, who has been washed clean by the blood of the lamb.

And all this not because of who you are, but because of who God is. Not because of what you have done, but because of what God has done for you. Amen.

Promoted and Renamed

It will help if before reading this post you reference Genesis 32:22-30

In most men, there is a basic desire and hope for the ability to physically dominate all other males in the room. I believe most of the males in the room will agree with me that they at some point have played the game, whether in their own minds or out loud with friends as to who they could beat up in a fight. It was somewhat humbling for me to realize in my later years of college that many of my friend could very easily pummel me if they so chose to do. Many males seek to idolize people who are the best in some physical proportion. I believe this is why the sport of Ultimate Fighting has reached an unseen height in popularity recently. Being the dominate male of a group provides a sense control. “We’re going to do what I say, or I’ll just knock your teeth out.” Controlling people by force does have its allure.

To illustrate this let’s watch a series of clips from undoubtedly the most popular television show amongst CSP students, The Office. This episode is aptly named “The Fight” you will see Michael Scott, the regional manager of the Scranton Branch of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company along with Dwight, Assistant to the Regional Manager. I’ll let you just watch the rest.

Watch Clip... (The clips will be available shortly)

So Dwight is provoked to punch Michael, Michael and Dwight fight at Dwight’s Dojo and Michael seemingly beats Dwight up. Then Michael repairs the relationship by promoting Dwight well sort of, at the very least by re-titling him.
That similar to Jacob wrestling with God, God “touching Jacob’s hip socket” and then God renaming Jacob, Israel.

Michael dominates Dwight for the sake of their relationship. Michael has to let Dwight know he is still the boss. God let’s Jacob know who the boss is with His superhuman ability to devastate Jacob with a single touch. This injury for Jacob and this fight for Jacob were things that kept him ever remembering his struggle with the Lord.

So what about the Title/Name change?
Notice, Jacob gives his name freely, and his name at this point, is not a very good one. Jacob in giving his name is admitting his own guilt, that he is a cheater and cheated Esau out of his birthright blessing. The change of his name to Israel, shows the man formerly known as Jacob his new direction. It is a blessing that lets him know that he is forgiven, and he can start over in a new relationship with his Lord. No longer as a cheater, but rather as one who has over come his struggles because of the new relationship with God, that comes through the struggle.

Michael promotes Dwight from Assistant to the Regional Manager to Assistant Regional Manager. And we may think that is absolutely nothing and simple semantics, but for Dwight Schrute, this promotion is pretty much the most important moment of his life.
Dwight does not prevail in his fight with Michael. He is humbled just as Jacob is humbled. But after being humbled he is brought more near to Michael than he has ever been before with the simple removing of two words from his Job Title.
The relationship between Michael and Dwight was on the rocks, and it is restored with a change in title, a change in direction. In essence Michael says to Dwight, you were going backwards in being humbled, but now, you need to get up and go forward, into uncharted waters and unfamiliar territory, with me helping you along the way.

How true that also is for Jacob who was in some serious trouble at this point as he is about to fight his own brother Esau for misdeeds 20 years previous. But Jacob is humbled by this fight with God. Jacob is devastated by God’s touch and Jacob is renamed. So that his past is stopped at this very point, he leaves behind Jacob and is blessed with that fresh start as Israel and walks into a conflict with Esau that is a guaranteed success, with the Lord’s intervening.

Jacob’s struggle with God, his perseverance through the struggle lead to his renaming. With such a name as Israel, his ancestors will see that Jacob struggled with God and men and triumphed and when they are reminded of that, they can have hope that they themselves can overcome struggles and triumph thanks to the relationship and the new direction they now have with the LORD.

We too have this in our own baptism. Perhaps we were not renamed formally, I’m still Andrew, you’re still William, etc. etc.
But we all were taken from the name of SIN and renamed SAINT thanks to the struggle not of Jacob, but thanks to the struggle of God himself in Jesus Christ.
We were in the spot of Jacob or of Dwight. Humbled, unable to ensure a solid outcome on our own, but the LORD doesn’t just let us get smashed to pieces. He takes our struggles whether with the world or with God himself and throws them on his own Son and says there, now you will not be punished for your sin, because there is one who has been punished for it. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21 – “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
So Jesus is named sin and we are named the righteousness of God, pretty good name, don’t you think?

If you read through the next few chapters of Genesis, and even the rest of the Scriptures, you’ll notice that Jacob is not called Israel all of the time. He is referred to by both names. Just as we, even though we are Saints in Christ, are still sinners in this world. That paradox is a struggle and a fight in and of itself for us.
Dwight in later episodes fondly recalls his promotion to Assistant Regional Manager. He considers it one of the greatest moments of his life. That change is very important to him, whether we see it or not.
Jacob’s name, the memory of fighting with God and his injury were reminders to him of who he was as Jacob and who was to be as Israel, in a new relationship with the LORD and on a new path in the LORD. Just as we through Jesus’ death and resurrection are reminded of who we once were, lost in this world in great need of rescuing as Sinners, and who we are now, in a new relationship with God as Saints of his kingdom. Amen.

Delivered October 26, 2007