Bridging-Bringing the Sacred to the Secular

by Pastor Gina Johnson

So over the last few weeks, as we've been going through these steps, we recognize that the more and more we spend time purposely and intentionally within our journey of unfoldment, you should start to notice something happening. You know, it's like if you can remember, and I'm not talking about like when you were young and you came into faith because it's what was taught to you by your parents or by your Sunday school teachers or by your friends around you, like this is what we're supposed to do.

Those moments are really sacred and really special. But I think we all can identify that moment where on our own, for ourselves, and maybe for some of us it was when we were a kid, maybe for some of us it didn't happen until our 20s or our 30s or even our 50s, but there's that moment where you start to intentionally seek transformation and remembrance. There's that moment where you start to say, “You know, I do believe that Jesus is the Lord of my life. I do believe that it's more than just Jesus the Savior, but there is something taking place here. I do believe that by reading the Word and by praying and studying and surrounding myself in worship communities that I can experience transformation.”

And so that transformation starts to occur, and that transformation becomes more and more visible. And if you are really intentional in waking up to who you are and what the Spirit has for you, if you are really intentional in recognizing who you've always been in the eyes of God, then guess what, that transformation will start like wildfire.

And it doesn't wait for you. It doesn't wait for the world around you to make a dramatic shift. It just begins, and suddenly you find yourself feeling different. You find yourself seeing things differently. You find yourself taking in things differently. It's like when you read a scripture passage, and then you read it again weeks or months or years later, and it hits you differently because you've evolved since then. You've come into a higher place of consciousness. You've come into a higher understanding of who you are and what the Spirit is conveying to you.

When you find yourself in this transformation, there can be these moments that make it really challenging to step into the newness of you in those old environments. There are those moments where you start to recognize, “I do feel different, and I don't get angry as easy, and I'm not caught up in the same things that other people are caught up in. However, everywhere I go is still the same place it was.”

This makes me think about the movie, The Matrix. I don't know how many of you are familiar with that movie. I don't want to give away the plot for those of you who haven't seen it, but there's only so many movies that I put a stamp on. So, no matter your age, it's definitely one worth seeing, especially if you can watch it with a spiritual perspective, because there's so much more to learn besides just the entertainment. It's a great movie, and Keanu Reeves plays the main character, and that's Thomas Anderson.

So Thomas Anderson, as he's going through his motions of life, he's a computer programmer, he's also a bit of a hacker, and his hacker name is Neo. He goes to work, does his job, keeps his head down, listens to his boss, but he noticed that something is off. And through a series of a few events, he ends up with this offer to take a red pill. In taking the red pill, all that you have been suspecting, all that has kind of been pulling you in is now going to come clear.

He takes the red pill. After taking it, he tries to go back to what was, but he just can't. He can't unlearn what he's learned. He can't unsee what he's seen. He can't un-feel what he feels. And he starts to recognize that when he can't go back, that what he has been living in has been more of a simulation. These are systems and structures, and they're rigid. They don't move. There is no flexibility to them.

And as he's experiencing this, he recognizes that he's not going to play the part that he's always been playing, that it's time for him to awaken, and it's time for him to step into the fullness of who he is, that he can help others in this. But Neo doesn't break the system. Neo doesn't kill the structure. What he does is he awakens and recognizes, I don't have to live by these terms anymore. This is what I was told things are supposed to look like.

I think that happens a lot in Christianity. This is what we're told Christianity looks like. But I bet you, each person reading this, we could all go out and ask someone to tell us what Christianity is supposed to look like. And I bet you when we come back, though we will have some similarities, some of us will hear things that will make us say, “That is not Christian at all,” while others of us will hear things and say, “Yeah, that's Christianity. Yeah, that's what Jesus taught.” Others will say, “Well, no, that's not what Jesus taught.”

See, the thing is, when transformation starts to occur within your life, it starts to reorganize, rearrange those spaces that were once familiar. And as that's taking place, it's a little bit challenging.

Using the example of Neo, as he is recognizing more and more that there is something different, that now he's finally getting to be and express and learn the fullness of who he is and what he's called to do. He's going to have to go against the systems, go against the structures in order to find freedom. And that's exactly what Jesus is talking about when he's talking in Luke 5.

So in Luke 5, verses 36 through 39, he's telling them a parable.

He also told them a parable. No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment. Otherwise, the new will be torn.

And the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.

But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one, after drinking old wine, desires new wine, but says the old is good. 

Did you catch that subtle truth at the end there? No one, after drinking the old wine, wants the new wine, for they say the old is better.

You know, Jesus isn't just talking about clothing here and wineskins. What he is talking about is that transformation that happens. You know, I talk about bridging the sacred and the secular. It's what's taking place once you have tapped into the sacred, which you already are, now having to take the newness of you, you are a new creation, and bring it into the world around you. It's taking what's here and now, our new creation, and bringing it into what was in hopes of transforming that into something new as well.

Our congregation has an old communion set, and during a message I put it on display, not because there is anything wrong with it. That's the one thing that I wanted them to know, that that communion set from 1871 is sacred. It's beautiful. It's honored. It carries a lot of weight because it speaks to tradition. It speaks to reverence. It speaks to history. And there are many, many times that it's created and held a place of stillness, of sacredness, a place of greater meaning. It was made a long time ago, and it was made for a long time ago.

Sometimes we fall into the same understandings when it comes to things that are sacred and traditional in our life. We come into that place where something was set and established for a time and place, and we've allowed it to become so sacred that it keeps us from being able to move. It's not that it’s broken. There is nothing wrong with it. But it doesn't have the flexibility. It doesn't have the flow. It doesn't have the ease or the openness that it needs to have as we continue to evolve and grow into our future.

This congregation has had a lot of different communion cups on the table, and when we have World Communion Sunday, and we display the different serving elements, it's an evolution of our journey. It's not saying that this older set needs to be done away with. It's saying that it’s always going to be sacred. We are always going to be grateful for it, and every time we look upon it, it's going to hold such wonderful meaning in our life. And we're going to remember what it meant at the time that we used it.

But as we have come into the new, we have to recognize that our spirits have been longing to be awakened. And now that they are awakened, the containers won't look the same. The spaces that we go into will be different.

Even as we show up into conversations, we are not the same, and so we shouldn't show up the same. If you can imagine a time in your life where you became stronger in your beliefs, where you became stronger in your faith, where you became more understanding and more enlightened in what you knew in your relationship with Christ, have you ever walked into an environment where you felt like, I just don't feel the same here as I once did. I just don't think like these people anymore. And that's not to say these people, as if there's something wrong with these people. It's just a recognition.

Even in my own home, in the early part of ‘22, I had some spiritual awakening take place in my life. There were some things that occurred in our family in the end of ‘21 that really, for lack of a better word, slapped me in the face. Some things taking place that really woke me up to evaluate, where am I at? Where am I at as a person, as a wife, as a mother, as a pastor? And as I continued to stew in that, I couldn't talk to anyone about it because I was feeling weird, and I was feeling drawn to dive in more and dig in more and spend more time in prayer and meditation. I was feeling drawn to talk to some of my pastor colleagues and say, “Hey, I feel like I've gone stagnant. I feel like I've lost connection,” and something just started moving in me and pushing me into an upward trajectory. And as I mentioned earlier, it didn't wait for me.

In the early part of January, things started to occur. Teachers started to show up in my life. Scriptures started to speak to me differently. The way that I looked at my family, the way I looked at my church, the way I looked at my past, and the way I looked at my future all started to change.

And the more that I tried to be the old me with these new awarenesses, with these new shifts in my life, the more it was like trying to pour new wine into old wineskins. And because I didn't share the transformation, because I didn't turn to others and say, this is what's going on, walk alongside of me, we did have some bursting in our container. We did have some of those rough moments where it seemed like this doesn't fit where I'm at anymore. What do I do here?

Thankfully, by the grace of God, we worked through that. And it just goes to show that when Jesus says, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins, there comes a time where your container needs to match the life that you are living, the transformation that's happening in you.

You could say that in a strange way, when I showed up at First Christian Church in Maryville as their minister, I was like new wine. And some of the things I did were like trying to push me into some old wineskins. Now I know there were flaws in my communication. I'll take full responsibility. But I came with a spirit of newness. I came with a spirit of transformation. I came fully ready to not only have my Call, but to embrace my Call.

And now, I can look back on where we were when I first got there at the beginning of ‘23, and I can see transformation. And I can feel transformation. And I know it's easy to look at the aspects that we lost through this transformation, but at the same time, I want to encourage you that in every loss, in every transition, in every part of your sacred journey where something is going to be changed, there is something new to take its place. There is something that is going to come in and feel sacred. There is something that's going to honor what was, and at the same time, invite everyone into what is.

One of my teachers that I like to study is an American Franciscan father named Richard Rohr. He has such a great way with words and he always emphasizes that the way you make the bad better is by practicing the better.

The way you release the things that are no longer fitting is not by just talking about it, but actually moving into the new, practicing the new. It's not about getting rid of what was, dismissing it, putting it down, saying it's broken or denying it. It's about accepting that it's served its purpose and now it's time to open into a new chapter.

When you're in your week ask yourself, “Which vessel have you been trying to live from?” In your journey, as you recognize transformation around you and within you, are you still trying to hold your transformation in an old container? Or are you allowing yourself to see that it might be time for some changes?

You know, the foundation is always the same. The foundation is God. The foundation is love. The foundation is truth. But with transformation, it requires us at times to remodel, to change what's been built on that foundation.

Neo chose to take the red pill. He didn't have to, but he didn't choose it because it was easy. You see, he chose it because he had outgrown what was there. A lot of times in our own life, we are going to happen upon a change, something significant, whether it be a sacred moment, whether it be something we read, a conversation we have, and we're going to feel that something is different. We're going to feel that it's time to move on. It's time to live in the fullness of who we are and the container around us is going to try and stop us. The container around us is going to say, “No, you can't do that because it's always been this way. No, if you start to talk that way, if you start to say those things, people are going to think you're losing your mind.”

You know, I was on Facebook yesterday, and I try not to go on Facebook, but as I was on there yesterday, I did a double whammy. I watched some news online, and I went on Facebook, so I was just asking for it. But in both of those situations, I had a moment of thinking, “Man, I am weird. I'm just not like this. I don't care to get caught up in all of this anger. I don't care to get caught up in all of these debates that take me far away from where I'm at when I can't be anywhere but right here. I don't care to get on there and talk about how much I hate this and complain about that, but instead of doing anything about it, I'm just going to post about it day after day after day and get people to come commiserate with me.”

That's what I get on Facebook. Or even better, “I'm so afraid of vulnerability and transparency, so I'm going to paint my life perfect, but whenever you see me in real life, I'm going to be crabby and angry and have tons of gossip to say about other people.”

It was amazing as I was sitting there, and I know there's a lot of beautiful things you can read and study on Facebook. I'm not trying to insult anyone's feed. I'm just saying there was that realization that I know who I am, and I know the world I'm in, and I know the Call that I've been Called to.

Do you know who you are? Are you ready to remember who you are? Are you ready to take your new transformation and place it in the container that not only serves you, but will continue to transform to serve others? As I'm sharing these words of Jesus, sharing a little illustration about a movie, sharing a sacred memory about my congregation, I'm also sharing the invitation for you to stop pouring into old containers that can't hold you.

When you recognize the fullness of who you are, it doesn't matter your age, it doesn't matter your financial status, it doesn't matter where you've come from, where you're going, when you recognize the fullness of who you are, when you see yourself as Jesus sees you, then I guarantee you it's going to be time for a new container. And that container is going to be a container that honors you.

Yes, it challenges you, but it always allows you the room to stretch and to grow and to continue in the unfoldment of who you're called to be. So I want you to sit with that. I would like to give you that as your challenge for the week.

What systems, what structures, what habits, what roles are you still going through the motions in, but yet they feel dead inside? What containers are you being called to release or to remodel? Or perhaps it's time to set that container completely aside and move to a new container. And last but not least, what new vessel is the Spirit forming within you? What is the Spirit challenging you to do? What is the Spirit calling you to step into? And remember the invitation is to stop allowing yourself to pour what is new wine into old wineskins.

Please pray with me.

Our most gracious and loving God, we come before you in transformation. We come before you in full recognition that we are not only connected to the I Am, but we are the I Am. We are empowered.

We are love and we are light. And so God, we ask that you would help us, that you would continue to speak to us and through us that we may embody the fullness of who we are, that as we walk forth in this world, that we may be as bold and as confident, as compassionate and as loving as Jesus, that we may be the new creations who are transforming the world. In Jesus name, amen.