Un

Isn't it crazy? I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, But I can remember a commercial from almost 60 years ago. 1968. A Black guy (Geoffrey Holder from Trinidad,) sitting in a chair. In the "good old days" of 1968, about the only Black guys on TV were muggers or pimps. But Geoffrey Holder is there, sitting in a chair. He has this great Trinidad accent. He holds up two cola nuts. Cola nuts were used to make cola soda. Like Coca-Cola, the number one soda at the time. Or Pepsi Cola, the number two soda at the time. Then Geoffrey Holder holds up a lemon and a lime. He calls them "Un-cola nuts." These "Un-cola nuts" are used to make 7 Up. Because it is made with "Un-cola nuts," 7 Up, that has a "fresh, clean taste." 7 Up, the "Un-cola" is different, better, than the colas made with cola nuts. (You can watch the commercial on YouTube.) The reason I was thinking of 7 Up, the "Un-cola," is because of Wednesday morning. Wednesday morning, I was volunteer chaplaining. A patient, Diana, had two black eyes from falling down. Hard. She told how her little granddaughter had come in for a visit. Diana's little granddaughter had visited. This little girl had said, "I'm gonna pray for you, Meemaw!" Then the little girl had prayed for her grandmother, right there, in that hospital room. Later, I thought, no adults ever say, "I'm going to pray for you" when they visit someone in the hospital. No, we are too self conscious. We might pray "wrong." We might pray "not good enough." We're always worrying about how good we will do! But this little girl was Un-self-conscious. She wasn't worrying about praying "right." She wasn't worrying about praying "not good enough." She just went ahead and said, "I'm gonna pray for you," and then she did. This little girl was Un-self-conscious. Like the old commercial for 7 Up, the Un-cola. How can anxious, perfectionist control freak, like myself, move towards the childlike gift of Un-self-conscious? In today's Gospel reading, Jesus talks about a guest at God' wedding feast. This guest gets into trouble because he hasn't put on the wedding robe offered by the king. What is the meaning of this? For today, this anxious perfectionist control freak is gonna go with, this wedding robe stand for surrender. You know how it is. Life is about trying hard, to be good. And trying harder. If I still bother with church, life is about going to church, being nagged to try harder to be good, and then working hard together, and harder, to help my church survive. Sure sounds pretty grim, don't it? Which is why you find so few people, inside and outside churches, smiling. I get it. Today is Sunday. So me, the anxious, perfectionist control freak, is gonna try hard, and harder, to make the sermon perfect. If the sermon is perfect, maybe that will help the church survive. Meanwhile, God is calling me to put on the wedding robe. Put on the wedding robe of. Surrender. Let go, trust God, and lighten up. Let go, and try to become more Un-self-conscious. Maybe that way my faith can have a "fresh, clean taste," like 7 Up, the Un-cola.