(if you are viewing this via email, the website has a recording of this poem and commentary; click the title above)
When the Stiff Armers made first contact with the Stiff Upper Lippers, it wasn’t clear they’d get along. For centuries, these two sects had lived in isolation. Their cultures had developed in radically different ways. Everything, from the core of their respective religious practices, rippling out to dietary preferences, all the way to entertainment choices was different.
The two sects did have one thing in common. They each thought the gods had uniquely gifted them with music. Believe me when I tell you—they were delightful musicians, each in their own way. The Stiff Armers could whistle like birds. The Stiff Upper Lippers wouldn’t think of whistling, but they were absolute magicians with the ukulele.
Someday, we can explore the story of how the Stiff Armers and the Stiff Upper Lippers met, and the many things they learned from one another. Their encounter would change history. How much? So much that you’ve probably never even heard of these sects and their strange practices. Right?
Today, I just want to bluntly state the revolutionary lesson that the Armers and Lippers learned. Simply put, it is that the gods give music freely, totally apart from our posture.
[This little flight of fancy was the result of thinking about Acts 15. There we read how some of the Jewish followers of Jesus were surprised and delighted to learn that God approves of man not on the basis of his religious practice, but on his grateful reliance on Jesus.]
#acts15 #religion #faith #grace #approval #salvation
