“He’s Not Safe”

Mrs. Beaver’s statement about Aslan is one of my favorite quotes. If I was ever going to get a tattoo that would be on it. Part of the rhythm of my week is spending some time writing. I try to go up to the Legion of Honor or the de Young, because there is good light, cheap coffee, plenty of places to plug my computer in and they do not mind if I sit there for four hours. The de Young’s Café is adjacent to the sculpture garden. One of my favorite pieces is this giant safety pin by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen (they also made cupid’s span down by ATT Park).



The thing I like best about it is that it is undone, it is not in the safe position. The interesting thing is that a safety pin cannot be used if it remains in the safe, closed position. If it remains closed it will be safe, but worthless. It is not until the pin is opened, in the dangerous position that it can be used by the owner. Opened, the pin can pierce the objects and clasp connecting them together, then closed back in the safe position.


Our lives are the same as the pin. If we remain closed up, locked up, then we will remain safe, unattached, not used for what we were created for. Yet we were made to live lives of danger that entail risk. We are created and called to live our lives open, in the unsafe position. God calls us to a life of discomfort, of risk, of living out on the edge. Many of us have turned Christ’s call into a referendum of morality, a list of don’ts. Don’t swear, don’t smoke, don’t do bad things. Christ’s call is to be radically different than the world and to be part of transforming the world from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, “love the unloved, speak the truth without fear, go into all the nations and make disciples, turn the other cheek.”

We cannot live this faith unless we unclasp, open up, and live with the risk that we could inflict damage. Listen to the call of Jesus to his followers:

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn

"'a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'

"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

-Jesus, Recorded by Matthew Chapter 10 verses 34-38

This is not the call to a safe life, but it is a call to a rich one, a wild one.

Peace
Edwin