Couple weeks ago I heard two wildly different news stories about Taylor Swift within a day or two of each other. One was about a preacher somewhere declaring that Taylor Swift has a Jezebel spirit in her. Jezebel is a queen in the Old Testament who was in battle against the prophet Elijah and was a follower of Baal, if you remember that story. Anyway, I had to look up what this meant, to say someone has a Jezebel spirit, and from my Googling, sounds like they were basically saying she is bringing demonic forces into the world. I don’t know enough about Taylor Swift to address the strength of this argument. That is not the rabbit hole I’ll be going down, but there is apparently a current kerfuffle about her.

The other story was about a church service in Germany. This service was in one of the many old, giant cathedrals that are no longer full of worshipping Christians, until this particular service. The whole service was done with Taylor Swift music, instead of hymns, and 1,200 people came.

This was quite the juxtaposition of responses to little ol’ Taylor Swift.

What I find fascinating about this is that it was a church service with the church’s band covering Taylor Swift songs that drew that many folks. Any old cover band could do a set of Taylor Swift songs and they would likely not draw 1,200 people. That’s a lot of people. But in this case, you have a church’s praise band playing Taylor Swift’s music within the context of connecting with the Divine. 1,200 people came for that. I imagine this service was quite joyful, full of folks who have likely not been in a space or gathering that is focused on connecting with God. I wonder what communion was like for the many people who haven’t had communion before or perhaps not for many years. I imagine people who may be struggling with isolation and loneliness finding connection in passing the peace. Or people who found a surprising comfort in the confession or creed, even if they don’t know exactly why. And, of course, you know there was dancing in the pews – all of it, I’m sure, infused with the Holy Spirit. I’m not a Swiftie and this still sounds like an amazingly good time to me.

So, two very different responses to Taylor Swift in the context of the Divine.

Of course this is was popped to mind when I read this text, as Jesus is called a demon and, at the same moment, is mobbed for his capacity to bring people closer to God. He’s getting the same response as Taylor Swift.

However, I’d imagine Jesus handles this strange mix of reactions better than Taylor does or could. Afterall, she is just a human like any other and so struggles, I’m sure, with the weight of fame, criticism, and being idolized. Jesus doesn’t seem to struggle with this juxtaposition of condemnation and celebration, however. Even when his family seems to think he’s lost his mind and are trying to corral him, he’s clear. He knows who he is, who God is, and who we are.

Us normal folks are a little more prone to self-doubt and shame than that. As humans, we struggle to remember who we are – beloved children of God who are wonderfully made, who’s creation God declares as good in Genesis 1. We are perfectly made, wanted, included, and adored creations of the Holy One.

This includes all of us. Unfortunately, this includes people we don’t like, folks we’d perhaps like to see condemned in our meaner moments.

However, the beauty is that when we believe and accept that God does not exclude the dreaded people of our lives, that also means God NEVER excludes us. It means that God NEVER excludes even the parts of us that we may view as unforgiveable failures. God does not and will not see us that way. God loves us in our many ways of being – in our joy and pain, in our generosity and miserliness, in our responsibility and our breakdowns, in our childish tantrums and hard-fought wisdom. The gift of our identity is already given, even when we don’t remember it.

The moment in the Genesis text today is the poignant moment when God discovered that Adam and Eve are living in a new reality, hiding in shame that they had never known before. Genesis 2 is the second Creation story of the Bible, which is different than the first one, and it ends with the sentence, “Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” They were exactly as they were as they were made and they felt no shame.  Just imagine what that feeling must be like, to just be in the world exactly as you are and being 100%, absolutely OK with it. Or, even happy with it. Lumps and bumps and all. It might be hard to fully imagine.

After Adam and Eve’s first sin Genesis 3, eating the apple despite God’s limitation, they knew shame and they hid.

The feeling of shame is so awful. Because it is so awful, we hide from it. We hide it from others. We hide it from ourselves. We try to hide it from God. We don’t want to feel it, talk about it, acknowledge it. None of it.

But the truth is we all have shame. There is a silver lining, though. According to shame researcher Brene Brown, the only ones among us who don’t have shame are sociopaths. So, that’s good to know. It’s good to know that most of us are not alone in having shame, even though all our hiding can make us feel assum that this is so.

When we are in a shame storm (as I call it), we hide these wounds particularly if we believe we have somehow “earned” our wounds due to whatever failures and limitations we have. We may feel unworthy of forgiveness, unworthy of love, unworthy of being simply who we are, unworthy of rest, unworthy to simple be as we were made without hiding.

The difference between Jesus and the rest of us, including Taylor Swift, is that Jesus knows his identity beyond any shadow of doubt. He knows he is filled with the Holy Spirit even when all the people around him are wondering about his sanity or calling him Beelzebub. The rest of us are not as clear.

When we’re in shame, what seems to go out the window right away is our identity in Christ. Instead of Beloved Child of God, our identity becomes…

• the one who never gets anything right
• the one who hurts everyone they’re close to
• the one who is too afraid to stand up for justice
• the one who will never be enough
• the one who is just fooling everyone
• the one who … fill in the blank with your own story of your inadequacy.

These are all lies we tell ourselves. Our identity in Christ means we are wanted, perfectly made (our imperfections included), and beloved children of God. That doesn’t mean we don’t make mistakes. We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves, right? We are perfectly made and yet imperfect creatures. We need to confess our sins, make amends, and try to do better for the sake of loving the world as Jesus commanded us to do.

And yet that process does not need to be shame-filled.

We can lay the shame down, claim our identity as Jesus is showing us, and ask for healing, redemption, forgiveness, and new life in Christ. We can still be naked before God and not hide. While it is awkward to let our guard down to be naked before God in our prayers and in our lives, this is the way of discipleship, is it not?

There is never anything that can separate you, all parts of you, from the love of God – even if you are condemned as having a Jezebel spirit. Even then, you are embraced by the one who made you.

As we live our lives, perhaps particularly as we follow God’s calls on our lives, we will suffer bumps and bruises, setbacks, and running commentary by folks who are throw stones. We will also suffer our own internal voice of condemnation. Shame will sometimes win in telling us that we must hide the simple reality of our lives, because it is so unacceptable. But that is a lie. The truth of who you are, beloved Child of God, is more real, more relevant, more important than the lies our shame storms tell us.

You are loved. You are enough. And so is everyone else.

And with that we say,

AMEN