I am often asked by people unfamiliar with the ministry of Recovery Worship why we have a "rainbow cross" on our webpage. "Are you a gay ministry" I am asked. Well, when I told this to one of my folks here at Recovery Worship his response was "Well, yes, we are a bunch of really happy people."
Following the flood God said Noah, 'This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.' Following the death of all living things on the earth, except Noah, his family, and his flouting zoo, God promised that He/She would never do it again, at least with water. From near total death and destruction, God gave us another chance, following the flood the world was a new creation.
We also like to use butterfly imagery here at Recovery Worship, one of the graphics we use is a rainbow colored butterfly. For a butterfly to live, something has to die, in the case of the butterfly it is a caterpillar. Now I am not a butterfly expert so I am not sure exactly how it happened (I didn't pay much attention in 4th grade science class) but a caterpillar has to wrap itself up into a cocoon and die, from this death a butterfly is born.
To be born anew is a wonderful experience. When I hear people talk of their recovery I am reminded of the conversations I have had with people who have had "near death" experiences. They feel they have been given a second chance in life, they view life differently; they feel that they are a new creation in their recovery. In their addiction they have experience hell on earth, in their recovery they still have difficulties but they now have a new way of handling those difficulties. For them, being a new creation means more than simply not using, drinking, or acting out their addiction. Some would use the term "born again" well if that is works for you that is fine but it carries a heavy fundamentalist tone that we avoid here at Recovery.
However, in defense of the idea of being "born again" it isn't really the same. As the Big Book of AA states, recovery is a program of "Spiritual growth, not Spiritual perfection." You can say all day long that you are in recovery but if you have not fundamentally changed your life from your pre-recovery life you are only fooling yourself. If you say you are born again, yet you continue to live your as you did in your prior life, well you are only fooling yourself.
We will never be perfect in our spiritual life, in our recovery life, or in our Christian life, but in all of this we are a New Creation!
See you next Sunday
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