My memories of the show are vague at best, but as I pondered this week’s scripture readings, it came to me that God’s grace is a lot like having a “supersuit” minus the instruction manual. Jesus’ own metaphor puts it like this, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” An experience of God’s grace is life-changing. Ralph put on the suit, and he became the “greatest American hero.” Believers die to their old lives, and put on new life in Christ.

Sometimes though this new life doesn’t fit us quite the way we’d like. We try to fly and end up crashing into a building. We want to trust God’s grace, and yet we fall back into old patterns of behavior. Jesus also talks about how uncomfortable it can be to be a messenger of God’s goodness, or to have to do what is right when everyone else seems to be doing something wrong. Finding ourselves hating this life for sake of the next is no joke. Having this “supersuit” doesn’t always feel so super.

So what exactly is God’s grace, then? Theologians and pastors toss this word around, but do we know what it really means for each of us – today. For me, God’s grace is represented well through the Jeremiah passage in the form of an unbreakable covenant. God makes humankind a promise, saying, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” God’s love is written in us, right on our hearts. Everyone will know God – from the least to greatest. Best of all, our sins are forgiven and forgotten by God. What more could we ask?

In a Christian interpretation of this text, we might read into Jeremiah’s account that Jesus Christ came into our world to share with us that unbreakable covenant, to fulfill the law, to make it part of our heart knowledge as well as our head knowledge. Certainly, that is part of my understanding. In the way that Jesus lived and died, he made known the God of love who would go to any length to free us from the burden of our sin. That said -following Jesus on this path is not quite as easy as it sounds. It means that we have to let go of this life. We must die to the things the world considers important, so that Christ can live in us.

Again, I wonder what help that metaphor really is in understanding what Jesus is trying to tell us. The full set of instructions seems nowhere to be found. Jesus gives us questions when we really want answers. So what exactly needs to die for us to live? And, what needs to live in us for us to die and be with Christ? I have my thoughts on this to be sure. In my little world, when that seed of faith gets planted, it is certain death for greed, arrogance, and in any way allowing oneself to be counted as more special than anyone else. But those are just the things I really hate and find to be spiritually stifling. There may be more. The death part feels familiar. I’ve experienced it – multiple times over. Just when I think I have it all together, it never fails, some part of me is about to be pruned away. When I’m lucky, I can let whatever it is go a little easier realizing that I’m no longer in control. On rare occasions, I actually get the freeing feeling that I’ve never been in control. Jesus had this spiritual framework right. Most of my own personal knowledge about this comes through hindsight, but I can tell you that God finds ways of showing me when there’s something amiss in me that needs to die. Sometimes it makes me laugh. Sometimes it grieves me deeply. Sometimes it takes repeating whatever lesson is coming my way several hundred times over before anything ever sprouts from that particular seed. I’ve come to terms with that, and I know that God loves me even through my most stubborn moments.

I know this because I know God loves us all through our stubborn, human, hard-headed moments when the nut doesn’t even want to crack. That’s why I love silly humor like the kind found in the premise of “The Greatest American Hero.” The clowns and comedians and characters in our lives show us how not to take ourselves too seriously or believe that we are superhuman when we’re not. The absurdity is that we have grown accustomed to being “in control,” of feeling like we have the answers when the questions themselves are, by their nature, way out of our league. The truth is that we are all bumbling through life – sometimes making the mess, sometimes helping to clean it up. To live the life of faith, the death of self-centered pride gets repeated over and over and over again.

But, my friends, it’s all OK. There’s a greater purpose at work here. Forgiveness is what makes it all possible. Remember God writes love letters, TO US, right on our hearts. That’s where the joy in life comes from. It isn’t riches, or fame, or being super. None of that really matters. What isn’t OK is holding on too tightly to that desired perfection and control. As Jesus would tell us, “You just don’t get any fruit if you aren’t willing to plant that seed in the dirt!”

Well, now that you know I’m a sucker for bad television, I might as well admit that I am also a crazy optimist when it comes to observing human behavior. I like to think that people can change, that they change every day, and that even the tiniest change that benefits God’s plan is a miracle in and of itself. Again, I’ve seen it – up close and personal. I’ve witnessed the softening of a hard heart. I know that forgiveness can melt the ice of a 20 year stand-off. I’ve watched laughter change the tone of a room in an instant. I have no doubt that God loves us enough, surely, to not let us stay like we are today. With the “supersuit” of grace that comes with knowing in our heart of hearts God’s love and forgiveness, the courage to live a new life in Christ comes naturally. We find the gumption to go where we’ve always been afraid to go. We stretch our arms to fly, even if we look more like a flailing Ralph Hinkley than a confident Superman while doing it. God’s love provides amazing strength and warmth and even a little know-how. I am convinced that no reward of money, or fame, or beauty will change us for the better, but our own rewards of love, and kindness and justice, now that can change the world.

Amen.