Sunday’s Sermon Today: Who’s Coming To Dinner? (John 6:1-15)

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Jacob Sahms

My dad tells stories about Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and Easter at his grandmother’s house. His grandfather was a baker, and cooking was an extreme sport when it came to feeding the whole family. There were four children and their spouses, seven grandchildren and their significant others, and a growing brood of great grandchildren. And while the food was magical, there was a problem.

The kitchen table just wasn’t big enough.

So there was a young couples table, a kids’ table, a table for the babies, and everyone else had to fend for themselves in the living room or on the stairs. Sure, there was a serving table where all of the food was in the kitchen. But the table itself was extended throughout the house, from room to room, so that not everyone could see each other but they were all eating the same thing. They were all part of the same family. They were all in it together.

In our story today, there’s no table at all! But all of those who have gathered around Jesus to be healed, to bring others for healing, to hear him preach, whatever their reason, are gathered there in the middle of nowhere.

Jesus uses this moment to see what his disciples are made of, and he asks, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” Now, it’s curious because he asks Philip, not Judas Iscariot who was the treasurer, how they will handle this. Jesus asks a question without making it financial; he’s asking where they could find that much bread!

Still, Jesus gets a financial answer. “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” Philip replies.

All of the disciples working together for half a year could barely cover a nibble of bread per person is the essence of it. But another disciples, Andrew, heard the question differently, and points to the boy with the wise mother, who’d packed him a lunch.

Again, the answer is still limited by space and size and normal, conventional decision-making things. “How far will it go with so many people here?”

In essence, the disciples are trying to figure out a way to make the problem go away. They’re trying to figure out how they might limit who gets some, or who they would be responsible for. They don’t see a spiritual situation here, but a logistical one.

Jesus is, as we’ve come to expect, operating on a different level. He tells the disciples to have everyone sit down, he prays to God for what has been given to them, and he distributes to those around as much as they wanted.

Jesus doesn’t distinguish between man, woman, or child. He doesn’t ask where they’re from or why they came or what their intentions are. He just feeds them.

Of course, reading the story, we know that there is enough to feed even more people than were there, and that Jesus’ point is that they shouldn’t waste anything. And there’s that moment when the crowd wants to coronate him because even they can see what happened… and he wants nothing to do with their praise.

Quick recap: There’s a problem with feeding. Jesus praises God for what they do have. And there’s enough.

Sure, there’s a tendency to bang on the disciples for ‘not having faith’ or ‘not getting it.’ But what about the responsibility we can see here for Jesus to say that all of the preaching in the world doesn’t feed a person? Or that even though those people came to hear him unprepared, and that’s their decision, that it was their job (Jesus and the disciples) to feed them?

What happens if we recognize that while we’re supposed to preach and teach and share and invite and serve, that when it comes down to the basic needs of people, that Jesus thinks the disciples, and by extension, us, should be doing something about it?

On a day when we’re having an event to raise money and awareness for hunger, I’m reminded that safe, saccharine feeding fundraisers aren’t enough. We need to recognize that what we have is God’s and it’s for us to use it for God’s glory. We need to recognize that if others are hungry then we can’t really be “full.” That if there’s not a place at the table here for everyone, then it’s not really God’s table!

Remember how my great grandmother’s house had an “extended table?” Maybe some of you had one, too. But consider the Lord’s Table, the table set by Jesus for his disciples at the Last Supper and shared with everyone by his death and resurrection.

In our Methodist communion liturgy, we say:

By your Spirit make us one with Christ,
one with each other,
and one in ministry to all the world,
until Christ comes in final victory
and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Every time Jesus fed someone, he gave thanks to God. He asked God to be present. He shared in communion in spirit with God and those who he was feeding, and extended the heavenly table out through himself. But it’s not a finite table. It’s an everlasting table, a sharing in the kingdom of God in the world.

Some days, I wonder why God put me here. I wonder if I’m doing enough. I wonder if we’re doing enough as a church. We’ve been reading Mike Slaughter’s Dare to Dream, in which he encourages us to have a BHAG- Big Hairy Audacious Goal/God-Dream. I wonder what it would look like to live into a dream where we ended hunger in our community.

Where there were no hungry people in our county.

Sounds crazy. And I mean, “we’re not social services.”

But was it crazy for five loaves and two fish to feed 5,000 people? Especially when you consider by Bible math, that five thousand was probably just the men? Let’s say 15,000 people, just for fun, were fed by five loaves and two fish?

Can hunger be ended in one county, by the extension of the Lord’s Table through mission into the world? Sounds less crazy now, doesn’t it?

I dare you to dream a God-sized dream about love, and hope, and ending suffering. Maybe we’ll feed 5,000 people. Maybe we’ll feed 500. But it’s not ours to decide who gets feed, only that we apply ourselves to serving those who are hungry.

Are you ready to get fed as we come to the table? May the bread we break and the juice we pour be multiplied like loaves and fishes until it is so much more. Amen.

Posted in Current Events, Pop Culture, Sermons | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sunday’s Sermon Today: One Giant Step (Matthew 14:22-33)

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Jacob Sahms

Peter is the man. He isn’t always the best he can be, remember he’s equally the guy Jesus says he will build the church on, AND the guy who will deny Jesus three times in Jesus’s greatest hour of need. He’s the guy who we see Jesus through; Peter is the one willing to ask the hard questions, say the wrong things, explore what it means to really be a disciple.

And there’s no time where that is more apparent than in our Scripture today.

Jesus has sent the disciples ahead of him. Even though they’re traveling together, Jesus tells them that he’s going to the mountainside to pray, because he needs some alone time, and he’ll meet them later. It says they again encountered a rough path across the water, and close to dawn, Jesus started walking across the water to them.

And they get scared, because they think he’s a ghost. Now, what does that tell us about them? That it makes MORE sense that it was a ghost than it was Jesus walking across the water? That makes me think that one or more of them had heard about ghosts or seen one, but they had never seen another human being walk on the water.

I came across the story a few weeks ago about a mother watching her son play in the kiddie pool outside the kitchen window. He splashed happily from one side to the other for a few minutes, then began frowning and emptying the water out of the pool with a bucket. She went outside to ask him what he was doing, and he told her that his Sunday school teacher had said Jesus walked on water and “this water wasn’t working.”

But this water works for Jesus. And he tells his disciples DNBA: “do not be afraid.”
Still, not everyone can overcome their fear to respond. It’s only Peter, the fisherman-in-training-to -fish-for-men who steps out of the boat.

Peter has a desire to be with Jesus. He WANTS to trust Jesus, and through Jesus’ encouragement, he steps out on the water. He wants to walk on water and so he gets out of the boat. He knows that if he wants to change, to grow, to understand, to be more like Jesus, that he has to leave the boat. He has to get onto the water.

But when Peter sees the wind, his courage falters, and he loses his vision. Back up for a minute though: in between getting out of the boat and experiencing fear, PETER WALKS ON WATER.

For all of the times when we say “but of course Jesus could do x,y, and z, he was GOD,” here’s the story of a human who was so focused on what Jesus, that he did what Jesus did. Peter performed a miracle, in a world where it was more believable that there are ghosts than that a man could walk on water, Peter walked on water.

Peter put his faith out there by taking a risk. He put it into practice.

And then he got scared and began to overthink it and he began to sink.

Now, it says that Peter saw the wind, but you can’t really see the wind, can you? You see the effects of the wind, and you feel the wind, but you don’t see the wind itself.

Casting Crowns, in their song “Voice of Truth,” uses anthropomorphic lyrics to explain how the context, the situation, impacted Peter.

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I’m in
Onto the crashing waves

To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He’s holding out His hand

But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I’ve tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. “Boy, you’ll never win!”
“You’ll never win!”

From Peter’s perspective in the song, the waves laugh at him. And it’s not a nice laugh, not a case of laughing WITH him. No, this is derisive, corrupted, derogatory laughter, like those who laughed at Jesus as he beaten and nailed to the cross.

This is the way that the wind causes Peter to loses sight of his goal of walking with Jesus. This is the way that seemed impossible, that then became doable, now becomes a moment of failure again.

What do those waves look like for you? When you are motivated to follow Jesus? What gets in the way of the opportunity to be with Jesus?

Here are several “waves” I think many of us face.

The wave of our habits. I like to work out. I like the feeling of exercise, and even more, I like that when I work out, I can eat more of the thing I like. But when vacation comes or I get sick, my pattern of behavior gets fragmented. And even when regular life resumes, I don’t always start working out right away. I have gotten out of the habit of working out.

The same thing happens in our lives of faith. We don’t go to church for sickness or vacation or work and suddenly, the next time we COULD go, there’s a question where there wasn’t one before: should I go to church?

When the pastor says, “we should be praying everyday,” or “Are you regularly giving back to God financially?” And we haven’t been doing those things already, we can’t see where that time, or energy, or money would come from.

If we pull the timeline back from our committed level, to when we’re first introduced to faith and church, what was it like when Sunday was our 2nd Saturday? When we don’t get this God thing, why would we give God any of our money?

I can’t imagine NOT going to church, but I’ve been going to church week in and week out for 36 years! That is my habit, but for some, their habits are a wave.

The wave of our family and friends. For some of us, our families are a wave that laughs at us. Maybe they laugh at us when we say we’re going to make a change, when we say we’re going to stop drinking too much on Saturday and sleeping in instead of church, or stop sleeping around, or stop telling those kinds of jokes, because that’s what we need to do to follow Jesus better. Maybe they laugh at us when we say that we’re going to church more often, or (gasp) sing in the choir or go to Bible study or lead and serve. Maybe that laughter sounds like “aren’t you doing enough?” Maybe the people closest to us are the ones who seem to be the ones who undercut our ability to walk on the water, to follow Jesus wherever we’re supposed to.

The wave of our doubts. Now, I believe that we are to love The Lord our God with our whole heart, mind, body, and strength. I DONT think God wants us to turn our brains off at the door. I don’t think God is looking for a bunch of automatons who aren’t using their heart AND their mind in conjunction. But what happens when we let “experts” and their opinions get in between what we learn about God, what we experience in our hearts, and what we let other people say?

What happens is often that our balance gets off kilter. John Wesley set up our decision making through the quadrilateral, that Scripture was the base, but that our reason, church tradition, and our experience all mattered, too. If we use that, and we actually give Scripture its due, then we can get to a place where doubts are room for growth, not debilitating paralyzation.

The wave of our pasts. I have found that our pasts, specifically out mistakes. Often cloud how we behave in the present… But that many of us don’t give much thought to how we got here. What was my upbringing like? How do I interact with people at home and work? What do we go to when push comes to shove? Too often we only look at the negative, remembering our failure. And figuring that the failures will continue and we’ll never grow.

I imagine that Peter had all of these flitting through his mind as he sank. “what are the other disciples going to say?” “I’ve never walked on water before!” “Who is Jesus to actually walk on water?” “What happens if I sink?”

But this story doesn’t end with Peter falling. It ends with a profession of faith because Peter cries out with the simplest of prayers. Remember, prayer at its most basic is recognizing that we cannot do it on our own, acknowledging that God is god and we are not.

Peter cries , “Lord save me,” and Jesus does. Jesus comes through where Peter could not. Peter couldn’t stay focused. He couldn’t complete his own hopes and dreams to be WITH Jesus without Jesus helping him.

Sure , the adage is true: “if you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.” But you can get out of the boat again and again, and face the same wind, the same waves. If you’re not willing to put it all on Jesus, you’re going to keep sinking. You don’t need to do this on your own. You need to admit that you can’t do it on your own.

Change and growth don’t occur when everything is fine. If Peter had walked on water, he would’ve thought HE had accomplished it, that his faith alone had given him the power.

Peter was at a place where he understood BELIEF but he didn’t yet TRUST. Peter didn’t really get trust until much later but he wouldn’t have ever trusted if his belief hadn’t changed over time.

Do you believe? Do you know that God is calling you out of safety into risk and challenge for the kingdom of God? Are you moving into further belief, into a deeper understanding of what God wants for you?

Because Peter started to sink, he realized belief wasn’t enough but that faith and trust in Jesus saves! That combination is what gets Peter through, that helps him get out of the boat and thrive.

That’s why the Casting Crowns’ song revolves around this chorus, one that I think speaks to so many of life’s situations:

But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, “Do not be afraid!”
The voice of truth says, “This is for My glory”
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth.

I pray today that you would step out on faith, see the waves, and in the name of Jesus trust that they hold no power over you. I hope that our church will care about the real waves that others face, like cancer, slavery, job equality, racism, and do something about it. 

I pray that you will embrace those moments and remember the message of the angels, and later Jesus: “Do not be afraid.” That we wouldn’t let what we think might happen get in the way of what God wants from us. That we would know that Jesus didn’t leave Peter to fend for himself, and he doesn’t leave us alone either.

I pray that you will hear God speaking to you, and look up from the waves, and rest in the grip of the one, true God. I pray that you will listen, too, and know that God’s plan for your life is a good one!

Then, and only then, will you see the storms, the boat, and every wave differently, because you will be riding on them, and they will no longer hold you back. Amen.

Posted in Pop Culture, Sermons, Theology | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Casting Crowns’ Thrive: What God Wants For You (Book/Music Review)

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Jacob Sahms

Casting Crowns lead singer Mark Hall is delivering up plenty for your mind to reflect on over the next few weeks. On Tuesday, the latest CC album, Thrive, hit music stores everywhere; on February 11, you can snatch up a copy of his book (with Tim Luke), Thrive: Digging Deep, Reaching Out. In both, you’ll hear words of wisdom from Hall’s experience and a depth of theological encouragement for your soul.

It’s rare in a CD that I find the second half stronger than the first, but that’s true here. It’s not that the self-titled first track or that the others included in the first few songs aren’t good, but from the fifth track on… wow. “Broken Together” nearly reduced me to tears: the recounting of the ways that marriage hasn’t been ‘dreamy’ segue into the realization that maybe instead of ‘completeness,’ that a couple should work throw their brokenness, with God, together. Powerful stuff.

The sixth studio album of the group, Thrive also covers the way that our dreams are often less powerful (and potential) than what God has in mind for us in “Dream For You,” matching up against the ‘stealer of dreams’ in “Waiting For The Night To Fall.” “Love You With The Truth” fights against a person of faith’s inadequacy in sharing their faith, while “Follow Me” tracks Jesus’ first disciple, Peter, in his post-walking on water/post-pre-Crucifixion failure to see Jesus’ work through his inadequacies. And there’s the standard CC “Livin’ On A Prayer Song” (you know, the one that tells people’s stories??!), “Heroes,” that recounts the different people who are heroic in their own lives and calling but are often overlooked.

It may be my favorite Casting Crowns CD since… their self-titled debut in 2003.

Meanwhile, the book gives insights into Hall’s life and experience that I hadn’t heard before, but which broaden my appreciation for his music. There are stories about his dyslexia, his time as a youth minister, Teen Challenge, and Iggy the Eagle/Yardbird. There are chapters with pastoral ‘unpacking’ of Scripture, like Ephesians 2, and even a closing proposal, The Thrive Challenge, for readers to implement some of the life lessons every day. (My favorite anecdote is about how Steven Curtis Chapman helped complete one of my favorite Casting Crowns’ songs.)

Both the book and the CD frame the cover art of the tree, which Hall talks about being like “The Tree” at the Junction in South Alabama. The tree itself survives the test of time because of its roots; it would not survive as a tree without its roots. Roots both dig deep (gaining foundation, and traction) and reach out, giving the book its purpose. Hall wants us to make sure we’re behaving correctly, thinking correctly, and moving into community that will encourage us to do all of that together.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Nut Job: We’re In This Together (Movie Review)

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Jacob Sahms

Have you heard the joke about nuts? The Nut Job will treat you to all of the PG-rated jokes in the book!

Surly (Will Arnett) is a squirrel loner, who destroys the Oakton park’s winter supply of food for all of the animals, and gets voted out of the park. His rat friend, Buddy (Robert Tinkler), willingly goes with him, and soon, he’s joined (less willingly) by another squirrel named Andie (Katherine Heigl), as he plots to break into a nut shop.

What Surly doesn’t know is that the nut shop is actually the launching pad for a human gang’s plot to break into the bank next door and steal all of the money. So, while the animals are scheming to relieve the nut shop of all of its nuts, the humans are tunneling into the bank. Off and on, the animals’ plan negates the human plan, even while the humans’ pet, Precious the pug (Maya Rudolph), joins the animals in their plot. It’s the hijinks of an animal cartoon (Over the Hedge comes to mind), mixed with a poorly planned heist movie (The Ladykillers?), that develops a heart along the way.

Surly wants NOTHING to do with the other animals; he thinks his whole life is just about him. He causes the destruction of the food supply by his own selfishness, and he doesn’t seem to understand what friendship (even with Buddy) looks like. But somewhere along the way, thanks to the altruism of the others, he recognizes what good and evil are, what friendship should look like, and what participation in a ‘real community’ looks like.

Along the way, we realize that Surly is actually a better squirrel, er, person, than we thought he was, while some of the other animals are not what they’re cracked up to be. But there’s a Surly versus Grayson (Brendan Fraser) thread throughout where we see that what people think about the squirrels isn’t necessarily what they really are. In Matthew 21:28-32, Jesus tells a parable about two sons: one says he will help his father and doesn’t, while the other grumbles and says he won’t but he does. Surly and Grayson are a lot like that, begging us to recognize that ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover,’ and that people can actually change.

Overall, The Nut Job wasn’t as funny as I’d hoped with Arnett leading the way, but it had a bigger heart.

Posted in Movie Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

True Detective Eps. 3-4: What Makes You Authentic? (TV Review)

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Jacob Sahms

Scooping up HBO’s True Detective (episodes 3 and 4), I’m struck by the discrepancies between Matthew McConaughey’s Rusty Cohle and Woody Harrelson’s Martin Hart, both detectives in the dirty Louisiana bayou but every different. Sure, they’re linked by the two-part display of their murder investigation, in 1995 and 2012, of a serial killer, but their characterization by Nic Pizollatto is exquisitely different. One represents a fake, skin-deep faith in religion, marriage, and the law; one doubts everything, but is willing to make a full disclosure of that fact.

I’m still not sure who is on the up-and-up, and knowing that the next season (there is almost assuredly a season two) involves a completely new cast, we don’t have predisposed ideas of who is on the side of the angels. Frankly, we have reason to doubt both of these guys! But consider what we know so far.

Hart is married to Michelle Monaghan’s Maggie but he’s having an affair with a younger woman on the side. He’s still exploring the case of the dead, ritualistically murdered women as if it’s all straightforward. He says that belief is what keeps us all from going off the rails and letting us see what good is in the world, but he doesn’t actually act like a person who has embraced faith at all.

Cohle is different. So much different. He’s struggling with drug-induced trances, not sure what’s a powerful vision of his subconscious and what’s just a fantasy. He says religion is manmade, a control valve, and that there’s nothing beyond life itself, that death is just a release. He knows that the law isn’t really interested in going as far as it needs to get to the bottom of these murders, and so he takes matters by the fourth episode, into his own hands. And marriage? Well, we can see some signs of his value there brewing, but nothing completely provable yet.

While True Detective pushes the envelope sometimes, it’s not just a grimy criminal procedural with splashes of Mickey Spillane; it’s actually a thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be real, to be authentic, and to experience life as it really is. What is true? What makes sense? What defines us? True Detective is exploring these questions, and proposing that there are no easy answers.

Posted in Reviews, TV | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jack Ryan, Shadow Recruit: For Love & Country (Movie Review)

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Jacob Sahms

Finally, some non-Middle Eastern bad guys.

That was my first thought when Jack Ryan, Shadow Recruit introduces us to Kenneth Branaugh’s Russian financial power broker, Viktor Cherevin. While the new-and-improved (okay, significantly younger than Harrison Ford) Jack Ryan (Chris Pine, Star Trek Into Darkness) becomes a war hero, financial analyst, and wooer of Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley), Cherevin is slowly building a plot to take down the United States. And it’s not just a “how many people can we kill?” plot but actually a plan to topple the country’s economy as well.

Kevin Costner shows up as more than a cameo (a la Man of Steel), taking over for James Earl Jones as Ryan’s control with the CIA. He’s still the father figure/role model but it’s significantly more hands on that what we saw from Jones in the Ford version of the movies. The action takes awhile to build, but when it does, it seems like we’ve stepped into a version of Jason Bourne/James Bond that actually makes sense and seems reasonable (even if it’s not). But, wow, the action that we’re rewarded with is terrific, and still, Branaugh’s direction (remember Thor?) provides a more passionate, intimate spy than we’ve seen before.

If anything, this is more Patriot Games than Clear and Present Danger, or 2002’s reboot The Sum of All Fears. We see Ryan struggle with his purpose (is an analyst as much of a hero as a boots-on-the-ground type?) and his family (can he keep this a secret? will anyone accept him once they know?) Knightley plays Cathy (as I thought of her reading Tom Clancy’s words) to the hilt, and proves to admirably co-star with Pine, who provides feeling and gravitas to a role, making it more than just a shoot-’em-up.

We could all stand to consider how we’ve made others hate us, whether it’s individually or as a country. We could all use a good dose of big picture humanity. But for Jack Ryan, this is ultimately a question of character under fire, both in relationships and at work. He’s a hero that still has to go home, and he’s more easily related to than many of the other spy types we’ve been entranced by over the years.

Jack Ryan is the movie you walk out of wanting to be braver, drive faster, go the distance… but the sweetest moment came for me in the conversation about love and marriage. Ryan tells Cathy, apologetically, “You didn’t choose this life, I did,” and she replies, “yes, but I chose you.”

Whether you can relate or not, with a career that calls you to sell out and drag your family into it, it’s hard to miss that we have real-world thinking behind a big, explosive spy thriller. I’m grateful for that this week, in light of having watched heavy films like Fruitvale Station and The Butler lately. This was fun, but it still had heart!

Posted in Current Events, Movie Reviews, Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Gimme Shelter: Stop Dancing With Your Demons (Movie Review)

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Jacob Sahms

Based on a true story, Gimme Shelter shines a light on a grim world where the foster care system, homelessness, drug abuse, and teen pregnancy collide. Vanessa Hudgens stars as Apple, who finally flees her drug addict mother (Rosario Dawson) to reconnect with her Wall Street father (Brendan Fraser), only to fall back through the cracks again. Dealing with her history of abuse, drugs, and upbringing, we’re forced to consider what judgments we make about people based on what we stereotypically expect of them, without ever considering what our own privilege allows us.

Hudgens is fantastic. In the opening scene, she hacks off her long hair, symbolizing the change that is about to come. Throughout the film, she presents us with a figure of someone pushed into adulthood by the adults who abdicated their responsibility, but who is ultimately a child longing to explore a real life, not the poor hand she’s been dealt. Apple, who is based on the experiences of the young women in the real-world Several Sources Shelter, is multi-faceted, both wanting to change and stuck with the anger she’s cultivated to keep herself alive.

Anger isn’t the only thing that threatens to keep Apple “stuck.” Dawson’s mother-figure, June, reveals to Apple that Apple is her, dealing with teen pregnancy, isolation, and homelessness, but it’s not compassion: it’s the raw desire to hold Apple down because June was held down, too. Naturally, this isn’t just a homelessness issue, but a familial problem that occurs in many family systems, even churches. But it’s a sickness, a clinging, that Apple can’t break through without help.

Enter Father McCarthy (James Earl Jones) who accepts Apple’s anger, but tells her that God has a plan for her, even in the midst of her rejection of God (Jeremiah 29:11 gets some play here). But it’s the shelter, run by real-life homeless woman-turned-savior of the homeless, Kathy DiFiore, that puts Apple in a position to actually land safely, reset her perspective, and relaunch. Not all of the women in the shelter want what

“All of us like sheep have gone astray,” quotes McCarthy at one point (Isaiah 53:6) to Apple. It’s his attempt to comfort Apple, that she didn’t cause what has happened to her, that there is hope. But it’s also a reminder to us that we have gone astray, too. We can’t judge Apple or any of these women or June if we’re going to recognize that we’ve made poor decisions and had others hurt us (which we have to deal with, too) and that we can’t break ourselves out of those habits on our own. The greatest delusions that we can see here are that a) we don’t have any struggles or that b) when we do struggle, we can save ourselves.

Ultimately, the storyline for Apple changes when she chooses to let go of the anger, the expectation that she can’t trust anyone, to find hope in the midst of real community. I believe that church at its finest operates like recovery, like Alcoholics Anonymous, when we acknowledge that there is a power greater than ourselves and that without help, we will perpetually be ’stuck.’ Apple is able to break the cycle that she’s fallen into, that she could’ve perpetuated, started by her biological parents and her own pregnancy, of broken families and broken hearts. She breaks through because she is seen for the first time, by McCarthy, by DiFiore, and in the process, she begins to see that she is seen by God. She stops “dancing with her demons,” and looking for a new place, a new life, to call her own.

Yes, this is a true story, and yes, Hudgens is movie star material. But Ron Krauss’ work in exploring the lives of these women has allowed him to write and direct a movie that speaks to their experience and the transformative power of real-world family, not trite or saccharine, in the lives of broken down, busted up people who don’t think they have hope. Given my experience in college working in a shelter for homeless women and their children, this story is the real deal and the cast nailed it.

See this movie. Get involved. Make a difference.

“See you suddenly.”

Also published on Hollywood Jesus. 

Posted in Current Events, Movie Reviews, Pop Culture, Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fault In Our Stars: We’re More Than Side Effects (Book Review)

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Jacob Sahms

The Fault in Our Stars finds its inspiration in a young adult blend of Shakespeare and cancer survival, mixed up in a relationship between Hazel and Augustus. Told from Hazel’s perspective, the book tracks their romance, their banter, and their struggle with both cancer and those who they care about. John Green’s delivery is humorous, dramatic, snarky, tragic, and, ultimately, insightful.

Hazel has cancer that have stripped her lungs of their useful purposes, and may or may not be in remission. Augustus is in remission, but he’s lost a leg, and a girlfriend, to cancer. The two of them trade barbs, slowly exploring the other’s view of cancer, and find a mutual admiration for a fictional book about a teenager with cancer. Asking questions about the fictional girl’s life lead them to pursue the author of that book, and unify them in a mission that gives them purpose in the midst of all of their doubt and frustration.

Green’s characters are alarmingly realistic. We care about their loss and their struggles, and when they talk, we recognize the wisdom that they’ve acquired at a young age. Even while they shrink from the platitudes, they find themselves holding to hope in the darkest nights, with quotes like these: “without pain, we couldn’t know joy.”

But the glimmers in the negative (my goodness, this could be completely depressing if you can’t see the hope), come in the form of inverted negatives. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who becomes their disease,” Augustus chides Hazel early on, and we recognize that most people do identify with their problems more than the solutions.

Later, Augustus says that “you don’t get to choose if you get hurt… but you have some say in who hurts you,” which sounds a lot like Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes.” Still, it’s true that we will be hurt by life and in some relationships, but we can still choose to love, to struggle, and to recognize the best that our lives could be. 

The Fault In Our Stars is the best young adult fiction I’ve read since reading the first Hunger Games, and it’s just as heavy. While I don’t agree with all of Green’s points, I find my best moments from the book in the ways that the couple expresses themselves verbally, and then finds out they’re wrong. They initially see themselves as no more than side effects, but they come to recognize that they’re so much more. (Of course, theologically, I want them to recognize their worth as the children of God, as loved by Jesus, but the truth is that we’re not supposed to get there!)

A stunning novel that will keep you engaged (I burst through the majority of the book over several hours one morning), it will leave you wrestling with the way you see cancer, cancer survivors, your life, and death itself. It’s a gift for those who are willing to read, to struggle, and to laugh with the star-crossed couple of Hazel and Augustus.

Posted in Books, Pop Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sunday’s Sermon Today: Buried Treasure (Matthew 13:44-46)

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Jacob Sahms

Have you ever seen something that you just had to have? Maybe it was a purchase, like that piece of art or that shiny new car. How do you go about acquiring it? Will you beg, borrow, or steal? Will you save up, research, and prepare, or will you purchase it instantaneously?

Or maybe what you want was or is someone, the person you wanted to marry or the child you wanted to have. Maybe you’re like me, and while watching The Runaway Bride, you realize that you’re the runaway and that your girlfriend is the woman you’re supposed to marry. Or maybe you’re not like me…

Or maybe it was that life, either someone else’s life, or a version of your life that existed in your imagination. Maybe you value the lives your grandparents have lived, the marriage your parents shared, the carefree but stable existence of your next door neighbors.

Maybe you’ve achieved that thing or purchased that item. Maybe you haven’t. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. But each of you recognizes some thing that you had to obtain, had to have.

I remember dating my wife long distance. We’d dated for a year at the University of Richmond, but now I was in Kentucky at Asbury Theological Seminary, and she was finishing up her undergraduate degree. We were dating and it was good, but marriage was….somewhere out there.

I remember being invited to go with a group of friends to see The Runaway Bride, with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, and thinking that my girlfriend would like the film, but she wasn’t there, and it really wasn’t my cup of tea. But somehow I went. Somehow I realized that I was the person running away from relationships, never committing. And I remember the sleepless night that followed.

The next day, in Kentucky, I went to five different jewelry stores, and I bought an engagement ring. I didn’t know her size! I didn’t know what she’d like! But I knew what I needed to do.

Three nights later, in a conversation I steered of course, she told me that she wasn’t ready to get married, or to take the conversation to the next level. I was devastated, as I stared at the ring I was holding in Kentucky, talking to the woman I wanted to be my wife who was in Virginia.

A week later, I was scheduled to go spend a few days with my fiancé’s parents for Christmas break, before flying home to see my own parents. I was supposed to leave at 8 a.m. the next morning, but that night, I couldn’t sleep. I remember lying in bed, staring at the ceiling as the clock ticked from 10 to 11 to 12… Finally, at 12:30 a.m., I hopped in the car and drove to Colonial Heights.

I was there at 8:30 a.m. in the morning, when my fiancé showed up for her winter break job. She was visibly surprised, but I told her that I’d bought a ring and that when she was ready, I wanted to propose to her.

I had spent thousands of dollars, lost weeks worth of sleep, and driven overnight, to lay out my heart, my aspirations, and my dreams.

Have you ever wanted anything that badly? (I know, some of you are thinking, that foolishly?) Have you ever been that saturated by love, or devotion, or motivation, or desire, that you would sacrifice everything, and lay it all on the line?

In our parables today, two simple stories from the words of Jesus remind us of that kind of devotion.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

I like the first one best. Did you ever have a treasure map, real or imagined? Did you ever go looking for it? What about finding ‘treasure’ by accident?

I remember the time I found a $100 bill in our backyard. I was about 10 and I was ecstatic! I remember that my parents made me ask anyone we could if they had lost any money, and we had to wait to see if anyone came looking for it. But finding $100 to a 10 year-old? That was AWESOME!

So, here in Jesus’ story, there’s treasure found hidden in a field. It doesn’t matter who put it there, but someone finds it unexpectedly, and recognizes that what he has found is so spectacular that he has to have it. So he reburies it, goes home and sells everything so that he can go back and buy the land.

This isn’t bargain shopping, but the ‘finder’ in our story knows that everything he owns pales in comparison with the treasure. He knows that what he is gaining is immensely more important, and leaving everything behind is hardly a cost.

That treasure, says Jesus, is the kingdom of heaven. Not salvation, which the Jews don’t understand, and not faith in Jesus, because Jesus hasn’t died on the cross and risen again. No, Jesus says that participation in God’s plan is what’s best for humanity.

Doing God’s work is such a tremendous gift, says Jesus, that a person would sell everything that they had to participate.

Now, it seems almost unfathomable to most of us, even me now, that someone would invest money they didn’t have, would boldly profess love in a situation where uncertainty waited, would travel all night to deliver a message. (For the record, she said yes 24 hours later.)

But can we possibly fathom the goodness of the work that lies before us if we work to make God’s kingdom come on earth? Are we so fully invested? Are we willing to sell all and sell out for the glory of God?

Every once and awhile, I get asked, “so why are you a pastor?” It’s usually followed with a shaking of the head, and a comment or two about how I can’t make that much money and I have to deal with people and their problems, and just “why would anyone want to do that?!??!”

The truth is that I’ve known for years, since my junior year in college actually, that I was supposed to be a preacher. Some of you take joy in teaching a kid how to do a math problem for the first time or how to build something or how to cook. I love to hear a kid (or an adult) explain how they heard a story again but understood it for the first time, or how something about God’s love through Jesus unlocked something in their heart.

I love it when we work through a situation here at church, when we find a way to make a difference in the community, when we go out and we serve. And I recognize that the piece of the treasure I’ve found, God working through me, is in fact priceless. And I can’t imagine doing anything else.

But I don’t think the treasure is just for the preachers, just for the those who everyone else thinks is “in.” I think the treasure buried in the field is for everyone. I think we’re supposed to share it but we’re supposed to be so committed to the treasure that we’re all in, no looking back, like the disciples leaving their nets to follow Jesus, like Zacchaeus repaying the people he had stolen from above and beyond what he had taken, like Paul turning from Christian-killing to Christian-who-saved.

See, the parable of the buried treasure is about recognizing the piece of the kingdom that’s yours to hold and to share and to grow, and recognizing that without it, there’s just nothing that compares. What is that for you? Have you found it? Have you recognized that God loves you enough that he sent his son to live your life?

Have you recognized that Jesus put his Godhead to the side so that he could really see what life was like for us? That Jesus suffered and bled and lived and loved with us, that God wanted us to know that he was and is here?

Have you recognized that the relationships that God had with humanity in the Garden of Eden were the way God always wanted it to be, and that God worked through Jesus so that it one day would again?

That all of the bad stuff, all of the crime, and the suffering, and the sickness, and the death that drags us down, that the kingdom of God is about the fact that one day all of that would be wiped away? That the buried treasure is the hope and the promise of that time?

That all of us here have been told that and it’s up to us to share it and make it so?

No pressure, right?

Are we seeking those opportunities for buried treasure, recognizing it when we find it, and holding onto it with great joy?

It’s been told before, but I have a belief in this church that has defied conventional logic. Before I came, I had several older pastors go, “you’re going there?” with pats on the back and conciliatory hugs. I had no idea what I was getting myself into! I didn’t know Prince George from Prince Charming, or how to pastor a little church.

But I found a place that had something of what God was calling us to be. That there was community here, that ‘kingdom of God’ we talk about so much. It was a treasure buried, a pearl undiscovered.

After the first six months, the district superintendent said he’d considered moving me after a month to a ‘bigger opportunity,’ and now, he wanted to move me in the next appointment year. I said I’d stay.

We had similar conversations after the second year, and the third, and now, in my sixth, I’ve had friends and colleagues ask me why I don’t leave. I tell them that Blandford still has that undeniable trait, that ability to actually be a kingdom church, to welcome in the lost and the neglected, to serve in a completely organic way, to grow to be more like the early church than many of the churches I’ve seen in thirty-plus years of church life.

I found the buried treasure in my parents’ home as a child, and at my first church; I grew to have a deeper understanding of that treasure as a college student; I’ve been exploring the treasure, recognizing a desire to sell out, to sell all, to grasp it.

I know that without the love, death, and resurrection of Jesus, I am nothing. And I believe that in this place, others might come to recognize that, too. It’s the kind of thing I’d do anything to convey, to share, to make real in the hearts and minds of those around us.

May we all experience such longing, and sell all in the pursuit of God’s kingdom.

Posted in Current Events, Pop Culture, Sermons | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sunday’s Sermon Today: What Kind Of Dirt Are You? (Matthew 13:1-9)

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Jacob Sahms

The instructions make it look so easy: you get the seeds, you get the dirt, you take it home, add water, and, bam! A month to six months later, you are the proud owner of [fill in the blank plant].

I don’t know about you, but the plants never work out that way!

Still, in a world where the agricultural world of planting and harvesting drove the economy, and the schedule, the crowd gathered around Jesus as he launches into the Parable of the Sower would’ve easily understood what it mean to be a sower and plant seeds. And more than likely, they would’ve been good at it or known someone who was.

So the disciples are there with Jesus, and so are large crowds that again drove Jesus off the shore into a boat. We know that the Pharisees, the religious leaders who are already not fond of Jesus are lurking there, too, and Jesus begins to tell the story that has become as popular outside of the church as it has inside it.

See, often, the parable becomes about the knowledge. If you ‘get’ the good knowledge, if the seed arrives correctly and takes root, you end up achieving a higher level of consciousness. But seriously, this is Jesus we’re talking about, and he’s all about grace when it comes to faith and such.

A few years ago, I retold the story this way:  “the kingdom of God is like…”A teacher cultivated his lessons, having adapted the information that was necessary for knowledge, wisdom, and success. He spoke passionately and without exception to his classes, regardless of the reception he received. Some of his lessons fell on deaf ears, where students were allowed to sleep in the back of class, and others chose to be distracted by their cellphones and laptops. Others appeared intent on listening, but failed to truly engage the material, as their purpose there was driven solely by their parents’ wishes. When springtime came, they quickly found other distractions, and failed to continue coming to class. Some of the students longed to listen and to learn, but their relationships with certain other students caused them to become distracted, to ignore their studies, and to skip class when they were encouraged to do so. But some of the lessons were heard by the ears of receptive students, who worked hard, sought additional help, and continued to prosper in school, and life, grasping the opportunities presented to them.”

So, maybe it’s not about the seed, because, thanks to the Gospel of John, we know: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” The seed gets scattered everywhere, right? It’s that “whole world” image again.

And then, we find ourselves getting dirty. Or digging in the dirt. Or, if you’re dirt-phobic, at least examining the different kinds of dirt. Which, for me, ends up feeling like I’m standing in the aisle looking at Pennington grass seed.

(Did you know there’s dense shade, fescue, Kentucky bluegrass (it must leave after one year), perennial rye, sun & shade, tall fescue, midwest, northeast, Pacific Northwest, and, my favorite based on its laser-like precision, Pennsylvania State?)

Thankfully, for the sake of the argument in the parable, Jesus gives us four places, four types of soil where the seed falls. And this, I want to propose, is the point of the parable: what kind of dirt are you?

The first kind of dirt isn’t dirt at all, it’s the path. And then the birds eat the seeds.

Or maybe, it’s the squirrels. Seriously, I don’t know if they had squirrels in ancient Israel, but in my backyard, the birdseed has hardly been scattered or put in the bird feeder before the squirrels are chowing down to save up for… whenever. Either way, this seed doesn’t have a chance of making it into the ground because it hardly makes it out of the bag it came home in! But I digress..

These folks in our first category hear about Jesus but it never really sinks in. Maybe they got invited to church once, or someone actually got them to show up and check everything out. But for whatever reason, they looked around and didn’t see anything that looked like it was for them, so they never went back. They never opened a Bible to check out what the stories really meant, or why the preacher thought it meant that. They never received the good news of Jesus Christ that was meant to make them whole, and wanted, and redeemed. They were left in the world they came from with the problems they had there, and those problems, and probably the day-to-day grind of their lives, made them forget the ‘seed’ before it ever had a chance to take root.

They might lack the discipline to get themselves out of bed and get up for church, or the lifestyle they lead may hinder them from cutting free of those old habits to form new ones.

These folks practically forgot that Jesus loves them before the chorus to the song is over. It just never mattered.

The second kind of dirt is rocks mixed with soil. It grows up quickly but as soon as the summer sun rises, the plants that have grown from this seed wither and die. And Jesus emphasizes that these plants had no roots. These seed-to-plants actually have a chance. 

I sometimes see this dirt as a child or young person introduced to Jesus, but it could be an older person as well. The seed, the good news, lands in the dirt but there are other things, ‘rocks,’ that clutter up the landscape and keep the seed from taking root.

We can all think of things that get in the way of faith, right? There’s the disapproving family member, whether it’s a parent or a spouse, who demands we spend our time in a different way or at the very least, discourages us from continuing with such foolishness. There are less manipulative causes or ‘rocks,’ like job schedules, lack of transportation, and family responsibilities.

Sometimes, it’s as casual as a break in the schedule, like summer vacation, or it’s as malignant as an addiction that leads to other lifestyle implosions that ripple out to whether a person attends small group discipleship or worship.

But the what-could-be gets replaced by the what-is, and when push comes to shove, when the sun shines, that dirt doesn’t have staying power.

The third kind of dirt is mixed with thorns. The plants grow as they should but the things that grow with them, the thorns, ultimately “choke out” the life from these plants before they mature finally. Thorns in themselves seem more malicious; when you touch a thorn, it hurts! And so, this dirt is the one that causes me to shake my head as I consider it.

Here, the seed has fallen into dirt that welcomes it. There is life here! There is change. The power of God’s grace impacts a person and they see that they are loved and accepted and welcomed.

But there are thorns.

Maybe the person comes to faith in a loving, family environment and appreciates the good news of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins. But when they grow up, they experience the internal politics of the church and see people whom they have idolized in a new light, and it shakes their faith; or maybe they move away and go to a different church that doesn’t do it the same way they experienced church growing up or doesn’t welcome them in the same way, and it causes them to flounder.

Maybe the person comes to faith without ever really wrestling with questions that go deeper than a Sunday School faith. Maybe they never asked questions or they never were given the opportunity to because the church they went to encouraged a ‘holy bubble’ and now, faced with a higher education degree or discussions with friends, doubts have arisen that leave this kind of ‘dirt’ with nowhere to go.

Maybe their faith is strong throughout a quiet, incident free maturation process but when tragedy strikes, they wonder why God would do these things, putting all the bad things on God that have happened and leaving no room for free will or grace.

Pastor and author Hugh Halter says that people reach the point where simply proclaiming ‘Jesus loves you’ doesn’t penetrate “the rocky soil of a heart that’s been scarred by repulsive religion and the agony of a hard life.” Okay then, so what can possibly impact that?

The fourth kind of dirt is “good soil,” that produces a crop that multiplies itself.

Finally, this kind of dirt is good and it causes the seed, the good news of Jesus Christ to take root in the person’s life and to spread in its impact to others. This person is a disciple who gets God’s grace and wants to share it with others. Remember, they heard the same news that the others received; the seed itself was the same. But the nature of the soil and the nurture the soil it received impacted the way that the seed grew.

Not only did this seed come to fruition in terms of the ‘plant’ growing but it continued to pollinate the area. It continued to spread the gospel, the seed, so that others grew as well.

When I was younger, maybe ten to twelve, I found a patch of dirt near my house that seemed to me to be a perfect place for a garden. I didn’t know the first thing about gardening then! But I knew that it would look nice if I could plant some flowers there, that my parents walked by and so did other adults, and it was near the bus stop. So I started re-arranging the rocks, digging up the buried stones and debris in the area, and other adults started to ask me what I was doing.

Of course, a few of the adults had to point out how it wouldn’t work because the soil was unusable. But, I was ten and stubborn. (I’m older… but still stubborn.) So I kept working on the area for a few hours each weekend and sometimes after school. And things started to change.

Then one neighbor donated a whole box full of bulbs, and some seeds. Another gave me ten dollars to buy a plant that was more ‘ready made’ to be planted. My parents chipped in with a pair of gloves for gardening and some more plants.

And suddenly, this unusable soil started to shift and change. This area that I had seen as right for a garden actually became a garden. But the thistles and the stones had to be removed first, and right amount of sun had to be allowed for, and what was once rocky, or weed-filled, or too whatever became perfect soil for my seeds.

But Jesus goes on this little sidebar: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’[a] Wow! That could be about us today, couldn’t it? We see but we don’t perceive, we hear but we don’t receive. We watch but we don’t recognize. Jesus is warning the disciples, the men bold enough to ask the questions, that just because you show up doesn’t mean you get the full show. You have to put in the work: you have to get dirty, put your hands in, plow, plant, weed.

That’s the beauty of dirt. It can lie fallow and unused and go from toxic to fertile; it can go rocky and thorn-filled to luscious and deep.

Soil can change. And so can we.

Which leaves me this realization: when it comes to the gospel, it doesn’t matter so much what kind of soil you are as it does what kind of soil do you want to be?

I pray today that, if you aren’t already, that you’ll allow God to cultivate you into being good dirt.

Posted in Current Events, Sermons | Tagged , , | Leave a comment