The Shutdown & Us: Have We Stopped Listening? (A Mustard Seed Musing)

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

You’ll have to forgive me: I’m not a political animal by nature, and I rarely get myself involved in anything that involves elephants or donkeys. But the government shutdown has seriously penetrated my thought process lately. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s influenced everything from television shows to ESPN.com (will Army-Navy get played?) Even now, as I write this, it seems that a tense agreement has finally been reached to end the sixteen-day standoff, like the ATF out-waiting a compound full of crazed cultists.

And it certainly hasn’t ended with bloodshed.

I find myself wondering if this isn’t all the result of our failure to recognize each other’s voices. Are we so busy trying to get our point across, to finish each other’s sentences, that we fail to actually hear the other person? Or do we really hear them and fail to listen?

Sure, I blame our elected officials, who we elected. But I also wonder if their behavior isn’t something that we mirror all of the time. I recently preached on Solomon’s Proverbs, and found myself coming back to two verses that had previously been rather unspectacular to me. Solomon wrote “a fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions” (Proverbs 18:2) and later, “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way” (Proverbs 19:2).

Is that true of our political representatives? Worse, is it true of us? Did we spend over two weeks with grownups refusing to hear someone else’s opinion because of their agenda, to bark zealously about their particular point of view without assessing the national climate and the people’s lives who were affected?

Solomon also wrote, “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God” (Proverbs 14:31). As I met soldier and civilian, read the Facebook updates, and considered the families I knew, the government’s inability to listen, to recognize who was paying for their substantial stubbornness, reminded me that I need to consider how well I listen. Because if a group of people can be stubborn enough to miss the point, then I guess I can miss the point, too.

I’d better take the advice of my second grade teacher and put on my “listening ears,” that I might hear God speak and consider what else others have to say. I just might learn something.

What have you learned about yourself thanks to the government standoff, er, shutdown?

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Sunday’s Sermon Today: Kids Say Amazing Things

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

Once a year, we set aside a Sunday to celebrate the children. Big, small, rich, poor, present here, present around the world. Each year we’ve taken a different tack at how to make kids the main thing that Sunday. We’ve thanked God for our kids and educated ourselves on the way that other children around the state or around the world aren’t cared for and taken action. But today, I want to take a different look: I want us to consider how we’d see God, and how we’d react to what God wants from us, if we saw it all through the eyes of children.

I found five cases where a child or teenager was a determining factor in the narrative of the Bible.

In Genesis 22, when Isaac recognized that there was not a lamb to be sacrificed, I would argue that Isaac knew he was the sacrifice. Isaac was not fooled by Abraham- kids know when their parents are stressed or out of sorts. Isaac knew what was going on, and still he was obedient.

In I Samuel 3, the boy Samuel is attentive to the call of God, he is obedient to his mentor Eli, and he speaks the truth to both Eli and the people of God. Without Samuel, the word of God is not made known in the world that day, but because of him, God’s will is done.

In Luke 1, a teenager, Mary is told she’s going to be impregnated by the Holy Spirit, and her response is, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” Mary says yes to God… and we get the Savior of the world.

In Luke 2, Jesus stays behind when his parents leave Jerusalem, but amazes everyone with his wisdom and understanding. And he gently rebukes his mother’s worry, saying that she knew where he was all of the time. Jesus, even as a teenager, knew who he was and what his purpose was, and his single-minded focus kept him headed to the cross… and beyond.

And finally, in John 6, a boy, who never speaks in the narrative, shares his lunch, and his generosity feeds thousands of people because God made a miracle out of it. Someone heard the messages that Jesus was sharing, as a child, and immediately put the meaning into practice.

Obedience. Attentiveness and truth speaking. Wisdom and discipleship. Generosity.

Out of the mouths of babes, right? Kids Say The Darndest Things according to Bill Cosby…

So what would church look like today if we listened to what our kids have to say about church? Sometimes funny, sometimes bittersweet, sometimes enlightening, kids have a way of saying the most amazing things.

You all don’t know it but I keep the forwards you send me, and today, I want to share with you from the view of the children about God, about church, about love. Sure, they probably weren’t all said or written by kids, but who says we can’t learn from a kid’s level perspective? Who says that these stories can’t remind us of these Biblical teenagers, and drive us toward entire sanctification? (grins)

Eight-year-old Danny was given the homework to “explain God,” and so he wrote:

“One of God’s main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn’t make grownups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way he doesn’t have to take up his valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.”

“God’s second most important job is listening to prayers An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times beside bedtime. God doesn’t have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because he hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in his ears, unless he has thought of a way to turn it off.”

“God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn’t go wasting his time by going over your mom and dad’s head asking for something they said you couldn’t have.” [Smart kid.]

“Atheists are people who don’t believe in God. I don’t think there are any where I live. At least there aren’t any who come to our church.”

God said Jesus could stay in heaven. So he did. And now he helps his dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones he can take care of himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important.”

“You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time. You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there’s anybody you want to make happy, it’s God! Don’t skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn’t come out at the beach until noon anyway.”

—

On an unrelated note, there’s the story of the little girl who went to a wedding and asked her mother why the bride was in all white? Her mother replied, ‘Because white is the color of happiness, and today is the happiest day of her life.’ The child thought about this for a moment then said, ‘So why is the groom wearing black?’ [But I digress…]

—

I encountered my son with two other boys in the neighborhood bragging about their dads. The first boy said, ‘My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, they give him $50..’

The second boy said, ‘That’s nothing. My Dad  scribbles a few words on piece of paper, he calls it a song, they give him $100.’

But my son replied ‘I got you both beat. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon, and it takes eight people to collect all the money!’

—
A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to ‘Honor thy father and thy mother,’ she asked, ‘Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?’ Without missing a beat, one little boy answered, ‘Thou shall not kill.’
—
At Sunday School they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings. Little Johnny seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam’s ribs.

Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and she said, ‘Johnny, what is the matter?’ Little Johnny responded, ‘I have pain in my side.. I think I’m going to have a wife.’

—

I was making his rounds on a bicycle, when he came upon a little boy trying to sell a lawn mower. “How much do you want for the mower?” I asked.

“I just want enough money to go out and buy me a bicycle,” said the little boy. After a moment of consideration, I asked, “Will you take my bike in trade for it?”

The little boy asked if he could try it out first, and, after riding the bike around a little while, said, “Mister, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

I took the mower and began to crank it. He pulled on the rope a few times with no response from the mower.

I called the little boy over and said, “I can’t get this mower to start.” The little boy said, “That’s because you have to cuss at it to get it started.”

I said, “I can’t cuss. It’s been so long since I became a Christian that I don’t even remember how to cuss.”

The little boy looked at him happily and said, “You just keep pulling on that rope. It’ll come back to ya.”

—

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, “Yes I’ll do it if it will save her.” As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, “Will I start to die right away?” Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her…. and he was still willing to give it all up.

—

That reminds me of the joke about the kid who came home from Sunday School, told his Dad he’d learned about Moses and the Egyptians. The Dad asked what he’d learned, expecting to hear about the parting of the Red Sea. The kid said, well Moses called down aliens, stormed the castle, and defeated the bad guys with rocket launchers. The Dad asked incredulously, “that’s really what she taught you???” To which the kid replied, “well, no, but you’d never believe what she told us.”

—

Isn’t that the truth? Kids are generous, open, unassuming, trusting, eager, and full of grace. If we adults could be more like them, wouldn’t Jesus be glorified?

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not prevent them, for theirs is the kingdom of God.”

Will you be like a child? Will you be childlike for God’s glory, that God might show himself to you and shine through you?

I’ll leave you with this, just because I can’t resist:

“A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband.  Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen. ‘Careful,’ he said, ‘CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my gosh! You’re cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my gosh! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They’re goi ng to STICK! Careful. CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen
to me when you’re cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don’t forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!’ The wife stared at him. ‘What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don’t know how to fry a couple of eggs?’ The husband calmly replied, ‘I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I’m driving.'”

Today, I pray you laugh. Laugh like you used to as a child when you were carefree. Laugh with your family; laugh with the infectious nature of a child’s joy. Laugh at yourself- it’ll provide you with the best laugh you’ve ever had.

May God be glorified in your laughter, and show himself in your joy.

This sermon is for the 11 a.m. worship service to celebrate Children’s Sabbath at Blandford United Methodist Church on October 20. If you’re in the neighborhood, we hope you’ll join us!

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Sunday’s Sermon Today: Dangerous Wonder (Matthew 19:13-14)

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

A few weeks ago, we moved our kids into bunk beds, and I decided it would be a good time to start good night prayers with our two year old. I asked him if he wanted to say his prayers, and he grinned big and shook his head furiously in the affirmative. We closed our eyes, and folded our hands, and I said, “Thank you, God, for…”

My little buddy proceeded to name family members and friends who he wanted God to love on. But the one non-individual he named? “Church” (or “chuch”… he doesn’t say his “r” sounds.)

It struck me then that my son knows that church is special. Church is a place he feels loved and cared about. There are smiles, and lollipops, other kids, toys, and that’s where God is (when he’s not listening to prayers!) And church is something that God cares deeply about, and so it should be included in our prayers.

I wondered what would happen if we all prayed for church, if we all prayed for each other.  What a difference that could make!

All because of the first night’s prayers for a two-year-old. And that’s not the only thing our kids can teach us about God, and love, and grace… There’s actually quite a bit we could learn about God and “chuch” if we would get down on eye-level with God, and consider what it means to see God in all of his uncynical, pre-overthinking-it glory. It’s not often we can get there– too often we’re clouded by our adult way of thinking about things.

Don’t get me wrong: we all do it. I do it. You do it. Even the disciples do it.

In Matthew 19:13-14, we see that the disciples represented the general society that believed children should be seen but not heard.

“Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.‘”

The parents obviously thought Jesus could provide good favor to their children, that they could be ‘consecrated’ or blessed, but the disciples thought Jesus was too important to spend his time with a bunch of kids. The disciples thought that the mission of Jesus was too important to be delayed by a group of kids spending time with Jesus himself. They put the work ahead of the wonder.

And if Jesus isn’t there, a group of kids walk away from that situation thinking that they’re less important for it.

I wonder if kids ever feel like church is a place where they’re not important. I hope that they (and we) see Jesus’ response as a clear-cut rebuttal, that redefines children’s role in church.

“Let the children come to me for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Not only did Jesus want the children to come to him, but he told all the adults that if they weren’t like children, they couldn’t inherit the kingdom of God! In other words, God is looking for a kingdom’s worth of people who act like children. Not that they are childish and immature, but that they are childlike.

I’ll never forget my father at my rehearsal dinner. Like so many other times, he was down on his hands and knees, in a suit(!), embarrassing those of us with “more sense,” playing with my nieces and nephews, the kids who could’ve cared less that we were at a fancy dinner. It’s the way that my dad was with the kids at church, and the kids where he worked, and, frankly, with his own kids at home. My dad’s enthusiasm for being childlike was and is undeniable.

So what would we have to look like? What would it mean for us to be like children in the kingdom of God?

I’ve always thought that Mike Yaconelli, the founder of Youth Specialties, summed it up the best in his book Dangerous Wonder. Now, imagine with me the Yaconelli I remember from the time I heard him speak in 2008, just hours before he died tragically. A fair-sized man, with glasses, and a belly laugh, and a beard that reminded me of Jerry Garcia.

Yaconelli loved life, and he loved Jesus, and he laid it out in several straightforward steps.  [Let the countdown begin!]

Risky Curiosity: Have you ever seen a little kid try to do something? Or recognize that there was something new or different about a situation, and have to explore it? I love to watch my two-year-old attempt something he’s seen his older brother do. Sometimes, it’s trying to put his own shoes on, complete with tied shoelaces. Sometimes, it’s a bit more humorous, like when he pursues a box turtle that’s been found in the front yard or examining the preying mantis upclose and personal. His curiosity exceeds his fear, he’s unafraid in the moment, and he’s willing to explore that thing he doesn’t know or understand. Sometimes, it’s a little scary, like when he’s prepared to jump off of something several times taller than he is, because he saw someone else do it.

Children ask questions because they want to know. They want to figure it out and understand, to unwrap each situation like it’s a present on Christmas morning. They are unhindered, unfiltered, and fully engaged in every moment of every day. Kids don’t have bad days; they have bad moments. And then it’s on to the next opportunity.

It’s true at church, at home, and at school.  Can we be like that about God or are we too buttoned down? Are we too convinced that asking questions makes us look stupid or weak? Can we explore Scripture, go to Bible study, embrace church like it’s a new thing and appreciate it for God’s glory in each thing? Are we afraid to go out on the limb and jump up and down, recognizing that there are things we haven’t understood… and that God’s grace could fill in the rest?

Wild Abandon: I’ll admit it, I’m more cautious than I used to be. I used to be willing to dream big, to go places others thought were too dangerous, to try new things. Something happened along the way, and I don’t always see what could be, when what is gets in the way. Instead of daring to dive in, I want to check out the temperature, gauge the splash zone, consider how long it will take to dry off.

Consider these two opposites: my father, an All-America in college, will take ten minutes to get into the swimming pool, wincing at the temperature and dancing around like he’s afraid of the cold water; my two year old will walk in, right off the side, completely submerged, whether he has his inflatable vest on or not. One has lost the risk-taking boldness, while the other abandons anything we’d consider common sense.

Robert Fulghum tells the following story in All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Left with eighty five-year-olds, he introduced the game “Giants, Wizards, and Dwarfs,” where a giant beats a wizard, a wizard beats a dwarf, and a dwarf beats a giant. Each child found a partner, except for one little girl who tugged on Fulghum’s leg. “Um, where do the mermaids go?” Even though he’d only introduced three categories, she was clear that there were mermaids, too, because she was a mermaid! She understood who she was and what the world looked like when you dreamed big, and colored outside the lines.

Can we dream big? Can we see what might be, and recognize that if it is God’s will, that it can’t fail? Can we see the possibilities, the endless opportunities, the people and situations that God wants to use us for so that more people would know the love of Jesus? Can we see our life as a pile of Legos, recognize that there’s the picture it shows on the package, or the limitless options that it could be if we’d let go and let God?

Wide-eyed Listening: The last few months, I’ve been able to go and provide Chapel for the Stand Preschool. It’s a fun place, with kids learning about the Bible and how to treat each other, and what it means to be responsible. And when I go in there, all eyes are on me! Every word is received, processed, and responded to with a dozen hands shooting in the air to answer the question I’ve asked or the one they think I’ll ask.

These kids are all ears, eager to receive, to learn, to understand. They are hungry for more of the story, more of the love, more of the meaning that I know and that they want to get. They believe God is good, and loving, and kind, because why wouldn’t he be? There’s no pretentiousness, no hardening of their hearts from cynicism and sarcasm, but an absolute abandon in the depth of God’s love.

Kids listen to us… and to each other. Unfortunately, we lose that somewhere along the way. This week I was having a conversation with a college student about her internship at a hospital, where she’s supposed to lead a small group for residential patients. I shared about my own experience leading a small group for ministers, and how some of them told me that they didn’t often feel listened to in our mandated small groups. The college student said that was the problem with the group at her hospital, that patients had grown so used to not being listened to that they didn’t think what they said mattered.

Because no one was really listening.

Do we approach the Bible like that, like it doesn’t matter? Do we approach prayer like that, figuring it’s like a phone call where the receiver is just sitting on a table off the hook? Or are we fully engaged in the conversation? Are our ears open in prayer to what God wants us to hear and know and receive? We need to recognize that to listen means to stop talking, that to fully engage the message, we have to be listening, not just hearing, but receiving.

Irresponsible Passion: Kids are PASSIONATE. They are excited about what they’ll eat, what they’ll wear, what they’re going to do, what they experienced… everything. And not only are they passionate for themselves, but they want to tell everyone! Acquaintances, family members, absolute strangers. They know good news when they see it and they want to tell everyone.

The Christian life is often compared to a series of mountaintops and valleys; mountaintops where we experience the joy of the Lord and the valleys where we struggle. Kids, Yaconelli says, don’t struggle with the valleys of life because they remain passionately involved in the mountaintops.

I’m reminded of Will Ferrell in Elf when he sees the department store Santa. “SANTA! IT’S SANTA!” he screams. He’s like a kid on Christmas morning, finding a new present under the tree or recognizing that Santa is actually in the building. He’s passionate like a child, completely uncontained, unbridled, without restraint.

What are you passionate about? Is it more than for your favorite team, your work, your car and your house? Are you passionate about Jesus in a way that says to the world, “God has claimed me and I’ve claimed him back”? Are you passionate enough about Jesus that you have to make sure that everyone you know is clued into this Jesus guy in the way you act, and the things you talk about?

Naive Grace: The only being on the planet that forgives faster than my kids is my dog. Honestly, I’ve seen two kids (sometimes my own, sometimes others) have a knock down-drag-out fight, and five minutes later they are thick as thieves. They are naive to what it means to hold a grudge or to stay angry; they want what’s best and good and pure, and they’re constantly defaulting to that, regardless of how negative the situation seems to be.

It’s kind of the like the way that when they color, kids don’t worry about the lines. WE worry about the lines, and sometimes even evaluate our kids’ work that way. We even teach them to see the world in terms of the lines, rather than the colors and time and the passion it took to color the picture. But kids don’t care about the lines!

Kids are the first to welcome in the new person, to make sure everyone is included. Kids recognize that everyone brings something to the table, whether it’s skills, or perspective, or the ball you need to play the game. Kids recognize that everyone has value– and that everyone needs a place where they can be safe and happy and secure.

What would it look like if we operated that way? If we forgave faster, before it was asked for, if we proved to see the best in people rather than expecting the worst? If we believed that God was working in all, through all, and for all? If we prayed about what we cared about and knew that it was covered? If we recognized that God loved us enough to see the beauty in our lives even when we “colored outside the lines” and learned to love others like that?

Childlike Faith: Billy Graham has a stone inscribed on his property where one day he prayed to God that he would accept the things he knew to be true about God and leave aside the things he didn’t understand. It’s pretty simple, and to some people who are focused on their intellectual understanding, it could be offputting. But Yaconelli would say that childlike faith requires us to appreciate the beauty of creation, the wonder of the Virgin Birth of Jesus in the manger, the miracles of healing and new life, and to allow that we can’t know everything about how God works.

Wouldn’t we all be happier if we put aside our preconceived ideas and frustrations, and focused in on the good? I believe we could change the world, just by changing our own attitudes. I believe that if we prayed about the things we didn’t understand, that we’d receive the faith we needed for that situation, too.

Because having childlike faith means there are no dumb questions, no questions we wouldn’t ask, and who better to ask them to than God?

So practically, today, what can we do today to embrace the life of a child?

–Pray everywhere and often. Bless your food, say your goodnight prayers, stop what you’re doing right where you are and pray for someone hurting.

-Don’t worry about what you don’t know. There’s always someone who knows more and someone who knows less. You know what you need to know, right now. Remember that God loves you where you are, and be secure in that.

-Ask for help. Don’t worry about what you can’t do; there’s someone who can. You just need to know who to ask. In church, that should be easy, right?

And, finally, don’t stop playing.

Yaconelli tells the story of a boy who was unhappy with his piano lessons, whose mother took him to a famous pianist’s concert. Bored, waiting for the concert to start, the boy wandered onto the stage and began to play chopsticks on the huge Steinway. People began to cry out in anger, and ushers started to swarm down from the lobby. Who would be so brash? But as the crowd started to surge toward the stage, the concert pianist emerged from the wings, placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder, and said, “Don’t worry, buddy, you’re doing great. Keep playing.”

Today, I hope you play in this great world that God has made for us. Just play.

“For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

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Captain Phillips: Everything Is Not Okay (Movie Review)

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

Two men are seen leaving home to go to work. One leaves his upper middle class, American setting, kisses his wife, and flies off in an airplane for a Middle Eastern location where he will pilot a large cargo ship. The other is forced to leave his Somalian hut and dirt floor bed to find a boat and target a cargo ship for piracy. Even if you never saw the 2009 news footage about Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks, here), you can see where this is headed.

Paul Greengrass may be better known for the second and third installments of the Bourne trilogy, but he’s done some work with non-fiction subjects that fly below the radar, in United 93 and Green Zone. Here, he has nothing but the best to work with in the capable skills of Hanks, who plays the kidnapped sea captain Phillips as a realistic, compassionate, courageous human being, in the midst of great danger and pain.

But Greengrass also has Barkhad Abdi as Muse, the Somalian pirate who leaves him to take a ship captive and safely ransom it, and finds himself facing the fury of the U.S. Navy and Navy Seals. [Abdi, an unknown Minnesotan before the filming of Captain Phillips, and several of his friends went to an open call, and ended up playing pirates from their native Somalia.] Greengrass paints Muse sympathetically, not as a person without responsibility or “fault,” but as a pawn played by his situation into actions outside of his own moral code.

Phillips is the hero here, as a captain who tries to keep his crew safe, to “take one for the team.” But he’s not just an advocate for his “own” people: he tries over and over again to intercede with Muse and Muse’s three henchmen, to get them to walk away. He seems especially concerned for the youngest of the three, a teenager, who he knows is injured, and who is just trying to survive in the bloody world of piracy.

Kudos to Greengrass and Hanks for seeing both sides of the situation.

Unfortunately, a segment of the audience I saw the film with could not. Many applauded and cheered when the bloody end of this standoff happened onscreen, as the U.S. Navy handled a situation that Phillips tells the pirates that “they can’t let you win.” We saw good art and yet not everyone could see it, just as many have missed the point of the immense pain of vengeance that we’re left with at the end of Zero Dark Thirty. Honestly, if you can miss the point of these two movies, it’s a sad day for art… and humanity!

Like the two men going to work, I’m reminded of Jesus’ parable about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Two men went to the temple to pray: the pharisee thanked God that he wasn’t like the tax collector but was “good,” while the tax collector threw himself on God’s mercy and begged for forgiveness. In Greengrass’ film, Phillips recognizes that he is blessed not to see piracy as his only option, that rather than belittling Muse and the others for who they are and what they do, he recognizes the tragedy of the situation.

In the end, Phillips understands much better what was lost that day than the people in the theater did. He sees that lives were lost, that a price was paid, and that the unfair economics of the world we live in cause many more injustices than we tend to see.

Did he want to be free? Yes. Did he fight back? Yes. But at the end of the story, Phillips knows that everything is not okay (the reverse of what Muse says throughout the film), even if he lived to tell about it.

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Sunday’s Sermon Today: Wise Men Say Part II (Proverbs)

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

This is my “second take” at looking at the wise teachings of Solomon. Some of the introduction is the same as Part I but the majority of the proverbs I’ve focused on here are different. 

I recently posted on Facebook, asking people to share the best piece of advice they’ve ever received. Here are some of their answers:

“It’s easier to wear slippers than to carpet the world.”

“Be kind to everyone because everyone is fighting a tough fight.”

“If you’re going to be stupid, you’d better be smart.”

“If God graces you with another day, make it good.”

“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”

“If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all. Also – Say what you mean, and mean what you say.”

“What you don’t have in your head you have to have in your feet.”

“Eat mo possum!”

“If you have this low grade anger and rage inside you, if you’re always looking for a fight, it’s probably because you’re not in one that matters.”

“Don’t eat the yellow snow.”

“Every day is a gift, that’s why it’s called the present.”

“I brought you up to know the difference between right and wrong. What you do with it is up to you.”

“Make margin in your life.”

“When I got drafted into the military, my father told me that it was up to me as to whether any place I was stationed was a heaven or a hell. I could make it to be either one. He was right.”

“Think before speaking.”

“No one ever complained about finishing church early.”

“Make the best decision you can at the time, with all available information. Then, don’t second guess yourself.”

“You can only make a first impression once!”

“RUN!” [That’s one a mentor told one of my friends who was contemplating the ministry.]

“Buy land, because they stopped making it a long time ago.”

“Challenges are a lot of fun, since they bring out the best in everyone.”

“Don’t mistake conversation for calling; if you’re called, you won’t be happy doing anything else.”

[Obviously, some of them were more serious than others!]

What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve ever received? What have you done with it?

As we work our way through the Old Testament, we find ourselves staring at the wisdom writings of Solomon, that is, the Book of Proverbs. It’s a thirty-one chapter collection of wise things that Solomon thought about or heard along his illustrious reign, some of which are ironic and some of which are obvious, some of which are incredibly clever and some of which require us to consider how we make choices in our lives today.

They are similar and different from the little pieces of wisdom we pick up in the world today, and we see that they all point us back to God.

In the prologue, Solomon writes, “For learning about wisdom and instruction, for understanding words of insight, for gaining instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity; to teach shrewdness to the simple, knowledge and prudence to the young. Let the wise hear and gain in learning, and the discerning acquire skill, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:2-7).

The book focuses in on this, that a) all people need wisdom, and b) that the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Most people would probably agree that there’s something to be said for wisdom, especially if we can agree to distinguish between knowledge (academic “smarts”) and intelligence (the application of one’s knowledge to make good decisions). But what is the “fear of the Lord?”

The fear of the Lord is understood to be a fear of “awe” or a fear that one has of offending one loves or respects. It’s not, C.S. Lewis said, the fear we’d have if we found ourselves in the living room with a tiger! It’s not quake-in-your-boots, worry-you-did-something-wrong fear, but instead aimed at being better a person than you might be otherwise. So let’s consider some of the pithy wisdoms that King Solomon shared in his writings about the place where life and the love of God intersect, and see if we can’t grow in wisdom ourselves!

Pretty quickly, Solomon lays out the fact that that what we are about to read and study isn’t necessarily going to be what we’re expecting: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil” (Proverbs 2:5-8). What we see, or what we think we see, might not always be what God sees. We know that David was chosen as the king when God looked at the inside rather than the outside, but how often have we really considered that what we think is wise might in fact be counterintuitive to what God wants or thinks is important. If we can’t recognize that this is pretty crazy… it’s crazy.

It’s that kind of counterintuitive knowledge that governs how Solomon looked at money, too. The same man who told God that he wanted wisdom more than money or power, also wrote that believers should “honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine” (Proverbs 2:9-10). Where else would you hear that kind of backward economics? Solomon believed we should give God the first and best of ourselves, and that by being obedient to that, that we would end up with more than enough. That we would have more than we needed.

Solomon also took it a step further. He said that we needed to consider who were failing to love or serve if we didn’t consider our finances prayerfully. “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God” (Proverbs 14:31). Isn’t that ultimately what Jesus taught centuries later in Matthew 25 when he told the parable about the sheep and the goats, “what you did for the least of these, you did for me?”

That wealth could influence our relationship with God for good or bad wasn’t lost on Solomon. But he also understood that it impacted our lives and our futures. “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered” (Proverbs 21:13). Martin Niemoller would later write a similar thought in regards to Nazi Germany and the non-Jewish response: “First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the socialists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” Isn’t that something like what goes around comes around?

But that’s too negative.

Honoring God, showing generosity. Those are the things that Solomon knew that God would love and appreciate. But Solomon also listed several things that the Lord hates:

“Seven [things] that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family” (Proverbs 6:16-19). Are they what you expected to be on the list? Or are they something different?

Consider them, again. Pride, deceit, murder, wickedness, discord. Solomon wants his readers/hearers to know what they should avoid. And he wanted them to consider what they might do to change the way their lives were going.

Solomon doesn’t let up either, as he will revisit the wickedness that humanity does again and again. “When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes; all he expected from his power comes to nothing,” he later writes (Proverbs 11:7). Solomon wants us to consider what we hope in, where we invest our power and time and energy. In the 1980s, there was a bumper sticker that said, “he who dies with the most toys wins.” Later, Solomon would’ve loved this, a counter motto read: “he who dies with the most toys still dies.” We’re told over and over again by society that we should save for the future, that we should work harder, that we should fight like dogs to get ahead, and then there’s Solomon  saying, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12).

Solomon definitely had issues with people who were foolish, as the idea of “the fool” plays predominantly in the Proverbs as well. He wrote, “a fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions” (Proverbs 18:2). That sounds like some of my friends when it comes to conversations about politics! Nowhere else have I seen ideology tear apart friendships as much as the political arena. Oh, if I only knew then what I knew now: “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way” (Proverbs 19:2).

Solomon’s critique of foolishness didn’t mean he didn’t squander his own fair share of moments. His particular pitfall was his many wives. Apparently, as a young man, he thought that double the wives was going to be like a Doublemint commercial. But in his wise, old age, he wrote things like this:

“Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife” (Proverbs 21:19). And also, “a good wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones” (Proverbs 12:4). Solomon’s happiest thoughts were reflecting on when relationships went right, when he was where he was supposed to be. And it caused him to consider the way that he lived his life, and the way that he would raise his own children.

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6).  That begs the questions: Are you training your children? Are you telling them how much God loves them? Are you reading the Bible with them everyday? Are you sharing with them how important church is and what it means to follow Jesus?

Solomon didn’t always stay on the straight and narrow, but his place in the archives stands because when push came to shove, he chose wisdom… and his parents raised him right.

No pressure. Just consider, where do you get your guidance from, and are you passing it along?

If you agree, leave the best piece of advice you’ve ever received in the space below. Thanks!

This sermon is for the 11 a.m. worship of Blandford United Methodist Church on South Crater Road in Petersburg, Va. Feel free to join us if you can!

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Sunday’s Sermon Today: Wise Men Say Part I (Proverbs)

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

When I think of wisdom, I think of old men with beards like Gandalf from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings books (or movies). Consider the wisdom he shared with Frodo, when Frodo was wishing that the Ring would never have fallen to him to deal with.

Gandalf says: “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.”

It’s not earth-shattering but it’s pretty wise. We all have to do the best we can with the time we can, and if we’re looking, we’ll recognize that there is more going on in our lives than we can see immediately in front of our noses.

While Gandalf is wise (he’s even called the Wise!), I find that more often than not, from a fictional character perspective, I resort to a much older character, a little whiskered character (not Mr. Miyagi!) who hails from Dagobah, is green all over… you guessed it, Yoda.

Why in the world would a little, green, Muppet-like guy make my top two fiction characters? Shouldn’t Aslan be on there (his only good one that comes instantly to mind is one about how the White Witch didn’t know the oldest magic)? Or… seriously, who can beat Yoda?

The top four Yodaisms as they relate to Christianity are as follows:

Yodaism #1: “You must unlearn what you have learned.” Man, is that true, or what? So much of what we see and hear all around us sinks into our subconscious and becomes how we think we should operate. But more often than not, it’s counterproductive to who God wants us to be.

Yodaism #2: “A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, NEVER for attack.” Okay, so technically, that’s not absolutely helpful on a one-to-one ratio, but if we pull back the covers a little, we can see that people of the light (Jedis carry light(sabers); Christians have the light of Jesus in them) will use their efforts and energy for helping others, for growing, never for their own, personal satisfaction.

Yodaism #3: “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Okay, does this one merit any sort of explanation? It’s right up there with “hurt people hurt people” (Bill Cosby). We act out of our fear, and we respond with anger which leads to a deeper anger (or hate) and then we cause suffering when we’re angry.

But my alltime favorite? Yodaism #4: “Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.” [You can check out the clip here, but you need to see Yoda raise the X-wing to get the full effect.] We are either all in when it comes to following God or we’re not. Of course, we’re going to make mistakes, but we’re either following God earnestly or we’re not following God. We can’t try to follow God, ultimately, even when we follow God, we’ll fall short. If we only try to follow God, then we’re not completely bought in!

The truth is that the Bible is full of pithy sayings, statements that are God-inspired for our edification, for our understanding of how God works. And nowhere are they presented more abundantly, more thickly, than in the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament.

The prologue states that these words of wisdom are presented “For learning about wisdom and instruction, for understanding words of insight, for gaining instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity; to teach shrewdness to the simple, knowledge and prudence to the young. Let the wise hear and gain in learning, and the discerning acquire skill, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:2-7).

The book focuses in on this, that a) all people need wisdom, and b) that the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Most people would probably agree that there’s something to be said for wisdom, especially if we can agree to distinguish between knowledge (academic “smarts”) and intelligence (the application of one’s knowledge to make good decisions). But what is the “fear of the Lord?”

The fear of the Lord is understood to be a fear of “awe” or a fear that one has of offending one loves or respects. It’s not, C.S. Lewis said, the fear we’d have if we found ourselves in the living room with a tiger! It’s not quake-in-your-boots, worry-you-did-something-wrong fear, but instead aimed at being better a person than you might be otherwise. So let’s consider some of the pithy wisdoms that King Solomon shared in his writings about the place where life and the love of God intersect, and see if we can’t grow in wisdom ourselves!

Pretty quickly, Solomon lays out the fact that that what we are about to read and study isn’t necessarily going to be what we’re expecting: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil” (Proverbs 2:5-8). What we see, or what we think we see, might not always be what God sees. We know that David was chosen as the king when God looked at the inside rather than the outside, but how often have we really considered that what we think is wise might in fact be counterintuitive to what God wants or thinks is important. If we can’t recognize that this is pretty crazy… it’s crazy.

So what is God looking for? What exactly does God think is important. In Proverbs 2:9-10, Solomon writes “Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” The first half encourages us to consider our very selves as an offering to God in the same way that the Israelites were called to tithe the first ten percent of their income, whether it was crops or sheep or it’s our salary right now. Again, most economists would probably tell you it’s counterintuitive to give away ten percent to make more, to have enough, but that’s exactly what Solomon tells us, and what many folks who tithe regularly have discovered.

Solomon also puts a strong emphasis on what a person says… or doesn’t say. He tells us that “The wise in heart accept commands, but a chattering fool comes to ruin” (Proverbs 10:8). For Solomon, basically anyone who isn’t wise is a fool… and he “pities the fool!” [Sorry, that was Mr. T, not Solomon.] He says it would be “better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly” (Proverbs 17:12), which seems to be pitting one foolishness against another, but he takes it a step further and says that, “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates corrected is stupid” (Proverbs 12:1). In Job, which was written by someone who saw the world much like Solomon did, it says “But a stupid person will get understanding, when a wild ass is born human.”

Maybe stupid is as stupid does (Forrest Gump).

But it seems that stupid and fool and wisdom-lessness are all tied up together for Solomon. He writes “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). You’ve probably heard that one, reminding us that when we get too big for our britches, we tend to trip over them. But have you heard this one?

“Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished” (Proverbs 6:27-28). Solomon probably knew a thing or two about that with the harem he had, or maybe he was writing about his own father, David, who nearly threw it all the way when he went after Bathsheba.

Either way, Solomon tended to turn to familial relationships when he wasn’t going after fools. “A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping” (Proverbs 19:13). Now, Solomon wrote that, not me! But isn’t that a perfect image? Picture the faucet in your house: you’ve had one now or before, that drip… drip… drip… It wears on you if you can hear it but you can’t fix it. Isn’t it like that with a spouse, or a friend, or someone at work who only seeks to create problems? [Solomon would also write that it would be “better to live in a desert than a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife” (Proverbs 21:19). That’s some dry heat…]

Not all of the Proverbs are negative though.  Solomon wrote that”a friend loves at all times, and a brother is born of adversity” (Proverbs 17:17). Let that sink in for a minute. In a world where you “friend” someone on Facebook to add them to your list, how many people are true friends? How many people do you know who love you all of the time? I had a saying in college that went something like this: I’d say I had a few friends but lots of acquaintances. My Facebook page looks like that still!

But the other half of the Proverb holds true: I have a few brothers even though I am the only son of my mother and father. There are men who have risen up and walked parts of my life with me that were dark and those men became the brothers I never had (you know who you are). The truth is that Solomon saw some dark times, saw people see him as the king and want to use that relationship, and ultimately, he recognized that sometimes there are people who rise above the fray.

So I’ll leave you with this last Proverb. It’s not the last one in the book, and I’ve failed to mention most of them, but it’s one that leaves us with homework.

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6). Are you training your children? Are you telling them how much God loves them? Are you reading the Bible with them everyday? Are you sharing with them how important church is and what it means to follow Jesus?

Solomon didn’t always stay on the straight and narrow, but his place in the archives stands because when push came to shove, he chose wisdom… and his parents raised him right.

No pressure. Just consider, where do you get your guidance from, and are you passing it along?

If you agree, leave the best piece of advice you’ve ever received in the space below. Thanks!

This sermon is for the 9 a.m. worship of The Stand that currently meets in Blandford United Methodist Church on South Crater Road in Petersburg, Va. Feel free to join us if you can!

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How Do You Remember Your Saints? (A Mustard Seed Musing)

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

As I walk through my church building, I see people who have led the church, whether it was as pastors, or trustees, as Sunday School teachers or the silent supporters in the background. I know many of them by name because I’ve met them, but I also have come to know many of them because of the stories that living church members tell about these departed faithful who have gone before.

In less than three weeks, our church will recognize our deceased “saints,” those who have led us in the faith, who taught us Sunday School or took us to church, who raised up God in our lives so that we might come to know Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. We’ll put their pictures on the altar, and light candles to their memory, and we’ll consider the way that they impacted our lives, eternally.

I used to think that was too “Catholic,” too high church. Now, I find great comfort in reflecting on their value and meaning, and find the day we spend celebrating them to be much more spectacular than Halloween, much more beautiful.

But what if one day isn’t enough?

I wonder what it would look like if we honored our saints before they were our saints, before they passed on. What would happen if we recognized them by telling them what they meant to us? What would happen if we actively looked to share our faith with others because of them, honoring God and them, too?

Too often, I think we assume that people know how we feel, and wait until it’s too late to really articulate it. And I think we assume that someone else will be the one who shares their faith and makes a difference, that we couldn’t possibly be who God expects or plans to use the way that he used angels to announce the birth of Jesus, or Philip to speak to the Ethiopian eunuch he’d never met, or Paul to stand on trial for his faith. We always think it will be someone else.

What if we remembered our saints by emulating them? What if we remembered them by becoming saints ourselves?

Leave a story of a “saint” in your life below, and better yet, if you’re able, call them today and tell them what they mean to you.

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Sunday’s Sermon Today: It’s Your Time (Esther 4:1-16)

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

Do you recognize the moments when God is calling you, daring you, to step out of your comfort zone and do the impossible?

In the lead up to our Scripture today, we see the way that Esther’s life was all leading up to this point… that God was setting the stage to “show up and show off,” with Esther as the star.

King Xerxes, the powerful ruler of all of Persia, falls out of love, rather he becomes enraged by his queen, Vashti, and his nobles have a beauty pageant to find him a new wife. All of the young virgins across the country Xerxes ruled were paraded across the king’s vision, and he chose the young orphan Esther to be his new queen.

Esther had been raised by her older cousin Mordecai, raised with Jewish culture and faith. But Mordecai warned Esther to keep quiet about her origins, and so she entered into life in the king’s palace.

Soon after, Mordecai discovered an assassination plot against the king, and he warned Esther who warned the king. The king’s men put a stop to the plot and credited it to Mordecai. At the same time, a man named Haman also found favor with the king, but Mordecai and Haman were bitter enemies.

Haman’s intense hatred for Mordecai drove him to plot against Mordecai and all the Jews, and he convinced the king to issue a law that allowed everyone to kill Jews and take their possessions on the one day of the year, that is now known as Purim. It’s called Purim from the Hebrew word “pur,” or lot, because Haman had cast a lot, had made a move toward destroying the Jews… but we know that’s not how it played out.

Because Mordecai happened. And then Esther happened. Because two people recognized when it was their time.

When Mordecai heard the news, he mourned, tearing his clothes and putting on ashes, wailing as he went. Soon, word got to Esther that her cousin was having a breakdown in public! The queen sent clothes and word that he should stop making a scene, but Mordecai refused.

Esther sent her personal aide to Mordecai, and Mordecai explained everything that had happened. And Mordecai told Esther that she should go to the king and beg for mercy. But Esther knows how the palace works! She sends back word that she can’t go to the king, because if the king doesn’t summon her in and she goes anyway, she’ll be put to death.

And Mordecai reminds her that just because she’s in the palace doesn’t mean she’ll be protected from the edict. That if she won’t speak, that someone else will stand for those who can’t speak up, and that she won’t benefit from the deliverance.

Mordecai himself told Esther to keep silent– she was just taking his advice, his orders. She might in fact be safe from the edict because no one knows she’s Jewish! But he also implies that there’s a bigger picture here, that God will protect his people, and if Esther isn’t ready to be part of the big picture then God will try somebody else.

Think about the people who God used to change the world.

The founding fathers of the United States, in creating a nation where people could worship as they chose.

Mother Theresa, with untouchables in India.

The Apostle Paul, with bringing the word of God to the Gentiles.

The people of Washington Street UMC, who planted Blandford church in 1948.

Our parents, our grandparents, the people who shared their faith with us.

Without them, we’re not here now, physically or spiritually. At some point, they had to recognize that it was time to step out and move.

For Esther, the truth is that she might’ve been able to stay safe, and maybe she didn’t need to get involved because God would’ve used someone else. But it’s the next step, the next question that really sets the story in its place in history, that cements that people have been talking about Mordecai and Esther for generations:

“What if you are here for such a time as this?”

We don’t know what Esther was thinking before Mordecai came to her, or if she’d even heard about the edict before he told her. We don’t know if she was practical, or cowardly, worried for herself or just trying to follow his orders. But we do know that this simple question set in motion a series of events which lead to the Israelites defending themselves and thwarting this mad plot to destroy them. We know that this question lead Esther to say that she would go to the king, whether it killed her or not.

One simple question, phrased in a way that shows up in every translation I looked at, from the NIV to the Message: “what if you were here for a time such as this?”

Wayne Watson wrote the song, “For Such A Time As This,” recognizing that it wasn’t just Esther who was faced with one of these moments, but all of us:

Now, all I have is now
To be faithful, to be holy and to shine
Lighting up the darkness
Right now, I really have no choice
But to voice the truth to the nations
A generation looking for God

Can’t change what’s happened till now
But we can change what will be
By living in holiness
That the world will see Jesus

For such a time as this
I was placed upon the earth
To hear the voice of God
And do His will, whatever it is

For such a time as this
For now and all the days He gives
I am here, I am here and I am His
For such a time as this.

Watson’s song quotes the Book of Esther, and it echoes the words of Joseph when he told his brothers that they sold him into slavery but that God had used it for good. It echoes the way that God used the death of his son on the cross to wreak love and forgiveness on an unsuspecting world. It echoes the way that God continues to call on his people again and again, “what if you are here for such a time as this?”

Let that rattle around in your heart for a minute.

“What if you are here for such a time as this?”

What situation exists that you are perfect for? What skills, experiences, and scars have you experienced that mean you are just right to…

-lead a small group?

-witness to a neighbor?

-begin a community-wide effort to end hunger, homelessness, poverty, loneliness, [fill in the blank]?

We shudder at the way that the world works, at the death, pain, financial struggles, political decisions, religious persecution, insider behavior, violence, and isolation that we see. In the way that the “next generation does things.”

But are we willing to do anything about it? Are we willing to fast, to pray, to enter the court when to do so is to receive a death sentence?

Or are we afraid to engage, to be bold, to recognize that God will use someone, and that it might as well be us?

That you are here, right now, for such a time as this.

What is a time that you know you were exactly where you were supposed to be? Leave a note in the space below. Thanks!

This sermon is for the 11 a.m. service at Blandford United Methodist Church on South Crater Road in Petersburg, Va. We’d be happy to have you join us!

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Sunday’s Sermon Today: When Life Hurts (Job 1:1-12)

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

I get pretty frustrated when people hand out platitudes in the midst of someone else’s suffering.

In responding to a divorce or problem at work: “Time heals all wounds.”

In responding to the death of a loved one: “God needed another [fill in the blank].”

In responding to someone else’s tragedy: “You reap what you sow.” Or, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.”

Are any of those even Biblical? No.

Take a look at Job Chapter 1, and consider what we can see about suffering. Here, we see a story about a man who is considered blameless (he did no wrong) and upright (he is respected by his community). He fears God and repels evil. He has a good life, with many descendants, much property, and is considered the “greatest man among all the people of the East.” There is an interesting aside, that he sacrificed for them to keep them “up to code,” just in case they had missed the mark somewhere along the way– Job is so holy that he even works to help others stay on the up and up.

And then evil, in the person of Satan, shows up in the story of Job. Whether you consider this a historical book of the Bible or one of the Old Testament parables (like Jonah), we have an exchange between Yahweh God and Satan.

Satan shows up to tease God, to harass him about the way that the people of Earth behave. He’s there to prod God’s sentiments, to see if he can’t harass God into displeasure or displaying wrath. God immediately points to the goodness of Job.

Satan is quick to ask whether it is not God’s providence and protection of Job that keeps Job worshipping. He points out the hedge that seems to be around Job, his family, and his possessions.

[Now, pause for a minute and check out Tim Hawkins’ sketch on the hedge of protection. I never really understood that one either; why in the world would there be a topiary garden, a chest high garden growth, that would somehow keep all sorts of evil away from us? But I digress.]

And God accepts Satan’s challenge. It’s not clear immediately why, although, by the end of Job, it seems to be that Job’s suffering may actually be used for God’s glory (but we’ll get to that in a minute). Yahweh God tells Satan that he can do whatever he wants to Job but he isn’t allowed to kill him. In fact, Paul, who knew quite a bit about suffering, said, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (I Corinthians 10:13).

In the next few verses, Job loses his cattle to marauders, and his children to a tragic house collapse. Satan petitions God and is allowed to afflict Job’s skin with painful sores; his wife later urges him to curse God and die.

Job has nothing left, and still it says, that he refused to give up his faith in God. While some of us would be inclined to respond like this, Job keeps his eyes on the prize: he recognizes that God loves him even if it doesn’t feel like it.

I wonder sometimes if I have Job-like faith. How bad could it get? What temptation could I face and how would I respond? Where would I turn to and how could I overcome whatever faced me?

Those questions seem relevant in the world today, and I’m troubled sometimes by the way that the Church responds. It’s not always what I consider church, or even a denomination that I’m associated with, but when a known Christian speaks in the media or responds to someone I know who is facing tragedy, then I’m left dealing with it.

And there’s nothing that makes me angrier than bad theology.

Consider this: On May 20, less than twenty-four hours after the tornadoes struck in Oklahoma, a prominent Protestant preacher tweeted Job 1:19. For those of us who don’t have instant recall, he posted “Your sons and daughters were eating and a great wind struck the house, and it fell upon them, and they are dead.” He’d later say that his quote was taken out of context.

He also wrote this in 2001 after the tsunami hit Thailand: “The point of every deadly calamity is this: Repent. Let our hearts be broken that God means so little to us. Grieve that he is a whipping boy to be blamed for pain, but not praised for pleasure. This is the point of all pleasure and all pain. Pleasure says: ‘God is like this, only better; don’t make an idol out of me. I only point to him.’ Pain says: ‘What sin deserves is like this, only worse; don’t take offense at me. I am a merciful warning.’ But the topless sunbathers amid the tsunami aftermath in Phuket, Thailand did not get the message.”

So God doesn’t love sunbathers? Or people who vacation in Thailand? Since when do we have any Scripture that allows us to know if God likes or doesn’t like those things?

Next up, God prefers Coke over Pepsi? The Cowboys over the Redskins?

I’m sorry, folks, but that’s NOT what I hear God saying in the midst of tragedies where nature strikes or humans make decisions that negatively impact. I think God can speak to us through suffering but I don’t believe that the point of suffering or brokenness is repentance.

I’m all about repentance, because we all need it. We all need to turn from the things that hold us back, to turn away from sin, to embrace the love of Jesus Christ and his miraculous resurrection. We all need to recognize that life isn’t about us, but about God and loving others.

But too often we put things on God that are human rather than godly. We see the Old Testament people’s understanding of God and figure God must just be waiting to unleash that on us later. We figure God must be angry because we’re angry at the things we see in the world today. We want God to blast the things we don’t like, and fail to recognize that if God blasted evil… where would he stop? Pretty soon, we’d be gone, too.

God wants our undivided attention but he lay his son’s life down to get it. If we can’t see that in blessing and cursing, we’re missing out. God got our attention through love, not pain, even though he had to take the pain on himself to do it. But the Church is no different from anywhere else—it’s full of people who want to explain away the hurts they see.

Nevermind that Job didn’t actually do anything wrong—he wasn’t in sin and therefore condemned by God—bad stuff just happened to him.

And before his friends botched their advice, they did a few things right: “When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was” (Job 2:11-13).

They recognized his grief and cared so openly about him that they sat next to him SILENTLY and said nothing. FOR SEVEN DAYS.

Even the judgmental lot that were Job’s friends recognized in grieving to SHUT UP and BE STILL in the presence of the GRIEVING. It’s later that their attitudes got in the way of the good work they were doing. It’s later that they failed to get where God was in the midst of it.

See, I don’t hear God SCREAMING ABOUT REPENTANCE when tragedy strikes.

I don’t hear him blaming gun laws. Or homosexuality. Or mixed marriages. Or which party is in office.

Instead, all I hear is the sound of God weeping.

I hear the sound of God’s heart breaking. Of the celebration in heaven that there are new souls there, with the recognition that we’ve lost something here. I hear a blend of rejoicing in the now (the souls united with God in heaven) and the not yet.

And I think that’s all over the Bible.

One of my favorite places to find comfort is John 11, where Jesus arrives too late to stop the death of his BFF, Lazarus. He arrives and faces Lazarus’ two grieving sisters, and deals with their suffering.

Martha sticks it to Jesus—I know you could’ve saved him. But I’ll take it a step further, I know you can save his soul.

Jesus says, no he’s going to rise again. Martha: I know he’ll rise at the last resurrection.

So Martha tells Mary and she comes and gives Jesus the guilt trip again: Lord, if you’d been here…

So Jesus sees her weeping, and he becomes “troubled.” He weeps too. He knows she’s sad, and being with her makes him sad. He’s sharing her loss. But he hasn’t said anything yet. But Jesus prays to God and God raises Lazarus, not just to make people stop crying, but to have God be glorified.  So God’s will in suffering is sometimes for different reasons, isn’t it?

Over the last decade, in the midst of the “normal” preacher stuff, I’ve buried two people my age, and a little thirteen-day-old baby, all who were prayed over that God might heal them, and all who died way too soon. I’ve prayed for the people in Oklahoma who have suffered from terrifying storms and the people of India who have suffered so many earthquakes.

But I’ve also seen people miraculously healed. I’ve seen people with inoperable cancer deemed cancer free. And in the name of Jesus I claim hope, grace, power, and RESURRECTION. I have an Easter hope built on experience, on the Holy Spirit, on the gift of love by God.

And in these moments when tragedy strikes we hold fast to them.

Society wants to make everything causal: because of A, then B. Because of this, that happened. We see it in politics and government, when the new party takes over and blames the previous party for whatever happens to be the struggle of the day. We see it in the way that we choose sides in a divorce, vilifying one of the divorcees and making the other a victim.

The world wants to answer the question “why?” while God’s Word reminds us that the most important question is “how?”

Not, why did this happen but how will we respond?

In I Corinthians 13, it says that “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

This is more than cool marriage Scripture. It’s a description of God. GOD is all of these things. And if we are to be like God then we must be them, too.

God doesn’t cause bad things to happen but it does say that he works for good in ALL THINGS.

If God wanted to “blast” us, why would he have sent Jesus? If we were to get the destruction and pain we “deserved” then why send Jesus to save us from it? Isn’t it because God actually wants MORE from us than the tragic life that threatens our joy? God wants you to know that you can count on God in the midst of everything, and anything. God wants you to know that you are loved and valued, and that you have purpose. Even in the midst of tragedy.

Remember Sandyhook? One girl’s parents put the money to an animal sanctuary in her obituary in lieu of flowers. $175,000 later there’s a new sanctuary for animals (her passion) and people who have been hurt and need to heal.

Remember Columbine? Because of Cassie Bernall, thousands of people have heard about Jesus and come to have a relationship with him.

It says that those who mourn are blessed BECAUSE THEY WILL BE COMFORTED.But we need to know that in our sorrow, we can see God moving. It doesn’t take the suffering away but it reminds us that God’s love is with us. That we can stand up in the face of tragedy and brokenness, not to get by but to thrive.

A few years ago, Miami Heat shooting guard Dwayne Wade’s Nike commercial hinged on his getting thrown to the floor. The slogan was “fall down seven times, get up eight,” and it showed him hitting the basketball court hard over and over again… only to keep getting back up.

What if we realized that we showed who we really believed in through the way we “got back up?” What if we demonstrated the love of God in the way that we helped others get back up?

We can’t control the way that life will test us, hurt us, and frustrate us. But we can control how we respond. We can control where we’re focused and what gives our hearts the energy we need.

Do you need to respond to God’s grace today by confessing your sins and claiming the promise of an eternal resurrection with Jesus? Or do you need to respond by considering how you will truly love someone who needs you today?

Ultimately, in the midst of suffering, it’s pretty straightforward.

Love your neighbor. Pray for your enemy. Weep with the grieving.

And when in doubt, say nothing. Just love. Amen.

What’s a time when you were hurting and how were you shown love? Leave a response below. Thanks!

This sermon is for the 9 a.m. alternative worship of The Stand at Blandford UMC, Petersburg, VA on Sunday, October 6. This includes excerpts from “Tragedy & The Presence of God” from May.

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The East: An Eye For An Eye (Movie Review)

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

The trailer of The East drew me in and I’ll admit it, I bought a copy. Gasp! Determined to review things for free, I usually rely on publicity contacts, but this one had something that intrigued me.

What if an underground movement was doing the wrong things for the right reasons?

When private investigator Sarah Moss (Brit Marling) goes undercover, sleeping in the open and traveling on railway cars, just to infiltrate a group known as “The East.” This group, headed by Benji (Alexander Skarsgard), has set its sights on grabbing the public’s attention and shining a light on tragedy perpetrated by big companies.

Moss participates as they poison a company party with the company’s own deadly antibiotic, causing the same side effects that one of the East already suffers from; she’s present when they go after another of the East’s enemies, the parents of Izzy (Ellen Page), who are poisoning a town’s water supply. But when the East’s attention falls on Moss, how will she respond?

One of my favorite scenes shows how a subversive group might get it better than a non-subversive one! [Let’s be real: Christianity was subversive, still should be subversive, before it was a major world religion.] The group invites Moss to dinner but she’s forced to wear a straightjacket and all of the spoons are two feet long. She’s told she has to start as the guest, and is immediately lost. But the group shows her the joy of feeding each other with the long-handled spoons. C.S. Lewis would be so proud!

There are significant ethical conversations wrapped in the tight script of the film. Does the truth matter and who controls the truth we receive? Is it the major companies, the news programs, the government? [This seems to echo themes we’ll see in The Fifth Estate.]

What does justice look like, and how can we find justice when the law doesn’t provide it? Can the outsider in Moss find a cause she agrees with but disagree with the methods of the group? What would be justifiable responses to these kinds of corporate crimes? Is an “eye for an eye” still acceptable morality? (That’s a question St. Augustine would’ve loved to debate!)

Overall, The East proves that it has some tough questions to ask, and delivers it in a slick, thrilling format. Check this one out and come back to leave your thoughts on what you saw, and how you’d respond in the same situation.

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