Faith As Small As… (A Mustard Seed Musing)

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20)

My “about” page is one of the most frequently hit pages, and the term “mustard seed” is often one of the search engine categories that leads people to find my blog. But I’ve never really said why I picked that name, why I thought that represented me.

So here goes…

When Jesus tells his disciples that faith the size of a mustard seed would allow them to move a mountain, he’s responding to their struggle with a problem that they couldn’t quite wrap their minds around. He tells them that because they couldn’t see their own potential, the potential of the Holy Spirit (which they didn’t know about yet) working within them, the way that God wanted to use them.

But he doesn’t really berate them or tell them they’re awful people. He just tells them that if they would have a little faith, they could move mountains.

I sometimes wish I had more faith. I sometimes wish that I could understand everything or let go of the things I don’t quite understand. And I find myself realizing that I acquire the faith I need for when I need it, that the mustard seed of faith and hope that I began with continues to grow as necessary to match the situations I need to wrestle with. It’s not always when I think it’s necessary, but I have it on time.

And so, I write. I write from my own experience. I write from my own questions and struggles. I write when something strikes me that I think someone else might benefit from. It’s not always a fleshed-out, finalized thought, but sometimes, it’s the beginnings of a conversation about what it means to follow Jesus. I don’t doubt that some will disagree, but if it begins an unraveling of the problem for someone else or it causes someone else to see a new dimension of God in their daily lives, then the writing is justified.

So thanks for reading. Enjoy the ride.

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Rush: What Are You Chasing? (Movie Review)

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

“Everyone is driven by something.”

That’s the tag for Ron Howard’s Rush, the biopic about Formula One racers James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) and their pursuit of the championship in 1976. While there are certainly other actors and actresses (Olivia Wilde, of note), the camera remains almost solely focused on these two men, in an unflinching look at the way that greatness is pursued and the cost of glory.

To be fair, I’m no race car fan. I wouldn’t know a head gasket from a [fill in the blank], and the racing was solely a filler between the bits of witty exchange between Hunt and Lauda. In fact, the action and dialogue seemed to suffer whenever they weren’t onscreen together, reminding us of Mr. Glass’ statement in Unbreakable, that every hero needs a villain. But neither of these men are truly pure hero figures, and neither is a complete villain. Instead, they are two, broken individuals who pursue the points championship, risking their lives, their relationships, and their happiness in that pursuit.

We see the majority of the film in a flashback, and Howard uses a faux archival look, mixed with the usual sports shots and interpersonal scenes. At the end of the film, there’s actual footage mixed in with the closing scenes, and we almost can’t tell exactly what is what. That’s the beauty of this story, that paints Hunt as a womanizer with an alcohol problems, and Lauda as a cerebral, but socially inept foil. One is the life of the party but visibly flawed; the other is hermit-like and later, physically flawed.

Still, the two of them are nearly the same. They’re so self-involved in their pursuit of the championship that they lose sight of what it means to be half of a marriage, to build friendships rather than user-focused relationships, to acknowledge that their could be more to life than racing. But that’s why the crowds followed them in 1976 and why there’s a movie about them now.

I wavered on whether to include a spoiler here or not (I’ve chosen not to). What’s gripping, ultimately, is that both of them are faced with the same choice, to put life and future on the line for a championship, or not. These men don’t see that there’s anything more to life, and sadly, “the job” is what many Americans see as “all there is.” There is much more to life, in relationships, in community, in faith. But so many people don’t get it.

We’ve become a nation focused on “the win,” and if we can’t get it at “the job,” we try to do it on softball fields where we play, or on soccer fields where our kids play, or in church, or PTA, or with our friends. We’ve lost sight of (sorry for the cliche) the journey, and only found the destination to be valuable. [Again, that’s the same problem I have with so many versions of “Christianity” where conversion, not relationship, is key.] It’s something that costs Hunt and Lauda, and hopefully, won’t cost you if you can learn from them.

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Prisoners: Battling The Darkness (Movie Review)

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

I’m a fan of Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard, but I went to Prisoners reluctantly. It looked like Taken only with more of an exploratory moral conscience. If you’ve seen the trailer, you know it’s dark, as the two aforementioned actors play fathers whose daughters go missing. But I’ll argue that you have no idea how dark it really is: we’re dealing here with the problem of evil in a way that I haven’t seen on screen since Se7en…and that movie scared me like crazy.

Keller (Jackman) and Grace (Maria Bello) Dover join Franklin (Howard) and Nancy (Viola Davis) Birch for Thanksgiving, and by the end of the evening, no one can find their two, young daughters. The police, under the leadership of Det. Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), quickly zero in on Alex Jones (Paul Dano, another superb actor), who has communication issues and lives with his aunt (Melissa Leo). As the police investigation stalls out, Keller takes the matters, Jones himself, into his own hands and systematically tortures him to discover where the girls are. But as Keller unravels into a descending spiral of rage and violent behavior, other suspects present themselves. It’s a stellar performance by Jackman, and by Gyllenhaal, as two fighters locking horns with each other and with the problem at hand.

Given the review responses (81% on Rotten Tomatoes), you have to imagine that this isn’t straightforward, and it’s not. The audience is led to believe it’s Jones, then it’s not, then maybe it is, then maybe… Crime, punishment, and culpability are broadly painted here, and we see a morality tale that peels back the skin and points to the potential for good or evil in the hearts of all of humanity. It’s the stuff of The Walking Dead (“we’re all infected, already”) and The Garden of Eden post-Fall (the first few chapters of Genesis in the Bible’s Old Testament). And it leaves us asking how we’d respond if we were searching for a loved one, and what we should consider about our own moral compass?

Romans 12:19 shows Yahweh God saying, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” As I walked out of Zero Dark Thirty, I felt like there was a perfect presentation of why that isn’t about God controlling who gets the satisfaction but because God knows that vengeance and violence aren’t ultimately going to fill you up. They can’t take away the hurt, and in the case of Prisoners, they’re not going to necessarily take you where you want to go. But when you dive into a dirty pool, you get dirty, too.

Prisoners also says something deeper. It says that there are forces of evil and darkness whose only satisfaction is bringing down the good. By good, I mean what most of us would consider ourselves, in the way that we are “good but not great,” or “good versus morally corrupt.” Keller is not excellent, but he’s not subpar. He just is; this situation pushes him into a place where he has choices to make and the choices are less than savory options. At one point he’s even taunted by the darkness: “we steal your children to make you into the demon you’ve become, to steal peoples’ faiths away.”

Wow.

Do you recognize that there are forces in the world that want to see you suffer? That there are people without faith or hope or love who are not interested in whether or not those things are real but merely in taking yours away? I’m not regularly preaching or speaking about spiritual warfare, but I think we’re being foolish if we don’t recognize that there is absolute evil in the world. It’s just that I choose to focus on the absolute good, the nature of God and the sacrificial redemption we can find through Jesus Christ. I would argue that in a cycle of sin, despair, and moral corruption, that God broke the cycle when he used Jesus to break the chains of sin and death.

Prisoners seems to argue that everyone loses, because no one is able to break the cycle (to say more would be to spoil it for you). It’s a tale of great tragedy, and sadness, and one which asks us to consider, how do we respond to all of the slights and “minor violences” we encounter each day? How do we take the moments where other people harm us, intentionally or not, and respond in a way that God is glorified even in the midst of suffering?

Keller does a lot of praying. He prays before he hunts, and when he’s scared. But he also prays before he crosses moral boundaries that he knows he shouldn’t. And that plays into the moral justification area of the movie, where people do things they know are wrong because they think their ends are justifiable. (I’m aware that the average person reading this hasn’t kidnapped anyone, but what have you justified today before God or yourself, that you know isn’t right?)

The film isn’t pretty, and it isn’t uplifting, but it asks us how we respond and what we do when life is going sideways. Too many people in the community of Prisoners become imprisoned to other people’s choices or their own history, and never stop being who life seems to be pushing them to be. Unfortunately, that can happen to us, too, if we’re not intentionally focused on what is good, and true.

Can you break the cycle?

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What Good Is Prayer Anyway? (A Mustard Seed Musing)

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

We see prayer in pop culture. People give shout-outs to God when they win awards, and reference prayers for various and sundry things when writing songs. We might recognize that there’s comfort to be found in having someone say they’ll pray for us, and then chagrin when we recognize that they didn’t really mean it. It’s the problem with prayer– we’re not actually sure why we’re doing it!

I’m sometimes asked, “why do you pray?” It usually translates to “what’s the point?” I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer lately, as I rescue with some big picture decisions, some life-altering possibilities. And I keep finding myself more focused when I’m on my knees. I’ll admit it though, I don’t consider myself a “prayer warrior,” and the thought of “praying through” (a phrase I’ve heard related to older Christians’ prayer lives) is unfathomable. But ultimately, we’re instructed to pray, throughout the Bible, but maybe most famously in Matthew 6:9-13:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
my will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today everything we want.
And forgive us our debts,
as we might also forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.

Now, if you’re like me, and you’ve read or prayed this prayer hundreds of times, you probably didn’t actually read that! Go back and check it out, and you may be surprised. I’ll wait.

The truth is that there are dozens of ways we could tweak the prayer (you can read the real version by clicking on the link above) but it ultimately comes down to the focus of the prayer. Is the prayer for us to get what we want? Is it about making God do our will? Too often we pray that way, and that’s not what this prayer says.

And it all comes down to one line for me, that impacts all the others: “thy will be done.”

What does it mean if I pray that? What happens if I really mean it? I’m being reminded over and over again that when I pray that, I start to see the world in a different light. I see the decisions I’m praying over not just out of my own selfishness or fear but out of a desire to actually do what God wants me to do. If I pray “thy will be done,” then that’s causing me to reconsider decisions that I think would be in opposition to God’s will.

But it impacts everything else.

If I really pray for God’s will to be done, and that I be forgiven, then I recognize that it’s God’s will that I forgive myself and embrace that Jesus forgave me when he died on the cross.

If I really pray for God’s will to be done, and that I forgive as I’ve been forgiven, then I recognize I actually have to forgive first before I’m forgiven. I can’t give lip service to a blank slate for myself without embracing that God expects I’m going to forgive others. It’s 1 John 4:19 spelled out: “we love because He first loved us.”

If I really pray for God’s will to be done, and that I need my daily bread, then I recognize that God doesn’t expect me to have tomorrow worked out all the time. That my 401k, my five-year-plan, and my retirement are all much less significant (negligible maybe) than what I do with today, right now, in my present work and calling.

If I pray “thy will be done,” I better mean it, and I better be willing to live it out. It puts a different spin on just reciting the words, doesn’t it? It means that I better be prepared for God to show up and use me in a way that I didn’t believe possible. It means that prayer is the place where my enemies, my wants, my needs, my hopes, and my life must be laid down and bathed in God’s desire for my life.

Prayer changes our perspective. It gives us hope, and grants us a window into what God wants for our lives. Without it, we’re not in relationship, and we’re anchor-less. Without prayer, we lack the necessary relationship where we can know God’s will. And God’s will makes all the difference.

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Chicago Fire: What’s Your Family’s Style (TV Review)

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

chicago fireI’ll admit it: I like to binge watch television shows. My record is still two and a half days for the first season of the greatest television show ever (Lost). But over the last week, I blew through the first season of Chicago Fire, the NBC drama about Engine Co. 51, Truck Co. 81, Rescue Squad Co. 3, and Ambulance 61. Each episode has a “case” or two, in terms of serial procedure, but the sticking point remains the characters, their interaction with each other, and the their struggles in the life of first responders and… human beings with hard decisions.

Play-by-the-rules Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) probably presents the most sympathetic character; he’s the lieutenant for the Truck crew. Opposite him is the rogue Rescue lieutenant Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney). Spiraling out from them are a host of characters including Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker), firefighter/paramedics Shay (Lauren German) and Dawson (Monica Raymund), candidate firefighter Mills (Charlie Barnett), and old timers, Hermann (David Eigenberg), Mouch (Christian Stolte), and Cruz (Joe Minoso). [It’s worth noting that the show already has a spin-off set for midseason fall 2013 starring Jon Seda and Jason Beghe as Chicago cops who show up periodically on the show.] There are a variety of friends and love interests, with guest stars like Treat Williams, Sarah Shahi, and Shiri Appleby.

I was struck early on by an exchange between Casey and Dawson. Casey knew that a cop’s son was the cause of an accident that left a teenager paralyzed but the case was covered up, and he was challenged to change his testimony. He asks Dawson what she would do, and she tells him that she would do the right thing because she’d want to look him in the eye. It’s leadership from the front, which Boden also emphasizes, that impacts the way that most of the men and women of the firehouse make decisions. It’s risky, sometimes dangerous, but it’s usually choosing the right thing to do… even if the wrong things drive the show’s more enticing situations.

One firefighter intentionally lets a “bad guy” die to save his brother, who is wrapped up in a gang. It’s a situation that has moral repercussions, but it forces the viewer to consider how he/she might respond in a situation where family was on the line (Prisoners also allows for that discussion). Severide’s injury on the job leads to his addiction to painkillers which involves other members of the squad, and affects his job performance. His love for the job, and his single-minded focus on fighting fires, causes him to make poor decisions but it proves his passion.

For those seeking romance, the show balances several story lines about love and relationships. Casey has an on-again/off-again relationship with a doctor, but he and Dawson have strong feelings for each other that we haven’t really seen engaged yet, as she backs into a relationship with Mills. Severide tackles his ex-fiance’s troubles, while also finding a fling with a woman he rescues in a traffic accident. Hermann’s family life, and impending fatherhood for the fifth time, provide a balance to Mouch’s pursuit of a “mail order bride.”

Maybe this is a bit of a soapy drama, or maybe it’s just like real life. There still haven’t been many moments that I thought “well, that wouldn’t happen,” and the people react the way that most of us would given their predicaments. But seeing them play out on the screen makes me wonder if I could do better, and if in any of their situations, if it’s not a slippery slope to get there. But each of them know where they can go when it hits the fan: the firehouse. They know where their community is, and they know who will advise them, challenge them, encourage them, and comfort them. There’s no doubting that for these characters.

Do we feel that way about anywhere? Do we know where we can go? I have my family, and my friends, and the commonality is our relationship with God. I hope you have someone you can talk to, a place you can go, and ultimately, I hope you have that community, because I call it church. Ultimately, we can’t get anywhere on our own, not if we’re realistic. It’s the truth that the folks of Chicago Fire find, and we can find it, too.

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Sunday’s Sermon Today: True Freedom (Nehemiah 5:1-13)

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

The walls have been rebuilt, the city has been restored. It’s one of those holy moments where the workers can look around and see what they have done, and sit back and be proud. But sometimes, it’s easier to fix the structures. It’s easier to rebuild a building than it is to mend a broken heart. It’s easier to change the way that something looks than it is to fix a broken system and the way that it acts.

Nehemiah could see the brokenness of the walls but he couldn’t see the internal brokenness. And those wounds hurt even worse.

Once the people have assembled the walls, and repaired the gates, they begin to sort through the residences, and figure out which portions they want to claim as their own. They begin to mark off their territory, and they begin to realize that deep within them is a belief that they are better than so and so.

In the reality television show Last Comic Standing, comics would survive rounds of tryouts until the last twelve were brought together to live in a house together. Every week, the comics would have to battle each other, determined by each comic’s assessment “I know I’m funnier than…” They would be assessing their talents and their skills and determining that they were in fact more valuable than that person.

On a much deeper, more dangerous level, that’s the case for the Jews who now live in Jerusalem. Some of the families have been more prosperous; they have many children who need food and given the lack of farming that has happened while the city lay broken, there is not enough grain in their opinion. Others said that they had already mortgaged all of their property to get grain. Others still had sold off their own children to buy grain, from the Jews who had more than enough grain to go around.

And the only person who is willing to speak to the problem is Nehemiah. He is angry, and he goes after the leaders of the people. He challenges their system to charge interest, and he charges their use of slavery. The Jews had just bought back any of the Jews that non-Jews had bought, but now they were doing the same thing to their own.

Nehemiah can’t believe the irony of the situation. People buying other people’s children in exchange for food, but not just enemies or strangers, from their own neighbors! He commanded them to stop charging interest unfairly, and to make sure everyone had enough to eat, regardless of their ability to buy it. He told them they were supposed to care for their neighbors, and to live in fear of God’s judgment. He, in essence, told them to stop eating their own young.

While they were feeling oppressed from the outside, they had created oppression from the inside. They had made a space where people were unsafe from each other, and from themselves.

In Luke 10, Jesus is asked, “who is my neighbor?” It’s not because the person asking actually wants to know about treating other people better but because he wants to know what it takes to get into heaven. It’s the way that many of us operate, asking what’s the minimum line, the check box, the “i” that needs dotted, to make sure that we’ve meant the requirement.

And Jesus answers the man with a story, the Parable of the Good Samaritan, that ends with the a foreigner taking care of a stranger, and caring for him like he was family. That’s the kind of thing that Nehemiah knows is what the Israelites have been taught and heard about from the Torah, but it’s not how they were behaving.

Nehemiah knows that if his people aren’t behaving like they should be, then ultimately, they aren’t living into the lives that God wants for them. They are held down by their own fears, and expectations, and their own shortcomings. They aren’t living into the best of what they could be, but they’re instead falling into the kind of life that the people around them are living, the kinds of people we’ve seen Nehemiah battle in the last few weeks.

And Nehemiah, he dreams. He dreams of a place where his nation is healed, the walls of his city are restored, and the people’s hearts are restored. I reflected on this in the weeks after the celebration of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream Speech,” and I recognize that Nehemiah and MLK were kindred souls. They both wanted people to recognize that their soul, their sense of self was in their position as children of God, as people made in the image of God, regardless of their position, their social upbringing, their race, their dress, their country of origin.

This is my adaptation of his speech, for today:

We cannot be satisfied with the status quo, where some have a bounty, an excess, and others have none. We must push forward and work until real change occurs, but we must never seek to answer this violence or any like it with more violence. We must not satisfy our desire for freedom by assuming that holding others down makes us more free. The freedom of others to love God, to worship as they choose, is bound up in our freedom to live and love as we choose.

We can’t be satisfied, as we see others suffer unfairly, in the court of law or in the court of public opinion. We can’t accept that children of any kind would be treated as less than human, whether it is in our low income communities or in slavery around the world. Some of you have experienced pain and persecution along the way; some of you still remember when you were “without,” when you struggled to understand what God wanted from you. ‘Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.’

I pray that you will leave this church today to go back to work, and school, and home, and community, knowing that you have the power to make real change occur. I hope that you will rally to the truth that while some of us are imprisoned to addiction, or debt, or a lack of enough, that none of us are truly free.

I have a dream that one day, God’s holy church will rise up and live out its creed to love others as God has first loved them. I have a dream that those who have grown up Christian will see the great joy of those who have just met Christ; that those who value the tradition will appreciate the new; that those who strive to push the boundaries will love the strong tradition that they come from; that the hearts of all people would be brought back to God; that those who have wished harm on others would now seek forgiveness; that we would recognize that this is God’s house not our house; that we would recognize that all we have is in fact God’s and not ours to cling to; that the love of Jesus Christ and the death and resurrection of God’s son was not for some or a few but for all.

I have a dream that one day, my children will live in a Church where all are welcome, whether they believe or not, because it is up to us to follow Jesus not to convict those who don’t know him. I have a dream that God’s kingdom will rise up in the world until no one can deny who is truly God.

I have a dream that this kingdom will rise up to throw down addiction, and inequality, and “isms.” I have a dream that God will so use his followers that all will see how much God loves them because He created them and made them in his own image. I have a dream that God will rise up a kingdom of people who see the value of each person for themselves, not as a means of getting ahead or profiting financially or otherwise.

This is our hope, that we will be used by God to make his kingdom a real, living, present thing on Earth.

‘Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring — when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children — black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics — will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”‘

When all are free, then we will be free indeed.

This sermon is for the 11 a.m. worship service on September 29 at Blandford United Methodist Church in Prince George, Va.

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Sunday Sermon’s Today: Dealing With Adversity (Nehemiah 4:1-15)

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Power of One. It’s based on the Bryce Courtenay novel, but the film version stars Morgan Freeman as Geel Piet, a black South African who teaches a young man named PK (Stephen Dorff by the time he’s older) to box. It’s set in the troubling times for South Africa around World War II, and it shows the ugly side of prejudice, of social stigmas, of fear. But the thing is, in the midst of all of the violence, this young man learns that color doesn’t matter, that the battle for freedom is one that we all should be passionate about is hard. PK undergoes ridicule and persecution for being allied with the blacks who are seen as less than worthless, but in the process of standing for freedom and justice, he finds that his passions find meaning.

It’s funny how that pattern is repeated over and over again; one group of people find that they benefit by holding another group down, the held down group fights back and gains followers from the more respected class or those sitting on the sidelines, and in the process, that individual or group leads those oppressed people to freedom (Spartacus, Avatar, the story of Moses, etc.) But we can see it in the story of Nehemiah, too.

Nehemiah burned with a passion for the restoration of his home city of Jerusalem, so he prayed to God and found himself standing in the midst of the broken city, with the authority to make it happen. But not everyone is happy when things get fixed; the world operates in a way that allows the “status quo” to keep some people up and hold some people down.

In Nehemiah 4, we meet one of the people held up by the broken wall: Sanballat.

Have you ever been ridiculed for doing something right? Sanballat finds the people working around the walls, and he makes fun of them. Of course, a crowd gathers because people invariably feel better when someone is being made to feel bad. It’s part of our faulty human nature, and Sanballat uses it to get his buddies going.

“The Jews are weak! Do you think they can actually fix this? Will they actually worship something here? Can they even use these materials?”

Like the “other” judge on The Muppets, Tobiah the Ammonite points and says, “It’s so rickety, even a fox climbing up there would cause it to fall down!”

Um… what a zinger?

But as is typical in many of these stories of the prophets, this isn’t about the neighborhood bullies, Sanballat and Tobiah. This is about the way that the people of God respond when they are faced with opposition, when they encounter evil.

Nehemiah prayed: “Hear us, O God, we’re hated. Turn their insults back. Give us this land  and defeat our enemies.”

Pretty straightforward, right? Nehemiah isn’t going with the “kill ’em with kindness” approach. He wants God to give he and the people victory, and to shut the bullies up! But the remarkable thing is that Nehemiah prays and they keep building! How often do we pray and then sit back? Or work without praying?

Nehemiah’s approach is fully integrated. Nehemiah knows who has the whole situation in hand, and he’s not going to try to fight a battle that’s not his or fail to follow through with the task that’s been assigned to him. Nehemiah knows the plays from the game plan he needs for right now, and he trusts that God will take care of the rest. Nehemiah knows that he just has to do what’s laid out in front of him: he can’t outkick the coverage, he can’t miss what his responsibilities are.

And it made Nehemiah’s enemies even angrier when the people found success rebuilding the wall, because they worked with their whole heart! The people are locked in, focused, and ready to work hard.

Let’s take a look at the enemies of Nehemiah for a minute. Why would they be angry that the wall would be completed? Why would they plot to fight with the people who were doing the rebuilding? Why wouldn’t they want these people to thrive? That doesn’t make sense, does it? But I think we need to make sure we’re not like them!

It’s amazing that the people working with Nehemiah refused to give up. Even when the enemies of the rebuilding threatened them with death and bodily harm. Even when Nehemiah had to arm his followers to make sure that the building could go on.

In the midst of their fear and apprehension, Nehemiah took the necessary steps to prepare them for the task before them, and then he gave them the battlefield speech revolving around the glory of the Lord: “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” It’s not exactly Braveheart material, but it worked, and the walls were erected as they planned.

I wonder sometimes what we’re “tasked” to do. Are we supposed to stand for something? Are we supposed to speak up for something? Are we supposed to build or rebuild something that we haven’t even heard before? We’ve been looking at our brokenness and the way that God can heal us, and heal the situations we experience, but have we looked at the things that actually cause our brokenness in the first place?

Where does the adversity we face come from? Is it internal or external? Is it caused by someone else or self-inflicted? Is it spiritual, emotional, intellectual, or physical?

What if we’re better off when there is adversity, rather than when there isn’t any? Does it matter what adversity we’re talking about?

I read several years ago that countries have found that it’s best politically to not let a long time of peace settle in, that those times when there’s no outside threat tend to be a time when people begin infighting, and judging harshly the ways that the government works. So, there’s been the conjecture that governments invent or force the situation, creating an external problem to make sure that the constant friction or frustration causes the nation’s people to be focused on their mutual enemy rather than imploding.

What if we saw the adversity we face when we are doing good as the means which God allows us to be who we’re supposed to be in the first place? What if we recognized that we’re not really being the church God that wants us to be if we’re too comfortable?

I believe if the adversity is self-inflicted, if you’re dealing with addiction or you have a self-fulfilling pattern of poor behavior, that you need to pray to God for healing for your brokenness. But if you’re doing what’s right, if you’re aimed at justice and peace and mercy, and you experience adversity… then maybe, just maybe, you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.

The Apostle Paul knew a little bit about adversity, as he travelled to places that he wasn’t welcome to spread the gospel and found himself locked in chains awaiting execution for his faith. He wrote, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). And later, he received from God, “‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9). What if we saw adversity as a mark that we were loved and where we should be?

Paul in fact said that God “comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Maybe instead of resting in our own comfort, we should see it as the way we can make other people’s lives better. Maybe we’re supposed to be comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

Who do you know who needs comforted? Who do you know who is in trouble? Who are you supposed to be freeing from sadness or pain or loneliness by inviting them to church, where they can find true community?

It’s counterintuitive, I know, but try this:

Go find some adversity today; you might just meet Jesus there.

This sermon is for the Stand worship service at Blandford United Methodist Church at 9 a.m. on September 29 in Prince George, Va.

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FF Rant: Free Agents of Change Week 3 (Fantasy Football)

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

I have a cold. And when I have a cold, I’m whiny. Which is what I’d be if I was someone who took my advice last week. Seriously, James Starks? Oh wait, it wasn’t his fault, he got hurt. Philip Rivers? Oh, yeah, a touchdown was called back for a hold. But seriously, last week wasn’t exactly my claim to fame week, was it?

But this week, Green Bay goes on vacation (that is, they have a bye) and the newly rejuvenated Cam Newton’s Panthers also get a siesta. So, it’s possible you need someone to pick up where Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton, a bevy of Green Bay WRs and RBs left off, right? Look no further than these guys…

This week’s pickups:

QB: Geno Smith. Brian Hoyer. The Jets get the Tennessee Titans, who aren’t scaring anyone on defense, while Hoyer’s second go (after knocking off Minnesota) finds the ex-Pat going up against a fierce Cincinnati team. But Green Bay put up 30 on Cincy, losing by 4, and Hoyer has Jordan Cameron, Josh Gordon, and, dare-I-say-it, Willis “Old Man Time” McGahee? It does help that as long as he doesn’t get hurt, Hoyer gets the Buffalo Bills next week.

RB: Johnathan Franklin, Bilal Powell, Danny Woodhead. Now, Franklin won’t help you this week, but he showed something he wouldn’t have if Eddie Lacy and James Starks weren’t banged up. Is there a chance Starks won’t rebound? (Of course.) But if you need immediate help, the Jets get the Titans as mentioned above, and Woodhead should see plenty of catches as the Chargers try to match the Cowboys’ offense.

WR: Josh Gordon, Justin Blackmon, Sidney Rice. Seriously, how can Gordon be on the waivers, given the duds some of the WRs are dropping? Oh yeah, a two-game suspension and then Brandon Weeden gets dinged up. But it’s Hoyer time! It’s also “that” time: Blackmon is returning from suspension. Rice went from single-digits to blowing up… but is it just the Jaguars? If you own multiple GB WRs, it may be time to beg, borrow, and steal.

TE: Repeat after me: if you don’t have Jimmy Graham, try to pick up or trade for Jordan Cameron. Charles Clay is your next best option.

D/ST: It’s got to be Indy’s D/ST. They get the not-so-fearsome Jacksonville Jaguars.

Let’s look at last week’s suggestions…

QB: Philip Rivers. 11 points.

RB: James Starks, Bernard Pierce, Andre Ellington. Starks, knee injury. Pierce, serviceable 12 points. Ellington, 4 points.

WR: DeAndre Hopkins, Aaron Dobson, Eddie Royal. Hopkins, 6 points. Dobson, 5 points. Royal, 3 points. At least the first two guys doubled their point total with receptions in PPR.

TE: Charles Clay. 4 points.

K:  Nick Novak, 5 points.

D/ST:  Buffalo Bills! -2 points. At least the Chargers were worse.

And some extras…

Bounce Back Candidate From The Obvious Name Department: Trent Richardson. From San Francisco and three days prep to…the Jaguars.

Sell High Candidate: DeMarco Murray. He was on three of my teams last year. He. Will. Get. Hurt. Trade him now.

Trade Target: If not Richardson (he gets the Jaguars twice, and the Titans twice), I say Giovani Bernard. He’s only going to get better. Or you could roll the die on an underperforming stud like Rodgers, RGIII, Alfred Morris, or Julio Jones. Those offenses won’t stay down forever.

They’re Dead To Me (Almost…): Jason Witten (saw that coming), BenJarvus Green-Ellis (see: Bernard, Giovani), Matt Schaub (Baltimore stinks; SF and SEA come next), Ryan Matthews, Darren Sproles, Pats WRs (they’re just not that good, and Gronk is coming back).

Until next time…

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Good News Of The Day: Real Life Devotion (Book Review)

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

This is a review of a fellow HJ writer’s new book, that I’ve copied from HJ. But many of you don’t read both so I thought it was relevant here. Hope you’ll check it out!

I don’t know Yo Snyder well. Granted, we have been writers for Hollywood Jesus for several years together, but he lives in New Mexico and I live in Virginia. But I feel like I know Yo Snyder.

I know Yo loves his family, video games, movies, and the Denver Broncos. I know Yo loves Jesus.

Now you can get to know Yo a bit better with his “Life App for today’s pop-culture,” Good News for Today. Here, you’ll find 366 devotions (yes, leap year’s February 29 is included!) that include a Scripture verse and an applicable lesson from Yo’s own life.

Real Life: Check out January 25 and the story about Yo’s tricky, bent credit card and how that serves as an image of what sin is really like.

Pop Culture: On April 1, “Extreme Foolish Makeover” tells the story about a woman who wanted a man so badly that she had herself “shaped” to look like Jessica Alba… in China.

TV: Oprah gets a shout out… and we’re reminded she’s still not as generous as God in “The Big Give” on April 20.

Movies and Comics: In “The Dark Knight Before The Dawn,” on June 10, we’re reminded that there’s a hope that can’t be shut out.

Parenthood: On July 1, Yo reminds us (and his kids) that “Someone Is Always Watching.”

Sports: We see the power of sports for good and bad in golf on September 24, “The Day I Sin The Most.”

Marriage: “Replacements Just Aren’t The Same” reminds us on November 6 that marriage can show us what it means to understand how much God loves us.

Videogames: Knowing God’s love for us even when we’re broken becomes the focus of Yo’s look at “Fixing The Red Light of Death” (that all Xbox owners know well).

But March 22’s “What Is A Hero?” might be the ‘thesis’ statement of a devotional written by Yo Snyder. Here, he states boldly that while we might watch imaginary heroes in movies, play as imaginary heroes in video games, or lift sports icons to the role of heroes, the one, true hero was Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for sins that he didn’t commit and conquered death once and for all.

As the Editor-in-Chief of Hollywood Jesus and a longtime writer, I am proud of what Yo has done here in games, movies, and sports, and I take great joy in presenting his writing in book form to a world that will certainly appreciate a Scripture, real world, amusing, challenging, and diverse book of devotions available now!

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Seasons Of Gray: Do You Forgive? (Movie Review)

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

Brady (Andrew Cheney) lives the life of Joseph from the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. He grows up as the favorite of his father, he dreams of amazing things, and he’s pushed away from his family by the brothers who resent his presence. This time, he’s the son of a rancher, who becomes a land magnate, and restores his family’s ranch to where it belongs.

Echolight Films and Watermark Church have teamed to deliver a modern-day parable. Sure, it centers on the story of Joseph, and verse I John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.” It comes with the preface by Watermark’s pastor, and ends with a reminder that “love is powerful,” “forgiveness is possible,” but it isn’t preachy, which is usually my stock complaint in productions like these.

Overall, I was impressed with the production values, the actual contemporary feel of the story, and the acting by the principle characters. That’s basically a trifecta! Too often, we get “updates” to Biblical stories that don’t actually re-imagine the stories at all, and then we slog through something that looks like it could’ve been done by a talentless, high school drama group. Seasons of Gray has aimed higher and has hit the mark.

When it comes to telling a Biblical story, there seem to be two focus points a production can choose: it’s either Old Testament judgment with a focus on sin and death, or a New Testament do-over that amounts to justifying all sorts of bad behavior. Seasons of Gray does neither, instead striking a chord between the real-life consequences of the situations surrounding Joseph’s internal family struggles and the “Potiphar’s wife dilemma,” while also building up to the moment when Brady is able to receive the good advice he gets about forgiveness, and apply it to his own situation. Too often, we’ve divorced the theological from the practical, but this film brings it back and puts it clearly in the center of our attention.

Kudos to Watermark and Echolight for their fine reinvention. Here’s hoping that Christians will give the film a spin and see how the story plays out in the hearts and minds of people seeing it for the first time. Check it out here.

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