The Journey So Far: Why I Am A Christian (1977-1995)

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

The Prologue: When my mother was pregnant with me, she experienced the anxiety of some mothers as they awaited the coming of their first child. Whether it was a physical fear or an emotional one isn’t clear to me, but what is clear to me is that my mother had a very real experience of God speaking to her, telling her that God had a plan for me. It’s a story I didn’t hear until I was in my twenties, but it begs the question, what is it that God had in mind for me to accomplish, and have I accomplished it yet?

The Purpose: If you’ve been reading the blog, you probably know that I’m a sinner saved by grace, a son, a husband, a father, a friend, a minister, a movie critic, and a sports fan. But how I got here is possibly more interesting than where I am, and too often, I’ve failed to tell that story. Call it my testimony, or my life story, or a boring blog post by someone with too much time. [I actually think it gets “good” in seminary, in the next section, but that’s besides the point.]

Recently, I found myself in one of those “aha” (and “of course”) conversations. It revolved around the disinterest by many people toward organized religion, coupled with the fact that most people are interested in the stories behind why a person chooses faith, with the startling caveat that people of faith are not inclined to tell their story. I resolved to tell my story of faith more… and shelved the idea for several months. But I’m not putting it off any longer…

The Story: I was raised in a conservative, evangelical, Protestant Christian home in Rhode Island (and no, that’s not a New York borough). Those aren’t “tags” I understood as a child, sitting around the living room, reading appropriate Bible stories before breakfast every day. But they’re the descriptors that defined my understanding of faith in a loving environment where right and wrong were black and white, where church was an all-day Sunday and Wednesday night thing, where prayer, Scripture, and “what would Jesus do?” were integrated in every aspect of life. There was no Sunday faith versus rest-of-the-week: it was all unified in “this is how to live.”

Looking back, I wonder how I might have met God if I been raised in Pakistan, or Siberia. It’s pretty shocking to have been raised Protestant in the Roman Catholic center of the universe (what, you thought it was the Vatican??) But for me, I met Yahweh God through my parents and the loving community of Portsmouth Evangelical Friends Church. My parents were still members of the Church of the Brethren, and the PEFC met in a Quaker Meeting House (and I wouldn’t join a church until I was in my late twenties), but denominationalism wasn’t as important as having a relationship with Jesus Christ. Being a member didn’t matter as much as worshipping God in community did to my parents, and the importance of that wasn’t lost on me.

My parents placed a heavy emphasis on reading the Bible, and we prayed every morning and every night. Sunday School was a fun place, full of learning and community, and its importance still shows up in the way I prioritize discipleship and small groups in my ministry today. I can see the people who led classes or youth group through my early years, and they’re “a cloud of witnesses” that helped nurture my early understanding of faith.

I also met God through the men who had devoted themselves to God through the monastery at Portsmouth Abbey School as Benedictine monks, and the community around them. Growing up as a teacher’s kid at a private Catholic school, there was an insulated bubble on one hand and a wide-open world of new people, traditions, and nationalities to meet. As I grew older, I received my faithful education at home, at school, and at church. You could call me a Christian “mutt,” or just say I was ecumenical! There’s a cool picture my parents have of my baptism in the ocean by our pastor when I was seven, with a group of monks in the crowd on the shore.

It was just one more example of how I was always swimming in a different direction than my peers. By the time I was in the eighth grade, I was the oldest “kid” in the youth group, but I saw that as my responsibility to set a good example; throughout high school, I was one of a few Protestants I knew at the Abbey, while the majority of my peers were either Catholic by choice or Catholic by their parents’ decision. But that distinction, the fact that I went willingly to church with my family every Sunday while many of my peers either didn’t attend or went because they were forced to wasn’t lost on me. That begs another question: when can we decide for ourselves that we believe? When can we experience justifying grace, moving past prevenient grace? (For my non-Methodist readers, I’ll briefly cover those types in the next installment: “Why I Am A Methodist.”)

High school was a time of being sharpened, not by forces outside the church, but in terms of why I didn’t pray to Mary or believe in transubstantiation. I learned much about the Catholic faith that I didn’t appreciate then but that I appreciate now, studying under Dom Caedmon, Dom Edmund, and Dom Paschal. Their faith wasn’t casual but completely immersed: they lived life, and work, and faith, day-by-day and side-by-side with their peers and those entrusted to their care.

When the time came, I left home to explore a path aimed at a law degree through the University of Richmond. Then, it was a school associated with the Baptist church, I like to say that I’d read too many John Grisham novels, and that all of the pro bono work looked mighty attractive. But my experience at Richmond forced me to consider what I believed for myself and what I believed because my parents had taught it to me. I was surrounded by secular pessimism, and in particular, a core requirement class teacher who proposed that everything I knew as truth was “only” story. (Later, I would come to understand the Bible as truth and story, but she challenged that it was only the second, daring any Christians to enter into verbal combat, not dialogue.)

During my freshman year, I recognized that there were issues and situations I would not approach the same way as my parents’ faith dictated, but I found that what I had held at the core since I can remember was still what I believed. Things like:

-That God had intentionally created the world, and all people, out of God’s absolute love that had to be shared with sentient beings who could choose to love God or not.

-That God recognized that we could not save ourselves, and so chose to send the one and only Son to live with us incarnationally, and to die on the cross as a one-and-only sacrifice for my sins (and everyone else’s).

-That God will come again to fulfill the promise of our world, that God is working in our world right now, and that those two pieces work together to make God’s kingdom a now and not yet.

These fundamental statements continued to drive my sense of myself in college, and later seminary, but set the stage for who I have become and am becoming. It’s been a nuanced journey, not a sudden or greatly contrasted one, but it’s mine. What’s your story? Why do you believe what you believe? I fundamentally believe that everyone believes something, even if they don’t have a name for it!

Next week: “Why I Am A Pastor” or “How Seminary Ruined My Life, and Made Me A Better Person“

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Sunday’s Sermon Today: Uncommon Sense

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

If you could have just one thing from God, what would it be? I wish I could’ve polled you, the congregation reading this online and those in church today, to see what the answers were. I imagine they would include one more day with someone who has passed away, a chance to go back and undo a choice, the ability to walk or run or sit without pain… the list could be endless.

I have to admit that it never would’ve crossed my mind to ask for wisdom. But then again, I don’t have any books in the Bible dedicated to me.

In the verses leading up to our Scripture today, God shows up in one of Solomon’s dreams, and offers Solomon anything he wants. We commonly say that Solomon asked for “wisdom,” but our translation today (NIV) says that he asked for a “discerning heart to govern [God’s] people and to distinguish between right and wrong.”

Hmmm… We understand that in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden because they now knew good from evil and could live forever there. Humans already knew good and evil before Solomon. So if Solomon asks for a discerning heart to distinguish the two, then there’s something deeper going on, right?

Before we get there, we have to note that Solomon does get the trifecta: God promises him wealth and honor as well because he chose wisely. Whew!

Back to this wisdom thing, though? Where is Solomon going with that request? What is God going to do about it?

Meet our two main participants in the “stump the king” contest. I’ll call them Ginger and Mary Ann.

Ginger approaches Solomon on the day where he hears cases that the lower courts can’t settle. She tells him that she and Mary Ann live on the same low rent apartment building, and that Ginger had given birth to a baby boy. Three days later, Mary Ann had a baby boy, and apparently they preferred home births because they couldn’t afford any sort of midwife or physician’s care.

Ginger says that Mary Ann rolled over on her son and he suffocated. So Mary Ann got up and switched the babies, one living for one dead, and Ginger didn’t notice until the morning.

But Mary Ann then argues to Solomon that the living child is hers, not Gingers. And they go back and forth before King Solomon like an episode of Judge Judy, only this time, instead of home repairs or unpaid rent, it’s about a baby!

Notice, that one of the women didn’t even mourn her own biological son. She just stole someone else’s or is attempting to! This isn’t a case of affection, but of possession. The living child brings worth financially somehow, and there’s no genetic test that’s going to clear this one up.

So, King Solomon tells his bailiff to bring him a sword and tells him to cut the child in half down the middle and each woman can get half.

Wait, that’s fair? That’s wisdom? King Solomon was rewarded with “cut the baby in half?”

But in that moment, Mary Ann shouts out, “no, let her have the baby!” and Ginger screams back, “Neither of us can have him, cut him in two!”

And Solomon, and everyone else, knew who was really the mother to the baby.

It’s not reverse psychology but it gets to the heart of the matter pretty quickly, doesn’t it? There’s a wisdom there that makes you scratch your head, and go, “oh yeaaaaaah,” even though it seems that Solomon’s wisdom must’ve been matched by his courage. I could’ve never made that call (what if the woman didn’t scream out in time??) but I see the spirit of God in discerning truth from fantasy there. Thanks be to God that wisdom prevailed, and that a mother’s heart spoke true!

So what are you asking God for? Is it something you could do on your own but are too unwilling to try? Is it something monumental but self-serving? Is it completely selfless and aimed at the good of someone else? Do you recognize that God’s desire for your heart is bigger than an insulated bubble of protection and security?

What Solomon ordered defies common sense: you don’t cut babies in half! But if we would avoid the usual requests the way Solomon did, if we could turn aside from the expectations of wealth and glory, and instead see that we needed the tools for the task at hand, the moments that God had set out for us, that would defy “common sense,” too.

Common sense says it’s a dog-eat-dog world and the biggest dog wins.

Common sense says you have to look out for yourself because it’s all about you.

Common sense says that your work and your pleasure come before your family and your church.

Common sense says if I can’t have it, then you can’t either.

Are you willing to be uncommon? Are you willing to make time with family and time spent with God more important than anything else? Are you willing to go out on a limb, and risk public ridicule by cutting out the things that don’t matter to make time for what does?

Are you willing to answer God’s offer of anything in all the world with, “not what I want but what you want, God.”

I challenge you to take September by the horns. A new school year. A new season. A new opportunity. And ask God to make you wise to the things of heaven, so that your wisdom may be a light to those on earth.

Be uncommon.

 This sermon is for the Blandford UMC worship service at 11 a.m. on August 25, based on I Kings 3:16-28.

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Epic: Incarnational Living (Movie Review)

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

In the animated tale of nature’s battle between growth and decay, the human teenager MK (Amanda Seyfried) is shrunk down to Thumbelina size, where she inherits the mission of the dying forest queen. Befriended by the Leafman, namely the battle-tested Ronin (Colin Farrell) and rookie Nod (Josh Hutcherson), she finds herself up against the forces of the Boggans. Boggan leader Mandrake (Christoph Waltz) is a dastardly leader, who hopes to destroy everything good and rule for himself. Sure, the overall good versus evil storyline is pretty straightforward, but the depiction (visually amazing) and the stewardship of nature message is spot on.

MK’s estranged father (Jason Sudeikis) has studied the Leafmen for years, but no one, including MK, ever believed him. Of course, that leads into a conversation about faith versus doubt (a la Contact) where MK is challenged to believe for herself: “just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not real.” But MK doesn’t believe until she sees for herself firsthand, like doubting Thomas, and she’s taken from skeptic to full-on Avatar mode.  It’s not the last time that MK will be “incarnational” in Epic: and that’s maybe the opportunity for the movie’s best line. 

Most of the story revolves around these Boggans and Leafmen, the first representing “decay” and the second representing growth. There’s a great scene toward the end that harkens to the rolling back of the winter in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe as the reign of the White Witch ends, but the battle that exists throughout will have adults and kids engaged. It also asks us to consider how we’re caring for nature, and what our stewardship model looks like, but it’s not even the greatest message of Epic for me. 

MK needs to be around when a magical bud opens so that she can get back to her normal side. But this occurs at the same time as the conclusive battle between the Boggans and the Leafmen, and, of course, MK’s heart has changed to the point where she chooses to defend the forest over her own future. One of the supporting characters asks, incredulous: “Who gives up everything for a world that isn’t even theirs?” MK has suddenly transformed from a Doubting Thomas into a Christ figure, like the bud itself unfolding into something beautiful.

Epic is visually incredible, ridiculous fun, and immensely theological. It’s a trifecta for the family, or anyone willing to embrace the beauty of story itself. 

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Sunday’s Sermon Today: Are You Undignified?

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

This sermon is for 9 a.m. at The Stand UMC worship on August 25, based on the scripture from 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12-21.

Have you ever bought something because you had to have it, recognizing that everyone else (or at least those you admired) had one? (No, this won’t be about buyer’s remorse!) I remember buying a big, white cowboy hat on a school field trip. I don’t remember where we went, but I remember that walking around with that hat on, I felt good. I also remember shedding a few tears in my bedroom when it blew off my head and ended up permanently muddied!

Looking back, the pictures make me cringe. To my adult self, I looked ridiculous. But as a kid, I was proud of my purchase and how I looked. It didn’t matter to me that my parents rolled their eyes when they saw it, or that the other kids mocked me for wanting to look like the Lone Ranger long before Johnny Depp got involved. I was comfortable, and it made me feel good, so I didn’t care.

Funny how twenty years and several thousand miles can change all that. I sometimes wonder what it would look like to go back and tell my fourteen-year-old self what I know now. But why tarnish the youthful exuberance? Why crash the party too early?

Now, I understand what it’s like to have one’s joy stripped away, to worry about things that I didn’t worry about before. I know what it’s like to be mocked, to be laughed at, to struggle with the expectations of others.

It’s not a new story, is it?

In our reading today, David is trying to find something to bring his people together. He’s won plenty of wars as the new king of Israel, and God has obviously placed his blessing on David’s rule. But the young man who was anointed as the last, forgotten son of Jesse no longer has the joy of being chosen first in his heart. He’s dealing with political pressure, and social anxiety.

And in the midst of it all, David realizes that he can go and bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, to his city, and he can make sure everyone knows that God is with him. Something happens when he encounters the ark, when he begins to bring it back with him. There’s a change that occurs, a holy moment when David goes from needing the ark to prove himself, to realizing that God is with him.

All around him, the people begin to celebrate with all their might before God, with every kind of instrument they had. I sometimes wonder what it would look like if I worshipped God with all my might, if I celebrated communion like it was the fourth quarter of a close football game, if my passion for Jesus’ death on the cross would sound more like the hoarse chanting of the Richmond Spiders’ fight song.

For David, this is a game-changing moment. He has recaptured what it meant to be chosen by God, to be the anointed one, to be blessed by the presence of God’s love and power. David gets “it,” and it causes him to be free again to be that bold teenager who stood before the giant Goliath and shouted that no one could overcome the one true God. David was reminded that God was still there, even in the midst of the boring church council, I mean, city council meetings, in the midst of the negotiations about running the city, in the quiet of peace time when conflict arises from the inside.

David was having a mountaintop experience, escorting the ark of the covenant, the place where he understood God to reside, into the city he had built. But not everyone gets to the mountaintop at the same time or the same place or the same way, and David’s wife was not up there with him.

It says that Michal watched from the window as he entered. Notice, she didn’t go out to greet him, she didn’t participate, she wasn’t as excited as he was. But when she saw him leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him.

Last week, we looked at David and Goliath, and we saw that Goliath despised David. He resented that David was foolish enough to come and stand against him, that David wasn’t intimidated by his size and bullying. Despise is such a strong word, but here it is again. That word is used eighty-one times in the Bible, but here, it cuts deeper than Goliath’s reaction because it is David’s wife who thinks of him that way.

To despise is to reject, to feel a repugnance for. To despise is to see the other as less than oneself, to have such contempt for that their existence is trivial, repulsive, resented.

Michal despised David while he leapt and danced before God. She didn’t separate out the behavior from the situation, she didn’t take David out of context. She knew why he was doing it and she thought less of him anyway. And after David was done celebrating, Michal couldn’t wait to tell him what she thought.

David came home on that high, expecting to “bless his household,” and Michal derisively mocks his position, not as her husband but as the king. She re-situates David before the slaves, rather than before God. She demeans what he did, as we’re inclined to do when we want to bring someone down. She makes it be about David’s position, rather than about David’s relationship with God.

And David refocuses it back on God, and God’s anointing. David is so locked in, so rejuvenated by his experience of the presence of God that he takes it a step further.

“Oh yeah? I will become even less than this. Even more undignified, even more humiliated than this.”

David could’ve succumbed to the pressure, first of the social norms and then to his wife’s critique. But he kept “the main thing the main thing.” David’s joy was completed by his experience of worshipping God, even when not all of those around him could understand or appreciate his decision.

David chose to dance rather than sitting on the sidelines. He chose to participate actively in recognizing the power and majesty of God rather than going the own route. For all of his problems and struggles, David stayed focused on what God wanted, that is, real worship, instead of the worship of what others thought was important.

I am sure that David was unhappy. It’s hard to be happy when your spouse is openly, deeply rejecting you, isn’t it? But David knew joy. He understood that happiness, the praise of others, comfort, and security were all passing moments, but that the joy of knowing God and living in God’s glory was forever.

Do you know that? Do you understand the joy of being enveloped in the glory of God and God’s plan for your life? Are you able to push aside the doubters, the “haters,” those who despise, and climb to the mountaintop to embrace God, to engage in the dance with the most holy God?

It’s hard sometimes when the world crushes in to recognize the music in the background, to see the handiwork of God’s glory in the shadows of tragedy, hardship, anxiety, and pain. But in the midst of all of that, the symphony of God’s glory plays on promising that there is something better, something lasting, if we can hear the music.

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May you never take one single breath for granted,
GOD forbid love ever leave you empty handed,
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

These words from Lee Ann Womack resonate as I consider the battle of young Ren McCormack and the dancing of David. I hope that I will have what it takes to do the right thing, to embrace the glory of God even when others tell me that it’s not worth it, or that there’s nothing to believe in. I hope that I’ll have the strength to speak up for truth, to be ridiculed for following Jesus, to go where God leads and worry less about what others think.

I pray the words of the song will lift you to the mountaintop, and help you listen for the music.

And regardless of what life sends you, I pray this week that you will dance.

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FF Rant: Hit The Alarm Clock (Fantasy Football)

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

When it comes to making a hit movie or television show, there are plenty of factors that generate success and some that turn out to be quite surprising. With the advent of Twitter and other social avenues, something that has an immediate appeal rises quickly (think Pacific Rim), while something that has a built in audience can be sunk by the early responses shared everywhere (think The Lone Ranger). It’s not enough to have a couple of action stars like Russell Crowe and Mark Wahlberg in the film (Broken City…) Everything needs to break right, and early, for the show to make it or the movie to draw at the box office.

Every year, the fantasy football-playing champion wins the season or championship with a number of factors. Some of those are within the champ’s control, like managing bye weeks and drafting well, and some are not, injuries and getting hot at the right time. But every winning manager hits an appropriate blend of stable, established players and some under-the-radar breakout players that he or she values more than the other managers.

Here are a few of my breakout players for the 2013 series. Given that some of you are actually in leagues I play in, I’ll keep a few of them close to my vest if you don’t mind! Otherwise, I’d be singing those verses about “folding ’em” with Kenny Rogers soon then I’d like! For this post, I’ll consider a sleeper to be someone out of the top-75 players, not someone you’d expect to automatically be one of your starters due to ADP (average draft position).

My deep sleeper quarterback is Philip Rivers of the San Diego Chargers. He’s got a new offense, a new head coach, and it’s time for him to either make it or break it. Another possible candidate to be better-than-you-expect is Jay Cutler, given the development of his second-year wideout Alshon Jeffrey and the high volume throws to the sure-handed Brandon Marshall.

A pair of running backs in the late 70s, early 80s, Shane Vereen and Andre Brown, are listed as the backups on their teams’ depth charts but could move up given the starters’ (Steve Ridley and David Wilson) proficiency at putting the ball on the ground. Maybe they never start, but on a bye week, aren’t they the kind of upside running backs you’re looking for in the eighth or ninth rounds? (See also: Joseph Randle)

Cleveland’s Josh Gordon is suspended for the first two games of 2013, and he has a second-year quarterback chucking him the ball down the field. But he’s got the speed, and surprised enough to be taken in the supplemental draft. Could he be your WR3 with the ninetieth pick? Chris Givens of the St. Louis Rams has even better speed, a better quarterback, and may benefit from better protection for Sam Bradford AND playing on turf. Either one could be an absolute bust or a complete reward. (See also: Vincent Brown)

If I’m waiting late to draft a tight end, Martellus Bennett is the one I’m going for, as Marc Trestman wants Jay Cutler to chuck it all over the field. Seriously, Brandon Marshall can’t catch it every time Cutler throws it… can he? (See also: Jared Cook)

Finally, my sleeping DST could be the perfect instrument to give Givens plenty of times to play catch with Bradford. The St. Louis Rams defense has strengthened itself, and it wasn’t half-bad last year. The division is tough defensively, but on any given Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers offenses can self-destruct, helping the defense’s cause. (See also: Cincinnati Bengals)

Next week, my “do not draft” list…

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Elysium: Good News For All? (Movie Review)

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

A few years ago, I found myself “discussing” Neill Blomkamp’s first feature film, District 9, with a friend. My friend thought it was an incredibly entertaining and visual film, but nothing more. I was incredulous! How could he not see the deeper roots there, as Blomkamp unpacked segregation and apartheid, showing what it would look like if an insider was slowly introduced to the world of the outsider? My friend just wouldn’t admit to anything deeper, and I was reminded that science fiction holds up a mirror to our lives but not everyone will reflect on what they see.

If nothing else, Elysium is a powerful story about one man’s desire to fulfill his dreams and make good on a promise in a gritty, space-age story of epic proportions. But this is not just a popcorn flick. Instead, the story of how Max (Matt Damon) struggles as a life-long loser, a thief, an orphan, a good for nothing soul, only to one day succumb to radiation poisoning. Pushed to see that his dream must be realized immediately or he will die, to reach an orbiting paradise above the crumbling Earth, Max undergoes a dangerous surgery and receives Robocop-like implants that make him a threat to the security of that orbiting, saccharine world.

From a science fiction perspective, I see a blend of Philip K. Dick and Isaac Asimov, with Blomkamp’s fingerprints all over the plot and depiction. His District 9 star, Sharlto Copley, plays the evil henchman to Elysium’s Minister of Defense (Jodie Foster), the brute who will mete out punishment on Max and Max’s childhood friend, Frey (Alice Braga), who has her own reasons for getting to the orbiting paradise. Throw in the “download” or code that Max receives as part of the plan to get onto the space station, and you have several elements that make this an instant science fiction classic.

But to preemptively argue, this film is NOT just for a late summer popcorn run. Instead, and you may have determined this from the previews, it is a parable about the impact of laws regarding immigration and an argument about health care for all. It’s a look at the distribution of wealth, and an understanding of what it means when we divide the world into “class” systems. Words like “undocumented” and “citizen” get thrown around here, almost to the point where this seems more transparent than District 9! I’m sure someone will fail to get the message, but I expect that by now. Yet, I still see more…

In the world into which Jesus Christ was born, the religious leaders and teachers of Jewish law held that there were certain mandates that one must adhere to in order to be “right with God.” They were based on Jewish law, but they had been twisted and taken to the extreme that they had become law unto themselves, missing the mark about what God wanted. These leaders saw their interpretation as a right and a privilege, and Jesus’ teachings threatened the status quo, as he preached about outsiders who would be insiders in the kingdom of God. Jesus ultimately paid the price because he died on the cross for the sins of the whole world, allowing that everyone, not just those who could financially afford to follow the laws, would be welcomed by God.

Max lives in a world where finances determine who is welcome in “the kingdom,” where the outsiders are held down and made more and more removed from “paradise” by those who created this world for good when it was first become. But Max’s “code,” the information he carries within him, is the only thing that can change it, and by his sacrifice, everyone can be made an insider in that orbiting kingdom. In fact, his actions bring that paradise to Earth.

What are we holding onto so tightly, believing that we have to protect it from others to have more for ourselves? Is it food, or medical care, or housing, or finances? Are we treating our possessions like we’re a one-armed man eating in prison? Have we forgotten what it was like when we had nothing, to the point where we’re the insiders these days while others stand outside the gate and suffer like Lazarus at the rich man’s table?

It would appear that Blomkamp has more going on than my friend might think. On several levels. But all good parables require interpretation, and we bring what we’ve already experienced to what we see there. Let those who have ears let them hear.

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Sunday’s Sermon Today: God’s Chosen One

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

This sermon is for Sunday, August 18, at the 11 a.m. Blandford UMC worship service on I Samuel 17:1-10.

I have a very jaded view of war, thanks to the various war movies I’ve seen and the way that we’re fed stories from the warfront by various news sites. But I’ve never actually been in a war; I’ve never even been in a truly violent fight. Honestly, the closest thing I ever came to a fight was when another high school freshman pushed me in anger against a door. But the door was open, and I fell on a couch, and the other kid fell onto my legs… and I started laughing. The subsequent punches he threw were pretty weak, so I blocked them, and …kept laughing, until an administrator broke it up. (See, I can’t even really get into a fight.)

But one of the most well-worn stories of the Old Testament is a story about war. It’s the story of David and Goliath, and quite a few people know how it ends. But how it started, and how a teenager ended up changing the course of a war, well, that’s pretty remarkable.

See, the Philistines were a wild people. I imagine the Vikings led by Genghis Khan or something like that. Violent, uncivilized, and intimidating, they had taken up position in Israel with every intent to burn Israel to the ground and take what they wanted. So they were camped out on one hill overlooking a valley, and the Israelites were encamped on the other.

For forty days, this nine-foot Philistine would come to the edge of his hill, and yell to the Israelites on the other side. He would call them names, challenge their manhood, and dare one of them to come and fight him. In those days, representative combat was often the way that a war was settled: the champion of one nation would fight the champion of the other nation, and the winning side won the war. It was understood that the gods of each army were actually debating the winning side and they actually determined the winner themselves, not the puny humans below.

I guess it saved on effort and bloodshed, and meant only one guy was really going to have to lose instead of thousands. But with the Philistines, it was more of a taunting thing, a bullying, rub-salt-in-the-wound kind of thing that was intended to instill fear before the onslaught of the battle began.

And this Philistine, mighty Goliath, was having his way with the Israelites. The Israelite King Saul, the one God deposed for the anointing of David, didn’t actually believe that Yahweh God was strong enough to win. And his men were taking pointers from their leader: for forty days it says that they were full of fear and terror. Saul is trying to hire one of them to go throw themselves at Goliath, and he can’t find anyone who’ll take his bribes.

But sometimes you need someone with fresh eyes to show up and assess a situation. And on the fortieth day, the shepherd boy David arrived with lunch for his brothers, and snooped around to hear what all of the fuss was about.

Here’s little, last son David, who we saw get anointed as the next king of Israel at the early service, show up to see his big, bad soldier brothers. And he finds that all of them are shaking like leaves with their knees knocking together. So, little David (remember, he’s not really King David yet), in his teenage bravado shines the light of God into the situation: “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go fight him.”

Wait a minute. The best, boldest, strongest soldiers of the Israelite army won’t even consider speaking back to Goliath, and this scrawny kid is going to go out to fight him? That’s the same reaction that Wart AKA Arthur gets when he pulls the sword out of the anvil in the church courtyard at the end of The Sword in the Stone; no one believes that this puny, little kid could do something no strong, meatheaded man could do (which could be so many sermon illustrations). It’s not even a question of reality for these guys, it’s just common sense that David can’t do this.

King Saul doesn’t even think twice about this. He’s convinced David has no chance because he’s merely a boy. He’s trying to do David a favor really, to keep him from getting killed. But David will have none of it.

“Look, King Saul, I’ve already killed a lion and a bear. They came for my sheep, and I struck them down. This Philistine is no match for me.”

Maybe it’s desperation; maybe it’s the gleam in David’s eye. Saul relents and has David dressed in his finest Israelite armor, shiny and gleaming, with full protection from head to toe. And David can’t move! The armor is just too heavy, and David is just to small. Sure, he could take beating after beating from an attacker, but he’d never be able to fight back.

So David tells them to take off the armor, and instead he goes down to a stream and picks out five smooth stones. I wonder sometimes what was going through his mind when he knelt by the stream. Was David praying? Humming the Israelite version of Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive” or Queen’s “We Will Rock You?” Was he thinking about marrying Saul’s daughter, the crown jewel in the reward that the king was offering?

David is in the fifteen to seventeen-year-old mix here. It’s impossible to know what he was thinking!

But he takes those stones, and his sling, and he walks out into the middle of the valley to meet Goliath. If this is a Michael Bay movie, we’ve moved past the calm to the storm. The skies are darkening, the drum beat has grown louder and more violent, and it’s probably raining. (If it’s a John Woo movie, the doves are about to fly.)

David is walking in the wrong direction, if what everyone else is doing is right. He’s facing fear and danger and violence. He’s walking into the belly of the beast, rattling the cage, and staring several flights up at a colossal giant of a man.

It says that Goliath looked down at David and saw that he was just a kid, and that he despised him. Think about the situations where you might despise someone, where you think that you are better than they are. I think those are dangerous moments, when we think that we’re so far above another person that we see them as worthless. It’s usually the moment in the movie where the villain begins to overcompensate for his own pride, where he talks like Goldfinger to James Bond about his plan to rule the world and gives away his secrets, where we first get the inkling that the underdog might win…

And David stands there, taking the full force of Goliath’s taunts, and in his seventeen-year-old fury says, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord God Almighty who you’ve defiled.”

In the history of brave battlefield speeches, I put it in my top three.

In Braveheart, William Wallace tells his assembled farmers preparing for the culmination of the war (and movie): “Fight and you may die. Run, and you’ll live… at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin’ to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take… OUR FREEDOM!”

Pretty inspiring, right?

In Independence Day, President Whitmore channels Winston Churchill and Dylan Thomas as his ragtag pilots prepare to take on the alien fleet: “In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world, and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. Mankind, that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can’t be consumed by our petty differences any more. We will be united in our common interest. Perhaps it’s fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom. Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution, but from annihilation. We’re fighting for our right to live, to exist and should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice, ‘We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on, we’re going to survive.’ Today we celebrate our independence day!” But I digress…

David has issued the challenge, he’s named who he is fighting for, and he has taken Goliath’s best verbal challenge. And when Goliath runs at David to engage him physically in battle, David puts one of his five, smooth stones into the sling, and lets fly.

And the mighty, bullying, vicious, violent champion of the Philistines falls down dead. And David cuts off his head as a trophy, as the Philistine army scatters for the hills.

Pretty cool, right?

David, the shepherd boy. David, the secretly anointed. David, the lunchpail carrier. David, the too small, too weak, too young, too inexperienced, too not-a-soldier-ish.

David the conqueror.

I wonder what it would look like this week if you approached the situations that threaten to beat you down, and boldly told them, “you come against me with depression, anxiety, pay cuts, unfair laws, bullying, abuse, verbal putdowns, and everything you’ve got. But I come at you in the name of the Lord God Almighty who you have ridiculed, ignored, and forgotten.”

In Romans 8:37, Paul wrote, “we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.”

David stood up to adversity, he took one for the team of believers who were shaky at best, and God made his aim straight, and true, and effective.

Do we have that kind of bold faith, to walk out onto the battlefield of our lives and claim the victory in the name of Jesus? Doesn’t it have to start with our attitudes and work its way out? Can we recognize that if we want our world to change, that we have to see the ways we need to change to be more like Jesus and recognize that God wants to use us as his “champions”?

I hope that you will recognize that there are battles worth fighting, and that you will fight them in the name of the one true God. I hope that you will pray that God will give you the strength to move when others are afraid and petrified, that God will use you to be a mighty force for stomping fear and setting people free.

May your aim be straight and true.

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Sunday’s Sermon Today: What God Sees

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

This is the sermon for the 9 a.m. worship service of The Stand, currently meeting at Blandford UMC in Prince George, Virginia. 

“Size matters not.  Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow.” These are the immortal words of Yoda, the Jedi Master, in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back after Luke Skywalker arrives on his home planet of Dagoba, and doubts that the little, green guy can actually teach him anything about the Force. The Force, which I often think of when talking about the Holy Spirit, lives inside of everyone, but some have learned to channel its powers for good or evil.

And Yoda knows that it’s not the size of the Jedi in the fight that matters but the power of the Force in the Jedi.

Too often though, whether we’re mystically aligned with the Force or not, we read books solely based on their covers, and measure people based on what we can see, whether it’s attractiveness, skin color, dress, or behavior. Thankfully, God doesn’t treat us that way, and we should all be eternally grateful for that.

In I Samuel 16, the prophet Samuel is sent to find a new king. The old king, Saul, just isn’t working out; he’s power hungry, prone to madness, and losing sight of whatever belief he had in God in the first place. Makes a perfect leader, right? But Samuel is terrified, because he’s afraid of what Saul might do to him if he finds out that Samuel is annointing a new king while Saul still sits on the throne.

Saul is the prototypical “leader” that people expected back then. He’s big, strong, mean, and driven. He’s sought out authority and power, and God has allowed him to make it this far. But Saul thinks all of the things that everyone else thinks about him are true; Saul believes his own hype. And God has had enough of Saul, whether Samuel is afraid of the bully king or not.

Sent to find a new king, Samuel arrives in a small backwoods town called Bethlehem (you know that name when it comes to Christmas), and finds that the people are scared, too. That’s the unfortunate side effect of bad leadership: the people live in fear, they don’t know what to expect, and they always assume that change means things will be worse than they already are!

But Samuel is there to make things right, even if he doesn’t get it yet.

Directed by God, Samuel arrives at the home of Jesse, and begins to inspect Jesse’s sons, starting with the oldest. And one by one, God tells Samuel, “Nope. Not him.”

Can you imagine if you were hiring for a position at work, and you interviewed the potential candidates, evaluating them based on what you assume company policy is? If you questioned and examined them based on the person currently holding the job, only to have the boss arrive and say, “Um, no, that’s not what I meant”?

That’s what happens to Samuel the prophet, until he finally recognizes that Jesse must have another son. A son who is so inconsequential in the scheme of things, that he’s left out watching the sheep (the lowest level job before watching the pigs). This son, David, isn’t someone you needed to bother calling in when the prophet shows up at your door. It’d be like if the President or the Beatles showed up at your house, and you neglected to tell them that you had another family member they should meet, just because you didn’t think that sibling or child was important enough to be present.

So David is summoned and God keeps whispering to Samuel what it is that God is looking for. “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected [the older brothers]. The Lord does not look at things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.” God is measuring David’s intangibles, measuring his stickwithitness, his intestinal fortitude, his faithfulness.

And God sees something in David that is different than what he sees in all of David’s brothers, and all of the other young men he could’ve picked to be the next king.

When David finally comes in, all sweaty and grimy from herding the sheep, God says, “Rise and anoint him. He is the one.” God doesn’t care that David isn’t what everyone else is looking for; he only cares that David is who God wants for the job.

The closing verse of that interchange is that “from that day on, the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power.”

Samuel went looking for a king, and God showed him a shepherd boy. But who really knows what David expected. Did he come up from the sheep pasture begrudging being dragged into a conversation with some old man he didn’t know? Did he ever expect that his country’s god, the God of the whole universe, would order that he be anointed king? Did he have any expectations beyond a day in the life of the youngest, forgotten son?

How did the “crowd” respond? Were David’s brothers like Joseph’s brothers, upset that their younger brother had been “promoted” over them? I’m flashing back to the moment when Wart AKA Arthur draws the sword from the anvil in the church yard… when no other men can. They’re at first incredulous, until they recognize the holy moment they have witnessed. Who knows what Arthur thought was going to happen…but it doesn’t really matter.

It doesn’t matter what David thought would happen. It matters that God showed up, and saw the last, forgotten child in a long line of forgotten last children, and claimed him as the first great king of Israel.

And from that day forward, David benefited from the Spirit of God’s power. Pretty crazy stuff.

We’ve certainly had our fair share of being doubted, haven’t we? Regardless of who you are or what you’ve been through, sometime along the way, someone didn’t think you were “cut out” for the job.

-My mom went back to school in the early 1990s, twenty years after she had graduated from high school. Even though her test scores were good, she was told by an interviewer that she might not “fit in” with the undergrads.

-At the ordination service for our Annual Conference, the preacher talked about going home from college and being approached by a well-meaning old lady from his church. “What are you going to do now?” she asked. “I’m going to seminary,” he said, full of excitement at his calling. “Oh,” she said, walking away disappointed, “I always thought you’d make something of yourself.”

-A friend of mine has served as a youth worker, missionary, and technology support to several churches since his freshman year in college, but his own church wouldn’t make him the senior youth minister, even as their repeated  choices walked away from the church every year, only serving eight months to a year at a time.

Those scars could fester, couldn’t they?

David could’ve chosen to be the kid his family thought he was, to labor silently in the fields with the sheep. To shrink back into the quiet. Or he could choose to hear God’s voice stronger than the others, and rise to be the first, great king of Israel.

My mom has gone on to be a counselor, to foster dozens of kids through their learning troubles to graduate high school and make something of themselves.

The speaker I mentioned earlier has gone on to become one of the most fruitful pastors in the VA Annual Conference, reaching thousands of people for Jesus.

My friend has finally received a call to be the associate pastor at a new church, one I’m sure is preparing now for new growth.

And David? He became a man after God’s own heart, a legend we’ll talk about at the 11 o’clock service. A giant among men.

All four of these people believed that what God sees is what matters most, and they took the scars, the doubters, and the adversity, and refused to be weighed down by it. They rose to what God was calling them to, knowing that God had believed in them and had a plan for them all along.

I wonder what it would look like if you or I really believed that God cared about us. If we believed that God saw something in us that we couldn’t believe in ourselves. If we were ready to put ourselves into the jetstream of God’s grace, and just let go. It could be mind blowing. But it might just be safer to hang out with the sheep in anonymity.

What are you going to do?

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FF Rant: What To Do With Your First Pick? (Fantasy Football)

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

The first inaugural fantasy football post went over so well, that you all have egged me on to more. Given that it’s only halfway through August, it seems too early to give my sleepers and busts, or talk about scheduling. But a good old-fashioned clash at the top? I’m willing to lay that one out here.

Most folks are debating the pros and cons of their favorites throughout the year, but sometimes there are just undeniable truths. Lost is the greatest drama to have ever blessed network television; Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, and a host of others battle the ghosts of The Sopranos for cable supremacy. Dunkin Donuts has better coffee but Krispy Kreme has better donuts. Some bands like Bon Jovi and U2 are timeless; others, like Maroon 5 and Owl City want to see how big a hole they can carve for themselves.

But fantasy football is about RIGHT NOW. (Or five years from now if you’re playing in a keeper league. For those of you who don’t know the terms I’m using but want to get deeper in fantasy football, google them … or message me!) So here are my top players in a specific order that I’d be drafting to set the foundation for my team. Sure, they can’t be my only player, but if I spend my capital/pick early on a bust, it’s going to be a long season.

[Auction note: you can attribute respective dollar amounts to them based on the size of your draft. For instance, AP as the first pick might be worth $50 in a ten-team standard league or $70 in a 12-14 team league. And then you knock off a few bucks from there. I personally wouldn’t pay $50 for a player (you’re drafting 12-16 players, so you can do the math) but sometimes, you just have to bite the bullet.]

Every magazine, website, or column I’ve read says the consensus, no-brainer, number one pick is Adrian Peterson. Adrian Peterson who nearly broke records and the speed of sound coming back from a career-threatening knee injury. C’mon, I know the guy is Superman and all that, but the statistics show he’s up against nearly impossible odds to match or better last season. That means expectations are a little nuts, and when expectations are nuts, people over pay in auctions (like the one I’m doing as I write this where some guy just paid $75 for AP.) Sure, if I have the number one pick in a snake, I can’t ignore him, but there are so many things that can go wrong (like when there are eight in the box because Christian Ponder can’t throw or Greg Jennings is hurt and there’s no downfield threat).

Here’s where it gets fuzzy: who is number two?

Most experts seem to be looking at Arian Foster next. Arian Foster who has been rushing through the league like a madman since his sudden promotion from backup to the backup after a so-so career at Tennessee. But who gets Greg Jones to do his blocking, has DeAndre Hopkins to draw some attention downfield (and off of Andre Johnson)… and still has the underwhelming Matt Schaub as quarterback. The biggest detriment is still that Coach Greg Kubiak intended to work Ben Tate into the reps last year, and then Tate got hurt. With a healthy Tate, a nagging hamstring injury to Foster, and a desire to keep everyone fresh for a playoff run, Foster makes a case for second but isn’t unanimous.

“Muscle Hamster” Doug Martin comes in third, or is it Marshawn “Skittles” Lynch in Seattle? Those are the two names most commonly put third and fourth in whatever order, with Martin having chased off any usurpers from Tampa with his stellar rookie season and Lynch having driven the Seahawks into the wildcard spot. But if you take away five solid (one GREAT) game from Martin, Lynch shines much brighter. Still, he’s got Ryan Turbin on his heels, the threat of Percy Harvin (next year…?), and the wear and tear of an AP style without the build.

Three more guys seem to get grouped together, pretty interchangeably: Ray Rice, C.J. Spiller, and Jamaal Charles but they don’t look equal to me. Rice has had a great run, but now he’s laying goose eggs more frequently than great games, and Bernard Pierce’s YPC (yard per carry) looks to be eclipsing his. Spiller is up-and-coming, but will new coach Doug Marrone be able to take E.J. Manuel (sorry, Kevin Kolb) and mold him into a pro-style QB fast enough to make a difference this season? When Stevie Johnson and Robert Woods are your top two wideouts, I figure Spiller will be seeing eight in the box every time. 

Which leaves Jamaal Charles, my X-Factor in the top ten. He could be the bust of the first round if the K.C. o-line doesn’t show up, or filling out a midwestern triumvirate with Dwayne Bowe and Alex Smith, he could be part of a resurgent Chiefs organization. Sure, he’ll get less carries this year without Romeo Crennel to work him tirelessly, but the receptions should be there in a big way in Andy Reid’s offense. I like his chances to have combined 1500 yards and 10-12 TDs, and prove to be injury-free in the second year removed from his ACL tear.

And in the eighth spot, I’m going to veer off the tracks a little: I don’t trust Trent Richardson to get anywhere with the current Browns line-up, for Alfred Morris to not get subjected to Shananigans, or Stevan Ridley to get Belichecked to the curb. So I’m taking Calvin Johnson as the eighth most valuable player (PPR or not). Sure, he got tackled short of the goal-line last year A LOT but do you think that fluke happens that many times? Isn’t Reggie Bush a field-stretching RB, and an upgrade over Mikel LeShoure?

I imagine some will argue for Richardson in the ninth spot, but I’m putting LeSean McCoy here even with Bryce Brown in the picture. Chip Kelly’s offense is predicated on speed and running backs. Andy Reid used McCoy to make his offense go, and Michael Vick’s body can’t take much more beating. McCoy should get all kinds of carries in Kelly’s transition year.

Finally, I’m taking Aaron Rodgers. It’s a passing league, and only in PPR am I even CONSIDERING one of these other RBs to replace him. Jennings goes down, and Rodgers’ Packer offense doesn’t miss a beat, flinging it to Randall Cobb, an injured Jordy Nelson, and James Jones. If one of the two rookie RBs work out for the Packers, and teams have to even consider a running game, Rodgers could throw for 5,000 yards and 50 TDs, making it look as easy as the rookie level on Madden. We’ll see.

So, my top 15 for those of you keeping track at home: Peterson, Foster, Martin, Lynch, Charles, Spiller, Rice, Johnson, McCoy, Rodgers, Richardson, Ridley, Morris, A.J. Green, and Drew Brees. No one too risky, or terribly out of place, but if it’s PPR, you’re probably bumping the QBs down a little.

Next week, I’ll aim for some sleepers or busts, but that’s my top 15. What are yours? Give me some reasons to change my mind on the comments below or @ Spider_Raven on Twitter.

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2 Guns: There Is No Code… Or Is There? (Movie Review)

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Jacob Sahms

DEA agent Bob Trench (Denzel Washington) and Navy Intelligence officer Mike Stigman (Mark Wahlberg) are both undercover, infiltrating the Mexican drug cartel run by Papi Greco (Edward James Olmos). But neither of them knows that the other is actually one of the “good guys” when they rob a small town bank that they think holds Greco’s money. Soon, Greco is after them, the CIA is after them, and both sides have been disavowed by their respective bosses. They’re left with nothing to count on but each other, even if they don’t like each other one bit.

In 2012, Wahlberg threw his biceps behind the direction of Baltasar Kormakur in the dud Contraband (clue: movies released in January aren’t expected to be good; see: Broken City, Gangster Squad). Thankfully, their second collaboration, this summer’s 2 Guns, is quite a bit better, thanks to Wahlberg’s onscreen banter with Washington, as they play out the heist/buddy cop/action flick based on the graphic novel by Steven Grant, who has written Hardy Boys Casefiles and episodes of CSI. Grant’s material shines as Wahlberg and Washington clash with each other, and a series of vindictive bad guys, culminating in a classic gunfight.

The additional cast adds enough spice to make it feel bigger than just a cardboard copy of the same ol’ caper. Paula Patton takes a turn as Trench’s ex-girlfriend/current fling, while Bill Paxton’s Earl steals every scene with his Russian roulette schtick (and one nasty index card-plus-tacks combination). Robert John Burke, James Marsden, and Fred Ward also get their chances to make a mark, and suddenly, a late summer action flick has more “class” than we normally expect.

But, let’s be real, it’s the Wahlberg and Washington show.

I’m a fan of these guys, even in stinkers like Contraband and the less-than-expected Safe House (February 2012… almost January) that these guys have starred in lately. But this movie is genuinely funny, and the comedy weighs more than the sometimes too complicated, sometimes too predictable, plot. There are stylish shots and crazy explosions, but the biggest “oohs” in the theater came after a series of one-liners from Wahlberg or a witty Washington retort.

As always, I found a theme that stood out. Stigman wants Trench to recognize that they’re “people,” that they have something in common and that they can count on each other. Trench stands by the belief that there is “no code” that anyone needs to live by, that each person is in it for themselves. They discuss this periodically throughout the movie, but it’s only resolved when Stigman proves to Trench that he believes in the code of family, vengeance, and standing together by actually following through on it, even when Trench is prepared to concede failure and disappear.

Often, discussions of love and faith work that way. Someone with no reference to faith in general or belief in anything (that they recognize) can’t “make the switch” until someone lays their comfort or security on the line by living it out. I believe that their are divine, spiritual movements going through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but there’s also the example set by Jesus’ example and followthrough. If he had preached so many of these things and not been willing to die, or had chosen violence instead, would his teachings (especially the Beatitudes) carry any weight? The example was proved in the followthrough.

2 Guns is pretty straightforward popcorn fare. But recognizing the need for a code (and acknowledging that everyone follows one, one way or another), we may see that we can live our lives selfishly or selflessly. That our actions choose one or the other, even if our discussions imply that we haven’t chosen.

Everyone chooses. What choice have you made?

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