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LINKS TO THE SERMONS |
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| “Short Subjects” Every year at the Academy Awards they give an Oscar to the best short subject. The nominees always look interesting to me but I’ve never heard of any of them and after the winner is announced, I will never get a chance to see any of them. Where do those things ever show? And why would you make one if you know that no one is ever going to see it? I think it would be a great concession at airports, a movie theater that shows only short subjects. That way you could stay as long as you like and not miss your flight because you don’t want to miss the end of the movie. Short subjects in film are like short stories compared to novels, they get no respect. There was a study done in churches a while back that asked, among other things, for Christians to identify their favorite parables. How would you answer the question? The top vote getters were “The Good Samaritan,” “The Prodigal Son,” and “The Sheep and the Goats at the Final Judgment.” So then the researchers got curious. Why would most people land on these three? What was the common ingredient? The content of the three are quite different. Then they figured it out; it had nothing to do with content. These three are the longest; they are more like a story. But most of Jesus parables were little more than one-liners; you had to fill in the details. I like doing that. It’s why I don’t like books by James Michener or Norman Mailer, They insist on describing every detail right down to the design of the wall paper. I don’t want all that detail; I’ll construct that in my mind, thank you very much. I’m with Sergeant Friday on this, just the facts. Give me the play by play and I’ll do the color commentary. One of my favorite movies is a short subject that is buried on the “Finding Nemo” DVD. It’s about a character who lives inside one of those snow globes and his attempts to get out. The sound track is Bobby McFerrin singing, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” And when anyone asks me which are my favorite parables, I tell them, “The Parable of the treasure in the field.” It’s just a couple of lines buried in with several other short subjects. It’s a pretty bare bones story but you’ll like it fleshed out a little. Here goes - A guy has worked the same job for thirty-seven years and has lived in the same house for those same years. He’s responsible, respectable and frugal. A Republican. It’s only a couple of miles from his home to work but since he has been given his own parking place, it would be a shame not to use it, so he drives every day to the same job and parks in his designated spot. Life is good – everything is in order and secure and predictable. He drives a Chrysler. He’s a Republican. Then one day, after 37 years of doing that, gas prices hit $4.75 per gallon. His old Chrysler gets about 12 miles per gallon. Probably costs him a buck just to start the engine. His kids are starting to bug him about being more energy conscious, green house gasses and all that. Having nothing to do with global warming, which he doesn’t think is real anyhow, (he’s a Republican) but entirely because of his frugality, he decides to walk to work. It’s not that far, especially on foot, because he can cut across the vacant lot behind his house and save a half mile. There is a big hole in the fence that the kids made years ago and no one ever bothered to close it. Obviously nobody cares. Don’t even know who owns it. Years ago a “for sale” sign went up but it had long since rotted away. Who would want the property anyhow. Too small for a housing tract or an industrial park. Too barren and desolate for anything else. All it seemed to be good for now was collecting plastic bags that got stuck in the weeds or as the final resting place for several old refrigerators, microwaves and the rusted body of a ’68 Camaro. He kept his eye on the ground; looked like a good place for rattle snakes. Then his mind began to wonder. Started to think about his life like you do when you have been doing the same thing for decades – is it really practical, responsible security or just a rut? Has his life really been the product of wise choices or plain old fear? Maybe he doesn’t change his life because he is too afraid of the unknown. He doesn’t like change. He’s a Republican. He starts to wonder about the next life and whether God will call him into accountability about the unused, un-lived portion of this one. Just then, entirely lost in thought, the toe of his shoe catches the edge of something protruding from the hard ground. Do you like the story better with a little meat on it? Now, what if I were to tell you that this conservative, predictable, responsible man didn’t show up at work that day? Part of the reason he got his own parking place is because he never missed a day of work for three decades. Well, not exactly. He missed when his children were born and when his second son broke his arm but he called the office to let them know. This time he didn’t go to work and he didn’t call in – he’d never done anything like that before in his life. Instead, he went back home. He ran back home –
forget the rattle snakes. He called a realtor to put his house on
the market. Put a “Best offer” sign on the old Chrysler.
When his wife found him he was rifling through her jewelry box.
He says to her, “Honey, we are going to sell everything.” If I were to tell the story something like that, wouldn’t you be dying to know what happened to that man while he was cutting across the field? After he picked himself up off the ground and finished swearing at whatever that was that he caught his shoe on; first he checks to make sure he hasn’t damaged his slacks. Then he checks his shoe for marks. He promises himself that this would be his last time walking to work. Global warming or not, from now on he’s driving the Chrysler and parking in his designated parking spot like descent people do. Only then does he go back to check what it was he had tripped over. When Jesus told this story, he began by saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” It’s one of the parables of the kingdom. It explains some pretty outrageous, erratic behavior. It explains why a bunch of ordinary guys with families to care for, who have been fisher men for generations, would one day throw down there nets and follow an itinerate preacher from Nazareth – why they would risk there lives following him to Jerusalem, and pledge their undying loyalty to him even though the religious and civil authorities had branded him a trouble maker. Why after his death they would carry on the ministry of the gospel in his name against all opposition. Why millions have given everything they had, even their lives in his name. Why folks who have nothing of material wealth so valued in our society still seem so satisfied and truly happy. Why people who suffer with terrible illnesses and hard circumstances seem to be filled with an inner joy that is unquenchable. Why in the midst of turmoil and crisis, some seem to exude an inner peace that is beyond understanding or explanation. Why an average man, always stable and dependable, would suddenly devalue everything he had worked a lifetime to acquire, just because he walked across a field and stubbed his toe. Emily asked me this week what was in heaven. Then before I could answer she told me. She said everything is in heaven. That’s what it is like. The kingdom of heaven has everything – and when you realize that it is within your power to possess it, it will radicalize your life. It will certainly alter your priorities. That’s what Paul said, “I count everything as trash compared to knowing Christ” who is the one who said, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Not just after you die but now: then he set about to acquire it for them, even though they were sinful and suspicious. Even the Republicans. Even a skinny, not too bright kid from Kansas, who for reasons of only God’s knowing, confronted him one day – he opened up the door to the kingdom just a crack and gave that skinny farm kid a peek inside. And ever since that day that vision dominates my life. I can’t get enough of thinking about it and the implanted hope that one day the door will swing open entirely and I will be welcomed into that brilliant light. Ever since that day I am consumed with the need to put words around the vision and tell others about it; I try again every Sunday. Haven’t succeeded yet – but now you know why when asked about my favorite parable, I pass over the longer more popular ones in favor of this little two liner. A man was walking across a field and stumbled on a treasure; (that’s my story) he goes home and sells everything he has so that he might possess that field. There is a treasure waiting to be discovered,
probably not very far from where you’ve lived your whole life.
God wants you to find it; may have to trip you up to do it –
sometime when you don’t expect it and are thinking about something
else. And when you do, it’s going to radically rearrange your
priorities; your friends are going to think you’ve gone wacky.
But, that’s okay. Victor Frankl said that an abnormal response
to an abnormal situation is normal. What could be more abnormal;
we sinful mortals who deserve nothing are invited to glimpse then
inherit everything. A man was taking a short cut to work and found
a treasure. Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is just like that.
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