“Being Caught In An Old Movie”

Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – December 11, 2016

Centenary United Methodist Church

James 5:7-11; Matthew 11:2-11

    This morning, I want us to consider how our passions can easily be aroused by what is happening all around us.  When we go to the movie theater to see an action-packed movie, we go prepared to witness a well-rehearsed formula that the creators hope will be a box-office success by giving their audiences an emotional adventure. 

    During the movie, we will be exposed to an organization of bad guys who are enriching themselves by taking advantage of people.  As we watch the storyline unfold, we hope a hero will come on the scene and clean up the injustices we are witnessing. 

    Eventually, the good guys mobilize themselves against the bad guys.  In time they solve the criminal activities and the bad guys are defeated by a Jason Bourne, a James Bond, or a group of Jedi Knights.  We leave the movie theater knowing once again that justice prevailed.  We take our Pepto-Bismol to calm our heightened anxieties so we can fall asleep by bedtime.

    The good thing for viewers is that our movies always come to an end and we leave the theater.  In other words, we got our emotional fix by remaining on the sidelines.  We became involved in the storyline from a safe place.  None of it was real, but we loved being entertained for awhile by the theme that justice always prevails.  The good guys always win and all that we invested was two hours of our time. 

    A movie is very similar to the way our lives unfold.  In the midst of life's numerous dramas, we have to decide who we want to be.  This morning let us ask ourselves about the quality of our joy and happiness.  Now and then we need to check ourselves. 

    When we look at our Gospel lesson today, we tune into a drama when John the Baptist was in prison for constantly verbally harassing Herod at every public gathering for seducing the wife of his brother Philip and bringing her into his palace. His public adultery was an outrage to the Jews.

    John sent his own disciples to ask Jesus if he is The One promised by the prophets. Jesus told John's disciples to tell him what was happening to the blind, the deaf and the crippled.  Jesus, however, never answered their question about whether or not he was The One spoken of by the prophets.

    This exchange with John's disciples gave Jesus an entrance into discussing John the Baptist to his gathered listeners.  Jesus began to share his understanding of John by asking his crowd a number of rhetorical questions. "When you went into the wilderness to listen to John preach, what did you expect to see?  What message did you want to hear? What was it that excited your curiosity?"

    Jesus answered his own questions,

You went to see a new prophet who was delivering a message that our people have not heard for over 400 years.  He was telling you that a messiah is coming to save our people. John the Baptist is a prophet and he is greater than anyone who has been born of a woman, however, the one who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John.  (Matthew 11:11)

    Immediately, we learn two things from Jesus.  First, every person makes it to the other side of the curtain when they die, but not everyone that transitions to life eternal has developed the attitudes and skills of spirit that are useful where they find themselves. Through the ages, many people have arrived there as spiritual infants, thus Jesus used the word least to describe them.  

    The Second lesson Jesus taught is that John was the greatest man who ever lived, but he was at the end of the line behind spiritual infants.  How could this be possible?  

    The answer is that John the Baptist was still caught in the drama of a movie that featured bad guys and good guys.  His problem was that he never left the theater.  He never learned to view life-dramas differently. He never fell under the spell of Jesus' teachings about loving our enemies.

    John's message was one of judgment, i.e., "You bad guys are going to get yours when the Messiah comes!  He will baptize you with fire.  He is coming to thresh out the grain from the pods of wheat.  He will burn the chaff in a fire that never goes out."  Luke 3:16f)

    John had gotten sick and tired of false religion, by the routine injustices taking place in his culture and by the misuse of power by the Scribes, Priests, Pharisees, Sadducees and the Teachers of the Laws of Moses.  He wanted justice.  He harbored bitter attitudes towards most of the movers and shakers of his society.   (Matthew 3:7f)

    Jesus' teaching can be a wake-up call for everyone, particularly with what has recently been featured in numerous articles in The Royal Gazette.  We can easily become ensnared by a modern version of the same old movie. The storyline is identical in every generation. Many people love a good fight, and by engaging in one, they inadvertently take on the same spirit as those they oppose.  When the good guys engage in battle, they consider their response a more enlightened point of view.

    John the Baptist was being used as an illustration of what can happen to people when their attitudes snuff out the light that once burned brightly within them. John was preaching more about the coming judgment than he was about the transforming power that love brings to life.  There was more anger in John than joy; hence he stood behind spiritual infants.  Joy is the theme of our third Advent candle.

    When we have joy, we have deliberately chosen to stay on the sidelines of a  drama that has remained in the news day after day, year after year, century after century.  Jesus never injected himself into the movie that was playing between the Jews and the Roman occupation. Yes, Jesus was a hero, but he was a hero that chose to stay on the sidelines of yet another non-ending drama between the good guys and the bad guys.

          Have we ever known any drama to go away because a new hero has come to solve our life-issues for us? Jesus drove out the money changers and other cheats that were practicing their treachery on the temple grounds, but all the bad guys had their tables set up for business the next day. (John 2:13) We must learn to share our days on earth with self-interested achievers of wealth and power without allowing them to cause us to give up our happiness.

    The mythology that ignites our passions is this:  "The bad guys will triumph only if the good guys stay on the sidelines and do nothing."  The mistake in this well-known saying is that all of us are participating in every movie as infinite spirit-beings who actually believe that winning or losing our cause matters.  

    The same movie has played for thousands of years.  This fact ought to teach us something about the purpose of these ridiculous, emotionally and spiritually draining movies.  If possessing love and joy means as much to us as we say they do, why is it that we can so quickly toss them both into the wind because of some great injustice that needs to be corrected? 

    Listen to the words of our second lesson today that come from James:

Be patient my friends.  See how patient farmers are as they wait for their land to produce precious crops.  They wait patiently for the autumn and spring rains.  You also must be patient.  Keep your hopes high for the Day of the Lord's coming. (James 5:7f)

    For centuries, Christians have been taught that the Day of the Lord is the end of the world.  This is an incorrect interpretation. James is referencing a day like Saul of Tarsus experienced on his way to Damascus.  This is what Jesus was referencing when he told Nicodemus, "You must be born again."  Jesus experienced his Day of the Lord at his baptism. He was a carpenter one moment and the next he was so bewildered he went into the wilderness to consider his encounter with God.

     This day comes to people when their spirits awaken to a new consciousness that allows them to reinterpret life's events i.e., to understand what is happening in life from a vastly different point of view.  This new orientation toward life teaches them that every episode tests their ability to love others.      

    During the Middle Ages, the Scriptures were being preserved by scribes that duplicated the scrolls in caves high in the mountains.  One day, a great military struggle was about to take place on the Plain of Sharon between a Christian army and a Muslim army.  The Abbott invited his scribes to watch the conflict that was about to take place below.  He said, "Can you tell the good guys from the bad guys?"  One of the scribes said, "That is easy. The army on the right is Muslim and the army on the left is Christian.  I can tell by the symbols on the banners they are holding."

    The armies ran toward each other when a battle cry was sounded and a bitter conflict ensued. Bodies were everywhere.  The Abbott once again asked the same question. This time the same scribe said, "I cannot tell.  The symbols of their faith have fallen.  What we see now are men killing each other."  The Abbott said:

Remember this sight, my sons. When our passions are aroused over a cause that ultimately does not matter, we can easily be drawn into a conflict with others.  Right and Wrong present us with a strong temptation to choose sides.  Jesus never once fought for what he believed.  He chose instead to live what he believed. This is why we must return to our cave and continue to duplicate the sacred scrolls.  Others in the future will need to know that Jesus called us to love our enemies, not resist their presence in our lives.

    There will always be personal conflicts, ethnic conflicts and national conflicts because people do not realize that what they are involved in is nothing more than a variation of the same old movie that has played forever. Their involvement causes them to put on the same warrior mask that is being worn by their opponents.  Both masks slowly erode and sabotage the joy and happiness they once experienced.

    What Jesus did was to present to the world a new response by living what he believed even during the gross injustice of his own crucifixion.  Jesus demonstrated for future generations that only love and forgiveness are real when we spirit-beings return to our place of origin. 

    By awakening to this understanding of our identity while still living in our physical forms, we can replace our need to struggle with our desire to live with joy. When we demonstrate our true nature as infinite, spirit-beings, future generations will be given the same choice that Jesus gave to his witnesses.