FANTASY LEAGUE SEASON
JOB 38: 1-7
MARK 10: 35-45
OCTOBER 20, 2024
I am at times amazed by the number of viewing options that we have here in the 21st Century. Those of you who are over 50 years of age … you ‘Baby Boomers’ out there most certainly remember an era when you had 3 or 4 or maybe 5 channels and the only place you could see a movie was at the local movie theater. If you wanted to see your favorite movie again you had to hope one of those 3 or 4 or 5 channels made that movie a Sunday afternoon matinee special or perhaps if you grew up where I did … you hoped that movie became the late night movie at 11:30 but then you had to watch it broken apart by commercials fully knowing that work or school awaited you in the morning.
It’s almost as if those were fantasy times … times from a dream world that no longer exists because I now have an array of my favorite movies sitting in boxes in a cabinet ready for another viewing plus I can just Google my phone to choose almost anything I want to watch in the palms of my hands.
My goodness friends, it’s as if we control the world … it is as if we have all the power to do what we please … it’s as if we have allowed God to become irrelevant or second nature or perhaps a fantasy, which is what some of our neighbors and perhaps friends or family members have decided to consider God as because they want to live as they choose each day … every day … using words towards other people that make them giggle as those words hurt real living people … because the concept of loving one’s neighbor has become an anathema to their choice of life. They like their presumed power.
Feeding the poor … now where would one get that idea … oh yea, God. Welcoming strangers … surely that goes against the thought process of 21st Century humans although I read in my local newspaper this week that there were titles on home properties that forbid the transfer of such ownership to Italians, Polish, and Irish … and of course to people as the titles stated, “of color.” God must have understood then, right … and God certainly must understand our vitriol now.
But then again … are we god? Have we become gods and this concerns me. The diminishment of God … the lessening of Jesus Christ to a figurine in a crèche like this one. Hi little Jesus baby … don’t come out until Christmas and then go back to your hiding place.
The book of Job is a challenging and reflective lesson for people of faith. As someone who has had a couple of challenges along the way I have often thought about Job because in this powerful book of the Bible we are given a lesson or two plus an important reminder. The first reminder perhaps is that we humans can easily slip into a neglectfulness of God. Now, does that surprise you … that even back in the hey days of Bible books being written that people chose to act as if they were bigger and better than the Almighty. Well, that is why Scripture stands up to the test of time … humanity hasn’t changed despite having Netflix, ESPN, Disney, and even BritBox plus all those networks whose three letter names we know better than any Bible verse from God’s Word. The Bible’s connection between humanity and the holy is God’s communication tool to convey what we need to know in the year 2024 and beyond just as it was there for those early Christians who knew people who had actually seen Jesus face-to-face.
Do you need verification of God … just head outdoors and try to find some logic behind nature other than the reality that God exists. Creation … do you think all of the universe one day came out of nowhere from nothing to become something or logically has there always been a higher power … God … whose very being is so powerful that God is probably worth our attention? Even our worship and praise and can I say it … our love?
Job had diminished and even dismissed God … perhaps twisted God into Job’s definition and God responded … WHERE WERE YOU when I laid the earth’s foundation? Who set its measurements? WHO WHO WHO … God
And, earlier this week I had a conversation with someone about worship. The question posed was … ‘Pastor, do you think people come to church to worship God because in church they don’t chat with each other during the Call to Worship … they don’t sing the hymns of the church … and they are on their cell phones texting or surfing the internet during the church service.” He then asked me a very serious question … “if you are coming to church to invest an hour in worshipping God and Jesus Christ why do you even bother bringing your cell phone with you since you know it might interrupt your time of worship. Nothing should be more important than worship for an hour, right pastor?”
We do get wrapped up in us don’t we … we have made ourselves mini-gods who believe we deserve all the credit. Just look at today’s Gospel lesson where James and John had decided that they had the right to sit on Jesus right and left side in heaven. Of course when the other ten heard that James and John felt they were entitled to the power seats they became very angry with their fellow disciples. Oh what words were said back then?
And, Jesus called them together. He gave them a lesson for the faithful, “The ones considered rulers show off their authority by ordering others around BUT that’s not the way it will be with you. For the Son of God did not come to be served but rather to serve and to give His life.” Jesus told them it wasn’t about them but about those they cared for … it wasn’t about becoming part of the world but rather we are to be the ones who align with God … worship God … follow the teachings of God … even when the world says nope don’t do it that way!
Right now I am disappointed … and surprised by something that popped up this morning on my friend Jackie’s FACEBOOK page. I have known Jackie since I came back to New Jersey in 1986 as a Social Security spokesperson. I discovered early that this government official was also a woman who loved the Lord. In the full circle of life, I became a pastor and discovered she was a leader in her United Methodist Church who I have continued to run into at faith gatherings and also at community meetings. This morning on her FACEBOOK page she posted something that shows how the world can push us away from the truth because the world wants to get us to diminish God, get angry and hate our neighbors.
Jackie posted a meme from someone allegedly name Linda M. Davis. It says … FACEBOOK has blocked a picture of the cross. Now you may have received messages that FACEBOOK won’t allow Scripture to be posted or prayers to be said. You might have gotten angry with FACEBOOK and blasted those who run it. You might have said OH YEA those evil people … same ones that don’t let my kid bring his Bible to school or to pray in school … those same people want to provide Food Stamps to the poor using my tax dollars … you know how easy it is to be set off in anger by something online?
By the way … how many of you have FACEBOOK or INSTAGRAM or TIKKY TOCK or some other social media? I know those watching this service online have FACEBOOK.
So, lets move from the Fantasy world to reality … first we need to affirm … we are overdue perhaps to declare that GOD LOVES ALL of US … go outside and hear the birds sing to rediscover God or find some green meadows or multicolored autumn forest or a still stream to restore your soul. That God … the God of Creation sent Jesus Christ to teach us to STOP acting superior to others but to become humble and care for each other with that ever present message of loving God and loving ALL of our neighbors, which is a lesson from the Old Testament too … just check your phones AFTER worship by Googling love God and love your neighbors … you’ll find repeated messages that say just that. But God also wanted to make our choices even easier … if we believe … if we are faithful … if we turn our lives around we don’t have to do a lot of sacrificing because Jesus took our sins to the cross for us … just Google Good Friday … and then on Easter morning THE WOMEN … yes, THE WOMEN went to the tomb and discovered Jesus wasn’t there because HE IS RISEN <<HE is RISEN INDEED>>
Back to those myths … you see we stream this service on FACEBOOK … this is a cross, a beautiful cross and guess what FACEBOOK is allowing it. Now, from First Peter here is a verse from my God’s Minute daily devotion … “Be alert and of sober mind, YOUR ENEMY the DEVIL prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Guess what FACEBOOK is not blocking that and we will pray later … guess what FACEBOOK is allowing it. And, your kids can take their phones to school with them loaded with the Bible and they can pray at lunch, pray in home room, pray before the big test ….we only WE ONLY … YOU AND I ONLY have to teach them to pray and teach them to read Scripture by being the faithful examples who treat God as God and Jesus as our LORD and SAVIOR and ultimate teacher.
We have to stop treating God as a fantasy … we have to actually follow what Jesus taught and live a faith life … we have to value worship celebrate baptism as a meaningful Sacrament of the church not as a party time moment … we have to love as God loved!!
Richard Rohr, one of my favorite Christian thought provokes and authors stated it quite clearly in a way that James and John needed to hear … “Life for the faithful is all about practicing for heaven!”
So I know you were serious when you said HE IS RISEN INDEED … so take time to change your life, reject the hate mongers, do not post false messages, and show love for God in worship and in your daily lives.
After church I need to check my line-ups because I think I can control real live men who are in my fantasy leagues … truth is I can’t but I will be checking the scores as the day goes on. God is checking too … are we people of faith or is that just our fantasy? AMEN