Before this week there was only one movie
I have ever thought so much of that I went a second time to the theater to
watch it and that was the movie The Shack.
This week I will add two more movies to that list. One is a Wrinkle in Time and the other Is ICan only imagine. I was reflecting on
what these movies had in common. What is
it that is so powerful that they draw me back to the theater to pay more money
to see them again. Why couldn’t I wait
for them to come out on DVD or on Netflicks?
There are a couple of things. First the message of hope contained in
each of these movies is a message that I want to share with others. In each of these movies there was a situation
that seemed impossible to overcome. In
each of these movies the power of God was able to take impossible pain and
redeem it for good. God was able to
breath light into the darkness. Also
each of these movies showed the real human struggle of pain and suffering. They showed that God could use our pain and
suffering to transform.
The Shack follows the story of a family
that lost a child to tragic circumstances.
I knew only a taste of that pain from saying good bye to my nephew. I can only imagine the pain that is being
felt by Tripp Halstead’s family this morning.
Tripp was the little two year old boy whose story was followed by the
whole nation when a tree limb fell on him in a freak accident at his daycare 5
years ago. This happened in Atlanta and I was going to Emory at the time. We all followed his story and his miracle
recovery was life giving. Little Tripp
died this week following an infection that his heart just couldn’t fight
anymore. As I read the announcement from
his mother this week I could almost feel the pain that was coming through her
words. The pain of losing a child is one
of those pains in life that seems unconquerable.
A Wrinkle in Time is a science fiction
story about a father who gets lost in the universe and his children’s journey
through space and time to find him and bring him home. It is a battle between the forces of good and
evil. The father is trapped on the
planet Camazotz, held captive by the IT.
IT is the personification of evil
in the universe. When I saw the IT
portrayed on the screen I was immediately transported to my therapist’s office
a little over two years ago. My
therapist is really good about personifying things and feelings. His work
sometimes reminds me of the movie inside out where the emotions of a young
teenage girls were personified as they all worked together to guide and protect
her. That particular day my therapist
was asking me to describe a particular physical pain I was experiencing. He asked me what shape it was. I told him that it was the shape of a ball
about the size of a softball. He asked
me what color it was. I told him that it
was black. I described it as having a
center but having tenticles like an octopus that would reach out and grab other
parts of me and squeeze until I felt pain.
When I saw IT on the screen It was the exact replica of what I had
described in his office and I was keenly aware that IT had tried to defeat
me. It had tried to overpower me. IT had tried to shut me down. One of the most powerful parts of the movie
for me was when the daughter was told it was up to her to defeat IT and bring
her father home. There were three divine
beings who had been guiding her on this journey and they each gave her a gift
for the remainder of her journey. One of
the gifts was the gifts of her faults.
She had to embrace her faults and all the pain that came with them as
part of who she was and as part of what would bring healing to her pain. In the very beginning of the movie the famous
13th century Persian poet, Rumi was quoted. The quote was this: “wounds
are the place where the light enters.” As I heard those words I immediately heard
the words from the gospel of John: In
the beginning was the word and the word was God and the word was light. What would it look like if we took the wounds
of our life and allowed them to be the portal of entry for the light and love
of God?
A similar message came through in the
movie I can Only imagine. This movie is
the story of Bart Millard, the lead singer for the Christian group Mercy Me and
the author of the best selling song, that is the title of the movie. The movie is the story behind the song and it
was a story of pain. It was the story of
a young boy who suffered a lifetime of abuse at the hands of his father. As he was chasing his dream of being a top
musician his manager gave him some advice.
He recognized that Bart was
running from his pain and therefore not
being authentic in his music. He said
this to him: “Let your pain become your inspiration.” Bart Millard believed that the transformation
of his father was impossible. He did not
believe that even God could transform the monster of his dad into something
good. But here is the thing. God did.
Bart Millard said that God took that monster and transformed him into
the dad he had always dreamed of. It was
after his father’s death that he wrote the song I can only imagine. That Song has touched the hearts and lives of
countless people. It broke through the
charts on Christian radio and made its way to the charts on both country radio
stations and pop radio stations across the world. It was a message of healing people needed to
hear. So many people can relate to the
story of abuse yet they suffer in silence.
What would happen if survivors of abuse let their wounds be the place
where the light and love of God entered.
The thread that knit these movies together
into a genre of movie that I would want to see again was the thread of HOPE
that God can take our wounds and our pain and use them as portals for the entry
of love and light and for the inspiration that will transform the darkness to
light, the pain and suffering to healing.
What are you facing today that seems
impossible to overcome. Have you given
up on God’s ability to transform your wounds and your pain? Have you given up on God’s ability to
transform another person in your life, a person who has caused the gaping
wounds that leave you in pain? Do you
know someone today who has given up?
I imagine that the Israelites had given up
on more than one occasion during their journey. It was in a moment such as this
that the prophet Jeremiah spoke the words you heard today. The words were a word of hope to a people who
felt abandoned by their God. They had survived
many things. They survived the Great
Flood, they survived captivity in Egypt, they survived 40 years in the
Wilderness and finally reached their destination in the promised land of Cannan
but their trials didn’t stop. There was
a constant battle between good and evil.
Sometimes the evil came from outside forces and many times the evil came
within themselves as they sought answers in other places, as they put their
faith and trust in things that were not of God and were not God. At the time that Jeremiah spoke the words we
heard from scripture today most of Israel had been exiled. Their country had been taken over and their
temple had been destroyed. Most of them
were living in Babylon, as immigrants in a land that was not theirs. Jeremiah gave them hope. Jeremiah spoke of a new covenant between God
and the Israelites.
In the book of Genesis we find the
covenant that God made with Abraham. It
was a covenant that promised land, many descendents and a promise that through
Abraham all people of the world would be blessed and redeemed. God asked for loyalty in return and many
times the Israelites failed in their end of the bargain. However, God always forgave and God continued
to be their everlasting God.
Here Jeremiah promises a New
Covenant. What changes with the new
covenant is this: God says no longer
will their have to be teachers to teach you about who I am for I will write all
the laws on your heart. You will know
me. You don’t have to learn the 613 laws. You will know me and follow my way and that
way will lead you to the light. Here is
the other thing God promises in the new covenant revealed to Jeremiah. He says I will forgive their wickedness and I
will remember their sin no more. Did you
hear that friends. Let me say it
again. God said “I will forgive their
wickedness and will REMEMBER THEIR SIN NO MORE! Sometimes the hardest thing that we face is
believing that God forgives us and to forgive ourselves. We carry around the mistakes of our life
inside us and we let them overtake us.
But God says it right here my friend.
I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no
more! There is nothing, nothing,
nothing, you can do that God can not and does not forgive. Take that gift with you this morning. In the name of Jesus Christ YOU ARE
FORGIVEN! Quit beating yourself
up! God loves you!
The writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews identifies
Jesus as the mediator of this new covenant.
Time does not permit me to read Hebrews chapter 8-10 this morning but I
invite you when you go home today to get out your Bible and read it. There you will find a description of what it
means for Jesus to be the meditor of this covenant. Hear these words though from Hebrews chapter
10 verses 14-18:
For
by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made
holy.
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First
he says:
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”[b]
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”[b]
17 Then he adds:
18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no
longer necessary.
We
are approaching the time of Lent my friends when Jesus will enter into
Jerusalem. Hosannas will be sung but
that dark moment of sacrifice will come as well when Jesus makes this final
sacrifice, the sacrifice of his own life so that we may be made perfect in
love.
We are called this morning. We are called to be the carriers of this
light of love. What would it look like
for you to accept this gift. What would
it look like for you to believe that God has forgiven you and remembers your
sin no more. What would it look like if
the darkness was transformed by the light into light. What would it look like for us to open up our
wounds for them to be the portal of God’s light and love.
It may not always look like what we
imagine. Perhaps instead of God
transforming you into someone different then who you are, God’s light and love
will enter your wounds and let it be known that you were created in God’s image
just as who you are and that who you are is exactly who God created you to be
and wants you to be.
Perhaps instead of reuniting you with the
one who has wounded you God’s light and love will enter your wounds and give
you eyes to see that you deserve to be treated with love and respect and give
you the courage to move forward rather than looking in the rear view
mirror.
Perhaps instead of making your mound of
debt go away and making your rich, God will enter the wound of your financial
instability and show you that you can make it on what you have been given and
give you peace with a simpler lifestyle.
Perhaps instead of making you forget the
pain and the wounds you carry with you, God will shine a light on those wounds
and use them to transform others who have survived just what you survived.
Overcoming the impossible, overcoming the
dark will look different for each of you but the good news is that we serve a
God of second chances and third chances and twenty chances. We serve a God who forgives and remembers our
sins no more. We serve a God who heals
our impossible grief. We serve a God who
redeems our broken relationships. We
serve a God who overcomes the voices of our past that haunt us. We serve a God who gave us his body and blood
that through that body and blood we would be saved, we would be redeemed, we
would be transformed. We only have to
believe. We only have to say yes to this
gift, say Yes, and follow him.
In her book “Gifts of Imperfection” author
Brene Brown writes “We cultivate
love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen
and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that
offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection.” Cultivate that love today and take a step of faith. Open up your wounds and
your pain to God this morning. Let God
pour God’s light and love into those open places this morning. Let your wounds and your pain be a place
where The hope that God gave us in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ can take up
residence and grow and transform that which is impossible to all that is
possible. Let God use your wounds and
your pain to inspire you. Grab hold of
the gifts of imperfection and embrace them as the gifts that only God can
transform them to be. God is here my
friends. He is only waiting for you to
trust him and open yourself up to him.
Come to Jesus this morning, the altar is open and it is a great place to
come before God . We are going to sing
our hymn of response this morning. The
hymn of promise. Come this morning and
renew God’s promise in your life. In the
name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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