November 5, 2006

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IF YOUR LIFE WERE A MOVIE

Mark 9:42-48

            It is said that film maker Walt Disney was a ruthless film editor. He would cut any scene from a movie that interfered in any way with the flow of the story. No matter how beautiful, or funny, or brilliant a scene was, if it didn’t fit, it was discarded.

            Ward Kimball, one of the animators for Snow White, worked nearly eight months on a 4-1/2 minute sequence in which the dwarves made soup for Snow White. It was a humorous scene in which the dwarves wreaked havoc in the kitchen as they tried to make soup. Walt Disney thought the scene was funny, but ultimately decided it hindered the flow of the picture. So out it went.

            Good writers will tell you, just as good motion picture directors will tell you, that it is often what you leave out of a work that determines whether or not it is effective. Good writers will often edit a piece as many as a dozen times, each time continuing to carve it down until only their very best work is left. When actors moan that their best scene ended up on the cutting room floor, it means that a director sliced out a scene in the picture that he felt detracted from the movie as a whole. When a writer sends off a book to an editor, he knows that at least some of his favorite words will forever go unsaid.

            I’d like for you to try to think about your life as if it were a movie or novel. Are there parts of your life that detract from the whole? Is your life out of balance? Is there something that needs to be edited, rewritten, or left out? Do you perhaps need to trim a bit here in order to give a lot more effort there?

            Let’s go to today’s lesson from the gospel. In Mark 9: 42-48, Jesus uses some pretty disturbing language. He says, “And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.  And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” (NIV)

            In other words, if there is a part of the movie or the novel of your life that is detracting from your life as a whole, edit it out. Sometimes the difference between a mess and a masterpiece is not what you add, but what you take away!

            (1) We need to edit sin out of our lives. Remember the words of Marc Anthony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “The evil that men do lives on; the good is often interred with their bones . . .”

            It’s true. Many people who are otherwise fine decent people, have had their lives destroyed because of one weakness. That weakness might be any number of things. How many of you remember what the church came to call the “Seven Deadly Sins”? Remember what they are? Pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth. It’s interesting to note that we don’t talk a lot about these any more, which is unfortunate, because they are deadly. Any one of them can worm their way into our lives- and destroy them. You can mess up just one time and end up paying for that mistake for years. That’s one of the ways life seems unfair, but that’s how it is, isn’t it?

            William Rodgers Johnston tells about his father’s sage advice on the subject of sex.  “It was the Victorian era,” says Johnston, “when women wore dresses down to their high-top shoes so that their ‘limbs’ (the word ‘leg’ was taboo) would not show and ‘sex’ was never mentioned in polite society.  Sex Education, of course, was entirely unheard of.  But his dad did have his say on the subject.” Here was his father’s advice:

            1. Sex was started by Adam and Even and has been around ever since, but each generation that comes along thinks they are the ones who discovered it.

            2. “Watch it,” counseled his father, “It is stronger than you.” (1)

            That’s pretty good advice for many of us. “Watch it. It’s stronger than you.”

For some people that can be said of sex, or lust. For others it can be said about envy, for some it can be said about pride, or anger, or greed, etc. That’s worth remembering: “It’s stronger than you.” You will never fully control it. You must get rid of it.

            This is the best advice I can give you about overt sin in your life. Take the scissors or the delete key, use every tool at your disposal, and eliminate it before it destroys something good and precious that you really care about. Perhaps, even your eternal soul. Remember, this is a war, not just a battle. Just like scenes cut from a movie sometimes get back in and are shown after the closing credits, that which you delete from your life often wants back in, as well. You must keep your scissors sharp and handy by intensifying your prayer life and Bible reading, attending church and Sunday School, and by confiding in someone you trust that can help hold you accountable.

            Steve Goodier tells about a woman from Switzerland who was served dinner on a domestic American flight. She immediately opened up her dessert, a delicious-looking piece of chocolate cake, and she immediately heavily salted and peppered it. The flight attendant was shocked and said, “Oh! Why did you do that?!”

            The woman replied, still smiling, “It keeps me from eating it!” (2)

            See, it may even mean doing away with something good to get rid of something harmful. I think that is part of what Jesus means when He says that if your hand, or foot, or eye causes you to sin, tear it out. I believe we need to be careful not to get too literal here. After all, as far as we know, the disciples never mutilated themselves. Sometimes what it does mean, though, is ending certain friendships, at least until you are stronger, because you know they are turning you away from what’s good and right. Or you may need to stay off the internet completely because of where it takes you. It may even mean giving up that feeling of relaxation that comes from having toxic smoke in your lungs or chemicals in your bloodstream.    

            Broadcaster Paul Harvey once told a story about a man that He said had come up with a way to resist temptation.  Wherever the man went he always carried a small box of matches. Harvey quoted the man as saying, “Whenever I go to a party and I’m tempted by a beautiful woman, I simply pull out one of the matches and strike it. Then I put it out with my fingers and remind myself, ‘Hell is a lot hotter than this.’” (3) The man’s name? Well, that’s the rest of the story.

            It sounds like this man- okay, it’s Mohammed Ali- perhaps without even knowing it was taking Jesus’ words literally. “It is better,” said Jesus, “for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where the worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.”

            Certainly it is true that our lives sorely need to be edited if there is sin in them. Sin can destroy us. But there are many ways in which our life may need to be edited.

            Some of us have allowed our lives to get out of balance, and we’ve forgotten our priorities. It can happen to any of us.

            Author Dave Stone tells about one minister’s wife who threatened to put these words on her husband’s tombstone: “Gone to another meeting.”

            If the people around us could edit our lives, I wonder how our lives would look? Our spouses, our children, and our friends--all people who depend on us. What would happen if they could take scissors--- to our calendars? What if God did?

(2) People, in the movie that is our life, we need to edit our calendars to make time for each other. Perhaps you’ve seen the poster that shows a dad and his son in an old rowboat on a little lake. It’s early in the morning, there’s a faint mist still on the lake, and the father and son are sitting there, quiet and still. They’re each holding little bamboo fishing poles, and the two corks attached to their lines are floating motionless on the placid water.

            Underneath the picture are two words: take time. (4)

            Take time. Are the urgent things in your life crowding out the important ones? That can happen, can’t it?

            Let me say a word directly to the dads who are here. This may also apply to some moms, but probably not nearly as often. Many men wake up one day and realize that their kids are grown and that they’ve missed out on the most important and rewarding years of their children’s lives. If a Dad is not sensitive to his children’s needs, all kinds of tragedies can occur.

             In the book A Cup of Comfort, Mary Helen Straker tells the story of her Aunt Molly.  After Molly married she left Ohio and was determined never to go back.  She offered excuse after excuse for not visiting the family, but everyone knew the truth.  Their mother had died when Molly was only 10.  Molly’s new stepmother was hard on her, making her work more than her brothers.  Molly soon grew to hate her stepmother and her father.  She tried hard to cut off all memories of them.

            But finally, Molly’s brother convinced her to come back for a visit.  During the visit, Molly and her brother began discussing their father’s old trunk.  He had kept it locked up, and asked that it not be opened until after his death.

            The next morning, the family gathered around as Molly’s brother opened the trunk.  Inside were old letters and legal papers.  Wrapped in a handkerchief was their father’s gold pocket watch.  When they opened the watch casing, out fell a lock of what proved to be Molly’s hair.  Her father had carried a lock of her hair in his watch up until the day he died. (5)

            You see, Molly’s father loved her, but somehow he failed to communicate that love to her. Maybe he had too much to do, or maybe he was simply unaware of how very much his daughter needed him. But it was not until after he was dead that she was aware that he had had deep feelings for her. Could that happen in any of our families? Do our lives need to be edited to ensure that those critical needs are met?

            Some of us need to slice a little here and trim a bit there. We need to get rid of overt sin, and we need to balance our lives in terms of the importance of our relationships.

            (3) Finally, some of us need to edit our calendars to make time for God. We have let God get crowded out of our lives. It’s true.  Oh, most Sundays may find us in church, but God doesn’t really play that big a role in our lives. He is on the periphery, and if we need Him, we’ll call. But we’ve got places to go and people to meet. Conceit is the only disease known to man that seems to make everyone sick except the person who has it. C.S. Lewis put it like this:

“…a cold, self-righteous prig (person), who goes regularly to church, may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it’s better to be neither.”

            Not making time for God in our lives may very well be the biggest mistake we can ever make. God is the best friend we will ever be blessed with. He can take a drab and meaningless existence and give it new purpose and power. We need Him in our lives, and we need to know His forgiveness and love.

            Let me tell you about a man named Ray Giunta (Ghee-un-ta). Ray goes wherever there are hurting people who need someone to listen. (You know, that wouldn’t make a bad gravestone: “He (or she) was there for hurting people who needed someone to listen.”)  Ray has served as a volunteer counselor for students who were involved in school shootings or survived natural disasters.  Ray worked with survivors of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995.  And after 9/11, he headed to New York City . In 2005, he made his way to New Orleans .

            Ray dedicates himself to spreading God’s hope because he knows what hopelessness feels like.  When he was just a baby, his father was sent to prison.  Not long afterward, his mother abandoned all nine of her children.  Ray’s oldest sister was only 10 at the time, but she made a valiant effort to take care of her siblings.  When the child protective workers discovered the children, they were scattered to various foster homes.  Ray was fortunate enough to be adopted by the Giunta family. There he found love, and there he found God.  Many years later, Ray even initiated a family reunion.  In his own life, Ray had seen how God brings hope and restoration out of heartbreak, and he wanted to share that message with others.

At the bombing site in New York City , Ray listened to firefighters pour out their grief over losing friends when the towers collapsed.  He saw the danger in which they worked. He thought that they were the only reason he came to New York .

            But later that evening, as Ray headed downtown, he encountered an elderly woman and a young boy lugging huge garbage bags down the street.  Ray stopped and offered to help.  The old woman spoke up, “My daughter is a drug addict, and tonight she kicked my grandson out of the house.” Suddenly Ray knew that there was another reason why he had come to New York that night.  He knelt down beside the little boy and began to tell him a story about another little boy who had been abandoned by his parents.  He told this little boy how God helped the abandoned child throughout his life and how God was still helping him. He assured the little boy that God loved him and was watching over him too. (6)

            Do you know what hopelessness feels like? You and I need to know that God loves us and wants only the best for us. I believe that is why Jesus was so harsh in those words we read from scripture. Because this is so, so serious. Christ wants only the best for us, and so he is telling us to take some scissors to our lives, even though temporarily it may hurt. Edit out sin. Edit your schedule. Take time for those you love and take time for God. It is then, and only then, that you will discover that instead of being such a mess, your life will become- a masterpiece.

Lanny Wagner

1. William Rodgers Johnston, Jokes That Span Generations

2. One Minute Can Change a Life (Life Support System Publishing, Inc., 1999).

3. Keeping Your Head Above Water ( Loveland : Group Publishing, 2002).

4. Russ Martin, When You’re Too Busy.

5. By Mary Helen Straker from A Cup of Comfort, edited by Colleen Sell (Avon, Mass.: Adams Media Corporation, 2001), pp. 212-218.

6. “That Boy Was Me” by Ray Giunta, Guideposts November 2002, pp. 45-48.

KIDS KORNER:  

IF YOUR LIFE WERE A MOVIE

Mark 9:42-48

 PREPARATION: None OR a picture of Pinocchio or Pinocchio book

 LESSON:  How many of you know the story of Pinocchio?  What was his problem?  (Children respond) He told lies, didn't he?  Have you ever told a lie or done something else that was wrong?  (response) All of us have done this at one time or another. Not only is it bad, but also a strange thing happens when we tell lies or do something wrong and don't admit it.  Our noses  grow like Pinocchio's did- no, not really, but we often have to tell another lie to cover up for the first lie we told. The second lie is usually a little bigger than the first and soon we have to tell another to cover that one.  It just goes on and on. And if we lie long enough, we don't even feel sorry for it any more.

            Jesus told his disciples that if there was something in their life--like lying--that could get them into trouble--they were to get rid of it immediately before it caused them lots of trouble. And that’s good advice. Our noses may not grow long, but God wants us to know that when we do bad things, somebody is going to get hurt. Sometimes it is us. Sometimes it is someone we love. Remember, God loves you and wants only the best for you.