A young boy, home sick from school, sits in bed playing a
video game.
His mother walks in, checks him for a fever, opens the
blinds, allowing the sunlight to stream in, and tells the boy that his
grandfather is there for a visit.
The boy groans. He
hates how his grandfather is always pinching his cheeks.
Just then, his grandfather bursts into the room, and true to
form, pinches his grandson’s cheek. The
boy rolls his eyes at his mom, but then perks up when he sees his grandfather
has brought him a gift.
But then, he opens the gift.
It’s a book.
The boy is not impressed.
“Does it have any sports in it?” he asks his grandfather.
His grandfather begins rattling off a list of things the
book has, fencing, fighting, torture, revenge.
This is the book that his father used to read to him when he was sick
and the same book he read to the boy’s father when he was sick and now he’s
going to read it to him.
The boy shrugs. “I’ll
try and stay awake,” he says.
And so, the grandfather begins to read.
The name of the book?
The Princess Bride.
If any of the following things sound familiar: true love; as
you wish; inconceivable; the Dread Pirate Roberts; Rodents of Unusual Size—then
you have been blessed with seeing the movie, The Princess Bride, the first scene being what I just described to
you.
It is one of my most favorite movies, and I realized the
other day, when I turned on the TV and saw that it was on, that I have had the
pleasure over the years to introduce the movie to many different people and
convert many new fans.
We’ve all had this experience, haven’t we?
We’ve all seen a movie or watched a TV show or read a book
or heard a song that was so good, we had to tell everyone we knew just how good
it was.
And sometimes, if a movie or a book is so good, then the people
we tell will tell others and they will tell still others and before we know it,
that movie or book has gone viral.
It doesn’t seem to take much these days for something to go
viral.
A week ago, my dad sent me a picture he had seen in the
Brevard Times of an osprey with a small shark in its talons and in the shark’s
mouth, a fish.
What a picture!
The picture soon went viral and I started seeing it
everywhere.
Now my dad sending me that picture was not what caused it to
go viral, but my dad was part of that chain.
So, if a picture of an osprey, shark and fish can go viral,
it begs this question: Why hasn’t Jesus gone viral?
Why is it that we have no problem obnoxiously sharing every
movie or book or TV show that wows us with our friends and even strangers, but
we are reluctant to sit down with anyone and have a conversation about God?
Why is it that we find Jesus’ final command to his disciples
so difficult to follow?
Go and tell the good news.
Why is that so hard?
I admit that for many years I was exactly like that. I loved God.
I knew God, but the idea of sitting down and talking about him with
someone was terrifying to me.
I was a passive Christian—not a passive-aggressive
Christian, there are plenty of those and that’s a topic for another day, but just
a passive Christian.
I was someone who went to church and was most comfortable
when I could sit in the back and not talk to anyone.
I went to church, as many people do, expecting the praise
band to sing to me, the pastor to preach to me, communion to be given to me.
It was all about me.
I was a passive Christian.
But, and I’ve told this story many times, something happened
to me when I first came to Hope eight years ago. I had what I call a John F. Kennedy
moment. Hope was the first church where
I asked, “What can I do for this church?”
Not, “What can this church do for me?”
But, “What can I do for this church?”
This is the first step in answering God’s call to all of us.
Remember the gospel reading from several weeks ago.
Jesus tells the disciples in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the
world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.”
Jesus didn’t say, “Every Sunday morning, sit quietly, listen
to the preacher, listen to the music and try not to fall asleep.”
“Go,” is what Jesus says.
Move first and then “proclaim.”
Go. Proclaim.
These are actions that Jesus expects us to take.
And honestly, if we truly understood just what the Good News
is, why wouldn’t we do what Jesus asks?
If we can plaster our Facebook walls with “Oh my gosh, have
you seen the latest Game of Thrones?”
or “You have to see The Avengers!” why
can’t we bring ourselves to share the Good News with others?
Perhaps it’s because we don’t understand the Good News.
The other day I shared with a couple of people this story my
mom used to tell me about when she was little.
Every day, she and her parents would drive past a church and
sitting in the church window was a sign that read, “Jesus saves.”
But my mom was a little girl. She had no idea this building was a
church. She thought it was a bank.
As in, “Jesus saves at 1st National with our low
interest loans and so can you!”
Jesus saves.
What does that even mean?
What do those two words mean without context?
Just what is this Good News that we are meant to share?
Think of the Gospels.
Think of what they are.
They are stories, personal stories.
What did Jesus ask the disciples to do?
Share their stories.
How did Jesus himself teach?
Through parables, through stories.
Jesus tells us three things:
Love God.
Love your neighbor.
Tell everyone the Good News.
Tell everyone your story.
Tell everyone that the most important thing we can do in
life is love and be loved.
Tell everyone that no one loves us more than Jesus.
In the movie The
Princess Bride, a grandfather shares his favorite book with his grandson as
a sign of his love.
Share your story of Jesus as a sign of your love.
Amen.
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