Something is Out There:
Rumors of the Invisible World of the Sacred God
The Lost Obsession 3/1/09
Introduction: theater piece
John and Cathy Go to Church
Subject: Distracted and Bored at Church
Bruce D. Rzengota
John and Cathy in church on a typical Sunday
John and Cathy are standing in front of a row of chairs. All the dialogue actually represents their thoughts during the worship service. They do not know one another. They are just sitting near each other.
John
Here we go again another loud song. I hope people don’t start to clap again.
Cathy
I wish I’d stopped by the coffee house before we sat down. I sure could use another cup of coffee.
John
I don’t know why we have to stand and sing these songs. Why can’t we just sit down and listen to the band do them.
Cathy
Yawn!! (Looks at John) Oh excuse me.
John
I know what you mean lady. I’m bored too! What is he doing? Did Pastor Wayne just spin around while he played his guitar? What is up with that?
Cathy
O my gosh, O my gosh! I forgot to turn off my cell phone.
Cathy begins to dig frantically through her purse looking for her cell phone
Cathy
If that goes off, I’ll be so embarrassed. People will think I’m not paying attention.
John
Jump around, turn around, spin around, hokey pokey! What is he doing up there?
Cathy
There it is! Look I got a text mail from Becca! Wonder if anyone will notice if I just take a peek?
She takes a sheepish look at John and scans the others around her, then reads her text message.
Cathy
Becca got a 96% on her economics paper. That’s great (looking around smiling contently, she catches John’s eye & nods)
John
Oh gosh this lady next to me is having some type emotional experience? I don’t what’s going on with her? Is she really being moved by this?
John nods back and she reaches out and pat’s him on the arm.
Cathy
I sure hope he didn’t see me reading that. I better wait until Pastor Bruce is preaching before I send Becca a reply.
John
Tell me this is it. Tell me this is it! Tell me this was the last song. Please be the last song! Please!
Sighing both John and Cathy sit down.
John
Oh no. Dave’s the elder of the Day! If this guy were any more boring I bet his wife would shoot herself. (pausing) Does he really go on like this at home?
Cathy
Oh poor Dave, I heard he’s got a real problem with that kid of his. No matter what he does that boy won’t sit and be quiet and respectful in church. Sometimes I can’t believe they let Dave be an elder the way his son carries on like that in church. (shaking her head slightly) Tsk, Tsk, Tsk!
John
I wonder how many times he’s gonna say "Lord we just ask you" while he prays today."
Cathy
(Yawning again.) Boy I wish I’d gotten some coffee!
John
That’s once. (listening) Twice!
Cathy
(Looking panicked) Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I forget to get my offering envelope ready!
(Digging back through her purse) Where’s the check? Where’s the checkbook?
John
Three. (nodding)
Cathy
Oh he’s coming to the end! (Looking up with contempt in her eyes) Is he so shallow that he can only pray that long!!! That Larry guy prays at least twice as long!
John
Four times. That was four times he said "Lord we just ask. . ." We’re praying! What does he think God thinks we’re doing. We’re asking, we’re prayin...(turning his eyes away rapidly) Oh my gosh, he open his eyes!! (sounding perturbed) He opened his eyes and looked right at me.
Cathy
There it is. Whew! Thank you Lord that I didn’t embarrass myself! (fans herself with the envelope)
John
How spiritual is that? This guy looked right at me. What’s he think I wasn’t praying?
Silence.
John and Cathy
Amen!
Pause for moment and Cathy receives the offering plate. Places her envelope in it and passes it to John.
John
Yeah, Yeah, We give to God’s work. I guess I can spare five or ten this week. I better get something outta this.
Cathy
Darn, Pastor Wayne is just playing the piano this week. I wish they showed more videos during the offering. It soooo much more interesting than just listening to him plink away!
(Looking to the side) Would you look at that? (Turning her head as if following them down the aisle) Those teenagers are getting up and going out again. (aghast) How many times do you have to go to the bathroom in one service?
John
Here he comes, Pastor Bruce, the big kahuna, the big cheese. PB to the MAX. He’s no Joel Olsteen, but I guess he’ll do.
I sure hope he has a good opening story this week. Last week’s was so dull I could hardly stay focused.
Cathy
You know if he reads a lot from his notes this week, I could probably get a quick text message off to Becca.
John
He needs to use more movie illustrations.
Cathy
I hope he doesn’t use another movie illustration. Books are so much more effective!
John
Why does he walk around the platform like that? He never stands still. The last pastor never walked around like that!
Cathy
I sure hope he makes himself clear. None of the Greek goggle gook.
Hmm! What is this new series going to be about anyway? (sounding mysterious) Ooo! Something is out there? Give me a break. He’s watched Heroes way too much.
I’ll tell you what’s out there. All those lost pagans that don’t love Jesus the way I do! That’s what’s out there.
John
Thank goodness he’s growing his mustache back. That Amish looking goatee was a joke!!
Cathy
(Squinting and staring) I think he missed a spot shaving his head today.
(nodding) Yep he did. How am I supposed to concentrate on the message when he’s got that unmowed patch of hair behind his ear? How could his wife let him out of the house like that??? Doesn’t she know how distracting that is?
John
Rumors! He’s preaching on Rumors! That just great! Just what we need another old bitty message!!! Why do I come here?
John and Cathy both sit and nod their heads and fidget a bit. Cathy seems to have some trouble keeping her eyes open. John looks at his watch and yawns.
John and Cathy
(Shaking their heads slightly they turn and smile politely at each other. Looking back at the audience.) I’m bored.
the end
T.S. Sad but true for many people I’m bored is a very common way to describe their relationship with God. For many the idea of Born again is replaces with Bored again.
Look at these statistics.
* Survey 3,600 men in general 34.1% were either (29%) often or (5%) always bored by the idea of church and church activities.
* Non Christian men 51.3%
* Among Christian 27.9% responded that way
* Only 12% said they were rarely or never bored with church
(Confessions of a Good Christian Guy, By Tom Davis, Tammy Maltby )
* Protestants now make up just 51 percent of the population, though the total Christian population remains as high as 78 percent. Yet less than 30%* of the populace is in church on any given weekend.**
* Close to half (44 percent) of all Americans have changed religions or denominations at least once in their lifetimes.**
(**The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has released a series of new statistics on the religious landscape of America.)
(*General Social Survey (GSS), church attendance figures declined sharply. For many years GSS data had supported Gallup’s; the redesigned 1996 GSS reported that only between 29 and 30.5% of Americans attended church in the last week.)
T.S. One of the dilemmas faced is that this world is so compelling, so distracting so consuming it is too easy to become lose passion for a spiritual Kingdom. Yet written deep on our hearts is a desire to know that something is out there. That there is a god, that he has a kingdom that he is knowable.
T.S. In the midst of His ministry in Galilee Jesus taught the listeners in parables, "pictorial ponderables." Seeking to reveal himself as the messiah coming to shape a spiritual kingdom he taught in parables designed to expose false thinking about the kingdom and to create earnest desire for discovering and obtaining this new kingdom. In Matt 13, the writer shares 8 kingdom stories told by Jesus, kingdom ponderables that reveal truths about this kingdom.
In the two shortest of the kingdom parables Jesus confronts the reality that too many who claim to know God have in reality lost the obsession of what it means to be in the kingdom of God.
T.S. Turn with me to these Kingdom Parables.
Matt 13:44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
P.S. OBSESSING FOR THE KINGDOM IS THE SECRET TO OVERCOMING BEING BORED IN THE PEWS.
I. WE’RE BECOME BORED BECAUSE WE FORGET THE KINGDOM IS A TREASURE.
Matt 13: 44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure
Jesus said that the kingdom he was establishing was like treasure. Treasure by definition implies worth. Not just a little worth but significant worth.
John 17:13
13 "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.
Paul understood that this kingdom was a mysterious treasure to be discovered.
2 Cor 4:7
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
Col 1:25-27
25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness- 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Col 2:2-3
2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Phil 3:7-8
7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
A. Taken for granted
Ill: The Sanderson Hotel in London is a Posh five star Hotel with luxury lofts suites selling at $710 a night. For most of us an extended stay in such a hotel would awe us, but it no matter how valuable something is it can still be taken for granted.
Amy Winehouse tallied up nearly $18,000 worth of damage to her room at London’s posh Sanderson hotel after a fight with her hubby. A hotel staffer told the British tab Sunday Mirror, which has gleefully chronicled Winehouse’s year in celeb hell: "I’ve certainly never seen anything like it before. They had to get an outside firm to clean blood off the walls, and then there was a hefty paint job."
B. Appraised as valuable
When you want to sell you home you call for an appraiser to come and tell you what it’s worth. We don’t know how much it’s worth until we go through the appraisal process.
Similarly we do no fully appreciate the kingdom until we have appraised it--discovered it worth for our selves. Until we do so we can live indifferent to the value it represents in our lives. If the kingdom lacks value, it could be easy to feel pursuing it isn’t worth our time or effort.
Appl: Have bored because you have forgotten or perhaps never discovered how valuable the kingdom is?
II. WE BECOME BORED WHEN WE FORGET THAT THE TREASURE IS HIDDEN.
Matt 13:44
44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.
A. Not necessarily evident
Ill: My son was helping a neighbor clear out his basement when he spied this cup and asked to bring it home," says Joan Nold of Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania. He liked that it was old and collapsible, and it said on the bottom that it was from a 1903 performance of the play The Wizard of Oz."
Value "The cups don’t display any obvious Oz-related decorations, But because they were given out at the 200th performance, they are rare." Worth $400.
When we look at the wealth, the pleasure, the distractions of this world it’s easy to miss the treasure of a kingdom that is not tangible.
B. Easily overlooked
Ill: Fever Pitch, is the romantic comedy about one man’s obsession with his favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, and how that obsession comes between his relationship with the woman he loves.
"Do you remember last winter? This is exactly what you liked about me. That I was capable of having a passionate commitment with something. A devotion."
"Yes, but you feel it for the Red Sox, and I was hoping that someday you might redirect that. All those things that you feel for that team, I feel them too--for you."
Ben has a perplexed look on his face. Lindsey turns around and walks toward her building.
It is very easy it be so busy pursuing other things that we over look a treasure that is hidden. All our other obsessions cloud the pursuit of something so other.
The church used to be accused of being so heavenly minded that it was no earthly use. Now were so earthly minded we’re bored with the church. Worse we see failing to get it all in this life a tragic. We are consumed with the here and now to our determent because we no longer fantasize about a kingdom no made with human hands being built for us by the forgiver himself.
Appl: Have you become so busy, so distracted that you over look the secret treasure of his kingdom?
Does the pursuit of this world over shadow your pursuit of the invisible kingdom?
Has it been a long time since you were passionate about the discoveries you were making concerning the kingdom.
III. WE BECOME BORED WHEN WE FAIL TO PURSUE THE HIDDEN TREASURE.
Ill: How many have seen the movie, National Treasure?
Nicolas Cage stars as Ben Franklin Gates, an archaeologist and adventurer looking for the legendary lost treasure of the Templar Knights, spurred on by the stories he was told as a young man by his grandfather, John Adams Gates, twenty years before. John tells Ben the secret hiding place for the treasure is encoded on the back of the Declaration of Independence, placed there by none other than the founders of the United States of America, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.
When Ben learns Ian Howe, a rich British adventurer ’s intentions for the treasure are less than the best, Ben comes into contact with Dr. Abigail Chase who becomes a partner in this crazy scheme, as they try to outwit Howe, as well as a team of FBI Special Agents, charged with getting the Declaration back.
Nicolas Cage is great illustration what in means to pursue a hidden treasure.
When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
A. It’s a Life Altering
When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
Ill: One August night, my children dragged me to the backyard to watch a meteor shower. I reluctantly joined them thinking, I have so many details to tend to before we leave on vacation. I don’t have time for idleness. Suddenly, golden fire balls streaked across the blackness. "God made this," I whispered. It was a rare moment. Not because of the sight, but because I stepped beyond my familiar world into one of wonder and discovered the Creator in the midst. Could it be God filled the world with such beauty to lift people like me away from our obsession with details--to touch our lives with a magnificent awareness of himself?
(Sue Monk Kidd, Today’s Christian Woman, "Heart to Heart.)
Pursuing the treasure fills us. It changes us. It gives us purpose, direction excitement, joy. The pursuit is life changing. It’s hard to imagine Nicolas Cage saying to Abigail in the movie, "I’m Bored."
B. Priority Altering
When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
The New York Times reported:
His obsession began innocently enough, with the puppies and broken-winged birds many little boys beg to bring home. Over the years, Antoine Yates’ taste in animals grew ever more exotic, neighbors said, and his collection came to include reptiles, a monkey or two, and a hyena.
Yates’ most exotic pet--a tiger he named Ming--grew to more than 400 pounds. Even after it had to be removed from his Harlem housing project this is what Yates said about it.
"I never feared him at all. He was like my brother. He was my best friend. He’s my only friend, really."
When we understand that we are truly pursuing the great treasure, the most valuable discovery, most incredible find, they our priorities are realigned. The man in just stories sells everything to obtain it.
Notice he does sacrifice everything. No he sells something he now sees as less valuable for some more valuable.
Many followers of the Forgiver feel like going to church is a sacrifice. Sacrifice their free time, their family time, their independence. It like there are trading something of great worth to endure church involvement, to endure bible study, to endure prayer. There relationship is based on the false idea that they are sacrificing the treasures for this world for a second rate option.
Jesus sees a man who when he discovers the treasure sells everything to possess it. What was truly valuable has changed.
Appl: in your life do you view church involvement as a sacrifice, a duty, an obligation? Is that how you view spiritual disciplines like prayer, devotion, study? Are they hassles that must be assumed?
Or have you discovered this truth. The Kingdom is real. Nothing is greater. Nothing is more valuable. It is worth obsessing over and pursing at any cost?
SUMMARY
Jesus said that the invisible world of the sacred God was like a treasure hidden in a field. Worth searching for and discovering and once we get hints of its reality pursuing it was of the highest value.
APPLICATION
Be honest with yourself. Do you find that you are more and more bored with your relationship with the forgiver? Do you find that more and more you are distracted by this world’s issues? Has it been a long time since your imagination has run wild with the wonder of the idea of Heaven, the Forgiver, the call?
CHALLENGE
Then this Lenten season make a decision to search the hidden fields for the treasure that lays buried there. To plumb the depth of the mystery of God’s love.
