Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 10/20/2013
If you haven’t been with us the last few weeks, let me catch you up. Our church is building a float for the Halloween parade this Saturday and the theme for the parade is “Superhero Celebration,” which I’m using as an excuse to preach a sermon-series about superheroes—using comic-book characters as modern-day parables and drawing spiritual lessons from their stories.
Last week, we saw how Batman along with his many crime-fighting companions illustrates the benefits of belonging to a church family. On the other hand, families don’t always get along. That’s where the Fantastic Four come in. The Fantastic Four, also known as the First Family of Marvel Comics, has a rich and interesting origin.
Stan Lee started working for Marvel Comics back in 1939 and eventually worked his way up the ladder to become the editor-in-chief. For decades, however, Marvel’s only headliner was Captain America and the company was struggling to compete with DC Comic’s much more popular characters—Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc. Stan was about to call it quits when his wife urged him to create a new team of characters that were interesting to him—characters that he could relate to. Prior to this, most superheroes were idealistically perfect people with no serious, lasting problems, who always got along with each other. So in 1961, acting on his wife’s advice, Stan Lee created a team of superheroes that were flawed, imperfect, and even argumentative.
Their story began with the inaugural test flight of a space shuttle designed by Reed Richards—one of the world’s foremost scientific minds. During the mission, the ship was bombarded with cosmic rays and forced to crash-land back on earth, where Reed, his then girlfriend Sue Storm, her brother Johnny Storm, and test pilot Ben Grimm emerged from the wreckage to discover they had been miraculously endowed with fantastic abilities. Reed Richards became Mr. Fantastic—Ben Grimm, the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing—Sue Storm became the Invisible Girl—and Johnny Storm, the Human Torch. Together they formed the Fantastic Four!
Our family first costumed as the Fantastic Four in March of 2012 at a small comic-book convention held in Metropolis, called Super-Con. In an attempt to build on the success of their Annual Superman Celebration, the town of less than 6,000 became host to a smaller convention aimed at celebrating superheroes of all-sorts rather than focusing exclusively on Superman. Since the organizers were trying to establish it as a family-friendly event, we thought there would be no better heroes to portray than Marvel’s First Family. I went as Mr. Fantastic. Ashley, the Invisible Woman. Our son made the perfect Human Torch, complete with styrofoam and fabric fireballs. Our older daughter—thanks to some muscle padding and a foam mask—became The Thing. And out littlest girl was the Invisible Girl—a younger, tinier version of the Invisible Woman. Our costumes were modeled after the artwork of John Byrne, a writer and artist who breathed new life into the characters in the 80s. We took a little teasing for being the Fantastic Five instead of the Fantastic Four, but thanks to the cuteness of our kids our costumes were a hit and we were awarded first place in a costume contest that we didn’t even enter!
Back in 1961, Stan Lee’s Fantastic Four experienced even greater popularity than we did, which spurred Stan to create a veritable parade of new heroes such as Iron-Man, Thor, Hulk, the X-Men, and the ever-popular Spider-Man! This resurgence of creativity and popularity became known as the Marvel Age of Comics, and Marvel Comics has consistently out-sold DC Comics ever since.
It’s undoubtedly the dynamic between the Fantastic Four that has made them such a fan-favorite. They’re a family. They love one another to death… and it just might come to that! In fact, there is a scene from Marvel’s 2005 movie that illustrates their difficulties getting along when the hot-headed Johnny Storm goes public with their powers without the rest of the team’s consent:
• Play Video Clip: Fantastic Four Argument Scene
Like I said in the beginning, if the Bat-Family illustrates the benefits of belonging to a church family, the Fantastic Four illustrate the difficulties of belonging to a church family! Every church, just like every family, experiences conflict. Personalities clash. Feelings get hurt. Grudges are held. No church is perfect because every church is made of people. A pastor once told me, “You’ll never find a perfect, problem-free church. And if you do—stay away, because you’ll only mess it up!”
Jesus commanded his followers to love one another, but that’s a lot easier said than done. There’s an old rhyme that puts it this way:
What joy to love the saints above
When I get home to glory.
To love below, the saints I know,
Well, that’s another story!
People—including Christians—can be down-right unlovable at times. We can be selfish, stubborn, and short-sighted. But God knew that ahead of time, so he had the apostle Peter write to churches scattered across the vast Roman Empire through the inspiration of the Spirit with three suggestions for overcoming conflict.
• PLEASANT
First, Peter instructs us to be pleasant. Here’s what the Bible says, “And now this word to all of you: You should be like one big happy family, full of sympathy toward each other, loving one another with tender hearts and humble minds” (1 Peter 3:8 TLB).
What Peter is saying is that the best way to handle family fights is to prevent them altogether by having a pleasant disposition. Understanding each other, loving each other as a family, being kind and humble is the best preventative maintenance for any relationship. Some of us, like Ben Grimm, have our work cut out for us though.
Unlike the other members of the Fantastic Four who still look normal after being exposed to the cosmic radiation, Ben’s skin is transformed into a think, rocky, orange hide. In the comics, it was Ben who came up pseudonym, The Thing, in a moment of self-pity. Trapped in his monstrous form, Ben is a rock-solid yet unhappy member of the team and he evolves a personality to match his stony exterior. Ben is angry at world because of how people react to his appearance and he harbors a grudge against his best friend, Reed Richards, for causing the accident that resulted in his transformation. There have been countless times in comics, cartoons, and even the movies when Ben would lose his temper and Reed would have to wrap his elastic body tightly around him, restraining him from doing any damage.
While they might not be gravelly and orange on the outside, there are a lot of Ben Grimms occupying church pews all around the world. They’re reliable. Like a rock, they’ll be at church week in and week out. But they’re always grumpy about something. Cranky and cantankerous, their gruff exteriors often rub people the wrong way.
I’m reminded of a story about a small country church where the pastor called a special meeting of the congregation to approve the purchase of a brand new chandelier. After some discussion of the pros and cons, a particularly disagreeable member stood up and said, “Buying a new chandelier may seem like a good idea to you, but I’m against it for three reasons. First, it’s too expensive and we can’t afford one. Second, there isn’t anybody around here who knows how to play one. And third, what we really need in this church is a new light fixture!”
Maybe you’ve had a curmudgeonly disposition for as long as you can remember. But thanks to Jesus, you aren’t stuck with today’s personality. You are changeable. You’re tweakable. Even if you were born with a sour outlook; you don’t have to die with one. Jesus wasn’t grouchy; God doesn’t want you to be either. Jesus wasn’t angry at the world. He didn’t nurse a life-long grudge with the person on the other end of the pew; you don’t have to either. If you will let down your guard and allow God’s Spirit to work in you, he promises: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26 NIV).
Ever since the accident that changed Ben Grimm into The Thing, he’s been looking for a way to transform his stony skin back to tender flesh. That’s what God offers to do for each one of us—not just on the surface, but deep within. That’s why he can command us us to be tenderhearted, sympathize with each other, and love each other as brothers and sisters. In other words, be pleasant. That’s the first key in overcoming conflict in the church. Another key is patience.
• PATIENT
In order to overcome conflict in your church family, be patient. Peter, again, puts it this way: “Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will bless you for it” (1 Peter 3:9 NLT).
When someone hurts us, our first instinct is often to hurt them back, like when Ben crumpled Johnny’s new sports car into a compact, Johnny’s first instinct was to throw a fireball at his face. But retaliating in kind only escalates the situation and turns a molehill into a mountain.
While I was pastoring a small-town church in southern Illinois (Rosiclare), we had several young families join the church our first year there. Most of these young families hadn’t been actively involved in a church for a long time and so they were still getting use to the idea of being part of God’s family. One of these young moms, Betty, was having a birthday party for her daughter and invited some of the other kids from church. My wife happened to mention the party to Veronica, one of the other moms at church, only to discover that Veronica’s kids were not invited. Not normally a big deal to most people, but it was big deal to her. She felt insulted and hurt, so she retaliated. She called her friends, bad-mouthing the mom who didn’t invite her kids. She made sure everyone knew how she felt. Lines were drawn. And before long, despite my best pastoral efforts, both families dropped out of church.
When Christians fight amongst themselves, nobody wins. An old African proverb says, “When elephants fight, the grass always loses.” The average African elephant weighs 16,000 lbs. and when they throw their weight around there can be a lot of collateral damage. Building a loving church family is hard enough without over-sized egos throwing their weight around.
The best response to being hurt or insulted by another person is not payback, but patience. The Greek word for patience is an expressive one. It was often used to mean “taking a long time to boil.” Picture a pot of water on the stove. The water boils quickly when the flame is high. It takes a long time if the flame is low. Patience doesn’t ignore evil or insults; rather, patience simply keeps the flame low—an illustration that the Human Torch could relate well to.
When someone offends you or hurts your feelings, instead of lashing out in retaliation, be patient. Keep the flame low. Then calmly let them know how much they mean to you and how you feel. And in so doing, you’ll pay them back with a blessing. Chances are they never meant to hurt you anyway. But even if they did, God has called you to be a blessing to them and he will bless you in return.
The Bible says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18 NIV). That brings me to Peter’s final suggestion for dealing with disputes, which is being peaceable.
• PEACEABLE
In his closing comments about handling hot tempers and cold shoulders, Peter quotes from the psalms, saying, “If you want to enjoy life and see more happy days… Search for peace and work to maintain it” (1 Peter 3:10-11 NLT).
In the clip we watched earlier, when tempers started flaring Sue Storm wasn’t afraid to come between Ben and Johnny, using her force field powers to push them apart. That has often been Sue’s role on the team—peacemaker. She’s always encouraging her teammates to talk things out, settle their disputes, and make amends. I think we could all stand to be a little more like Sue Storm, because a peacemaker is more than just someone who stands between two people who are fighting and separates them. A peacemaker is someone who changes the whole climate of whatever situation he or she is in.
I think there are essentially two types of personalities. There are "thermostat" people and there are "thermometer" people. A thermometer reflects the climate of the room. If the room is cold, it's cold. But if the temperature gets hot, the thermometer gets hot too. A thermostat, on the other hand, can change the climate of the room. By adjusting its setting, a thermostat can change a cold room into one that is warm, or a hot room into one that is cool. A peacemaker is a thermostat person.
A peacemaker can change the climate of whatever room he or she is in. Have you ever seen that happen? Have you ever been in a room where everybody is negative and complaining, and everything is going wrong? Then a thermostat person enters the room with a cool head and a warm heart, and suddenly the whole climate changes.
Like Peter said, “If you want to enjoy life and see more happy days… Search for peace and work to maintain it” (1 Peter 3:10-11 NLT). God wants peacemakers in his church. God wants peacemakers in the workplace. God wants peacemakers out in the world; people who never dwell on the negative, but concentrate on the positive—people who seek peace and work to maintain it. It takes a lot of spiritual maturity to be that kind of person. But the more we allow God’s Spirit to work inside of us, the less hard-headed and hard-hearted we’ll be and the more pleasant, patient, and peaceable we’ll be.
Conclusion:
The Fantastic Four may have their skirmishes and squabbles, but they are one of the most enduring and adored teams in comic-book history. They’ve been around for over fifty years, they’re still together, still saving the world, and not even Doctor Doom could tear them apart!
The churches that Peter wrote to were a hodgepodge of believers from a variety of backgrounds, with different personalities, and sometimes conflicting opinions—but they found a way to love one another and work as a team. And, because they did, an empire was turned upside down and the world was changed!
Belonging to God’s family is a precious gift. We all need a family that will love us even when we’re unpleasant, forgive us when we lose our patience, and help us to live at peace with everyone. “The Fantastic Four is one such family. The church is another. Admittedly, the Fantastic Four have better uniforms and cooler gadgets than the church, but baptism is so much easier than exposure to comic radiation.”
Next Sunday we’ll study some other comic-book heroes and the spiritual lesson we can learn from them.
Invitation:
But, in the meantime, if you’re ready to become a part of God’s family or you’d like to know more about becoming a member of Blooming Grove—please talk with me as we stand and sing.
