Sunday April 10 2016

So I sat in this training this past week and listened to trainers teach how to engage your audience, how to re engage them every certain amount of time and how to tell your own story and make it good. Well, we were broken up into groups and in hose groups we were told to share our story with small groups to prepare to share it in larger groups after the training. The trainers said, don't use humor because not everyone likes humor and you won't connect to those people, then they said u need to connect with people. My comment was no, people need to connect to you, the real you when you are speaking. Not some stuff, professional speaker. So after I shared mine with the group everyone had a turn and they apparently liked it so much they told the trainers how good it was. Eventually I ended up sharing with the whole large group and guess what, it was chocked full of humor. That's me, the real me is sarcastic and most of the time funny(many times at your expense) Here is the problem, we have thru the years connected to a Jesus who is perfect and stuff and boring. But, God invented humor and He invented sarcasm and when used correctly they both add to any situation. It might come as a surprise that Jesus was very sarcastic, but he was. First, let us look at what sarcasm is: 1. harsh or bitter derision or irony. 2. a sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark The origin of the word gives us a better understanding – it comes from the Greek “sarkasmos” and that comes from another word which means “to tear flesh, bite the lip in rage”. Sometimes sarcasm can be used to make a joke (but be careful of your audience). Sometimes it can be used to make a strong and biting point. This is how Jesus uses it more often than not. So, was Jesus harsh, bitter, sharp, sneering, cutting, and ironic? Yes. But, first I will give you my favorite Old Testament usage of sarcasm (there are a lot) – it comes out of 1 Kings 18. Here the prophet Elijah puts the priests of Baal that they should accept a challenge from him to see which God is best – Baal or Yahweh. So, they have a challenge to see which God would show up to burn up the sacrifice made by Elijah vs the priests of Baal. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” What you don’t see in the majority of most English translations is how much Elijah was really taunting them. Here is a better translation: “About noontime, Elijah began mocking them. ‘You’ll have to shout louder than that,’ he scoffed, ‘to catch the attention of your god! Perhaps he is talking to someone, or is out sitting on the toilet, or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened.’” Baal might be asleep? Might be on the toilet? HA HA! I love it!!! Mocking is tough isn't it. PJ took the time to teach Brae sounds. Animal sounds were first, what does the cow say Moooo, what does the dog say bark bark!, what does the cat say? Meow! what does the horse say? Nay Nay! What does momma say? Nag nag nag nag nag. that's mocking 101, as a father I have never been prouder of PJ or Brae than when I first heard this lol. That is all in good fun, but when arguing with a teenager a good mocking really hurts doesn't it. It cuts to the core. God used sarcasm through out scripture to make the point. Let's go to the scripture in Luke now. But sarcasm can be used in a way that gets people to see something that they may not have seen before, and I think that is a good use of sarcasm. Luke 7:37-50 Jesus must have believed that, because He used it from time to time. My favorite example of Jesus's sarcasm is in Luke 7 when Jesus is at the home of Simon the Pharisee. You know the story.........Simon is offended because Jesus is letting this woman who is a "sinner" kiss His feet, and then wash his feet with both tears and perfume. Simon never said anything to Jesus about it, but Jesus knew what was going on in Simon's mind. Jesus then told him the parable about two men having debts to a moneylender, one great and one small, and having those debts cancelled. He asked the simple but deep question: "Now which of them loved him more?" Simon answered correctly, and somewhat sheepishly: "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled." Jesus told him he was correct. Then Jesus pointed out to Simon how the woman has smothered him with love from the second she had been with him, and how Simon had done NOTHING. He concluded his remarks about her by saying "Her many sins have been forgiven.....for she loved much". If the story had ended there, it would have been a great story.........right? Ah, but it doesn't, and it gets even better. Jesus puts on his sarcasm hat, and really zings Simon. Jesus says: "But he who has been forgiven little loves little". Have you ever been forgiven "LITTLE"? Do you have any LITTLE struggles? Forgiveness is ALWAYS big, and never "LITTLE"! That is the only way God knows how to do it, because He loves us so so much. Jesus, God in the flesh, only forgave big when He was on the earth. It's impossible to be forgiven little! The Pharisees were arrogant folks, and Simon was one of them. In his mind, he had no need for God's forgiveness.........or if he did, it was very "LITTLE". Jesus knew Simon felt that way about himself. Because of Simon's arrogance and self-righteousness, he didn't have the ability to love anybody...........not even Jesus. Oh he probably loved one person, himself. But he knew in his heart of hearts how sinful he was, and that he had been forgiven BIG.......even if outwardly he acted like he had "little" to be forgiven of. It had to zing him. It has to zing us. Do you want to be able to love? Then you better acknowledge how much YOU have been loved and forgiven! I don't know that I can prove it, but I believe with all my heart the same principle applies to grace. If you are not a grace giving person, you probably have never acknowledged how in need of grace you are........and how God smothered you with His grace. Kids don’t necessarily understand love and what it means in it’s totality. I love that Jesus compares love and forgiveness. Those of us who have kids have probably had a situation where a kid tried to add to love. Things like Iove you soooo much, I love you more than words can say are things adults say to people they are in love with. But, what about kids. I love you lots a much is what PJ used to say when she was really little. I used to say I love you to Brae and she would say I love you too. Now she responds with I love you three. Laurie and her kids say I love you big much. WE all know those things, but in reality saying I love you says it all, just like saying I forgive you. That is huge and it says all that needs to be said. I wonder how sarcasm affected Simon? I wonder how it sits with you and me? In closing, let me ask you something. See, that is who Simon was with.......another believer......and he wasn't loving her very well. Is withholding fellowship an expression of love and grace? Of course it isn't. We for sure at times have been like Simon, and been guilty of loving "little". Why? Maybe because we had the heart of Simon..............a heart of self-righteousness and arrogance. God help us to not need His sarcasm to realize that. Like most everyone in this room I tended to put my foot in my mouth at times when I was younger. I got a good handle on it and considered myself a strong communicator and then came email. I am a very, very sarcastic person and You need to see my facial expressions and hear my tone to catch it. Emails I think allow for those two important ingredients of sarcasm. Then, comes texting yeah we have all sent that text to someone and infuriated them because there again is no tone and no facial expression involved. Here is my problem with our study of the Bible. We have dried up all humor and any sarcasm from Jesus or the leaders in the Bible. Why did we do that? Why do we even want to imagine a person with no humor and no personality. I do a thing called dating bingo with kids when I am speaking on campuses. Each student is given a bingo like sheet and told to choose their 5 favorite attributes when looking for someone to date and EVERY time three come out on top. Good looking, honest and funny but do u know which one always wins? funny, it gets the most votes, then why on earth do we want to worship a God and a Savior with no humor? A vanilla Jesus with no personality at all. It just doesn't make sense.