Signs
Sermon
Sermons on the Gospel Readings
Series II, Cycle B
In 2002, there was a popular Mel Gibson movie called Signs. The advertising for it showed crop circles, a real-life phenomenon that started appearing in wheat fields in southern England thirty years ago and has occurred in several other countries over the last decade, with many of them increasing in complexity. When these circles first started appearing, some people believed they were created by aliens and contained mysterious messages. But then, in 1991, two English farmers confessed that they had created at least the first several of these and even demonstrated how they did it.1 Ever since then, most mainstream thinkers have concluded that the rest of the crop circles were simply created by other pranksters who copied the idea.
But, there have always been disbelievers of the hoax story, with some clinging to the alien theory and others proposing explanations ranging from secret military experimentation to something called a "plasma vortex."2 (If you want to get into some strange reading, go to an Internet search engine, and type in "crop circles.") Exactly why people don't want to accept the rational explanation that these circles are the work of tricksters isn't that hard to fathom. This is a complex world, and some would like to believe there are higher intelligences out there that can make sense of all of it for us.
In any case, the makers of the movie used this fascination with crop circles as a platform for a story that, in the end, was about this question: Is there someone in charge of things or are we alone in this world to figure things out for ourselves? When you view the movie, you begin by thinking the title "Signs" refers to these circles that appear in the field of a Pennsylvania farmer named Graham Hess, the character played by Gibson. But, you as you watch the movie, you discover that the title refers to something else altogether, something more vital to real life and not merely to the plot of a spooky science fiction story.3
In the biblical world, people were big believers in signs, which was their word for "convincing evidence." In Genesis, for example, after the great flood ends, and of humans, only Noah's family remains, God comes to Noah and promises a fresh covenant between himself and all of Noah's descendents. God says that never again will the whole earth be destroyed by a flood. And what will be the evidence of this covenant and promise? It will be the rainbow. God says:
When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.
-- Genesis 9:16
Thus, Noah's family and his descendents could be reminded of God's promise every time a rainbow appeared.
By the time we get to the New Testament, however, people wanted more, especially when it came to the claims of Jesus. In our Gospel Reading, it is the disciples themselves who ask about signs, wanting to know what clear indicators will precede the destruction of the temple. Rather than name such signs, however, Jesus warns them not to be fooled by troubles that arise, including wars, earthquakes, and famines.
The disciples didn't get the answer they sought, but we can understand why they asked, can't we? Haven't we had to make tough decisions where we really weren't sure which choice was right? And haven't we thought, "If only God would give me a sign"? That's what these disciples of Jesus' were saying: "Remove the ambiguity and the doubt. Just give us convincing evidence of what is going to happen when."
We can also understand these disciples' wish for unambiguous indicators. In our experience, when something happens that actually seems to be a sign, it often lends itself to more than one interpretation. There was a story I heard about a man named Benny who had tried several business ventures, but each one had flopped, and he had always lost money on them. The day came when Benny had an idea for yet another business, but his wife was skeptical that it would do any better than his previous endeavors. She suggested that he ask God for a sign as to what he should do, so Benny did. The next morning, after buttering a piece of bread for breakfast, the bread slipped out of Benny's hand and fell on the floor, but it fell butter side up. Benny immediately cried out that this was an answer to his prayer, the good omen for which he'd been looking. His wife, however, wasn't so sure, and she urged her husband to talk to their rabbi about the sign. Benny did, and the rabbi, after thinking about Benny's dismal track record as a businessman, issued his conclusion: "Benny," he said, "your bread was buttered on the wrong side."
There's also the old story of a farmer who had been asking God for a sign to tell him what he should be doing with his life. One morning he looked up in the sky and saw clouds forming perfect letters "PC." "Preach Christ!" he exclaimed. "That's what God wants me to do." And he was all set to sell the farm and go into the ministry until one of his neighbors pointed out that the letters "PC" could just as well mean "Plant corn."4
Now here's where it gets really hard. On an occasion where some scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign, his answer only deepened the problem (See Matthew 12:38-42). He said, "An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."
Well, what does that mean? Jesus' further comment isn't much comfort: "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth." This was metaphorical way of saying that just as Jonah spent three days in the belly of the great fish, so Jesus would stay three days in the tomb, the period between his crucifixion and his re-emergence to life. Jesus was saying that his death and resurrection would be the sign for all in that day, and there's a real irony that grows out of this. When, in fact, Jesus did arise from the grave, instead of accepting that as a sign, some tried to hide it. After the soldiers who'd been standing guard at Jesus' tomb reported to the chief priests that Jesus was no longer there, the priests paid the guards to lie and say that someone stole his body. So even when a sign was given, some people chose not to act on it. (See Matthew 28:11-15.)
To return to the movie for moment, there are two major crises in the story. One is the science fiction part of the plot, but the other involves the character played by Gibson and is something that has happened to a lot of folks. The character has two careers; he is a farmer and an Episcopal priest. Some hard things have occurred, including the tragic death of his wife, and he has lost his faith. What happens after that is why this is not just another alien invasion movie. Some things occur that he finally understands as signs. Some would interpret them as coincidences, but of course that's the difference between faith and no faith.
We, too, have things that could be either signs or coincidences. Some of them are events in our own lives and some are from the biblical record. We are not likely to hear a voice from heaven telling us whether they are signs of God or meaningless coincidences, and even if we did, some among us would dismiss it as thunder. When John wrote his Gospel, he selected seven events from the life of Jesus that he took to be signs, and offered them to his readers as evidence that Jesus really was the Savior of the world. The seven include turning water into wine, healing the nobleman's son, curing the paralytic, feeding the 5,000, walking on water, giving sight to the man born blind, and raising Lazarus from the dead. Yet after all of these, John says of the crowds that, "Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him" (John 12:37).
In the end, that's why Christianity is called "faith." Faith does not mean mindless acceptance of unsupported ideas, but neither does it mean belief because there is no other choice. The writer of the book of Hebrews said it exactly right: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Or as the older KJV has the last phrase, "the evidence of things not seen."
In a moment, we are going to sing the hymn, "This Is My Father's World." It's really all about signs, though it never uses that word. It talks about listening to and viewing the world with faith. To the ears of faith, the noises of nature are the sound of praise to God. To the eyes of faith, the rocks and trees, the skies and seas are evidence of his creative work. "In the rustling grass," says the hymn writer, "I hear [God] pass." Some will hear only wind, but in faith, we hear God.
And here's where signs become critically important: It's when our life is not going well, when things are a mess, when hopelessness invades us. Jesus said we have the sign of Jonah, an allusion to his own resurrection. For us, resurrection is the rebirth of possibilities, the hope arising out of hopelessness, the new life after a crushing blow.
There is a certain irony in this matter of signs and faith. In both testaments, God is seldom revealed without accompanying wonders or miracles. Jesus' time on earth was heavy with such signs. Yet, with few exceptions, almost everyone who turns to God and commits himself or herself to follow him does so not as a result of signs. And despite the abundance of signs, Jesus tells the scribes and Pharisees that no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah. Perhaps what he means is that the only sign that will be convincing is the one that brings a rebirth to the heart.
Recently, I read an interview with Lisa Beamer, the widow of Todd Beamer, who died with the passengers and crew of United Flight 93 on 9/11 when they rushed the hijackers who'd taken over the flight. Todd's the one whose "Let's roll" call became an early rallying cry in the war on terrorism. Lisa, who has two small children and was pregnant with a third on that terrible day, is a committed Christian. In the interview, she talks about the days right after 9/11. She says that in the first week, she couldn't sleep more than an hour or so at a time. Here's what she says about those wakeful nights:
Thoughts rushed through my mind: How am I going to do this? What about our baby? I'd look out at the night sky from my bedroom windows. With no air traffic that first week, it was rather eerie. But as I looked up at the stars, a deep calm came over me. That enormous, star-filled sky helped me focus on the bigger picture: My own little world was a mess, but God was still who he is, and I needed to look beyond my own devastation. That calm enabled me to get through Todd's memorial service that Saturday, to visit the crash site in Shanks-ville on Monday, to head to New York for all those live interviews, and then to fly to Washington, D.C., on Thursday to attend the president's address.5
In her words, Lisa illustrates, I think, the sign of Jonah. The vast star-filled sky was a sign displaying God's creative glory, but it reminded her of the power of resurrection and gave her what she needed to get through those days.
Further on in the interview, she illustrates this even more. She tells that her father died suddenly when she was fifteen, and though she was angry at God about that, she began studying the Psalms and the book of Job. As she did that, she says: "I realized there's a difference between a God who abandons you and one who promises he'll never leave or forsake you -- a God who promises good things will come out of even bad situations if you trust him."
You see, most people don't arrive at conclusions like that because they've seen a sign, but because they've experienced resurrection.
You might want to rent the movie, Signs. To tell the truth, I'm not a great fan of science fiction, and I'm not a believer in aliens. If you're like me in that respect, there will be parts of the movie you won't be ready to swallow. But it will make you think about this matter of signs and about the answer to that question I mentioned earlier: Is there someone in charge of things or are we alone in this world to figure things out for ourselves?
But of course, you don't need to see the movie at all to make your decision about that. Look at things with your heart, your mind, and your emotions open. Those who end up committing themselves to God through Jesus Christ usually don't do so because of an absolutely convincing sign, but because in their hearts or in their minds or in their experiences, they hear God's invitation and then discover that trust in God and in Jesus Christ is never misplaced.
____________
1.ÊSee Daniel Pinchbeck, "Wheat Graffiti," Wired, August 2002, p. 115.
2.ÊSee, for examples, Brian Hussey, "Theories on the Formation of Crop Circles".
3.ÊMore about the movie may be found at
4.ÊThis illustration from The Immediate Word, September 15, 2002.
5.ÊJane Johnson Struck, "Looking Up," Today's Christian Woman, September-October 2002, p. 46.
But, there have always been disbelievers of the hoax story, with some clinging to the alien theory and others proposing explanations ranging from secret military experimentation to something called a "plasma vortex."2 (If you want to get into some strange reading, go to an Internet search engine, and type in "crop circles.") Exactly why people don't want to accept the rational explanation that these circles are the work of tricksters isn't that hard to fathom. This is a complex world, and some would like to believe there are higher intelligences out there that can make sense of all of it for us.
In any case, the makers of the movie used this fascination with crop circles as a platform for a story that, in the end, was about this question: Is there someone in charge of things or are we alone in this world to figure things out for ourselves? When you view the movie, you begin by thinking the title "Signs" refers to these circles that appear in the field of a Pennsylvania farmer named Graham Hess, the character played by Gibson. But, you as you watch the movie, you discover that the title refers to something else altogether, something more vital to real life and not merely to the plot of a spooky science fiction story.3
In the biblical world, people were big believers in signs, which was their word for "convincing evidence." In Genesis, for example, after the great flood ends, and of humans, only Noah's family remains, God comes to Noah and promises a fresh covenant between himself and all of Noah's descendents. God says that never again will the whole earth be destroyed by a flood. And what will be the evidence of this covenant and promise? It will be the rainbow. God says:
When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.
-- Genesis 9:16
Thus, Noah's family and his descendents could be reminded of God's promise every time a rainbow appeared.
By the time we get to the New Testament, however, people wanted more, especially when it came to the claims of Jesus. In our Gospel Reading, it is the disciples themselves who ask about signs, wanting to know what clear indicators will precede the destruction of the temple. Rather than name such signs, however, Jesus warns them not to be fooled by troubles that arise, including wars, earthquakes, and famines.
The disciples didn't get the answer they sought, but we can understand why they asked, can't we? Haven't we had to make tough decisions where we really weren't sure which choice was right? And haven't we thought, "If only God would give me a sign"? That's what these disciples of Jesus' were saying: "Remove the ambiguity and the doubt. Just give us convincing evidence of what is going to happen when."
We can also understand these disciples' wish for unambiguous indicators. In our experience, when something happens that actually seems to be a sign, it often lends itself to more than one interpretation. There was a story I heard about a man named Benny who had tried several business ventures, but each one had flopped, and he had always lost money on them. The day came when Benny had an idea for yet another business, but his wife was skeptical that it would do any better than his previous endeavors. She suggested that he ask God for a sign as to what he should do, so Benny did. The next morning, after buttering a piece of bread for breakfast, the bread slipped out of Benny's hand and fell on the floor, but it fell butter side up. Benny immediately cried out that this was an answer to his prayer, the good omen for which he'd been looking. His wife, however, wasn't so sure, and she urged her husband to talk to their rabbi about the sign. Benny did, and the rabbi, after thinking about Benny's dismal track record as a businessman, issued his conclusion: "Benny," he said, "your bread was buttered on the wrong side."
There's also the old story of a farmer who had been asking God for a sign to tell him what he should be doing with his life. One morning he looked up in the sky and saw clouds forming perfect letters "PC." "Preach Christ!" he exclaimed. "That's what God wants me to do." And he was all set to sell the farm and go into the ministry until one of his neighbors pointed out that the letters "PC" could just as well mean "Plant corn."4
Now here's where it gets really hard. On an occasion where some scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign, his answer only deepened the problem (See Matthew 12:38-42). He said, "An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."
Well, what does that mean? Jesus' further comment isn't much comfort: "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth." This was metaphorical way of saying that just as Jonah spent three days in the belly of the great fish, so Jesus would stay three days in the tomb, the period between his crucifixion and his re-emergence to life. Jesus was saying that his death and resurrection would be the sign for all in that day, and there's a real irony that grows out of this. When, in fact, Jesus did arise from the grave, instead of accepting that as a sign, some tried to hide it. After the soldiers who'd been standing guard at Jesus' tomb reported to the chief priests that Jesus was no longer there, the priests paid the guards to lie and say that someone stole his body. So even when a sign was given, some people chose not to act on it. (See Matthew 28:11-15.)
To return to the movie for moment, there are two major crises in the story. One is the science fiction part of the plot, but the other involves the character played by Gibson and is something that has happened to a lot of folks. The character has two careers; he is a farmer and an Episcopal priest. Some hard things have occurred, including the tragic death of his wife, and he has lost his faith. What happens after that is why this is not just another alien invasion movie. Some things occur that he finally understands as signs. Some would interpret them as coincidences, but of course that's the difference between faith and no faith.
We, too, have things that could be either signs or coincidences. Some of them are events in our own lives and some are from the biblical record. We are not likely to hear a voice from heaven telling us whether they are signs of God or meaningless coincidences, and even if we did, some among us would dismiss it as thunder. When John wrote his Gospel, he selected seven events from the life of Jesus that he took to be signs, and offered them to his readers as evidence that Jesus really was the Savior of the world. The seven include turning water into wine, healing the nobleman's son, curing the paralytic, feeding the 5,000, walking on water, giving sight to the man born blind, and raising Lazarus from the dead. Yet after all of these, John says of the crowds that, "Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him" (John 12:37).
In the end, that's why Christianity is called "faith." Faith does not mean mindless acceptance of unsupported ideas, but neither does it mean belief because there is no other choice. The writer of the book of Hebrews said it exactly right: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Or as the older KJV has the last phrase, "the evidence of things not seen."
In a moment, we are going to sing the hymn, "This Is My Father's World." It's really all about signs, though it never uses that word. It talks about listening to and viewing the world with faith. To the ears of faith, the noises of nature are the sound of praise to God. To the eyes of faith, the rocks and trees, the skies and seas are evidence of his creative work. "In the rustling grass," says the hymn writer, "I hear [God] pass." Some will hear only wind, but in faith, we hear God.
And here's where signs become critically important: It's when our life is not going well, when things are a mess, when hopelessness invades us. Jesus said we have the sign of Jonah, an allusion to his own resurrection. For us, resurrection is the rebirth of possibilities, the hope arising out of hopelessness, the new life after a crushing blow.
There is a certain irony in this matter of signs and faith. In both testaments, God is seldom revealed without accompanying wonders or miracles. Jesus' time on earth was heavy with such signs. Yet, with few exceptions, almost everyone who turns to God and commits himself or herself to follow him does so not as a result of signs. And despite the abundance of signs, Jesus tells the scribes and Pharisees that no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah. Perhaps what he means is that the only sign that will be convincing is the one that brings a rebirth to the heart.
Recently, I read an interview with Lisa Beamer, the widow of Todd Beamer, who died with the passengers and crew of United Flight 93 on 9/11 when they rushed the hijackers who'd taken over the flight. Todd's the one whose "Let's roll" call became an early rallying cry in the war on terrorism. Lisa, who has two small children and was pregnant with a third on that terrible day, is a committed Christian. In the interview, she talks about the days right after 9/11. She says that in the first week, she couldn't sleep more than an hour or so at a time. Here's what she says about those wakeful nights:
Thoughts rushed through my mind: How am I going to do this? What about our baby? I'd look out at the night sky from my bedroom windows. With no air traffic that first week, it was rather eerie. But as I looked up at the stars, a deep calm came over me. That enormous, star-filled sky helped me focus on the bigger picture: My own little world was a mess, but God was still who he is, and I needed to look beyond my own devastation. That calm enabled me to get through Todd's memorial service that Saturday, to visit the crash site in Shanks-ville on Monday, to head to New York for all those live interviews, and then to fly to Washington, D.C., on Thursday to attend the president's address.5
In her words, Lisa illustrates, I think, the sign of Jonah. The vast star-filled sky was a sign displaying God's creative glory, but it reminded her of the power of resurrection and gave her what she needed to get through those days.
Further on in the interview, she illustrates this even more. She tells that her father died suddenly when she was fifteen, and though she was angry at God about that, she began studying the Psalms and the book of Job. As she did that, she says: "I realized there's a difference between a God who abandons you and one who promises he'll never leave or forsake you -- a God who promises good things will come out of even bad situations if you trust him."
You see, most people don't arrive at conclusions like that because they've seen a sign, but because they've experienced resurrection.
You might want to rent the movie, Signs. To tell the truth, I'm not a great fan of science fiction, and I'm not a believer in aliens. If you're like me in that respect, there will be parts of the movie you won't be ready to swallow. But it will make you think about this matter of signs and about the answer to that question I mentioned earlier: Is there someone in charge of things or are we alone in this world to figure things out for ourselves?
But of course, you don't need to see the movie at all to make your decision about that. Look at things with your heart, your mind, and your emotions open. Those who end up committing themselves to God through Jesus Christ usually don't do so because of an absolutely convincing sign, but because in their hearts or in their minds or in their experiences, they hear God's invitation and then discover that trust in God and in Jesus Christ is never misplaced.
____________
1.ÊSee Daniel Pinchbeck, "Wheat Graffiti," Wired, August 2002, p. 115.
2.ÊSee, for examples, Brian Hussey, "Theories on the Formation of Crop Circles"
3.ÊMore about the movie may be found at
4.ÊThis illustration from The Immediate Word, September 15, 2002
5.ÊJane Johnson Struck, "Looking Up," Today's Christian Woman, September-October 2002, p. 46.
