“The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. Anyone who is among the living has hope - even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!” – Ecclesiastes 9:3-4These words remind me of a thought I had this past week while preparing my sermon. I was thinking about how we apply our understanding of God when he is correcting or disciplining us. If we think that God is just a mean puppet master who messes with us for His own sport, we probably won’t respond appropriately. But if we think of God as the righteous, worthy, God of love that He is, we’ll see that His correction is not for sport, but for restoration.
However... regardless of what we believe or think, it does not change truth.
Scripture tells us that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. This is because one day God will reveal himself in a way that no one will be able to deny it. Whether we thought of Him as Lord or not, it won’t change the reality that He is.
As Solomon wrote, “The same destiny overtakes all”… whether we want to believe it or not… “Anyone who is among the living has hope” and as He said, “even a live dog is better off than a dead lion.”
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Ecclesiastes 9 – The Carny
ReplyDeleteV2-4 All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good man, so with the sinner; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them. This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!
I think about how we sell Christianity sometimes. We sell it almost like a product with feature benefits; “If you will just say these words then you will go to heaven after you die, you don’t want to go to hell do you? Step right up, who is next in line to join the club?” You can almost see Bill Mays, the television commercial and infomercial salesperson most notable for promoting OxiClean, Orange Glo, and other cleaning, home-based, and maintenance products. Billy Mays has a recipe for pitching every product he sells. It is a three-step process that harks back to the carny tradition: "bally the tip," "nod them in," and "chill 'em down."
The hardest part of making a sale is stopping people, whether they're wandering by a booth or flipping channels. In carny lingo, "ballying the tip" means drawing a crowd - and once one begins to gather, it feeds on itself. For Billy his volume, energy, hand gestures, and faux authority ("Hi, Billy Mays here for...") are all tactics to bally the tip. To keep the crowd you use humor and make the presentation interactive.
The next step is convincing potential customers that buying your product is totally reasonable. "Wouldn't you like to eat more fresh vegetables?" Yes, of course you would. A good pitchman will literally nod in answer to his own question to get the crowd nodding along. "If there were a device that made it easy, was a snap to clean, and I could sell it to you for less than half what it cost in stores, wouldn't you want to buy it?" Yes, yes, and yes!
But the trickiest part of any sale is being able to transform good will into cold, hard cash - the chill-down. Rather than politely ask if anyone would like to buy something, the pitchman often starts the process for potential buyers by counting it off. "Who are going to be my first ten customers? You, sir, you're No. 1!"
Now I do not think there is anything wrong with people understanding the promise Christ gives us to live with Him forever. But, I think so often we neglect the Kingdom on earth. There is a peace in life here, there is joy, there is fellowship, and there is a existence now. But that is harder to explain. Who really wants to give up stuff for peace? Not only that, but who wants a religion where you are promised troubles? Who wants a faith where the more you begin to believe, the more you are tested, both by Satan who tries to drag you down and by your own dependence upon God? Who really wants to get messed up with the trials of others, their emotions their needs and their problems?
The Kingdom on earth is a tough sell, while the Kingdom in heaven fits right into the Carny’s recipe. “Hi, Alex here for the Amazing Afterlife. You wouldn’t want to die and burn forever would you? Of course not! Well I am here today to tell you the two small things you have to say to make sure you do not spend eternity in hell. Such a small price for such great benefits. Step right up, who is first in line – you sir?”
Love God first and foremost then love your neighbor as yourself. These are not things you can say, or even things you can do. These are changes that occur as you transform. And that transformation you cannot do, only the Spirit can effect that transformation. The Spirit begins to unlock the door to the Kingdom on earth. Hard to sell, lovely to experience. Not the Carny pitch, but the reality of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The longer I am a parent the more I see God as a parent too. I know my kids are going to mess up. I know there will be bad days. I know mistakes are going to be made. The way I respond will tell my kids how much I love them. I think God is the same way. He knows we are going to mess up. He knows there will be mistakes made. Anytime you give someone the choice to do this or that, they will not choose the right way 100% of the time. BUT, God does not give up on us just like I won't give up on my children. He is there to love on us when our actions take a turn for the worse and bring life's storms.
ReplyDeleteAlex Shootman, you should really credit your sources when you lift entire paragraphs. Your discussion of pitch techniques is verbatim from a Brian O'Keefe article in Fortune: http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/03/magazines/fortune/okeefe_infomercial.fortune/index.htm
ReplyDeleteA little credit would have been appropriate.