Illustration results for complaining
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"Today I am a horse, Dear God, did you have to make my poor old horse lose his shoe just before the Sabbath? That wasn't nice. It's enough you pick on me, Tevye, bless me with 5 daughters, a life of poverty. What have You got against my horse? Sometimes I think when things are too quiet up there, You say to Yourself:"Let's see, what kind of mischief can I play on my friend, Tevye?" Tevye pulls his cart farther down the lane, silently, looking toward heaven and continues talking, "As the Good Book says, Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed. In other words, send us the cure, we?ve got the sickness already. I'm not really complaining---after all, with Your help, I'm starving to death. You made many, many poor people. I realize, of course, that it's no shame to be poor, but it's no great honor either. So what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?"
The apostles were a great example of the difficulties of loving one another, and Jesus knew it.
There’s a scene in the epic Franco Zefferelli movie, Jesus of Nazareth, in which Jesus arrives at the house of Matthew, the tax collector, for dinner as he told Matthew he would. Peter and the other disciples were trying to convince Jesus not to go, bringing up the arguments of that it wouldn’t look right for a rabbi to be in a sinner’s house, especially eating — sharing a meal.
Eating together was a very spiritual act; it went well beyond the notion of just nourishment. Think about our Eucharist — it is a remembrance of a meal of love offered by Jesus himself among his closest friends. Meals had deep emotional and spiritual connections among the participants.
So the other disciples did not want Jesus to mingle with the likes of Matthew, a tax collector who was banished from the temple and synagogues by the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders.
But Jesus didn’t care about appearances and besides, he came to save sinners, not the righteous.
So Peter decides not to go. He’s laying in the dark in his fishing boat by himself, feeling smug and proper for having not gone with Jesus to Matthew’s house. Then he gets the urge to follow after Jesus, and stands in the courtyard, his distaste for the celebration at Matthew’s house is clearly visible in the expression on his face.
There’s a huge party going on, and Jesus is sitting in the middle of the room. Someone calls out, “Teacher, tell us a story.”
So Jesus looks over at Matthew, his newest disciple, and over to Peter, who is now standing outside the doorway looking in. And Jesus starts telling the story of the Prodigal Son.
It the story of a young man who asks for his share of his father’s inheritance early, and go away and splurges all his money on debauchery. When he comes to his senses and returns home to his father, he is welcomed with open arms by the father, but his brother is offended by his father having anything to do with this son, much less throwing him such a lavish party.
But the father tells the complaining son that they had to celebrate, because his brother was lost but is now found, was dead but now lives.
As Jesus says those words, he’s staring directly at Peter. Tears fill Peter’s eyes and he comes into Matthew’s house to join the party.
Many say the movie; "The Passion of the Christ" is too violent. Yes, it is violent. But it also is historically very accurate. People complain about the graphic way Mel Gibson portrays a Roman scourging. But it is historically accurate. One witness to a Roman scourging gave this description: "The sufferer's veins were laid bare, and the very muscles and tendons and bowels of the victim were open to exposure." This is why Jesus was dead when the soldiers came to break his legs.
The depiction of the Roman soldiers is also accurate. In the first century, Roman soldiers were the best soldiers in the world and very brutal. They had crucified thousands of people. Also if they failed in carrying out a crucifixion, then they themselves would be crucified. Today we know when the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear and water and blood came out, this meant Jesus was dead. In a dead body, the blood separates from the serum thus looking like blood and water. Brothers and sisters, make no mistake at all...Jesus was dead!
A BUG'S LIFE: SMALL STEPS OF FAITH
A Bug’s Life, Start time 6:30
Overview from Belknapp: Dot complains to Flik about her underdeveloped wings. She wants to fly now! Flik encourages her, showing her that a seed that starts out small eventually grows into a towering tree-it only takes time and patience.
Faith begins small and grows larger and stronger. By trusting God with the small things and watching him answer, our faith grows stronger. We start to place increased faith in him and his goodness, giving over more and more areas of our life until it all rests in his hands. It takes small steps of faith to give us the faith to walk on water (or to fly!). (Belknapp page 46).
2 Thessalonians 1: 3, 4: 3We ought always to thank God for you, brother...
ILLUSTRATION... From the Movie Hidalgo
I rented a movie a few months back called Hidalgo starring Viggo Mortensen about Frank T. Hopkins who was an American distance horse race champion. He is invited to race in this long Arabian desert race that is dangerous and also profitable. He of course has the usual action sequences, there is a lady in he mix, but in the end, he does well in the race. One of the parts of the movie still is vivid in my mind. After saving the life of one of his opponents, Frank has a conversation with him. The Arab complains that it was Allah’s will that he enter the race, and Allah’s will that he should die in it. “It is written,” he says. Then Frank says something to the effect of: “What about your will? And your horse’s will? That’s what’s going to get you to the finish line, and only then will it be ‘written.’”
