Intro:
ľ It was one of those "high definition" moments of life.
ľ The kind of moment that gets stuck in your head as a picture of what life used to be like. An idealized moment in time that becomes a part of our great personal epic.
ľ The summer storm had dumped ponds of water teaming with intrigue for two fifth grade boys with nothing to do, and throwing rocks and mud into the waters of the ditch just seemed so 4th grade
ľ We were looking a greater adventure in this chapter of our epic journey of boyhood.
ľ Our eyes were drawn to the toad peeking above the edge of the muck. A pack of fire crackers from the corner store, stolen matches from my mom's purse and we had the makings of a high definition moment.
ľ He had no hope, hopping back and forth between the bursting bombs lodged by those two giants that day.
ľ And as laugher turned to carelessness, upon lobbing my next amphibian attack, I tossed the firecracker too high and it ended up exploding on my shoulder, next to my ear.
ľ I still hear the ringing in my ear to this day. It reminds me, in high definition, of that forever moment that would come to symbolize the best of my late childhood, a day that will live in my heart forever.
ľ Before the world grew dark and complicated, before uncertainty and fear-do you remember the innocent, carefree days?
ľ Do you remember sitting on the floor, surrounded by crayons, coloring the world around you as the warm light from the spring sun passed through your window?
ľ The first time you could ride your bike around the block by yourself? Your first love note-check here if you love me, check here if no.
ľ Do you remember not knowing what time it was as you played with your Cabbage Patch Kid, Gerber Baby, or Strawberry Shortcake?
ľ Was there a time when you laid awake at night thinking about Transformers, Stretch Armstrong, or how to conquer the next level of Zelda?
ľ There is a place deep within us that longs for the beginning of the story.
We Are All a Part of a Great Epic Quest
ľ We are all a part of a great epic quest-a journey of momentous proportions, one that has heroines and villains, sorrow and consequences, beginnings and laughter.
ľ Our quest has bleak, seemingly hopeless moments as well.
ľ I believe we are in one of those chapters of the quest-a time when darkness seems to have already won the day.
ľ Thanks to globalization, Gary can pick up the phone and "mail order" forced prostitutes smuggled in from Uzbekistan on Wednesday and have them working in his Chicago-based night club on Friday as sex workers.
ľ Thanks to technology, Tim, an IT professional, alone in his room on an overnight business trip to Atlanta, can log on to Craig's list and purchase a two hour block with two 15 year old girls, delivered to his room for a mere two hundred dollars.
ľ Do you remember the movie "The Never Ending Story?" Do you remember the creeping darkness, the nothing that threatened to swallow up the world and end the universe forever unless Bastian could finish his quest to end the darkness?
ľ There is this same kind of wickedness spreading across the globe tonight, threatening to consume the very soul of humanity.
ľ The sex slave industry is not just an attack on young boys, women, and children; it is an attack on the fabric of the human soul.
ľ By allowing the commoditization of people for profit and sexual gratification, we are allowing the darkness to overtake what it means to be preeminently human.
ľ We are a part of this great epic quest, the quest for innocence, the quest for freedom, for dignity, and for joy.
ľ This great quest is not merely a quest to end slavery, or to end the great injustices and suffering around us-that's only the beginning.
ľ As Christians, we believe the quest to be agents of God's Kingdom is a quest to make all things flourish to the glory of God. This is the quest of the modern day abolitionist movement.
ľ It is not enough to merely end slavery in our lifetime, it is not enough to merely set the captives free-we seek the mental, relational, financial, academic, and spiritual flourishing of the down-trodden.
ľ The slave has been made in the image of the celestial King, the one who stops our hearts, who takes our breath, who brings us to our knees by the mere presence of His name.
ľ She reflects the image of the one who causes the seas to churn, who wipes away coasts, who brings great cities to ruin, and who holds the power of eternal life and death in his mouth.
ľ How can we think that she who bears His image should be worthy of anything less than a life of grandeur, of wonder, of flourishing!
ľ We believe this problem of modern-day slavery to be fundamentally a spiritual problem.
ľ Peace keepers in Bosnia, working to train Croat and Bosnian soldiers routinely bought children as young as 13 during their multi-year stations as sex servants.
ľ When the very authorities that we trust to help build a safe and better world are a part of the problem, we know that we've touched upon a problem of epic proportions, a spiritual problem that dollars and euros, UN treaties and peace keeping troops cannot change-the problem of the human heart.
Our Epic Quest Begins with a Longing for Home
ľ Why do we care? What is it about this issue that has so captivated our hearts?
ľ See, I believe that we remember, in high definition, what it was like to be a child and what it is like to have lost that. We so long to restore for ourselves and for others that sense of wonder and innocence.
ľ Dina's life in Laos was modest by our standards.
ľ Like us, she dreamed of a better life; of world travel, luxury and indulgence.
ľ When she met Allissa, she seemed so sophisticated and content. Her boyfriend bought her everything, took her everywhere, or so Allissa said.
ľ One day Allissa suggested they go away with her boyfriend for an unforgettable weekend.
ľ Though Dina knew of the dangers, she trusted Allissa and went on the "all-expense paid" trip.
ľ When Dina arrived at their five-star hotel that night late, weary from travel, she was given her own room and retired for the night.
ľ The next morning, Dina woke only to find Allissa gone. When she checked with the front desk, they had no record of Allissa but said that Dina was responsible for the hotel bill, over $1000.
ľ Not having the money, the manager threatened to call local authorities or "work something out."
ľ Later that morning, Dina met with a trafficker who began to explain how she could earn her way out.
ľ She refused and tried to leave, and that is when it started. The man stood up and said, "Allissa said you might be a problem," and hit her so hard she began to vomit.
ľ The man further explained that he knew where Dina's parents and younger siblings lived, that this was the only way to keep them safe.
ľ I don't know what went through Dina's head when she was being raped for pay for the first time. Did she find that happy place in her mind, a time when her mother held her tight to read her favorite book to her, stroking her long black hair just as the sticky john was doing to her then?
ľ What would she have given to go back to innocence, to safety, to the care free moments?
ľ Stories like Dina's cause something in us to rise up, to boil-it causes great indignation.
ľ Indignation is that "strong displeasure at something considered unjust, it is righteous anger."
ľ There is something holy about righteous indignation-it brings out the best in humanity.
ľ Emerson wrote, "A good indignation brings out all one's powers."
ľ In our great epic, we all have the potential to be villains or super heroes.
ľ Evil monsters like Allisa and her boyfriend, or heroes for justice, with our own super powers battling against that creeping darkness.
ľ Some have literary genius, others networking savvy, still others scientific and medical gifts-what is your super power and how will you use it to re-color the world around you?
ľ We long for home, not only for ourselves but for the world and others as well.
ľ We long for wholeness for the earth, for peace between countries, for the healing of the heart, for safety for children.
ľ We are longing for the garden of Eden, for the Kingdom of God, for another world, call it Heaven or whatever you'd like, but what we are longing for most is-joy and your super powers, your gifts and education play a part in helping us all get there.
It's at the Bitter moments of Our Quest that We Need Courage
ľ It's at the bitter moments of our quest that we need courage.
ľ In Kazuaki's Japanese film, "Casshern," a father pleads with his son not to go off to war where he would face an almost certain death. In beautiful Japanese anime fashion, white flower pedals blow diagonally across a surreal scene as the pan squares up the father's war-hardened face against his youthful son.
ľ The father says, "You have no idea what you will face by going off to this war."
ľ The son is silent for only a moment before responding, "Whatever is out there, it cannot be any worse then cowardice."
ľ Cowardice is a mortal sin.
ľ We celebrate courage and sacrifice for a reason. We champion the brave, even in the midst of defeat because it is in the heart of courage that we see hope for humanity.
ľ In the epic story of Jesus Christ, there were many instances where people tried to press him into cowardice, to accept the status quo and look the other way from the injustices and imbalances of his day and to settle for mere affluence and power.
ľ People of Jesus day had little regard for women, for the sick, for ethnic minorities, for the poor, for prisoners, and for children.
ľ At each point in the epic of Jesus, he confronted these very injustices and that is why this Jesus is so very different from the tamed blue eyed, blond haired plasticized Jesus that hangs in dusty dead churches across America.
ľ This Jesus marked his very life and mission around these issues.
ľ But when it came to children, Jesus was clear-they were the whole point of life.
ľ In a famous portion of the epic of Jesus we read these words, "People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth; anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them."
ľ Jesus expresses his holy indignation at those around him and their intolerance for children.
ľ Today, there is an all out war on children.
ľ From the Congo, children are pressed into bands of barbarous killers.
ľ In Sri Lanka, children are bought and sold to role cigarettes, bake bricks, and sow designer logos on clothes that they will never wear.
ľ In rural China, children place wheels on cars and blond haired heads on dolls that they will never play with themselves.
ľ In Burma, parents sell their children's virginity to sponsors in return for $350 US.
ľ With this kind of wickedness that lurks in the human heart, we can understand the angry words of Jesus when he said, "If any one causes one of these little ones to sin, it would be better to have a large stone hung around his neck and to be thrown in the deepest of seas."
ľ This is a bitter moment in the quest. The human spirit is on trial the world over-what super powers do you have to go into this war, what will you do?
ľ In the story of Jesus, he saw anything that prevented children from coming to him, from receiving his blessing as an injustice and we see this from his holy indignation.
ľ This sense of indignation in us comes from God's thumb print on our hearts. We are all God's daughters, God's sons.
ľ This same thumb print that tells us that it is wrong to murder, to lie, to gossip, to cheat and steal, tells us that the commoditization of our bodies is also wrong. [LAW of God]
ľ In the sex trafficking industry, we see the basest manifestation of our soul sickness and while it is tempting to see the problem of that soul sickness as the problem only of the monsters and villains of the epic, we too must face our own demons.
ľ After great crimes and disasters, we always trot out the psychologists, counselors, sociologists to help us make sense of the evil, to portray it as "alien."
ľ The question comes, "What goes into the making of a monster like Klebold. How could that mother drown her own children in the bath tub?
ľ The faces of the 19 men that changed America forever aren't the faces we initially imagined, are they? We expected twisted faces with hollow eyes, but these are normal faces."
ľ They were once children that played soccer, told jokes, had nightmares and cried for their mommies. They were not born of hell but that creeping darkness that comes for us all overtook them at some point making them tools for evil.
ľ It is this same creeping darkness in the heart of each person her today that fuels the trafficking industry and this is why slavery is fundamentally a spiritual problem. [SIN]
ľ We in the US are complicit in this spiritual problem.
ľ Through our consumption of internet pornography we provide the money to continue the abduction and rape for pay of hundreds of thousands as more and more, the women of pornography are actually slaves.
ľ We are complicit in the commoditization of people.
ľ We have stolen the innocence of girls like Grace, a 16 year old Philippine girl who lives in a dog kennel in the back of a grocery store but appears for $18 month live nightly on your dorm room laptop.
ľ Whether it is the act of rape of the sex tourist, the abduction and commoditization of the trafficker, or the act of remote consumption, each of us has that creeping darkness to contend with but I believe we were meant for nobler things.
The Momentous Stakes of Our Quest Require a Change
ľ The momentous stakes of our quest require a change.
ľ In the vision of Jesus, Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."
ľ God's "forever after," his Kingdom only has room for people who are willing to embrace childhood again.
ľ Why do we retreat from that?
ľ In one of my forever moments, I recall in high definition the day my dad came home high on cocaine determined to continue his multi-day binge by liquidating what little family assets we had.
ľ We were living in an abandoned home at the time and had managed to smuggle all of our earthly possessions into that cold, barren two bedroom duplex.
ľ He came home in a rage and so I and my mother and two younger brothers hid in the neighbor's bathtub across the street.
ľ We watched through the dirty window as he threw things out the front door, onto the ground before piling them into his late '70's Grand Prix and screeching off.
ľ When we were sure he was gone, we ventured back into the house.
ľ Everything was gone. He even took the few dollars I had placed inside a jar, saving up to buy him a Christmas present.
ľ It was the first time in my life when it suddenly dawned on me that my dad was not there to protect me and that I was not safe around him, that he had, indeed, become a villain in my epic.
ľ I closed my heart that day. Closed it to trust. I bolted the door of love and said, "I'll never be victimized by anyone ever again."
ľ Much of my epic journey has revolved around trying to come to terms with that and other high definition moments of brokenness and pain.
ľ I share that with you because I believe many have done the same. You've bolted the door to God's love, to faith and trust.
ľ Perhaps this is why you feel such indignation at the injustices suffered by others-because you know their loss.
ľ A rape, molestation, betrayal, disappointment-you've thrown away the key.
ľ This week, as you've focused on bringing justice and hope to others, could it be that God is doing a work of power and transformation in your heart?
ľ Could it be that God's call to you as daughter, as son, has cut right through your heart as you have sought to join him in his mission of establishing the Kingdom?
ľ The call of God you sense to do good in the world, to become the good you long to see in this epic quest is the same call God desires to use to deal with your own bondage, your own slavery to sin.
ľ In story about Jesus it says, "And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them, and blessed them."
ľ People were bringing their children to be blessed by Jesus.
ľ You see, because Jesus, the epic's hero, came into this world without that creeping darkness in his heart, he was able to bless and to heal. He was able to receive the children, to appropriately place his hands on them in a loving and pure fashion and bless them with the words of his mouth. [RIGHTEOUSNESS SON]
ľ You know, I'm glad that there is a hell. I didn't grow up religious, in fact when I was growing up we had a sign on the front of our home that read, "The Moore's, The Atheists," and we had a barrel on the side for burning Bibles and other religious propaganda.
ľ I went to the U of M and was one of those angry atheist philosophy students who persecuted Christians.
ľ When I became a Christian, I had a hard time with the idea of hell. How can a loving God send people to hell?
ľ When we see what the creeping darkness does to the human soul, when we look a monster in the face as we've done today, the question should be, "How can there not be a hell."
ľ How can God not bring an end to the suffering and punish those who are either primary or complicit in such a rape of humanity? [DEATH AND HELL]
Our Quest Ends with a Return to Childhood
ľ Again, in the story of Jesus, he said, "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
ľ The forever after of Jesus is for people who are ready to make a change.
ľ A change of heart about what the world is supposed to be like, a change of heart about innocence and joy, a change of heart about who is in charge.
ľ We all have super powers but they are not enough to bring a lasting change, we need the hero of the story to step in.
ľ In Lewis' re-telling of the epic of Jesus in, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," Asland lay slain by the witch as the battle raged on. The citizens all fought with all their might against the monsters threatening to consume the kingdom and cast it into a dark, frozen hell.
ľ They fought with all their might, with all their gifts, but it wasn't enough.
ľ Asland the Lion had to rise from the dead to finally conquer the witch and her minions.
ľ Lewis portrays Jesus as the untamed Lion, Asland, who was slain on the alter of the law in place of a traitor.
ľ It is an epic story, but one that is true for us today. Jesus died on the cross to bring an end to the creeping darkness in the world out there and in the world in here.
ľ Jesus went to that cross, taking all of the things we've done and all that we've left undone in order to save us from the dark chapters of our epic quest, to bring us back to the beginning, back to innocence, back to childhood. [CROSS]
ľ Just like Alsand, Jesus rose from the dead, conquering death and now runs to lead us into battle.
ľ Jesus is alive and invites us to join him in re-coloring the world around us under his charge. [RESURRECTION]
ľ In just a moment, I'm going to invite you to have that change of heart and become a true follower of this Jesus. [REPENTANCE]
ľ I believe that there may be many here at this fine Christian institution who may have secretly or perhaps not so secretly given up on their faith.
ľ Perhaps you've questioned the relevancy of a Christian story that seemed to be nothing more than mere fire insurance; a Christian story that seemed to have nothing to do with your life or the real needs of the world.
ľ Perhaps you had no idea that the plastic Jesus on the walls of the Church had nothing to do with the real Jesus of Nazareth-the one with dirty feet and calloused hands who died for the soul sickness of the entire world.
ľ Perhaps you've grown up in a Christian home and you were sent to Christian schools but you've never fallen on your knees yourself and given your life to Christ and today He is calling you.
ľ Christ is calling you to become the good you long to see in the world by first coming to Him and allowing Him to cleanse your heart.
ľ Today can be your high definition moment, the moment you become a true follower of Jesus.
ľ We need to re-color our lives, re-color our world, to re-color the epic journey of life and we can start right here.
ľ English Sculptor Antony Gormley, "Art the means by which we communicate what it feels like to be alive."
ľ Remember those simple Crayola crayons and that blank piece of paper? Endless possibilities, worlds without end, simplicity, innocence?
ľ I'm going to ask many of you to make the decision of your life, to begin again, to join Jesus in re-coloring the world out there and the world in here.
ľ If you want to become a true follower of Jesus, in just a moment I'm going to ask you to raise your hand-raise your hand to turn your life over to a new King, to become a follower of the true hero, to become his subject. [LORDSHIP]
ľ A simple crayon, nothing more then pigment and wax, but today this is our symbol of commitment, our symbol of decision to begin again and return to innocence.
ľ In just a moment, I'm going to ask you to raise your hands so my friends can see you and come by with the gift of this simple crayon.
ľ When Jesus died, his blood and sweat and tears achieved far more then pigment and wax could ever do, it provided the power to begin again, to embrace the gift of childhood.
ľ And by placing your trust in the power of his death and his life, you can embrace that gift today, the gift of a new life, and a fresh start.
ľ And that time is now.
