Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 10/13/2013
If you’re just joining us, we’ve spent the last couple of weeks uncovering some of the hidden spiritual lessons found in the pages of comic-books. Like modern-day parables, I’m convinced that superheroes like Superman, Thor, Spider-man and others can illustrate some important biblical truths. We’ve already talked about Superman and Thor. This week I’d like to talk about another iconic superhero—Batman!
Most people know the story of Batman. As a young boy Bruce Wayne excitedly emerges from a theater in Gotham City along with his wealthy socialite parents, Thomas and Martha. But as the trio makes their way through a dimly lit alley, a mugger suddenly steps out of the shadows, waving a gun and demanding money. Before the couple can comply, the mugger pulls the trigger and young Bruce watches as his parents are brutally gunned down in front of him.
Days later, kneeling by his bedside, Bruce solemnly vows to avenge his parents’ death by waging war on criminals. Relying on his billion-dollar inheritance, Bruce traveled abroad, studying under the greatest criminologists, detectives and martial artists the world had to offer. When he finally returned home to Gotham City, he adopted a persona that would strike fear into the hearts of criminals—the Batman.
But what started off as one man’s war on crime quickly turned into a family affair. While attending the circus, Bruce witnessed the murder of a husband and wife trapeze team. Their son and fellow acrobat, Dick Grayson, watched in horror as they fell to their deaths from the top of the tent. Identifying with his loss, Bruce adopts the boy and, with the help of his butler Alfred, trains him to become Batman’s sidekick—Robin.
In time, Dick Grayson grew up, started calling himself Nightwing, and was replaced by a new Robin. In fact, there have been several Robins over the years, and many others heroes have also become a part of the Batman cadre of crime fighters—including more than one Batgirl, Huntress, Oracle, Azrael, Batwoman, Catwoman, and even Ace the Bat-Hound.
This is what has made Batman such a fun character to costume as for my family. We are a family of five and, because I’m a little OCD, I don’t like mixing and matching a collection of random heroes when we attend events; rather, I prefer for us to all be part of a team or family of superheroes.
After taking my first foray into costuming as Superman, I knew the next character I wanted to tackle was Batman. I had sharpened by sewing skills and worked out the kinks in creating Superman costumes, so when Halloween of 2009 rolled around I started working hard to outfit everyone in our family with a Batman-themed costume.
I created a classic comic-style Batman in grey and blue for myself, an original Barbara Gordon version of Batgirl for my wife, and a 90s Tim Drake version of Robin for my son. By the time all those were finished Halloween was fast approaching, so I had to cheat and buy off-the-shelf costumes for my two girls who were only two years old and three months old at the time! We debuted these costumes at a Trunk-or-Treat event we planned for our small-town church. Kids from all over the neighborhood were excited to see Batman and his supporting cast handing out candy in front of our church-building. We managed to draw quite a crowd and gave away tons of candy along with countless gospel tracts and invitations to church!
Since then we’ve done multiple other versions of the characters and gone through several other bat-costumes.
What spiritual truth does the Caped Crusader illustrate? Simple. Batman’s persistent pursuit of partners is a vivid reminder that you and I were formed for God’s family. The loss of his paternal family drove Bruce to build the largest crime-fighting family in comic-books and he really relies upon his surrogate family for support, strength and stability in his war on crime. That’s what the church is supposed to provide for you.
It is so easy to hit the snooze button on Sunday morning when the alarm sounds, roll over and go back to sleep. Why get up early on one of your few off-days? Why go through the hassle of dressing up and the getting the kids ready? Why go to the trouble of finding a parking space near the front and pew space near the back?
You go to work to make money so you can pay the bills. You go to the gym for exercise and better health. You go to the mall to shop for clothes and the grocery store to buy food. You go to the lake to fish, the ball game to cheer, and the golf course for fun.
But church? Why go to there?
Why go to church?
I’ll tell you why. It’s because all of us need a place to belong. All of us need to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. All of us need to experience family and fellowship. Going to church is not primarily about worship. You can worship God at home from the comfort of your recliner, or behind the wheel of your car, or while kneeling at your bedside. Church it’s primarily about family! The Bible uses a lot of metaphors to describe the church, but the most persistent is that of family. In the New Testament, believers call each other brothers and sisters and, in his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul writes: “Now you…are not foreigners or strangers any longer, but are citizens together with God’s holy people. You belong to God’s family” (Ephesians 2:19 NCV).
Maybe there’s a pew in your home church worn in the shape of your bottom. Maybe you’re as comfortable in your church family as you are in your favorite pajamas. On the other hand, maybe it’s been a while since you darkened a church doorstep. Maybe you’ve never felt like you really belong anywhere. Maybe you’ve never known the blessing of being a part of something as big as the family of God! Either way, I’d like to share with you something that Solomon once wrote centuries before the church was established or Jesus walked the earth about the benefits of family and fellowship:
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NIV)
In his unparalleled wisdom, King Solomon says, “Two people are better than one…” He then goes on to describe three benefits of belonging to a church family.
• STRENGTH
First, belonging to a church family provides strength. Notice that first verse again from the New Century Version: “Two people are better than one, because they get more done by working together…a rope that is woven of three strings is hard to break” (Ecclesiastes 4:9, 12 NCV). Solomon had discovered a principle that holds true for every epoch of time—none of us can do alone what all of us can do together.
There is strength in numbers.
Batman, it seems has always understood this principle, training young protégées like Robin and Batgirl. But he really takes his war on crime to the next level in a comic series titled Batman Incorporated, by essentially “franchising” his name. He scours the planet for the best of the best—drafting, training and commanding a global team of heroes who will answer to Batman himself. A world-wide team of caped crusaders, trained by Batman himself, begins fighting crime in major cities all over the world, because Batman realized that there is strength in numbers.
It reminds me of an old Peanuts cartoon, where Lucy walked into the room and demanded that her brother Linus change TV channels. “What makes you think you can just walk right in here and take over?” asked Linus. “These five fingers,” said Lucy. “Individually they are nothing, but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they become a force to be reckoned with.” Linus sighed, “What channel do you want?” Then turning away, he looked at his fingers and said, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?” That’s the power of teamwork.
Whether you are interested in serving your community by providing meals for needy people, or sharing God’s love by giving away free gas at your local gas-station, or sharing the message of Christ by handing out copies of the gospel at comic-book conventions, you’ll always make a bigger impact if you work as a team. It’s better to work with ten people than to do the work of ten people. Even Jesus didn’t work alone. He always had his disciples with him. None of us can do everything, but all of us can do something and none of us can do alone, what all of us can do together! That’s the first reason, God gave us the church. But there’s another reason.
• SUPPORT
Furthermore, belonging to a church family provides support. Again, King Solomon put it this way: “Two are better off than one, because…If one of them falls down, the other can help him up. But if someone is alone and falls, it's just too bad, because there is no one to help him” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 GWT).
In one of my favorite Batman stories, a graphic novel titled Hush, written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by fan-favorite artist Jim Lee, the story begins with Batman chasing down a dangerous mutated menace known as Killer Croc. With acrobatic agility, Batman leaps from rooftop to rooftop until his grappling hook grabs hold of a brittle ledge. As the crumbling concrete gives way, Batman plummets several stories to the pavement below—slowed only by his parachute-like cape. Alone and unconscious, some nearby riff-raff decide to take advantage of the situation and begin to pummel the Dark Knight. Fortunately, one of Batman’s partners, Oracle, a sort-of “eye in the sky,” was watching over Batman the whole time from the safety of her computer console and calls another hero, the Huntress, to come to Batman’s aid. Huntress, leaps to Batman’s rescue, helps him to his feet and returns him to the safety of the Bat-cave.
Of course, you don’t have to swing from a faulty ledge with your grappling hook in order to experience a fall. We all stumble and fall from time to time. Maybe you’ve just been through a bad breakup, maybe you’ve lost your job, maybe you’ve fallen prey to an addiction you thought you had beat. Your troubles may be different from mine, but we all have don’t, don’t we? It reminds me of an Army Chaplain who had a sign on his door that said, “If you have troubles, come in and tell me all about them. If you don’t have troubles, come in and tell me how you do it.”
One day Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbs cartoon fame, gets dressed in his special clothes for school. He goes to school. He sits on some bubble gum, gets beat up by a bully, fails a test at school and gets rained on on the way home. At bedtime he says, “You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocket ship underpants don’t help.”
We all have days like that, don’t we? And Jesus promised us that we would. He said, “In this world you will have trouble.” But what did he say next? “But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NIV).
Jesus is all about helping people up, isn’t he? When Peter tried walking on water and ended up sinking like a rock, Jesus reached out, took him by the hand, and helped him back to the boat. When a woman was caught in adultery and publically humiliated for it, Jesus could have thrown the first stone. He could have kicked while she was down. But instead, he reached out his hand, lifted her up, and gave her a fresh start.
That’s what we’re supposed to do for one another.
The Bible says, “Help carry each other’s burdens. In this way you will follow Christ’s teachings” (Galatians 6:2 GWT). We all have burdens to bear and bad days to endure, and some days even wearing your lucky underpants won’t help. But having a church family that cares about you and is willing to lift you up whenever you fall down—that does help. Belonging to God’s family provides us with the strength to get more done and the support we need to get through troubled times.
• SPIRITUAL WARMTH
Finally, belonging to a church family provides spiritual warmth. “Two people are better off than one, for… two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone?” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-11 NLT). While this is practical advice for a nomadic people living in the desert, it also serves as spiritual metaphor. You don’t have to live in a tent in the tundra to feel cold and alone.
The cartoon series Batman Beyond revisits a much older Bruce Wayne… He’s turned his back on the world and become recluse.
Anytime one of God’s children gets separated from the family, our fire starts to go out and spirits grow cold. The Bible says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another” (Hebrew 10:24-25 ESV). One of the most important reasons the church meets together every Sunday is to stir each other up.
A pastor went to visit a man who had been absent from church for some time. When the pastor arrived at the house of his wayward parishioner he found him sitting by a fire of glowing coals. The man fully expected his pastor to rebuke him for his tardy attendance at services. But instead the pastor drew up a chair alongside the fireplace where the man was sitting just peering into the fire.
With the tongs the pastor reached into the fire and took one of the red hot glowing coals and placed it by itself out on the hearth. In no time at all the coal began to lose its glow and in a few minutes it was cold and grey. The man looked up into the face of his pastor who hadn’t said a word and he said “I'll be there next Sunday.”
He understood what Solomon was saying.
That warmth you feel inside your chest as we worship together here today—those are your coals being stirred. It’s your passion for Jesus, your love for God and for people being rekindled. When you first gave your heart to Jesus, he lit a fire in your soul. Belonging to a church family that you worship with and fellowship with fans the flames and keeps you spiritually warm.
Conclusion:
Batman may be the world’s greatest detective and one of DC Comics’ most iconic heroes, but even he doesn’t do it alone. Likewise, God doesn’t just call us to believe; he calls us to belong. The entire Bible is the story of God building a family that will support, strengthen, and stir one another up to love and good works for all eternity—and he created you to be a part of it. Next Sunday we’ll study another comic-book hero and the spiritual lesson we can learn from them.
Invitation:
But, in the meantime, if you’re ready to become a part of God’s family or you’d like to know more about becoming a member of Blooming Grove—please talk with me as we stand and sing.
