The Gospel According to Gump: Miracles
For those of you
who are unfamiliar with the movie “Forrest Gump,” over the next few weeks you
are going to be introduced to a unique character. I did not choose Forrest Gump
because of the star power of Tom Hanks who plays the role, or because the movie
won 6 Oscars, but because throughout the movie, Forrest Gump, a slow, naïve,
man from Alabama, demonstrates the child-like sincerity, faith, and love that
most adults leave behind in their childhood.
Today, I want to start by showing you
a clip from Forrest’s childhood. If you haven’t seen the movie, I’ll give you a
little background. Forrest, as an adult, is talking to a lady at a bus stop and
telling her the story of his first pair of shoes. They were special shoes with
braces that would help straighten out a curvature of his spine. People would
stare at him and make fun of him and his Mama would tell him, “Don’t let anyone
ever tell you that they’re better than you, Forrest. If God intended for
everyone to be the same, He’d have given us all braces on our legs.” And it is
at this point in his life that we see Forrest walking home with Jenny.
Show
clip
I love Forrest’s enthusiasm and
conviction when he says, “Some people say miracles don’t happen every day, but
they do!” He believes that miracles happen with as much conviction as he
believes that the sky is blue. Why does he believe that miracles happen?
Because a miracle happened to him. He was trying to run away from bullies, and
just like that, the braces fell off his legs, and this boy who had never run in
his life could run faster than anyone else his age. And if you watch the rest
of the movie, you’ll see that running is kind of a theme for him throughout his
who life. It gets him into college, it saves his life in Vietnam, and it throws
him into the national spotlight when he decides, for no particular reason, to
run from one coast to the other several times. To him, that is a miracle.
But if we go back to what he said in
the beginning, we hear something else that is true: “Some people say miracles
don’t happen every day.” Or if they don’t say it out loud, maybe they’re at
least thinking it. Miracles are a weird thing, right? I mean, a miracle by its
very definition is an occurrence that doesn’t make sense naturally, physically,
or scientifically, and can only be attributed to something supernatural. So to
believe in miracles you have to 1) believe in God or at least some sort of
supernatural thing out there, and 2) believe that God or the supernatural has
the ability to work in the world to defy the laws of science, and 3) believe
that God has the desire to work in the world to defy the laws of science.
Now if we believe that there is a God,
and I would hope that all of us here do, and we believe that the Bible is true,
then we have to believe that miracles have happened. From the parting of the
Are you starting to catch the common
theme? Faith. It seems that faith is a prerequisite for a miracle. And it was,
in my mind, a little easier back then to have faith, because you could watch
Jesus perform miracles. You could see it with your own eyes.
But today, it’s a little different,
isn’t it? They have a word today for people who go around claiming that a
miracle has happened: delusional. Insane. Crazy. Right? I mean, even amongst
Christians, there is a lot of skepticism. Sure Jesus did miracles back then,
but now? Everything is a coincidence, or can be explained medically. We have
left no room for miracles.
And maybe a part of that is a lack of
faith. You know every Sunday we pray for miracles. Big miracles and little ones
alike. And I think this lack of faith on our part is partially my fault. I
struggle with this, too. Don’t be afraid to call me on it. Because with little
things, it seems easier to pray for a miracle, right? Like, “Dear God, I lost
my cat, please help me find it.” God can do that kind of stuff, we have no
doubt.
But…and here’s where I mess up
sometimes…when it comes to big things, it’s like we lose our faith. Like when
someone is dying, my prayer is usually for comfort for the family and that the
person will at peace and that God’s will be done. Which is fine, but what if we
prayed for a miracle, and believed it would happen? What if we had faith that
God can do the big things, too?
Let’s be real honest with each other
today. I think, for me, one of the reasons it is hard to pray for a miracle, is
because in my weakness in faith, I feel like if that miracle doesn’t happen, if
I pray for someone on the verge of death to be healed, and the healing doesn’t
take place, it’s like I made God look bad, right? If I pray for healing, and it
doesn’t happen, it may cause people to doubt. I’ll admit to you right now, that
is a poor excuse and it shows a weakness of faith, and I don’t want that to be
my prayer anymore. I want to pray for miracles.
I think too often in our weakness of
faith, we exhaust all other possibilities and then pray for a miracle. How many
times have we said something like, “The doctors have done everything that they
can do. All we can do now is pray.” But
what if we did it the other way around? What if we went to God first? What if
we prayed for a miracle first, and then exhausted all medical possibilities?
I’m not saying that you should be like the people you see on the news who let
their kids die when they just sat back and prayed for healing and never took
them to the doctor. I think that medicine has its place and I believe God uses
medicine and doctors to perform his miracles. But I am saying that I think we
need to start viewing these things differently and giving God more of a chance
to show his power to perform miracles in our lives. In other words, instead of
viewing God as a minor aid to the doctors who are fixing the problem, maybe we
should view the doctors as a minor aid to God who is fixing the problem.
And I wish…I wish I could stand up
here and tell you about a miracle that has happened to me. And of course little
miracles happen every day. They are all around us. The miracle of new birth,
the miracle of the way God ordered the world to work just right . The miracles
we all take for granted. But I guess I can’t stand up here today and tell you
that I have had a miracle happen to me. I wish I could, but I can’t.
However, I believe I have witnessed a
miracle. A while back, I met with a group of people for some discipleship. At
the start of one of our meetings, Bud came to me and told me that he had been
diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat. That evening, our group prayed for Bud.
We laid hands on him and prayed for a miracle. We prayed that God would heal
him. And you could just tell that the people in the room who were praying for
Bud really meant it. They really had faith that God would heal him. The next
week Bud came back after having gone to the doctor, and said, “I went to the
doctor, and he said, what irregular heartbeat?” Bud was 100% fine. His only
problem now is that I’m talking about him in front of a lot of people.
But I am so prod of Bud, and I am so
proud of those who prayed for him, because of their faith. There was faith that
yes, God can work miracles. Maybe today, you need a miracle, but you aren’t
sure that you have the faith. Or maybe you’ve experienced a miracle. These are
not things to be ashamed of. They are things that are meant to be shared as a
body of Christ. We are called to bear each others burdens and we are told that
if we have the faith of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. Miracles.
I want to do something that may drive you a little ways
out of your comfort zone, which I think is a good thing. We’re going to have a
little music playing, but I want you to interrupt the music. If you have had a
miracle happen in your life, I’d love it if you would share it with everyone.
It is nothing to be ashamed of, and no one will think you’re crazy. It will
only serve to strengthen our faith and give us another reason to praise God. If
you need a miracle, I’d love for you to share it with us so we can pray for
you, so we can pray for a miracle. If you don’t want to share with everyone,
please share with those around you and ask them to pray for you. But you are
also welcome to come down front to the microphone and share the miracle that
happened to you or the miracle that you need.
Before we start that, I want to share with you my
favorite thing about miracles. When you believe in miracles, when you have that
faith, there is always hope. If you believe that our God is strong enough and
loving enough to perform miracles, then hope is never lost. Even when things
are impossible, when you believe, nothing is impossible with God. And that’s
what this song is about. The fact that in God, there is always hope. So as I
play for you, please feel free to come down front and share the miracle that
has happened in your life, or the miracle that you need, and let’s pray for one
another, and praise the God who always has been, and still is, a
miracle-worker.
“My hope is built”
Pastor
Dan Metzger
Van
Buren United