Of Sinful Selves and Crushed Pretzels
Hand out a small ziplock bag with two pretzel sticks covered in salt. Explain how a pretzel is just a salt delivery device and that a pretzel without salt is pretty sad and worthless. Have the congregation take out one pretzel stick, then tell them, throughout the remainder of the message, to rub salt off the pretzel everytime they feel convicted of a sin.
Then walk through the 10 Commandments, traditional numbering: 1. Prioritizing other things over God; 2. Using His name as an expletive; 3. Failing to take a day of rest and reconnection with God; 4. Failing to honor your parents; 5. Harboring hatred and bitterness; 6. Looking lustfully at someone who is not your spouse; 7. Taking something that is not yours or failing to be generous; 8. Talking about others instead of to them; 9. & 10. Being envious of what God has given other people, or failing to be grateful for what God has given you.
If they're honest, no one should have any salt left on their pretzel. Jesus asks the question, "If salt loses it saltiness, how can it be made salty again?" Then he answers His own question by saying, "It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet." Tell people to put the now worthless, saltless pretzel stick back in the bag by itself, zip it up and do what Jesus says to do with it. Throw it down and stomp on it.
That broken worthless pretzel is a picture of what it means to be broken and sinful people. It is a picture of what it means to be poor in spirit or having nothing to offer God in terms of righteousness. Salt cannot be made salty again.
Take your broken, sinful flesh and throw it away. Bury it six feet deep.
Then realize this: Jesus says that the poor in spirit are blessed and that "theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Our sinful flesh is unsalvageable, but Jesus makes us a new creation, covered in His righteousness. Now hold up the second unmolested pretzel covered in salt.
Paul says in Gal 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." So burying that worthless pretzel is a daily activity. Everyday we crucify our flesh and live by the righteousness of Christ.
Jesus Calls Us to Desire More
When I was a boy, I always looked forward to our summer trips from San Francisco to West Texas to spend vacation time with extended family. My two younger brothers and I would pile into our un-air-conditioned car, anxious to begin the long trek across the Southwest. At the end of each day’s journey, the three of us would beeline our way to the hotel pool to re-hydrate—something we really looked forward to after hours of being blasted in the back seat by the hot desert air. These were great adventures filled with the excitement of seeing new places and the extravagance of eating out (something we never did back home).
One year during our journey, my youngest brother did something completely out of character for his normally compliant nature. Despite a tight budget and strict instructions to the contrary, James defiantly placed the same order every time we stopped to eat. “I’ll have what Dad is having,” he would insist. Apparently, my little brother had noticed that the plate of food placed in front of our father always looked a lot more appealing than the one typically placed in front of him. That was all it took. From then on, all he wanted was what our father was having. At five years of age, my little brother didn’t know much, but he knew that anything Dad ordered would be better than what he knew to order off the Kiddie Menu. Genius!
If only we were that smart about what we desired in life. If we were, we would stop setting our hearts on things that are certain to disappoint us and start dreaming of things that promise to bring lasting satisfaction. We would forget about the Kiddie Menu, where the portions and satisfaction are limited, and turn instead to God. We would ask our Heavenly Father to do the ordering for us, trusting that His choices would be bigger, better and more satisfying. We would order what He was having—not mere happiness, but blessedness!
This is precisely the prescription we find in the Beatitudes. Rather than calling us to desire less, Jesus calls us to desire more. Rather than asking us to let go of our dreams, Jesus exhorts us to dream bigger. Rather than expecting us to be satisfied with mere happiness, Jesus invites us to experience what it is to be blessed. Happiness is what we order for ourselves, while blessedness is what we get when we let God order for us.
I Can't Get No Satisfaction
In 1965, during the Rolling Stones fourth tour of the United States, guitarist Keith Richards suddenly sat up in bed one night at the Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida, turned on a tape recorder, and played what Newsweek magazine would later call, “five notes that changed the world.” (Play song intro) It’s the introduction to what would become the band’s first number one hit in the United States and eventually land as the #1 song on VH1’s “100 Greatest Rock and Roll Songs of All Time” list. “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” Interestingly enough, the lyrics were written as a commentary on American society.
Keith Richards and Mick Jagger – international icons of excess – were so struck by the sheer volume of American marketing that they felt compelled to write a song about it. We are the single most consumer centered culture of all time - We are absolutely insatiable.
But Jesus promises that we will be satisfied…when we are hungry and thirsty for the right things. When you are so anxious for God that it hurts deep in your belly, you are on the right path. There is nothing on earth that can satisfy this hunger – because it is a hunger for the holy. It is an emptiness which opens the door for the filling of God’s Holy Spirit. It is a hunger for God which allows Him to fill us to overflowing with nothing less than Himself – and He satisfies!
"I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances" (Philippians 4:11).