“Oh, God!”
is one movie (1977) I could see 1000 times and still be laughing. John Denver and George Burns were marvelous
together. The movie was about God coming
to earth to give the message that He gave us the world and what is in it and
that it’s up to us to make it work (with His grace through faith, hope, and
love). When God (Burns) appears to assistant
grocery store manager Jerry Landers (Denver) as a good-natured old man, the
Almighty selects him as His messenger for the modern world. As I imagine any ordinary man would react,
Landers is overwhelmed to the edge of panic when he realizes he is, in fact
meeting God and having to spread His message.
God suggests to Landers that he shave while they talk to calm himself
down by doing something ordinary. In
that action, Landers is no longer afraid of God or His mission, and his courage
becomes almost unshakable from that point on, as he takes on all sorts of
skeptics and persecutions. It’s one of
my favorite scenes from the movie, and the one I remember most for it’s simplicity.
This movie (and this particular shaving scene) came to my thoughts as I contemplated two real-life ordinary men, one a fisherman and
the other a Pharisee and a tentmaker. Two
ordinary men who recognized that God had called them to be something greater
than they thought themselves to be. Two
ordinary men who had courage to speak the truth that was spoken to them through
Christ. They endured many hardships and
trials for their words and actions and yet they kept on believing in the truth
that dwelt in their hearts.
How could
ordinary men come to do extraordinary things?
“The angel said to Peter, ‘Put on your
belt and your sandals’. He did so. Then
he said to him, ‘Put on your cloak and follow me.’” (Acts 12: 1-11)
Even in
prison Saint Peter didn’t give up hope in Jesus Christ. He listened and followed the angel out of the
prison. The angel had to awaken him from
his sleep. If Peter was asleep he
certainly wasn’t afraid of the trial that was to take place the next day. The passion that he felt in his heart, about
who he had spent three years following and all that he had seen Jesus Christ do
for others, must have been a source of his hope and courage. He was open to the possibility that Jesus was
the Messiah and confirmed it when Jesus asked him “Who
do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16: 13 -19).
Saint Paul
was also in prison and didn’t fear death. He knew that he had completed what Christ had
called him to do for the proclamation of the Kingdom. He wrote, “I have competed
well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4: 6-18)
Paul was
passionate about his faith to the point of persecuting the first Christians. Then Jesus caught his attention with a flash
of light and a bit of a humbling fall to the ground. A “snap out of it” moment. He would carry the message of Christ to the
Gentiles beyond Jerusalem to the end of the world, at that time the Roman
world. Again, his passion came from the
truth that dwelt in his heart and he wasn’t afraid to recognize it and act upon
it.
Just like
Jerry Landers, Saint Peter, and Saint Paul, each of us are called to become
something greater than what we think we are. This can only occur through faith, prayer,
hope, discernment, and trust in Christ.
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