The Presidents’ Club – Bay of Pigs

Still reading The Presidents’ Club.  Here’s another illustration from it: John F. Kennedy inherited a really tough situation when he came into office.  Eisenhower had started plans to undermine Castro through military training for Cubans living in Guatemala.  However, the planning and preparation began to move beyond Eisenhower’s original ideas, and American involvement became deeper and more advanced.  In the transition period between presidents, the planning picked up momentum and took on a life of its own.

Kennedy came in and didn’t want to cast aside the brilliant general’s plans, but he modified the plan enough (removing air strikes, for example) that it was definitely doomed to failure – as history proved.  Along the way, he was given a LOT of bad advice by his top advisors.  However, when the Bay of Pigs Invasion turned into a tragic fiasco, Kennedy stepped up and took full responsibility.  He refused to blame Eisenhower or his advisors; he openly admitted that as president he had made the call and that he would take the blame.  Significantly, this seems to have benefited Kennedy in two ways: 1) his popularity just TWO weeks after the Bay of Pigs debacle was shown by a Gallup poll to be 83 PERCENT (p. 143 of the book), and 2) it seems (in my opinion) to have set Kennedy up for his success during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  I think manning up in the Bay of Pigs failure personally and internally prepared Kennedy to face down Khrushchev, and it might have helped Khrushchev take Kennedy seriously when he did so.

I think this is a good potential illustration for passages that deal with honest confession of sin, openly dealing with mistakes or sins you have committed, and being a responsible steward of what we’ve been entrusted with.  Some passages: Genesis 3 (as a contrast to the blame game played by Adam and Eve), Psalm 32, Psalm 51, Matthew 18, and Matthew 25:14-30 (Parable of the Talents).

The Presidents’ Club – Healing Amidst Tragedy

Still reading The Presidents’ Club.  The book talks a lot about the power of current and former presidents working together, but it also describes disunity and vitriol that has occurred between these men over the years.  One example of this took place between Truman and Eisenhower, despite the fact that they had been friends who greatly respected one another while Truman was Eisenhower’s commander-in-chief.

Truman was a Democrat, Eisenhower a Republican.  Eisenhower was immensely popular because of his heroic record during WWII.  Truman decided not to run again in 1952 and had supported Eisenhower’s candidacy before Ike’s party affiliation became public.  Even after this information was out, Truman was friendly to Ike while remaining loyal to his own party.  But several misunderstandings along the campaign trail combined with the divisive influence of Senator Joe McCarthy, with the result that the men had become bitter enemies by the time Ike’s inauguration rolled around.  The interactions between the two administrations on that day were some of the coldest and most awkward of any Inauguration Day before or since.

The bitter, very public relations between the two men continued all throughout Eisenhower’s eight-year presidency and into the Kennedy administration.  That is, until November 22, 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated.  Tragedy changed everything, and the grievances of the past seemed to pale in comparison with the events of that day.  On the day of Kennedy’s funeral, Ike overheard that Truman, for some reason, did not have a vehicle to transport him to the service.  He quickly reached out to Truman and offered for the two men and their wives to ride together – an invitation Truman accepted.  At the end of that very long, very difficult day, the Eisenhower’s were dropping off the Truman’s and were about to drive back to their farm in Gettysburg, when Truman turned back to the car and said to the Eisenhower’s, “How about coming in for a drink?”  They accepted, and with these two small actions in the wake of a national tragedy, a great presidential healing took place.  The two families spent the afternoon together, eating, drinking coffee, and genuinely enjoying one another’s company.  The bitterness never returned.

 

I’ve given a lot of detail here, but that’s probably because it was a story I was unfamiliar with and really loved learning.  I’m guessing most of your sermon audience would feel the same way.  This could be used to illustrate Habakkuk 3:17-19, Romans 5:3-5, Romans 8:18, Romans 8:28, Ephesians 3:13, 2 Timothy 1:8, James 1:2-4, and 1 Peter 2:19, along with other passages that speak of God growing us and bringing about good in the midst of evil.  I think the story could also illustrate passages that talk about Christians comforting those who are hurting and doing ministry in the midst of crisis, because it demonstrates the human tendency to be open to true change when given a new perspective through tragedy and suffering.  In the midst of suffering, we have opportunities to show Christ’s love.  Example passages of this: Job 1, Job 2, Job 3, Psalm 23:4, Ecclesiastes 4:1, Isaiah 61:1-3, Matthew 25:31-46, Romans 12:15, 2 Corinthians 1, and 2 Corinthians 7.  This story could probably also be used for some passages that deal with bitterness, forgiveness, and reconciliation, too – like Matthew 18:15-20 and Hebrews 12:15.

Top 5 Deathbed Regrets

My wife sent me this article today, written by a palliative nurse, who lists the top 5 regrets people have revealed to her on their deathbeds.  She says these are the 5 most common, although it is unclear to me whether she actually tabulated the regrets given to her and came up with this statistical result.  That doesn’t really blunt the power of the article, though.

I think any of the five or perhaps all five could be used as part of any sermon dealing with life and death (Mark 8:36), the brevity of life (James 4:13-17), or having an eternal perspective (Psalm 39).  Below are her five, with other passages that could be used with each one.  I think it would be ok to use just one in a sermon.  You could say something like, “A palliative nurse compiled the 5 most common deathbed regrets, and one of the five dealt with exactly what we’re talking about.  It was ______.”

Here are the five:

1)  I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. [In this case, I’m thinking of it more like: “I wish I had lived a life true to God’s calling, instead of letting peer pressure or the world influence me as much as they did.”  The REAL life lived true to ourselves is the one lived in line with the purpose for which God made us.]

Daniel 3, Acts 5:29

2) I wish I didn’t work so hard.

Matthew 6:19-21, Matthew 6:24-34, Mark 8:36

3) I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

Ephesians 4:15, James 3

4) I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Proverbs 18:24, Acts 20 (Paul’s closeness with the Ephesian believers), 2 Timothy 4:9-18

5) I wish that I had let myself be happier.

John 10:10, Philippians 4

 

By the way, you could also use this whole article as a contrast between the author’s this-worldly understanding of “happiness” (which seems to end when someone achieves “peace” and then dies) and the Bible’s infinitely deeper, eternal joy in the presence of Christ.  That would work with Matthew 25, Revelation 5, Revelation 21, Revelation 22, and plenty of others.   [I write all these references out so that they will show up when people search on particular texts.  I’m still trying to figure out how to make tag searches work like I want them to.]

Chandler: Human History from Heaven’s Perspective

In his book To Live is Christ, to Die is Gain, Matt Chandler makes a great statement about how, once we are in heaven, history will be rewritten for us: “The day will come – perhaps today – when you will die and see all of history being effectively rewritten from the halls of heaven.  The annals of history will not be filled with wars and kings; there will be one story, the heroes will be missionaries, and the victor will be seen clearly as Christ.  Knowing this, who cares if friends or enemies mock you?  Do not be ‘frightened in anything by your opponents’ (Phil. 1:28).  Be willing to get on a plane and go to dangerous places.  Be willing to take the pay cut at work to do what’s right.  Be willing, no matter who your opponent is, to be fearless.”

Chandler is illustrating Philippians 1:27-28 here.  I pictured history being rewound and then replayed for me, and most of the moments that I thought were big didn’t even show up in the footage, and tons of moments that I didn’t even know about loomed large in God’s TRUE version of human history.

 

This thought is helpful for Philippians 1 as Chandler uses it, but also would work with passages about suffering like Matthew 5 (esp.  verses 10-12), Romans 8 (verse 18), 2 Corinthians 11, or 2 Corinthians 12.  Also, it fits with any of the passages about Christian martyrs, like Acts 7 or 12.  You could also use it with missions-oriented passages like Matthew 28 or Acts 1, or passages that speak to the perspective of earthly approval/fame vs. your soul/eternal rewards – like Matthew 16 (verse 26 in particular), Matthew 25 (esp. verse 31 and following), Revelation 20, or Revelation 22.

The Songhai of West Africa

Found this in the International Mission Board‘s 10th edition of a prayer guide called “Loving the Lost of the Word Through Prayer.” I can’t find a PDF of it online, but you can order it for free here.  It’s a good resource to order in bulk and distribute to your church to get them thinking and praying missionally.

The Songhai of West Africa, descendants of an old African empire, don’t sing – they think that singing is the work of slaves.  Missionaries are working to reach them, so that the song of Christ may fill their hearts.

The miracle of the gospel leads us to worship through song – there’s a surface-level illustration here.  But not only that, the belief of the Songhai that singing is for slaves is interesting.  Essentially, from the Christian perspective, they’re right; we are slaves to Christ, and we sing in joyful acknowledgement of the slavery that has truly set us free.

 

I think this could illustrate these (and, of course, plenty more) passages: Matthew 25, Romans 6, Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Peter 2, Ephesians 6, Galatians 5