Dirty Jobs -- FPC sermon excerpt
He has waded through sewers, peeled roadkill, moved houses, castrated horses, and cleaned up monumental septic explosions. He does the kind of jobs that I couldn’t bear to do, although I know how important they are. You might not think that many people would want him in their living room, but in fact they love to see him — 700 times a year.
His name is Mike Rowe, and he’s the star of the cable TV show Dirty Jobs.
Rowe has tried his hand at more than 165 of the dirtiest and most disgusting jobs being done today. He serves slop to pigs, removes bones from fish, hunts plagues of vermin, and sloshes around in sewers — sometimes vomiting on camera. He gets coached by the people who do these jobs for a living, and he gets mocked by them as well. Unlike most reality-TV shows, it is the star of Dirty Jobs who ends up the butt of the jokes.
And a star he is. According to Fast Company magazine (February 2008), Rowe is swarmed by autograph seekers at airports, photographed by camera phones in coffee shops, and surrounded by dirty jobbers everywhere. Said as waitress in South Carolina, as Rowe was signing autographs, “My family owns a sewer business!”
You can be proud of your sewer business when you are in the presence of Mike Rowe.
People absolutely love the guy. Women adore his craggy good looks, and guys admit that they have “man crushes” on this star who is willing to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty. Walking down a street in New York, Rowe got a shout-out from both a cop and the criminal who was handcuffed in his cruiser. Together, they said, “Man, you’re awesome!”
But there is something going on here that goes deeper than good looks and dirty hands. Mike Rowe has real curiosity about challenging jobs, and deep respect for the men and women who do them. The show sends a powerful message, says journalist Ellen McGirt: “There’s dignity in hard work, expertise in unexpected places, and deep satisfaction in tackling and finishing a tough job.”
That’s a message we need to hear today.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Peter walks up to Jesus and says, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus answers, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times” (18:21-22).
Forgiveness. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it. And, according to Jesus, they’ve got to do it again and again and again and again — seventy-seven times. To make matters worse, the word used by Jesus to describe this extravagant forgiveness can also be translated “seventy times seven,” which would end up totaling 490 times.
By comparison, sloshing around in a sewer doesn’t seem so bad.
Jesus is calling us to roll up our sleeves and do some very demanding work. In our justice-oriented world, we have the expectation that insults are going to be followed by apologies and crimes are going to be followed by punishments. But Jesus turns this system upside-down by saying, “Just forgive!” Notice that Jesus doesn’t even expect the sinner to repent or make amends. Forgive them, orders Jesus — “not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times” (v. 22). Maybe 490 times. Point is, your forgiveness should be beyond calculation.
Well … that stinks, doesn’t it? Enduring hundreds of hurts, and then offering hundreds of expressions of forgiveness. Sounds about as pleasant as what Mike Rowe goes through every week — getting seasick in eel boats, attacked by monkeys, and lowered into storm drains.
It’s a dirty job.
Now some of you will object to this open-ended approach to forgiveness, saying that it turns Christians into doormats … that it fails to hold sinners accountable … that it invites abusers to continue their abuse. You’ve got a point, and it’s hard to imagine that Jesus wants us to throw justice completely out the window. But still he says, “Forgive.” Not just seven times, but dozens or even hundreds of times. Jesus is saying that forgiveness is at the heart of life in the church — it creates a distinctively merciful community.
His name is Mike Rowe, and he’s the star of the cable TV show Dirty Jobs.
Rowe has tried his hand at more than 165 of the dirtiest and most disgusting jobs being done today. He serves slop to pigs, removes bones from fish, hunts plagues of vermin, and sloshes around in sewers — sometimes vomiting on camera. He gets coached by the people who do these jobs for a living, and he gets mocked by them as well. Unlike most reality-TV shows, it is the star of Dirty Jobs who ends up the butt of the jokes.
And a star he is. According to Fast Company magazine (February 2008), Rowe is swarmed by autograph seekers at airports, photographed by camera phones in coffee shops, and surrounded by dirty jobbers everywhere. Said as waitress in South Carolina, as Rowe was signing autographs, “My family owns a sewer business!”
You can be proud of your sewer business when you are in the presence of Mike Rowe.
People absolutely love the guy. Women adore his craggy good looks, and guys admit that they have “man crushes” on this star who is willing to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty. Walking down a street in New York, Rowe got a shout-out from both a cop and the criminal who was handcuffed in his cruiser. Together, they said, “Man, you’re awesome!”
But there is something going on here that goes deeper than good looks and dirty hands. Mike Rowe has real curiosity about challenging jobs, and deep respect for the men and women who do them. The show sends a powerful message, says journalist Ellen McGirt: “There’s dignity in hard work, expertise in unexpected places, and deep satisfaction in tackling and finishing a tough job.”
That’s a message we need to hear today.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Peter walks up to Jesus and says, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus answers, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times” (18:21-22).
Forgiveness. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it. And, according to Jesus, they’ve got to do it again and again and again and again — seventy-seven times. To make matters worse, the word used by Jesus to describe this extravagant forgiveness can also be translated “seventy times seven,” which would end up totaling 490 times.
By comparison, sloshing around in a sewer doesn’t seem so bad.
Jesus is calling us to roll up our sleeves and do some very demanding work. In our justice-oriented world, we have the expectation that insults are going to be followed by apologies and crimes are going to be followed by punishments. But Jesus turns this system upside-down by saying, “Just forgive!” Notice that Jesus doesn’t even expect the sinner to repent or make amends. Forgive them, orders Jesus — “not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times” (v. 22). Maybe 490 times. Point is, your forgiveness should be beyond calculation.
Well … that stinks, doesn’t it? Enduring hundreds of hurts, and then offering hundreds of expressions of forgiveness. Sounds about as pleasant as what Mike Rowe goes through every week — getting seasick in eel boats, attacked by monkeys, and lowered into storm drains.
It’s a dirty job.
Now some of you will object to this open-ended approach to forgiveness, saying that it turns Christians into doormats … that it fails to hold sinners accountable … that it invites abusers to continue their abuse. You’ve got a point, and it’s hard to imagine that Jesus wants us to throw justice completely out the window. But still he says, “Forgive.” Not just seven times, but dozens or even hundreds of times. Jesus is saying that forgiveness is at the heart of life in the church — it creates a distinctively merciful community.
posted by Henry Brinton | 12:41 PM
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