“'Cause They Don’t Know the Difference”

In the movie “The American President,” (1995) a scene takes place in the Oval Office involving President Shepherd, played by Michael Douglas, and his aide Lewis Rothschild, played by Michael J. Fox. They are in a heated discussion about the president’s poll numbers and what is happening on the political landscape. As you read this you must remember that there is music appropriate for the intensity of the situation.

 

Lewis: "People want leadership. And in the absence of genuine leadership, they will listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership, Mr. President. They're so thirsty for it, they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand."

Shepard: "Lewis, we've had Presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand, 'cause they're thirsty, Lewis. They drink it 'cause they don't know the difference."

 

I have always loved this exchange and even used it in a sermon. I think it relates to the state of the church currently and the seemingly steep decline the church has suffered in recent years. It does help to explain certain aspects of this most recent election and the condition of the church here in America.

 

We all know people who are living the Waylon Jennings song:

  

I was looking for love in all the wrong places

Looking for love in too many faces

Searching your eyes, looking for traces

Of what.. I'm dreaming of...

 

These people are seeking to find something fulfilling in life but don’t seem to know where to look. Too many are trying to find it in the bottom of an alcohol or pill bottle or some other recreational drug. And when that doesn’t work, they numb themselves in other drugs and alcohol. The recent trend of people seeking institutional rehabilitation for drug abuse is due to prescription drugs. Now that Colorado has legalized (decriminalized not legalized my son tells me) marijuana, you have to wonder how many people will be taking their vacations there to really check out after they check in. This new law could help the restaurant business and may offer munchies hour that would really be happy! In today’s culture, this is the sand that people are drinking because they don’t know the difference. The church has been complicit in this downward spiral. In fact, the church has been dining on sand too. We – by this am I making a huge generalization about the church and not referring to any specific congregation or denomination – have not presented the gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that answers the problems in people’s lives. Trying to pinpoint the cause of this would take too long to write here. But the main culprit is a lack of biblical knowledge, insight and application.

 

The Bible speaks throughout of the human condition and the simple solution to that condition. Nowadays, too many people view sin – missing the mark; not living up to the standards that God has set – as passé, out-of-date, irrelevant. Most people feel they should get a slap on the wrist and have most of their sins decriminalized. They have not broken the big “10” so anything else is just a misdemeanor. They fail to see how their actions or inactions violate any precept of God. They are unaware that Jesus reduced the Ten Commandments down to two and that, in doing so, expanded their application more broadly. I always chuckle at the joke about the elderly women who approached her priest and said: “I may be a lot of things but I am NOT a manifold sinner.” “Manifold sinner” is a term used in one of the confession prayers in one of the many previous Books of Common Prayer. The priest replied, “Let’s go talk to your husband!” There are two things certain for all human beings: sin and death.

 

If people knew how to use the Bible I am sure that our culture would not be in such decline. The psalms particularly speak to the problem of eating sand. Psalm 63 states: “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Any person who has accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior knows that Jesus is the answer to this problem. He said in John 4:13: “but whoever drinks the water I give him will never be thirsty again. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” This is just one example of the Bible pointing to Jesus as the answer to life’s most important questions.

 

I know people who will question my trust in a book that was written so long ago. And no matter how hard J.K. Rowling tried through her “Harry Potter” series, or any other book or series for that matter, they still cannot outsell the Bible. So, why is the Bible so important?

 

As an Anglican I believe what the traditions of our denomination have said about the Bible. In the “Articles of Religion”, otherwise known as the “39 Articles,” it is stated that “Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation.” There are no other volumes or tomes needed. The Book of Mormon, the Qur’an, Think and Grow Rich, the Kama Sutra, The Little Red Book from Chairman Mao, or any other work is useless in comparison to the Holy Bible. There is no need for Dianetics or Psycho-Cybernetics, just Jesus and the Bible. Another reason for seeking answers in the Bible is listed in “An Outline of the Faith commonly called the Catechism.” This is a question and answer document about many foundational principles of the faith. On the topic of the Holy Scriptures one of the questions is: “Why do we call the Holy Scriptures the Word of God?” It is answered as follows: “We call them the Word of God because God inspired their human authors and because God still speaks to us through the Bible.” There is the answer. If God, the creator of the universe from the smallest particle to largest galaxy, and us too, speaks through the Bible, why would we look elsewhere for answers? Like Mao or Napoleon Hill knows more about life and living than the Lord God Almighty! In the Bible we encounter the answers to every pressing issue we may encounter on our journey here on earth. We don’t have to drink sand and think it is water. We can go to the source of living water and drink and be satisfied. I am still at a loss to think that people would actually think sand could be tasty and beneficial. I have eaten my share of sand at the beach – swimming in the usually mild Gulf of Mexico after a hurricane makes sand eating a more likely prospect – and it doesn’t taste good. It only makes you thirstier. We, the church, have something better than sand. We have something that could never be mistaken for sand except if we ourselves accept it as a viable alternative. We need to let people see the difference, know the difference. That difference is Jesus! Then, and only then, will they be able to seek after the true living water and not settle for a mirage of water known as sand. Go ahead and read the Bible again for the first time. Try it, you’ll like it. Jesus will quench your thirst because he is the Lord of Life.