Finding Nemo and God's alien work

'Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me,

"Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant."'
(Jer 1:9-10)

Would you describe that as a good summary of the work of God and the work of his ambassadors?

I can think of a whole host of reasons why you wouldn't. Some better than others.

But I am convinced that God doesn't just work through 'good news', but through 'bad news' as well. Equally I'm convinced that God doesn't lay on the 'good news' so he can later catch you with the 'bad news' or that the 'bad news' is hidden within the 'good news'. Instead I believe God always works his alien work of 'bad news' in order to do his proper work of declaring 'good news'.

This is the pattern of all God's saving work in this fallen world.

If we reflect I think we can see this in our own experience and in profound pieces of art like this scene from Finding Nemo:

Ultimately though we see it the story of the crucifiction and resurrection of Christ.

David Zahl in this 14min reflection on Jeremiah 1:10, draws on the scene from Finding Nemo and episodes from real life to show that God really is present in his alien work, despite how alien that thought first appears. I encourage you to listen to it.

This is how he ends his sermon, summing up "the message of grace":

Heavenly Father we thank you for this message. Lord, we pray that where we need to be torn down that you would overthrow us and overpower our controlling tendencies. Lord we pray also in the places where we are torn down and bereft and tired and depressed and lonely that you would build and plant just as you have done ultimately in your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.

A few things to like about David Zahl:

• He likes people;
• He understands people;
• He likes pop culture;
• He uses pop-culture well;
• He's Evangelical-Lutheran-Episcopalian, which has to be rare;
• And most importantly he understands why Pixar make the best films.