sermonette: Beneath the Surface
Finding the Hidden Meaning in our 'Small' Decisions
Hunter D. Swanson
Given 20-Dec-25; Sermon #1851s; 14 minutes
The tragedy of the Titanic is maybe one of the most well-known incidents of the 20th century. It has inspired many books, movies, and ventures into the deep, dark blue of the Atlantic to explore the wreckage, and you do not have to look very far to see why. As soon as you start to look into it, you can find evidence and historically based opinions that suggest the ship hardly stood a chance. From its construction to its operation to the weather, most aspects seem to be against the RMS Titanic's success. While it is easy to suggest that the loss of 1500 lives was due to a lack of enough lifeboats for each passenger or the suggested poor quality materials were the reason for the ship's demise, the story becomes a little more interesting when you zoom out. For anyone who may not know, the Titanic was not the only ship built of its caliber. It was one of three Olympic class ocean liners built between 1908 and 1915 by the White Star Company, with the other two being the Olympic and the Britannic. The Olympic was the first to be built with the 3 and was a grand success, going on its maiden voyage without a problem. It continued doing well, was even used for World War 1. According to an article on history.co.uk, the Olympic was requisition for use as a troop carrier, a role she played for the rest of the war, safely transporting an estimated 210,000 British, Canadian, and American troops across the Mediterranean in the Atlantic, earning her the nickname Old Reliable, unquote. The last of the 3 ships to be built, the Britannic, was requisitioned to be used as a hospital ship and was successfully used for 3 trips until it met its end during a 4th trip when it struck a mine, not an iceberg, ultimately sinking the vessel. See, the Titanic hitting an iceberg was a bit of an unusual incident and one that places more emphasis on the iceberg than the Titanic itself. The Olympic, also known as Old Reliable, even continued after the war, quoting the article again, quote, After a post-war refit, the last remaining sister returned to life on the Atlantic. Over the next 15 years, Olympic carried thousands of passengers as she made her way backwards and forwards between Europe and the United States, unquote. And the Olympic even survived, to my knowledge, 4 collisions. With one of those collisions sinking a German submarine. Meanwhile, the Titanic could not even survive its maiden voyage against some extra cold water. And all this information is interesting on its own, but when everything is put together, I would say it's fair to conclude that the problem with the Titanic, for all its possible faults, was primarily with the iceberg, not the ship. Of course the ship and its operators could have contributed to the disaster, and for being honest, likely did, but all it took was a single perfect collision with something that was seemingly small on the surface to cause it to sink. And just like an iceberg, I believe we tend to ignore what lies beneath the surface within ourselves all the time. How many of you have heard the phrase the whole is greater than the sum of its parts? Coined by Aristotle is a great way to quickly get across the point that a completed product is of far more value and purpose than the individual components that make up that product. If we consider our nautical vessels that we started with, we could say that the rudder of a ship and the rest of the ship itself can be fantastic creations, but without the ship, the rudder has nothing to steer, and without the rudder, the ship cannot move in more than a single direction. Sounds like a pretty bad boat to me. Ensure we have the value of what the parts are, but when combined, we then have a vessel that can turn and function in many important ways, which is far more valuable than just a steerless ship in a shipless rudder. Now let's make this a little more personal. Consider ourselves as the product. For example, we may think our pinky finger is relatively useless, unless you're a jack. Definitely need that. But our bodies operate at its strongest when everything is in unison and whole. If we lost our pinky finger, we might be grateful that we still have most of our hands. But the reality is our hand would no longer be whole, and thus we could operate as if it still were. And of course the same applies spiritually to our Christian lives. As Cody mentioned last week,
Christmas is coming up, and it's pretty hard to ignore. It's all around our culture and it's the most wonderful time of the year for many. And with Christmas being so deeply ingrained in our cultures, it can have more of an influence on us than we may care to admit. Not every aspect of Christmas has to be harmful. For example, my wife and I find a lot of the lights that are set up within trees and along roof lines around this time of year are beautiful. I just wish it was not just this month. And sure, we may think some of it is harmless, but is it really? What if we do not realize it and some of these things start influencing us more than we initially thought. Maybe we go from, I hate this holiday, that is a twisted manipulation of our savior to, yeah, I do not celebrate it, but I like the lights, the sales, sales at the stores are nice, and people are much nicer this time of year, so I do not mind it. And let me at least add, I'm not making any specific accusations to anyone, just presenting a thought exercise. It may sound trivial, but the product of drifting can be made up of little things beneath the surface like these. I think it becomes a lot less trivial as well when those that we are close to that do not share our beliefs are involved. When I think of the most difficult situations to hold my ground and not let the little things slide, I think of some of my extended family. I've gotten a lot better in recent years, but I can't tell you how much pressure I felt in the past to just give in when I'm around those that I respect and have known my whole life, but who do not share my
faith. Just by being in their presence, I have even felt borderline ashamed at my own faith at times purely out of the fear of the incoming difficult questions or circumstances. In the moment I thought I was just trying to avoid conflict, but beneath the surface, sometimes it was actually shame and the fear of standing out. And being fine with the things like plain Christmas lights can be harmless, harmless, but if we are not careful, they can, emphasis can lead us to letting the wrong thing slide, ultimately affecting us in our faith as a whole. When we begin to remove or detach parts of the product, in this case, the little choices and thoughts that we make up how we pursue the truth, our lives in service to
God and Christ can become less valuable. Believe it or not, it can lead so much so to the point of betraying our faith like Judas Iscariot where never being born would have been better than betraying Christ. And I know that might sound a little intense, but let's remember that everything we say, think and do is being monitored and is under judgment from God. If you would turn with me for our first scripture to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. Just pick up two verses here. verses 12 and 13. Hebrews 4 chapter 12. For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. But the saying, do what is right even when no one is looking is often used as a motivation to do the right thing, and that's great. But as we just read, someone is always looking, and that someone is God, and I think that tends to escape us. Every single decision makes up the whole of who we are and like the parts of an iceberg underwater, we tend to neglect, ignore, or at least undervalue some of these things. When we arrive at our judgment and Christ asks us why we let the little things slip, do we think he'll accept as an answer, I did not think it mattered, or I was scared. I'm willing to bet he wouldn't be too thrilled. Uh, if we, if you do not mind, actually, another scripture if you turn me to Mark chapter 7. I know we were just in Hebrews, but I want to look at some of the hidden possible dangers behind our personal carnal judgments and inclinations. So Mark chapter 7, read a decent little bit here. I want to read verses 5 through 7, and then we will jump down and read verses 14 through 23. Mark chapter 7, verse 5. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands? He answered and said to them, Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites. As it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Down to verse 14, when he had called all the multitude to himself, he said to them, Hear me, everyone, and understand. There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him. But the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Verse 17. When he had entered a house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. So he said to them, Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him because it does not enter his heart but his stomach and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods? And he said, What comes out of a man that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts,
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man. I say it's a pretty extensive list there, and Christ does not hold back really any punches about the necessity to be careful, cautious, and watchful of what comes out of us. All these evil things and evil thoughts can come out of us much more easily than we are likely willing to admit. It's easy to let one or two seemingly simple things slide here and there, but very quickly a snowball can turn into an avalanche. And circling back to icebergs just for a moment, I want to touch on iceberg theory. Quoting an article from Hunting Muse.net, quote, The iceberg theory, also known as the theory of omission, is when a story's deeper meaning lies beneath the surface, with only a small part shown through dialogue and action. By omitting details, what remains unsaid becomes as significant as what is said, allowing readers to infer meanings in the text, unquote. Hemingway's iceberg theory is often a part of the most impactful stories, and by understanding it, it can help us to uncover the hidden intentions behind the decisions that we make. For believe it or not, our actions can have hidden meanings behind them in the same way that a well-told story emits key details that are equally as important to the ones that are explicitly stated. Consider for a moment Christ's relationship with the Father. We read about Christ praying in so many miraculous things, but between the lines, and sometimes in the lines, is that Christ was praying constantly and working with God, doing his part to maintain the relationship because he knew truth and power belonged to God. He did not pray just so that there were records that exist in the Bible, and we can of course tell this by how Christ talked about prayer. He knew how powerful it was and where power belonged, and he told the disciples that when asked in His name that they could have anything they asked if it was according to
God's will, and he let them see fulfillments of prayer like withering of the fig tree and various miracles. And I would say Paul would not have said that it is the will of God in Christ for us that we pray without ceasing and are thankful in everything if it was not so clear. Say we then should strive to live our lives in a way so that when someone sees us, they can read between the lines and see that we truly do
love God and are trying to live the way He wants us to, as Jared Wrightitenbaugh said a few weeks ago, lights aren't loud, they are bright. And I will not turn there, but remembering our warning in Hebrews 2:1 is always important as we continue considering being prudent in handling the small things, and Cody and David were here just last week, so I'll just read it. It says, therefore we must give the earnest heed, more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. Do we truly consider the reality that when we let the little things slide, we might be giving in to the pressures of
Satan,
this world, and our human nature, letting ourselves very slowly open up the door to drifting away. If you turn with me to our last scripture in 2 Timothy. Please, II Timothy chapter 3. Excuse me, chapter one. II Timothy chapter 1. beneath every decision or intention are thoughts and emotions that we have, even if we do not realize it. Beneath saying you too, or thank you to someone's Merry Christmas, for example, because you do not want to be rude, could actually be a tiny seed of doubt or shame. Again, I'm not accusing anyone of this, but I urge you to consider even the most outlandish of possibilities because Satan will definitely take advantage of something like this, even without our awareness in the blink of an eye. II Timothy chapter 1, read verse 8, and then we will jump down to 13 and 14, verse 8. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me as prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for
the gospel according to the power of God. Verse 13, hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me in faith and the love which are in Christ
Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you. Keep by the
Holy Spirit which dwells in us. Our emotions can fool our reasoning if we have not worked to properly calibrate our reactions and even then. And so maybe we feel like we just do not want to upset someone, but at times that can be at the cost of giving up one of the many small things of our faith. This gets even more difficult when we are dealing with close friends or family, as I mentioned earlier, not just when we were checking out at the grocery store. As David pointed to last week, we cannot afford to let our shame of
sin and evil shift to shame of what is good and true. Validating Christmas for someone can mean we consider the possibility that even a portion of it is right or at least tolerable, and that opens a very dangerous door. I'm not saying we should be jerks to everyone we disagree with, but we can simply smile, redirect the conversation, or even not say anything rather than validate someone's sinful holiday and allow ourselves to slip. So we must not let ourselves become ashamed of our faith in the true Lord and King. And like the iceberg that sunk the Titanic, what we see or show of ourselves at the top is just a glimpse of what is actually there. We must understand that everything we say, think and do makes up who we are and what we believe, and more often than not, even when we think something doesn't matter, it most likely does. We cannot afford to ignore the little things, the seemingly small or inconsequential decisions we make and the thoughts we have. Especially around this time of year, if we only focus on the big ticket items that seem to fall in line with everyone around us, we miss the necessary details. So do not let yourself focus on what we might consider just the big things in life, because really that's just the tip of the iceberg.