Christ Church Sermon, Uno: Unexpected Hand, Unshakable Faith, August 16, 2026

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Park, Pennsylvania. We're a United

[music] Methodist congregation with the

mission of building inclusive community,

sharing Christ's transforming [music]

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including how you can join us for

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visit christyouumc.net.

Thank you for listening.

Today's scripture is from James 1:es

2-4.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and

sisters, whenever you face trials of

many kinds because you know that the

testing of your faith produces

perseverance. Let perseverance finish

its work so that you may be mature and

complete, not lacking anything. Hear

what the spirit is saying to the church.

Thanks.

Before we talk about today's game, I

want to play a little game with you. Who

here it's it's painless. Who here has

played the game Uno before?

Okay, I'm trying to see uh you can note

that online in the chat if you've

played. Okay, lots of hands went up,

most of you. And I'm talking about the

original Uno, right? Not the 95

different versions of it, but the

original Uno. Remember, you start with

seven cards, right? Seven measly little

cards. Out of you who raised your hand

and said that you had played the game,

how many of you have at one point or

another when you're playing the game had

more than 20 cards in your hand?

All right. How about 30? Keep them up.

How about 40? All right. Well, then you

Yeah, my son has his hand up because we

play cutthroat, so I know when he's had

more. So, if you need a refresher on how

Uno works or you've managed to escape

it, since a barber invented it in

Reading, Ohio in 1971 as the answer to

Crazy Eights, because apparently his

family got too competitive playing Crazy

Eights, so he needed to create a

different game where they wouldn't kill

each other across the table. Each player

is again dealt these seven little cards

and the cards have either numbers or

symbols on them. They are in four

different colors, red, green, blue, and

yellow. And the goal is simple. Get rid

of every single one of your cards first

and you win the game. In order to play a

card when it's your turn, remember you

have to play one that matches either the

color, the number, or the symbol that's

on the card. And the fun thing about Uno

is your luck can turn on a dime. And you

can go from having one card to having

dozens of cards just like that. And that

happens because each time you go to play

and you go to play on the discard pile

that's already on the table, if you

can't match what's there, you have to

draw until you can. And just like in

every game we've talked about, I

mentioned it just a minute ago, there's

a hundred different versions of this

game. And as I was researching this

game, I found a version online and I

wanted to show you. It is called Uno

Show No Mercy Attack. So I want you to

take a look at this video and watch this

video.

No, that's not even the worst part. Hang

on. It's coming.

Give it a second.

That

This is why I use the word diabolical to

describe Uno because it seems simple,

but then all of a sudden you're playing

Uno, Show Him No Mercy. It's even in the

name, and you get 150 cards. In my

family, you just keep drawing. You get

tennis elbow until you have 75. We don't

have fancy machines. Uno is a marathon.

It's not a sprint. Sure, you can say,

"Let's play a quick game." But then, you

know, like just like we make plans and

God laughs. You know, we make plans to

play Uno and the Uno gods laugh and all

of a sudden it's 3 hours and 37 minutes

later and you're still playing. When we

play this uno marathon, we know that we

are going to face trials, things that

keep us from getting to the end as

quickly as we want to get there. And the

same is true in life. There are things

that are going to derail our plans and

change our directions. And I'm not

talking here about the big things, the

big crises. We talked last week about

finding your faith in the midst of those

events that happen and everything in

life just stops. We talked about that

last week. But today, I'm talking about

the smaller things that knock us off

course and really rattle us much more

than they should. I'm talking about

those things that get under our skin,

that drain our patience, and make us act

in ways that are opposite of what a

disciple of Jesus would do. A couple of

times just this summer alone, Pastor

Chris has talked about how our faith is

often defined and refined by the way we

handle these daily trials when we

inevitably face them. When we are able

to step back and see the big picture,

everything makes sense. But when we're

facing the daily trials, it's easy to

forget that we can use them ultimately

to build up our faith and not tear us

down. So, for instance, what about when

your plans are reversed?

Okay, very excited about that in the

front row. You know those completely

annoying days where you have everything

laid out and timed out and you can get

it all done if you can only stick to

your schedule and then everything gets

reversed. You're in line at the grocery

store and you forget your wallet. You're

about to go to an important meeting at

work and the school calls and you've got

a sick child that needs to be picked up

immediately.

You're driving your car down the road on

your way to run these errands and every

single light on your dashboard flashes

at once, meaning you have to stop at the

mechanic. All of these things seem

fairly minor, maybe not the car, but

fairly minor, but they cause you to stop

what you planned and head in a

completely different direction. And it's

upsetting and it's frustrating.

How about when you are skipped? And what

I mean by that is when you are stuck and

everyone else around you is still

playing, but you are not.

So when I first met my husband, he drove

a car that had a stick shift. And so he

thought he should and could teach me how

to drive a stick shift. He gave me some

lessons. I got okay, like never really

good, but I got okay. And then he went

away to a conference for a few days and

I drove him to the airport in my nice

automatic car and he left his stick

shift at my house and he said, "Why

don't you drive it a couple times? It'll

be fun." I got stuck twice on the same

excursion at a McDonald's that was a

mile from my house. If you want to

visualize it, it was the McDonald's on

West Liberty Avenue. I got down there, I

got in the drive-thru, and then I could

not get out. And I was inching forward

and it was like 10 minutes maybe it

wasn't 10 minutes about a minute between

each inch. So it took me almost 15

minutes to go through the drive-thru.

And I had people leaning out the pay

here window and leaning out the get your

food here window at the same time

yelling things like put it in second and

lay off the clutch like they knew I knew

what I was talking about which I didn't.

And so I finally got out of the

drive-thru and then I lived at the top

of um PTO like I lived at the top of

PTOAC Avenue. So, you know, that's like

a sheer drop. So, I have to go up from

West Liberty McDonald's and I have to

make a blind left to get to my house.

And it turns out I couldn't make a left

because the car I couldn't get the stick

shift to work. I was totally stuck. And

my roommate was with me and I'm writing

my obituary and hers in my head as I'm

trying to inch across this traffic. And

everybody's honking. They're going

around me. And we were stuck. It was

awful. The whole world was circulating

around us at McDonald's and on um in

PTOAC Avenue and we were just stuck. It

was absolutely terrible. It's terrible

to be the one who is not moving when

everything else around you is going on.

How about Oh, there we go. You didn't

see that one. It's good.

>> It's fine. We'll get it later. How about

this one? Draw two. And that's when if

you haven't had your plans reversed or

you haven't been skipped, you just have

lots of extra things piled on your

plates. That's like the last minute

science projects or the extra dinner

guests, you know, that are coming that

you didn't know about. The cut that all

of a sudden needs stitches instead of a

band-aid. Those are the things that take

the extra time and really wear your

patience. Things that you really hadn't

planned on. And then if the draw two

wasn't enough, we have the draw four.

And the draw four is where forget it,

your whole day is done because stuff

just keeps getting piled on and piled on

and piled on. There's a call from the

school saying that there's been an

incident and you need to stay there, get

there and stay there. The doctor's visit

that turns into an ambulance ride. All

of these things do not only take you off

track, but they remove the track

altogether. And then finally, there is

the wild card, which in my opinion is

the worst of all the special cards in

Uno. It seems somewhat innocuous, I

think, but it's actually really evil

because you just never know what's going

to happen. Is it going to be something

bad? Is it going to be something good?

It's going to change things. You just

don't know how. And what comes could be

something mild or something completely

devastating. And it's hard to handle.

So, how do we handle these trials that

knock us off our path and test our

faith?

James, who is the author of today's

scripture, advised the struggling

Christians to whom he was writing to

consider it pure joy when they faced

these trials.

Why would we be happy about that? Why

would we be joyful about trials?

Well, James said, "Because over time,

little by little, these trials are what

build up our faith and make us strong.

These tests, when we go through them,

even though they seem little at the

time, produce our perseverance." And

then that perseverance again over time,

allows us to become mature in our faith.

The message translation of today's

scripture says this, "Consider it a

sheer gift when tests and challenges

come at you from all sides. You know

that under pressure, your faith life is

forced into the open and shows its true

colors. So don't try to get anything out

of anything prematurely. Let it do its

work so you become mature and

well-developed, not deficient in any

way.

I love the part of that that said,

"Under pressure, your faith life is

forced into the open and shows its true

colors."

These daily trials that we experience

are what show the world who we really

are and how far we have come or not come

in our walk with Jesus. They reveal our

true character. Not just the shiny

Instagram one that we want the world to

see, but who we really are.

So, how do we get better at handling

these trials when we face them? How do

we deal with them so that we don't lose

our patience and allow them to derail

our day? And as it said in that

scripture, our faith life.

So the first thing I think we do is we

acknowledge the trials. Too many times

in life, we try to brush away

frustrations and things that happen to

us without dealing with them. And then

consequently, we ignore the tolls that

just brushing them aside can take. When

we acknowledge trials, some of the power

that they hold over us goes away. When

we voice our anger about how these

trials affect us and change us, we're

letting go of at least some of that

frustration that tends to affect our

attitudes and our actions.

So after you acknowledge the trials,

then it comes time to give the trials to

God.

The James who wrote this book and

encouraged the disciples and by

extension us was the brother of Jesus.

And back when he wrote this message, he

was well known for one particular

physical characteristic, and that was

camel knees. I had to look this up. I

didn't know this was a thing. Um, but

when you look up what a camel's knee

looks like, if you haven't, you know,

done that recently, it's a little bit

bigger than their leg above and below

it. And it has a massive callus on it

because if you know anything about

camels, that's how they get to the

ground, right? They go down on their

knees and then they um lower their

backside and that's how you get on them

and that's how they rest. So they have

these massive calluses and James was

such a man of prayer that he developed

similar calluses on his knees because he

spent so much time kneeling and praying

to God. I am not in any way encouraging

you to develop calluses. Please use a

pillow or a cushion when you pray on

your knees. But have you spent enough

time in prayer that you have given all

of your trials to God? Have you told God

about everything?

Because God wants to hear from you and

wants to help you bear your burdens, but

God wants that relationship and that

conversation.

So give your trials to God.

And then it comes time to shift your

perspective.

One of the things that you can pray for

as you're giving those trials to God is

a new perspective, an ability to see

everything differently, an opportunity

not for an annoyance or to deal with an

annoyance, but to have your faith grow

stronger.

You may remember from elementary school

science that butterflies start their

lives as caterpillars and then when it's

time for them to transform into a

butterfly, they go into this cocoon.

But what you may not know is that when

it's time for them to emerge as a

butterfly, breaking open that cocoon so

that they can fly free is not an easy

process. Butterflies actually have to

beat their wings over and over and over

again against the shell of the cocoon in

order to get it to break. They have to

struggle in order to get free.

But here's the thing about that

struggle.

going through it is the only way to get

the strength necessary in the

butterflyy's wings for it to live

outside of the cocoon. That strength is

what enables the butterfly to eventually

fi fly free. If the butterfly doesn't

struggle enough to get out of the

cocoon, then it won't have the strength

to be able to survive. It'll be too

weak. And this is what James meant when

he said to consider all of the trials to

be a joy or a gift. No one chooses those

daily tests. We talked about that last

week. No one ever chooses the hard path

if it was ever our choice.

But when you shift your perspective on

those daily trials, on those tests, you

can see them a little bit differently.

Your daily struggles can become part of

what is necessary to build your strength

and build your faith and make you into

the person that God created you to be.

And then finally, I think the fourth

fourth step, acknowledge your trials,

give them to God, shift your

perspective. Now, it's time to worship

God.

And I think that that may sound odd to

some people, like why is the fourth step

not just go and live differently? Well,

that's that's part of it, but how we

live is a direct reflection on how we

worship.

If we are half-hearted in our worship,

uncertain about God's plan and God's

provision for our lives, that's how

we're going to live. But if we have

given our trials to God and we've seen

how God can use them to make a

difference, then I think the only

response is to worship with our whole

hearts. To thank God for seeing us

through what we've already been through

and for continuing to prepare us for

what lies ahead.

to give God the praise and the glory for

being God over all and in all

circumstances.

Not just the straight and smooth paths,

but the ones that are full of the

unexpected.

Here's what James 1 verse 12 says about

James 1:12

those who are honoring God through all

circumstances.

Anyone who meets a testing challenge

headon and manages to stick it out is

mighty fortunate. For such persons

loyally in love with God, the reward is

life and more life.

For those persons loyally in love with

God. So first I want you to note that

that is active not passive. It's not

that those people who have loved God. It

is those people who are in love with God

in that relationship with God. The

reward is life and more life.

In other words, the reward is a

different and a better life here and

more life, an eternal one to come.

We are all going to have crazy days

where we have to reverse our course.

We're all going to have days where we

felt like we got skipped over and we're

stuck or we keep getting things piled on

to already full plates. We're all going

to face wild days where we have

absolutely no idea what is coming. This

is inevitable. This is life.

What is not inevitable is how we view

those days, how we view those trials and

those tests and how we handle them.

[snorts] When the true color of your

faith life is revealed

in the course of your daytoday living,

what will those colors say about you?

Let us pray.

God, we face the daily trials. We face

the temptations. We face the tests

and we struggle through them.

And we experience all the emotions

related to them.

Today we pray for strength to see them

not as annoyances but as opportunities

to grow, [music] to grow in our faith

and our trust in you. To be able to grow

into the people that you are creating us

to be. Help us to face those smaller

trials, those littleer things head on.

Help us to react as you would have us to

react so that the world around us who

watches how we handle these things knows

who we love and knows who we serve. Help

us to be the kind of people that you are

calling us to be. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. Amen.