Noisy Gongs & Clanging Cymbals

As many know, I have a lot friends outside the whole "Christian circle" thing. Becoming a pastor was probably as much a shock to the majority of my friends as it was to me at the time. Yet, despite our differences in theological belief, I appreciate these friendships on a variety of levels. One of them is, if nothing else, to keep a pulse on how Christians are viewed by many of the non-Christians of the world. Many days - it ain't pretty.

For instance, one of my friends posted the following this past Sunday on her Facebook page:

"In the retail world Sunday means...when you're done being forgiven at church, go into as many stores as possible and be the biggest jerk you can be. Seriously it has happened every single Sunday at every single retail job I've had. Today was no different....I can't even begin to list the number of people who gave me problems, attitudes and spoke to me like I was a moron while still dressed in their church clothes. I should've just told them "is this how Jesus tells you to treat people? Cuz if he does you're doing a great job.""

Sigh. Perhaps this is an argument for not having stores open on Sundays? Because Christians just tend to come out of church all cranky and annoyed? (Which, in and of itself should cause us to go, hmmm...what's wrong with that picture?)

Now arguably, Christians are not perfect people. Not by a long-shot. We sin. We screw up. We have emotions like everyone else. Sometimes our emotions get the best of us and we do and say things that are extremely un-Christian-like. It happens. No one is immune from sin and anger.

But as you can see from my friend's posting - it isn't something occasional. It's a pretty regular occurrence by an easily identifiable group of people. We're most recognizable on Sunday because many still "dress up" to go to church. It's a good thing we're looking good sitting in a pew, because we can apparently be pretty ugly everywhere else.

This highlights one of the biggest problems facing Christianity right now - the behavior of Christians. It's a basic failure to connect what happens in the worship service with what happens in daily life. It's not a new problem, by any means, but is becoming an increasingly detrimental problem when it comes to how we continue to drive people further and further away from the church.

It would seem our perceived "inness" on account of our faith has resulted in something other than expressions of joy and thanksgiving that we take out into the world, but rather, rude, demeaning, condescending behavior that reeks of the kind of class and social division that Jesus spent his entire ministry fighting against. Many Christians have seemingly become the new class of Pharisees and Sadducees. The keepers of the moral and religious codes that looked good at the synagogues and Temple, but fell short when it came to actually treating their neighbors with love and respect. Whether their neighbors were the Romans, the Samaritans, the blind, the poor, the sick and infirm, or the outcasts - the religious "ruling class" usually wanted nothing to do with these people. They hid behind purity laws to keep from getting their hands "dirty" in the work of serving their neighbor. They were a club that included only particular people. A club that Jesus had harsh words for.

My friend's posting also reminded me of a conversation I had last week with a former soldier who had returned from Afghanistan. He told me how a Muslim friend of his had walked into a church somewhere in Europe just to kind of see what this whole Christianity thing was about. He walked in - and was immediately told to leave because he wasn't "one of them." Needless to say, this Muslim now doesn't care if he ever steps foot in a Christian-based place of worship ever again.

If worship has become about being part of a club, part of us celebrating our "inness" while ignoring - or worse, demeaning and excluding - the people outside our church doors... we've missed the whole point. We've missed what it means to be a follower of Christ. As both the prophet Amos and the Apostle Paul point out:

I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! (Amos 5)

 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13)

Faith is more than just professing what one believes. It is more than just showing up at church on Sunday mornings. Faith is a way of life. It is transformative. God's grace and love active in our lives means we live different lives. It's how we interact with the people and world around us. While worship services and religious ceremonies are an important part of one's faith life (worship is where we're fed and God's word and promises continue to be delivered to us) by themselves, they accomplish nothing if loving one's neighbor is not an integral part of that faith life. I can have all the faith in the world, as Paul points out, but if that faith does not move me to loving action - then what good is it? As James states, "Faith without works is dead." No, this is not works righteousness. It is about what faith actually entails. It's about what faith "looks" like. It's about what faith "is," and when faith doesn't involve caring about the things that concerned Jesus most, then what sort of faith is it?

"Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock." (Matthew 7)

A lot of things get done in the "name of Christ," yet as this scripture points out, simply because you do things "in the name of Christ" doesn't mean you are actually a follower of Christ. Loving your neighbor, helping the poor and needy, breaking down class, social, racial, ethnic, and gender barriers - these were the things that concerned Jesus. Jesus never stated that the world will know we are his disciples by how much we try to "protect the sanctity of marriage," or how often we hold up signs telling the world who and what God hates. Rather, Jesus stated: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13)

Are Christians perfect? By no means. Do they always do the right thing? Of course not. Do Christians still sin? Have bad days? Not always act like they're supposed to? Focus on the wrong things at times? Sure. We're human. The Gospel message is that we are indeed forgiven of our flaws and sins. That all fall short.

That said, forgiveness is not a license to behave the way we do at times. It is not a license to treat the people around you - especially strangers - rudely or with disdain. How we carry ourselves matters. How we treat other people matters. Not because it's what "saves us from hell," but because the message that we have been entrusted with sharing, the love and freedom of God in Christ, is not being heard. People are watching and what we say and do in our day to day lives speaks as loudly as what we profess.  Actually - it speaks louder. As what we profess many times winds up sounding like its own form of judgment rather than a message of freedom, mercy, and grace.

If you ask non-Christians what they think of Christians, "loving people," is not usually what comes to mind.

And that's a problem.

Because that means people don't hear the gospel. They hear our judgmentalism. They hear our "righteous anger" over moral issues. They hear our disdain over God being removed from public venues. They hear us bicker and fight among each other over doctrine, worship styles, and social issues. As Paul says - without love, this is all just a noisy gong and clanging cymbal in the ears of a culture that is skeptical of anything that sounds "institutional" to begin with.

Our noisy "gonging" drowns out the radical nature of God's love. Our clanging cymbals deafen people to the lengths to which God has gone to make that love known in the world. They don't see or hear about the daily, ongoing work of missionaries and relief workers. The countless homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and other community and world-wide projects that are Christian-run that serve the needy, poor, and oppressed.

I know the work Christians do that is good. I've seen it and been a part of it. There are important issues that we need to discuss and deal with. But we have an image problem that overshadows all that at the moment.

How will the world know we are Christ's followers? By how we love and treat each other. Perhaps that should be our starting point. Once we get that one down, maybe we can address some of the other issues.

"Love Wins" - A Heresy or the Heart of the Gospel?

In the wake of the Colorado shootings, "Truth in Action" spokesman Jerry Newcombe made the statement that the reason for the shootings was because "America had lost its fear of hell," and went on to state that everyone who died that day who had not had a "personal relationship with Jesus" was going to a "terrible place."

Now there's a bit of pastoral care they forgot to teach me in seminary. When you have an entire nation grieving over a horrific tragedy, let's throw the threat of hell in there just for fun. After all, don't you remember Christ's command to "put the fear of hell into them so that they will know you are my disciples"?

Oh... wait...

Admittedly, the topic of hell is not one I tend to like to discuss much. While I've always accepted its reality, (because I figure why give a warning if there is no danger?) it hasn't been a point of doctrine I've chosen to discuss or even debate much in my ministry. Mainly because it makes me uncomfortable. Not that I tend to shy away from that which makes me uncomfortable, but the whole "hell" thing has just never quite set right with me. Yet, neither has "universalism." Jesus and the scriptures do give us warnings for a reason - I've just struggled with the harshness of our understanding of hell, its seeming contradiction to what a gracious and loving God would do with people who make a few wrong choices, grew up in the wrong place/culture or have suffered abuse at the hands of the church in one form or another.

Admittedly, I have a lot of non-Christian friends that I love dearly. I figure if I can love them, and God's capacity for love far exceeds my own (at least, that's what scripture has taught me), then I have to trust that God is going to do the right thing with those friends of mine who have no faith, or have a faith that differs from mine. Arguably, most are not Christians because of how they've been treated by Christians. They can't stand the hypocrisy, intolerance, judgmental attitudes, small-mindedness, hateful remarks and our insistence that they believe everything a particular way or face eternal torment.

In many cases their rejection is based more upon how Christ and God have been presented than a rejection of what Christ and God truly stand for according to the scriptures. When they voice their opposition and can't believe in the kind of God they have been presented with or the kind of God they had shoved down their throats as a kid, I usually agree with them - I don't believe in that God either.

Therefore, I have always been leery of saying who's "in" and who's "out," stating, "God will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy." I've felt it's never been my place to say who goes to hell and who doesn't. That's God's place to decide. My job has always and will always be - to share the hope I have in and through Jesus Christ and to love and serve my fellow human being to the best of my ability. What happens from there is up to God. Faith is, as Hebrews 11:1 states, "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Faith brings assurance of what God has done for the world through Jesus Christ. Those without faith - lack that assurance in their life. Either by choice, or by misunderstanding the message.

I continue to stand by that view, but following Jerry Newcombe's statements, I decided maybe it was time to address the issue I had avoided for so long more directly. I had such a strong, negative reaction to what he said that I figured that was coming from somewhere. Deep in my soul, there was something that said "something's not right with this." His words seemed irresponsible at best; harmful at worst. While I have accepted there are many things that don't always sit right, something finally said, "now is the time for you to deal with this. To sort this out." So that's what I began doing. Perhaps I'll be accused of sentimentalism and I no doubt will have people say what is espoused below is heresy and that I don't take the threat of hell seriously. Actually, I do. Because I was at one time one of those people who had a problem with Christianity because its fearful message of "believe or roast in eternal hell" never quite worked with the loving Jesus I was also learning about in Sunday school. Cruel and judgmental became the more prevalent viewpoint and I backed away from that Jesus and that God. I rarely attended church, and believe me, becoming a pastor was not even remotely on my radar. That God drove me away from him. That message sent me searching elsewhere, thinking there had to be a better story - a better gospel - than that. Eventually, the love, grace and redemption part eventually made it's way through, and I've lived in an uneasy tension ever since. So it has been a life-long struggle of how do I reconcile hell and a forgiving, loving God? Can I stay true to the scriptures without threatening the fires of hell on those who balk at the actions of many Christians and thus balk at the idea of our God and Christ?

Now, I already know all the arguments regarding "don't have faith - you're going to hell." Most of you know them too, therefore I'm not going to bother with repeating all of them here. I know what they say, and I know how we typically tend to interpret them. While such statements always disturbed me, I allowed myself to live in the tension of believing in a loving, forgiving God and the reality of "hell," figuring it simply was not my place to judge the state of one's heart or standing with God. I know there are statements made in the Bible that are meant to disturb us - because God at times wants to disturb us to move us into action. But this went beyond just being a little disturbed to a nagging "settle this in your heart."

Knowing the other argument, I decided to read the controversial book by Rob Bell entitled "Love Wins." I'd heard the criticisms, I know many called his book heretical (before they'd even read it), and that he was espousing the idea that hell was not real, that it simply didn't exist. But I decided, OK, let's see what this guy REALLY has to say. What I found, at least in my view, was not the heretical "hell isn't real, just ignore all that" I was expecting. Hell was quite present. But so was the gospel. Perhaps I'm grappling still with a few nuances of the book, trying to figure out how some of my Lutheran theology squares with a few different things, but overall it was a deeply compassionate and scripturally motivated work. While I can't touch on every single argument and topic Bell raises, as that would require its own book, I'll attempt to convey the major points.

Does Hell Exist?
Contrary to the accusations that have been tossed out at Mr. Bell, he has not "erased" hell. In fact, Bell affirms there is indeed a hell. Hell is what happens when people abandon all that is good and right and kind and humane. Bell argues that God gives us what we want (and really, hasn't that always been how God's gone about judgment, saying "have it your way"?) and if we want to continue in lives, both now and later, that promote injustice, division, hatred, and violence, aka hell... well... then we can have it. Love, grace and humanity can be rejected. Hell, Bell argues (ok, that was just fun to say), is a "volatile mixture of images, pictures and metaphors that describe the very real experiences and consequences of rejecting our God-given goodness and humanity." While many, especially my fellow Lutherans, would take exception to those last few words - "God-given goodness and humanity" - and argue humanity is not "good," it is sinful, and "only God is good," (Mark 10:18) I think his point is not so much about humanity being "good" as in not sinful, but is in the context of describing some of the horrendous and horrible things we do to each other. The difference between loving one's neighbor and committing atrocities against them. The difference between feeding the poor and taking advantage of them.

One of Bell's primary arguments, however, is understanding exactly what Jesus meant by "hell" when he talked about it. When he names it specifically, he's referencing an actual place just outside the city. He's referencing the "Valley of Hinnom," or "Gehenna," which was a burning trash dump located just southwest of Jerusalem's city gates. The fires never went out and wild animals fought for scraps of food along the edges of the heap, making a gnashing sound as they battled. Is it a literal place? Absolutely. Is he using its imagery to describe the fact that God burns up the sinful garbage from our lives that we have to throw away in the age to come? Absolutely.

Jesus loves using evocative imagery like this to grab people's attention. He uses images like burning trash dumps to describe the dumping ground for our sin. He uses parables, like the rich man and Lazarus, to show what happens when we choose to cling to that sinful garbage. He points to the "attitude" of the rich man. Even in death, even as he sits in torment, he wants Lazarus to get him water. He wants Lazarus to serve him. The chasm that can't be crossed is the rich man's heart as he still clings to the old hierarchy. He rejects the new social order, even in death. He rejected Lazarus as his neighbor and brother in life and continues to reject him in death. Therefore in rejecting the Lazaruses of the world, he has rejected God. He's dead, but he hasn't died the kind of death that actually brings life. He clings to all the things that God has thrown on the burning trash heap to be destroyed.

Bell states, "What we see in Jesus' story about the rich man and Lazarus is an affirmation that there are all kinds of hells, because there are all kinds of ways to resist and reject all that is good and true and beautiful and human now, in this life, and so we can only assume we can do the same in the next... There is hell now, and there is hell later, and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously."

It is important to take into consideration as well that when Jesus talks about hell, judgment and punishment, who he was speaking to. Jesus spends most of his time talking to devoted Jews, people who saw themselves as God's people and on the "inside track," secure in their knowledge that they were God's chosen, saved, covenant people. When Jesus speaks of hell, he's rarely speaking about what people believe but rather the state of the listener's hearts, how they interact with their neighbors and the kind of effect they have on the world. 

"Jesus did not use hell to try and compel heathens and pagans to believe in God so they wouldn't burn when they die. He talked about hell to very religious people to warn them about the consequences of straying from their God-given calling and identity to show the world God's love. This is not to say that hell is not a pointed, urgent warning or that it isn't intimately connected with what we actually do believe, but simply to point out that Jesus talked about hell to the people who considered themselves "in," warning them that their hard hearts were putting their "in-ness" at risk, reminding them whatever "chosen-ness" or "election" meant, whatever special standing they believed they had with God was always, only, ever about their being the kind of transformed, generous, loving people through whom God could show the world what God's love looks like in flesh and blood."

Is Hell "Eternal"?
Bell makes the point that the word "forever" and "eternal" are not the same word. He notes that the Hebrew word for "forever" (olam) is used by Jonah to describe how long he spent in the belly of the whale. He spent "forever" - which, in Jonah's case, was 3 days. Bell continues to make his argument with the Greek words for "forever" and "eternal" (which are different) mean in the "the age to come."

"Forever" (aeon) in the Greek Lexicon is defined as "an age; from the beginning; world order; eternal" (So, yes it can mean "eternal"... but there's another word for actual "eternal," such as when Jesus refers to "eternal life.") The word for "eternal" is "aeonios" which is defined as: "eternal (of quality rather than of time); unending, everlasting, for all time."

So then I did a search to see where "aeon" was used and where "aeonios" was used. Aeonios (eternal) is used in reference to the "eternal fire" only ONCE - and it's utilized when Jesus talks about cutting off a limb when it causes you to sin and throwing it into the "eternal fire." Otherwise, every single other reference to "hell" or "fire," "destruction," etc, uses the word "aeon" or "forever," not eternal. Eternal (aeonios) however is utilized over and over again to describe "eternal life." So the hell references use the more limited "aeon" while the eternal life references use the more expansive "aeonios."

So the question is, if "eternal hell" and "eternal life" are to be seen as equivalent fates, why is the more limited word in Greek, "forever," (aeon) used every time it refers to hell and destruction, and "eternal" used to describe life? Why not use "eternal" for both if that's the intention?

Such a view seems to fit with scripture like Lamentations 3:31-33, "For no one is cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone."

For my fellow Lutherans, the idea that a person can still be redeemed beyond the grave, even if they rejected and refused Christ in this life, should not be a new concept. Luther himself in a letter to Hans von Rechenber suggests the possibility that one could turn to God even after death, asking, "Who would doubt God's ability to do that?" Indeed, one of my seminary professors who taught Lutheran confessions stated on more than one occasion, "What can Christ do with a dead you?" suggesting redemption is never impossible, even once you're dead.

Jesus himself states that nothing is unforgivable except "blaspheming the holy spirit;" that is to reject God's work, to reject God's liberating and loving freedom. When standing face to face with God who offers liberation from sin, death, sorrow and pain - and to still say no. In such instances, God does have a history of saying, "Ok, have it your way." You prefer your pain and sorrow and suffering - your hell - then that's what you can have.

But is it forever? How have God's punishments against unjust societies acted in the past? Just to be cruel for the sake of cruelty, or for correction? Over and over again, when God says, "Fine, have it your way," it's so that we can finally discover on our own, that our way is not the best way. It's designed to draw people back to him.

So can someone who chooses their hell, chooses to continue to do the things God will not allow in His Kingdom eventually change their mind? Can they ever be drawn back to God? Does the scripture ever talk about bringing those he has punished back to himself? That he won't abandon them forever? Isn't that what scripture repeats over and over and over again?

People would argue, "who would ever choose hell?" and yet I see people in the here in now choosing their own form of earthly hell, so bound up in their own misery, so unwilling to let go of their addictions, their pain, their resentments, their anger that they do choose their own living hell in the here and now. Like the rich man who walks away from Jesus because he can't walk away from his wealth. They choose their own paths to destruction and resent and refuse any intervention made on their behalf.

Yet that is still not God's desire for their lives or their futures, in this life or the next. "He bears patiently with you, His desire being that no one should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)

What About Matthew 7:13-14?

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

I've seen this criticism over and over that Bell does not take into account Matthew 7 or address it in his book. If this is the best argument people can come up with against these viewpoints, it's a shaky objection.  Jesus' warning here is really no different than a multitude of other statements he makes about how difficult it is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. When the rich man asks what he must do to attain eternal life, rather than taking the perfect opportunity to tell him "just have faith," Jesus instead states, "sell all your possessions and follow me." The rich man turns and walks away because he cannot let go of his earthly wealth. He cannot stop clinging to those things God deems rubbish in his Kingdom.

Or when Jesus states it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Jesus' point with the wide and narrow gates and roads is in this same vein. Self-destructive paths are always easier to go down. Clinging to the worldly things that harm us ultimately rather than choosing the path that leads to "life" is a reality of human nature. While not addressing this particular scripture directly, he answers it in the Hebrew view of what is meant by "life" and "death."

"We're used to people speaking of life and death as fixed states or destinations, as in you're either alive or you're dead. What we find in the scriptures is a more nuanced understanding that sees life and death as two ways of being alive. When Moses in Deuteronomy 30 calls the Hebrews to choose life over death, he's not forcing them to decide whether they will be killed on the spot; he's confronting them with their choice of the kind of life they're going to keep on living. The one kind of life is in vital connection with the living God, in which they experience more and more peace and wholeness. The other kind of life is less and less connected with God and contains more and more despair and destruction."

Jesus over and over does the same thing. He calls people to live in God's Kingdom in the here and now. To live a rich and full life lived in God rather than pursuing the things in life that lead to self-destruction, pain, and sorrow. To forgive rather than cling to resentments. To follow him and leave behind the pursuits of the world and instead live a joyous life that exudes a love that breaks down all kinds of human barriers that transcends the "categories" the world places us in.

Does What We Believe Matter Then?
Absolutely. People believe all sorts of things about God and themselves. Like the two sons in the parable of the Prodigal Son, both have their view of events. Both believe something about their Father and their situation. One feels so unworthy because of what he's done that he just hopes he can be a servant in his father's household. The elder brother, by contrast, sees his father's response to throw a party as being unfair - that he's been a "slave" to his father all these years, not recognizing everything the father had was already his. He could have had a party with a fatted calf anytime he wanted it. He sits at the party in his own personal hell because he refuses to trust the father's version of his story.

"We all have our version of events. Who we are, who we aren't, what we've done, what that means for our future. our worth, value, significance. The things we believe about ourselves that we cling to despite the pain and agony they're causing us. Some people are haunted by the sins of the past. Abuse, betrayal, addiction, infidelity--secrets that have been buried for years...flaws, failures, shame like a stain that won't wash out. A deep-seated, profound belief that they are at some primal level of the soul, not good enough. For other, it isn't their acute sense of their lack or inadequacy or sins; it's their pride. Their ego. They're convinced of their own greatness and autonomy--they don't need anybody... we believe all sorts of things about ourselves."

God invites us into his story of who and what we are. A life without guilt or shame or blame or anxiety. The question is - can we trust that story of ourselves? Can we trust God's version of events and God's declaration of who we are to him? Or do we believe our own version of events? Do we trust God's "unfailing love" for us? Or do we trust a version of the story that says if you don't believe exactly the right things in exactly the right way, God will punish you forever?

"A loving heavenly father who will go to extraordinary lengths to have  relationship with them would, in the blink of an eye, become a cruel, mean, vicious tormentor who would ensure that they had no escape from an endless future of agony...If God can switch gears like that, switch entire modes of being that quickly, that raises a thousand questions about whether a being like this could ever be trusted, let alone be good...Hell is refusing to trust, and refusing to trust is often rooted in a distorted view of God. Sometimes the reason people have a problem accepting "the gospel" is that they sense that the God lurking behind Jesus isn't safe, loving, or good... they want nothing to do with Jesus because they don't want anything to do with that God."

This point highlights what I highlighted as my suspicion at the beginning of my blog - that many reject Jesus because they are rejecting our presentation of God and Jesus. Have we spent too much time presenting God as an abusive parent who tosses people into the eternal fires of torment when they don't step exactly right or don't believe exactly the right things? When they misunderstand the message that we Christians have been entrusted with? Jesus tells his disciples that the world will know them by how they love one another as Christ loved them.

How exactly did Christ love his disciples?

The disciples were loved by Jesus despite their inability to grasp over and over again who exactly Jesus was.
The disciples were loved by Jesus when they just didn't get what he was trying to tell them.
The disciples were loved by Jesus when they displayed their lack of faith.
The disciples were loved by Jesus even after they denied him and abandoned him to suffer and die on the cross.

So why do we impose more limitations on Jesus' ability to love and forgive than Jesus himself imposed? Can we trust God's ability and will to forgive and love us?

Hell is refusing to trust, and refusing to trust is often rooted in a distorted view of God... to reject God's grace, to turn from God's love, to resist God's telling, will lead to misery. It is a form of punishment all on its own... saying yes will take us in one direction, saying no will take us in another. God is love and to refuse this love moves us away from it in the other direction, and that will by very definition be an increasingly unloving, hellish reality.

So Why Have Faith Now If The Possibility of Forgiveness Exists Later?
In many ways, this is one of the more ridiculous questions, but one that gets asked frequently. Why have faith? Why not just live your sinful life, reject God's ways and then when you get in front of God go, "Yeah, ok, I lived my life this way but now I'm ready for that whole eternal life in your kingdom kind of thing"? Doesn't quite work that way. Because what you practice now, what you cling to now, will be just as hard to give up in the next life as it is in this life. You grow to love your sinful ways, they'll be that much harder to dump on the burning trash heap. When the light shines on them, revealing them for all they're worth, do we ask for forgiveness, or shy away and run back to the shadows? Paul states in 1 Corinthians 3, "If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames."

But if you knew about something wondrous, if you could experience and know RIGHT NOW that God forgives you, that God has a life of peace, prosperity, happiness and joy that is filled with no war, pain, sorrow, greed, or injustice - wouldn't you like to know about it? Wouldn't you like to experience in the here and the now the blessings of God's world both now AND then? Faith isn't about a ticket into an event. Faith is about living and participating in the event itself. Faith indeed saves us - it saves us from despair. It saves us from thinking "this is all there is." It saves us from having no hope in a glorious future. That's the danger we run right now in our lives. The future looks bleak. Headlines show us day after day the horrors and atrocities of war and rebellion. Senseless acts of violence. Global warming, historic droughts, rising poverty levels, unemployment, shaky economies... we see it all around us and it's not too difficult to see our world headed for destruction. Hope has become a rare commodity. Faith is about trusting God has something else in mind for us and our world. Faith is about realizing that if we actually acted the way Jesus commands us to act, our world, in the here and now, actually CAN be a better place. Faith has real consequences right now in how we live our lives as much as it does in the age to come.

Living a life secure in the knowledge of redemption and love brings about "true life." It's that "life" lived in God that leads to "eternal life" that both Moses and Jesus talked about. It's both a present and future reality.

Does Love Win?
Many critics of Bell's viewpoint state that Bell doesn't "trust" God when the scriptures talk about the reality of hell, and yet, from my perspective, Bell "trusts" God more than most. He trusts God to do the right thing. He trusts God when He says he sent Christ into the world to redeem and save the world. He trusts the scriptures when they say Christ came to save all people. He doesn't deny hell, and doesn't deny it's reality in both this life and the next. He merely questions the way in which we tend to interpret how one winds up there. Does God "send" people there, or is it a reality we choose until we accept God's reality for our world and lives? Is it eternal, or does it only last as long as we resist?

Bell's view of Christ's death and resurrection is cosmic and sweeping. That Christ's work is bigger than JUST a personal relationship with Jesus. That Jesus, the living incarnate Word of God through whom all things were made, came to renew, restore and reconcile everything on earth and in heaven. (Colossians 1) Death and destruction have been defeated on a grand scale that involves the entire world and universe. "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time." (Romans 8) All of humanity died through the first humans so "in Christ all will be made alive." (1 Cor. 15). For "the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people," (Titus 2) and "just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all." (Romans 5)

Scripture tells us over and over how God is love and how His desire is to reconcile the ENTIRE world to himself, not just a select few. Even in Revelation, we discover God's motives and actions are ultimately not destructive, but constructive. That his will is not to destroy the earth, but to renew and redeem it. That destruction and violence aren't ultimately how he chooses to win people's hearts. That when people repent and turn to him, healing can begin. Tears can be wiped away. Hearts can be transformed.

God's eternal city that comes to earth draws all nations to its healing trees and river of life. The gates that surround the city stand wide open, never to be shut. Forever open, forever beckoning. Nothing impure enters it - because the blood of the lamb cleanses all who enter. Lying, idolatry, deceit, lust... all the garbage of our sinful lives are left outside the gates. We can't take those things with us into God's holy and eternal city.

Outside the city gates is the burning trash heap of everything that is impure, everything that doesn't belong in God's Kingdom. It is Gehenna, hell. It is clinging to the rubbish of the sinful world, refusing the changed reality of God's kingdom, refusing to trust the redemptive power of Christ in our lives both now and in the age to come.

Is this heresy or the heart of the Gospel message? Is the good news of what Christ did through his death and resurrection bigger and better than being reduced to who's "in" and who's "out"? Or is the gospel message about thriving in God's kingdom? Is it about being liberated from sinful garbage? Is it about daily dying to the sin and destruction of this world and rising to new life in the one through whom all things were created and hold together?

What God do we want to tell people about? One who loves you, but won't hesitate to throw you into the fiery pits of hell because of the culture you were born into or the damage that was done to you by so-called Christians? Is this the message we give to the woman who was raped by her father while he quoted scripture? To the child who was beaten repeatedly by a father who goes to church every Sunday and sings in the church choir? To the adult who as a child was teased and tormented by her Christian classmates for being raised in a different faith - or with no faith? Told over and over that she was going to hell because she was different than they were. To the Muslim child who sits in a wheelchair because the "Christians" cut off his legs with a machete to shame him. Tell him his current hell isn't real enough - he must experience the REAL hell-fires for eternity unless he believes in the God that was professed by those who came and chopped off his legs. Is that the message we are called to share and send out into the world? A God that promises more misery and destruction in the midst of some people's already hellish existence? That's the God Jerry Newcombe told the world about.

Or do we share the good news of the resurrected Jesus, that mystery hidden in the very fabric of creation that has been revealed with such joy that the entire universe will sing His praises? A God that calls people out of their misery and hell and offers a "different way" and a different "path"? A God that offers redemption, renewal, healing, compassion and comfort. A God that says I will bring to myself even those who are far off. A God that says, "I will not allow the atrocity of what happened in Aurora, Colorado to happen in my Kingdom." A God that says "I will restore your body, remove your hurts and your pain. I will not abandon anyone forever." A God who went to great lengths to restore and redeem the broken relationship between God and humanity, and continues to go to great lengths to let his love for ALL humanity be known in the world.

Which God do we want a hurting world to meet?

Conversations with an Atheist

Call me odd, but I love the fact that I have such a diverse group of friends that I frequently find myself in conversations with many an atheist. Recently I was having a discussion with one of these atheists and just asked some basic questions about why he's an atheist, and the response was not a huge surprise, but it made me start thinking that once again, the Christian church has failed to convey the proper message when it comes to God. He started out with what I now see as the "standard" atheist rhetoric. You've probably heard it as well... God is just a human idea, the Bible is just a bunch of man-made stories, and while Jesus had some nice ideas about being kind to one another, that was about all he was good for.

Naturally, he had not come up with this stuff all on his own. It took a combination of the Christian church and the ideas of evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins to turn him off. Growing up, he had listened to the stories of the Bible, about creation, the tower of Babel, etc, an as he grew older and was faced with more "logical" ideas like evolution, he had to begin disregarding the Bible as a whole. Then he read one of Mr. Dawkins' books called "The Selfish Gene" that talked about the "meme," which essentially is this idea that religious ideas are simply a genetic "mimicry" that we humans are pressured into culturally. Apparently, belief in God is merely a disease that just gets transmitted from one generation to the next. This he embraced and became an atheist.

Now we can demonize Mr. Dawkins all we want for spewing such ridiculousness out there, but really, it's not Mr. Dawkins' fault. It's our own. Why did this young man go searching for an "alternative" to the Bible in the first place? Because of how it was presented. In his mind, given what he was learning in school, the Bible seemed completely whacked and didn't deal with the reality of the scientific world.

Unfortunately, we Christians have helped create this problem. We've attempted to pit the Bible and science against each other. That these are two alternative and opposite ideas, and that if you want to go seeking scientific information, one should turn to the Bible. That there's only one way to ever read these stories, that there is only one interpretation. I obviously don't come from that background and have learned that there are always different ways to view any given Biblical text. The sad part is, many a scientist opts not to follow their own "scientific methodology" and choose to see the Bible from only the most conservative and literal of perspectives. For instance, renowned atheist and paleoanthropologist, Richard Leakey, came out with a statement in a recent article regarding evolution that made the observation, "It's [evolution] not covered by Genesis. There's no explanation for this change going back 500 million years in any book I've read from the lips of any God."

The problem: Genesis was not concerned about the topic of evolution in any way, shape, or form. Hence, why Dr. Leakey is not finding the explanation he is looking for. The battle the writers of Genesis were facing had nothing to do with evolution. It wasn't on their radar and wasn't a conversation they were attempting to engage. The argument of Genesis 1 was related to the worship of God vs. other ancient near-eastern deities. These deities claimed dominion over the sun, moon, stars, light, dark, water, animals, etc. All the "stages" of creation represent the dominion of one of these gods. It's engaging the question of who is really God? Who deserves worship? The Creator behind the creation, or the creation itself? The conversation was not intended to be about whether the earth was created in a certain time frame or whether evolution was the process through which God used to create, etc. No, you won't find the dinosaurs mentioned. Why? Because it had no bearing on God's relationship to humanity. Sharks aren't mentioned specifically in the Bible, either, and we know they're one of the oldest creatures that are still in existence, yet I don't think that the omission of mentioning sharks means that the Bible is trying to state sharks didn't exist back then, or that they don't exist today. But other than the fact that they can cause an early demise to a few surf-boarders and swimmers, sharks have no real bearing on the relationship between God's relationship with humans... thus they're not mentioned.

The Bible is interested in talking about how the human and the divine relate. Yes, there are observations made about the world in which the authors lived in, but physics, engineering, biology, chemistry, etc. were not its primary focus or concern. Yes, it claims some things that defy logical, scientific explanation sometimes (like the sun standing still in Joshua 10) - but then again, is that what is meant or is the Bible using hyperbole to get its point across? Is it a Hebrew poetic structure that was not intended literally? Is it a translational issue? Was it the power of God defying the laws of physics that he created and has dominion over? Did it merely mean that God gave the Israelites the time they needed to defeat their enemies? I suppose that's up to the individual interpreter/reader to decide for themselves. The point being - there are many ways in which to look at, read, understand, and interpret such passages. Yet, atheists grab hold of one perspective and one perspective only and use that to justify their stance that it's "evolution, not God."

Sadly, it's in part our own fault. How we approach these stories many times in Sunday School do not represent the stories as they actually are or approached them through different interpretations. Far too many people have grown up Christian and become atheists because the Bible simply isn't real enough to them. They've heard only one interpretation that causes the Biblical witness to become too far removed from our own reality and we've failed in many ways to make the Bible relevant.

As I've grown older and studied the Bible more, I've realized the vast majority of the stories I heard when I was a child from the Bible rarely captured the over-arching idea/theme of what was being conveyed in the story. Now granted, sometimes, the idea is a little too "adult" for our children to grasp, but maybe the story of David, rather than making him out to be this great and wonderful king, we should dirty him up a little...make him a little more "human" like he is in the Bible and make the message be about how despite how much David screwed up, God loved him anyway.

There is something real and very true about the Biblical witness. We just have not been able to convey that reality in convincing ways. Because if you actually read Mr. Dawkins' ideas, they aren't any more logical or even scientifically "provable" in any way (earth was seeded by aliens, and there's his explanation for life on earth... really?). They're simply a modern "alternative" for people who just don't think the Bible is relevant. Given the choice of the two, they turn to Mr. Dawkins.

Perhaps then it's time for Christians to start recognizing our cultural challenges - much the same way Jesus himself picked up on the culture of his day and how things were perceived and viewed - and make them more relevant. More understandable. More believable. To let the living Word of God have its way with us in today's world rather than trying to pigeon-hole it in 2000+ year old perspectives. Maybe then we'd have fewer people going elsewhere trying to find "alternatives" to the Bible, but will view the Bible as a commentary on what we learn and discover in today's world. How it informs what we learn rather than contradicts what we learn. 

God Will Never Give You More Than You Can Handle... Really?

I hear that phrase a lot, "God will never give you more than you handle." People think it's from the Bible, but in reality, it's a misquote of 1 Corinthians 10:13 which states, "God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear."

Allowing you to be tempted and just dropping a load of crap in your lap to try and handle - two very different things. Paul's statement refers to being tempted to sin, being tempted to take the easy road instead of the more difficult, yet right, path. It has nothing - I'll repeat that - nothing - to do with the amount of stress, strain, and hardship that gets dumped upon you in life.

After all, if God doesn't give us more than we can handle, then why do people get pushed over the edge every day? Even the best of us are not immune to being pushed so far, we finally have a mental breakdown. Finally have that time when we're too exhausted and too overwrought to deal with some of life's situations anymore. Whether its pain, health, legal troubles, work stress, personal problems, family issues, financial issues, grief, or perhaps some combination of all these, people get pushed beyond what they can bear on a daily basis. Everyone is different. Everyone has a level they can handle that is not comparable to someone else's.

The Bible even has examples of people being pushed beyond their limits. Elijah couldn't handle being a prophet of God anymore. He'd raised people from the dead, struggled through famine, and had his ultimate show-down with the prophets of Baal, but when Jezebel came after him - that was his breaking point. He nearly died of thirst and starvation making his way to a cave where he went into hiding from Ahab and Jezebel who were trying to kill him. Only an angel from God swooping down and providing him with a piece of cake and a jar of water staved off death. God recognized - the prophet had been pushed too far. He doesn't tell Elijah, "I'll never give you too much to handle, so buck up and let's go!" Instead, he sends him to anoint Elisha, to become the prophet in his place... then sweeps him up in dramatic fashion into heaven. Elijah had been completely and utterly used up and could no longer do what was asked of him.

One need only read Jeremiah's laments to know he'd been pushed beyond what he could handle as well. Paul even confesses that being beaten, imprisoned, stoned, shipwrecked, and nearly killed more times than he could count displayed his weakness, not his strength. Satan tormented him with a "thorn" in his side that Paul begged God to remove, and God's response was, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

It is in that weakness that we are driven to such places of brokenness - and yes, even despair - that we know there is nothing left but for us to rely solely and completely on God. Because there's nothing more we can do about whatever situation or hardship we are in the midst of.

The question is - when people are driven to that point where they're beyond their limit, what do they do? Rely on God and simply hand everything over to him, or still try to take matters into their own hands in some fashion, thinking they still have the power and control over their life or a situation? People respond to this lack of control in a variety of ways. Some continue to fight and sometimes make a situation even worse as they try to regain that control that has been ripped out of their hands. Others give so into the despair that they think escape is the best answer. No one deals with it in exactly the same way or comes up with the same solution.

Accepting that sometimes you simply don't have that control, that hardships are being sent your way perhaps for the very purposes of beating you down, humbling you, and making you recognize you aren't just going to be able to pull yourself up by your bootstraps is no simple task. I'm the first to acknowledge that. And the first to acknowledge - that sometimes, we are simply given more burdens and problems than it is possible to bear at times without some serious help from somewhere outside yourself. Sometimes there is no 'plan' or way in which we can 'solve' an issue - it just has to be allowed to play out.

But to believe we won't be given more than we can handle is a ridiculous notion that has no Biblical basis. Of course we're given more than we can handle - God's power is made perfect in weakness. Showing our weakness and vulnerability is not the way in which the world perceives strength - but it is the way in which God is able to show his power by taking control - we just need to figure out how to stop fighting against him, thinking we're super-human beings that can leap tall buildings in a single bound no matter what tragedy befalls us.

And this is not to say that faith and God's strength don't help us - they do. They are what can get us through some of the tragedies and life situations we have to face. That still doesn't mean we don't find ourselves sobbing on the floor at times just going, "What do I do now? How do I get up each day and put one foot in front of the other?" Truly - that many times takes the strength of God to accomplish just those simple tasks.

As Paul said - this will sound like foolishness to any who rely upon themselves and their abilities to get through every situation and hardship. And, perhaps it is foolishness to the world. So be it. But if you're looking for the Bible to say you'll get through every hardship without breaking down at some point - it just ain't there.