God's not afraid of your questions

so i was on a roll yesterday. preaching is a funny thing. it never turns out just how you expect it to. i was preaching on noah and the ark. a particularly light and fluffy topic. God keeps his promises. this was the point of the message. and it kind of took an unexpected turn; which i kind of hope for when i'm preaching. i think it was the Spirit. i hope it was the Spirit. because it got real heavy, real fast.

i was thinking of noah and wife and kids sitting under that roof as the rain fell. i was wondering aloud what they might have been thinking as they sat there. how hard it must have been to see their friends and family drown before their very eyes. how ridden with survivor's guilt they might have felt as they floated high above the earth. how terrified they must been as the wind and waves toss them about. how puzzled they might have been about this God who changes his mind and calls a do-over for humanity.

those are some tough questions. but God isn't afraid of our questions.

He is big enough to handle them. the question is . . . are we big enough to ask them?

what questions puzzle you about God?

jonas brothers love

a couple of weeks ago, i was home for my niece’s eleventh birthday. while opening presents, she unwrapped a gift card; which is a common enough gift. her response, however, was anything but. she squealed; and then kissed it! it was a burger king gift card, so at first i thought she may have had an unhealthy affection for the whopper. to my surprise, it was the picture on the front of that card that was the object of her affection . . . none other than the power-pop-sensation . . . the jonas brothers.

now, i’m completely out of touch with this realm of teen-mania, i can’t tell the difference between joe, nick, and any of the other new kids on the block. i know for a fact, nothing could move me to kiss a burger king gift card (i think). but, i was moved by her affection. i don’t know if i have ever loved anything as much as she loved these three rockin’ brothers. my nieces were here this weekend in chicago for the jb concert: jonas brothers unashamedly tatooed on their faces, arms, pants and signs that brazenly declared, “don’t charge me for the crime of loving you.”

paul describes our relationship with God in 2 Corinthians 1, saying, “He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” in the ancient rites of baptism, the anointing with aromatic chrism filled the baptismal chambers with the scent of one who had crossed from death to life so that anyone within nose-shot could smell that this one was a Christ-one. the seal from the baptismal tradition not only served to protect the believer’s ears, eyes, and mouth, but also served as an invisible sign on the forehead which bore the name of the one who died for all to see that this one is a Christ-one (for the flip-side see Rev. 13:16-18).

the baptized believer bears the name of Jesus for the world to see that this one is a Christ-one. yet how often have i hidden it like a tattoo that sounded like a good idea at the time. i don’t want to be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. yet for something that is infinitely more worthy of honor than the jo-bro’s, there are times when i pull up my spiritual hoody, duck my head, and hope nobody notices. Lord, when will i finally grow up and wear my faith like an 11-year old girl?

the all-nighter

So I pulled an all-nighter last night. Haven’t done that since a final project was due on Amos chapter 5 in seminary sometime back in the 90’s. I had the privilege of sitting beside a family as they said goodbye to their wife and mother. I entered the room moments after she had passed; and we spent the night remembering good times and hard times, crying and laughing, grieving and celebrating.

There is nothing more painful than losing the ones we love to the cold grip of death. But to a world that was all too familiar with infant mortality, horrific suffering, and the false promises of charlatans, St. Paul offered a completely different view of the world:

we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. we believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 1Thessalonians 4:13-14

The Greco-Roman world had no concept of a personal afterlife. Aristotle would sum it up by saying, “Life is short; art is long.” It was into this world that Christians saw the greatest of opportunities. Despite the derision, neglecting the mockery, Christians held out a different view for the way that life could be. And in so doing, changed their world.

As we gathered around that lifeless body, it would have been easy to believe our eyes and weep over an ending to a life that was too nasty and brutish, and way too short. And we did weep; but not as those who have no hope. For as surely as Jesus painfully gasped and exhaled his last, he pulled an all-nighter of his own, and just as surely filled his lungs again with the breath of life on that Easter morning. We must still endure this long night; but dawn is breaking sooner than we know.

That’s the kind of hope that pulls you through a long night. That’s the kind of hope that can change the world.