So tomorrow is my 44th birthday. I’ve been following Jesus as long as I can remember, so today’s sermon is about what I’ve learned from 44 years of following Jesus.
I grew up in the church, attending with my parents and my grandparents. After Sunday School, I’d find my grandparents who always sat in the same pew, about four rows from the back of the church on the left hand side, and take my place. Grandma would offer me a mint; and on the rare occasion that Grandpa wore a tie, he’d tell me he wore the tie just to let everyone know that he had one.
It was Grandma who told everyone that one day I’d be a preacher, even though I myself didn’t believe it.
Well, Grandma was right. Here I am, a preacher. But I’m still learning. I’m still figuring things out. Even stories I hear in the news get me thinking about God, and pondering what I can still learn about God.
I heard two such stories last week. In one, a fundamentalist pastor, after a year-long period of reflection, concluded that God does not exist; he said the evidence and his experience in the world do not support the idea of God.
The other article talked about some scientists and doctors – people trained to be skeptical and demand proof – who say they find wonder in the miraculous. I think the scientists even used the word “spiritual” to describe some of their experiences and observations.
As for the pastor who decided that God doesn’t exist: I do wonder how he defines God. Ever since I heard Marcus Borg, a great theologian who, sadly, died this past week, I’ve learned to do what he did, and ask people who say they don’t believe in God to describe the God they say they don’t believe in; because odds are I don’t believe in that God, either.
Everyone has an idea of “God” in their head; an idea of what God is like. Fundamentalists and atheists often have the same idea of what God is like; Fundamentalists cling to that idea; atheists reject it.
I’m sure Jesus’s disciples had their own ideas of God. I think the Pharisees had their idea of God, and the Sadducees had their idea, and the Gnostics had their idea.
The Romans, also, had their own ideas of God. There were many gods for the Romans. Caesar was declared a god by the Romans. So for many in the Roman Empire, if you want to know what God was like, you just thought of Caesar.
Jesus told his disciples that God was like a father. I believe that Jesus described God this way to expand their idea of God. Perhaps the disciples were more used to thinking of God as like a king or emperor, and Jesus said, “Why don’t you try thinking of God this way… more loving than a king, more intimately connected to you than Caesar… more like a father.”
And I’m sure that many who heard Jesus talk about God this way thought, “Huh… I never heard God described like that…”
Maybe there were some who had already given up on God, some who thought, “What’s the use of believing in a God who is like a king or emperor… we already have Caesar, and he’s bad enough…”
For them, maybe Jesus’s invitation to think of God in a new way came too late. The idea they had of God was too narrowly defined in their minds, in what they were taught, and they had already given up on God.
I wonder if that’s what happened to the pastor in the news article who gave up on God, who declared that God does not exist. How, exactly, was he defining God?
I don’t know, but I suspect that if his definition of God was the only definition of God available – if that was the only option when it comes to believing in God – then I, too, would have given up on God. Because I find I cannot believe in God the way God is described by many fundamentalists.
What happened to that pastor happens to many people: The old ideas about God no longer work. They’re no longer believable. When those old ideas no longer work, you have two options: either find new ways to think about God, or stop believing altogether.
Let’s talk about movies…
Ginger and I recently watched the movie When the Game Stands Tall, about De La Salle high school and its football team’s 151-game winning streak. A key scene in the movie has them playing Long Beach Poly, and I admit – since this was a movie about De La Salle high school – I wasn’t sure who to root for.
There is another scene in the movie where the community is mourning the shooting death of Terrance Kelly, one of the team’s players. Coach Bob Ladouceur speaks at Terrance Kelly’s funeral and says he feels lost, but he trusts in God’s goodness, and that God must have had a reason for taking this young man.
Maybe at one time I would have said the same thing. However, I can no longer believe in a God who tragically “takes the life of a young man” for reasons unknown to us. When tragedy strikes, people sometimes say God must have had a reason, that it must have been God’s will, that God is in control.
Don’t get me wrong; it was a good movie. I just didn’t like the image of God that was presented in that particular scene.
I can’t believe in that God. I can’t believe that God had a reason for that young man’s death, that this tragedy was somehow a part of God’s plan. What about other tragedies? Was the terrorist attack in Paris a few weeks ago a part of God’s plan? Are the deaths of young unarmed African-Americans a part of God’s plan? Is it a part of God’s plan that over half of all American children now live in poverty? What about genocide? What about the Holocaust? Are they a part of God’s plan?
If the only answer is yes, that everything that happens, happens because it’s part of God’s plan, then that is a God I cannot believe in. Maybe you can, and that’s fine. But I can’t.
Oh, and if your team loses the Super Bowl? Apparently, 26 percent of Americans believe that God will decide who will win. I am not one of them.
In the movie Selma, there is a scene that shows the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was attacked by a police officer while his 82 year-old father watched, helpless. Later, Martin Luther King, Jr., speaks to the father. Does he say that his son’s death was part of God’s plan, that God must have had a reason for his son’s death?
No.
Instead, Martin Luther King, Jr. says to the father: “God was the first one to cry.”
And then later, speaking at the funeral, Martin Luther King, Jr. again refuses to say that God must have had a reason for taking Jimmie Lee Jackson.
God was not responsible for this man’s death.
So who was? Who was responsible for the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson? Here’s King’s answer: “Every white lawman who abuses the law to terrorize. Every white politician who feeds on prejudice and hatred. Every white preacher who preaches the bible and stays silent before his white congregation. Who murdered Jimmie Lee Jackson? Every Negro man and woman who stands by without joining this fight as their brothers and sisters are brutalized, humiliated, and ripped from this Earth.”
It wasn’t God. God was not to blame for Jimmie Lee Jackson’s death. In fact, God was crying.
I believe in that God!
I mentioned several movies; let me mention one more. Pass the Light is a movie that comes out in theaters next Friday. It’s about 17 year-old Steve Bellafiore, a high school student who is so upset by what he hears from a congressional candidate who visits his school, that he decides to run for Congress himself.
The candidate who upset him is named Franklin Baumann; here’s a little bit of Franklin Baumann’s campaign speech:
“I started a war against the forces that would undermine and deteriorate this community. Do you want to join me? Do you want to fight against the liars, the sexually immoral, the corrupt, the sodomites, the lustful, the greedy, the gluttonous…”
Hearing this from the congressional candidate, Steve Bellafiore gets so upset that he decides to enter the campaign himself.
When his friends and family ask why he is chasing after this crazy idea of running for Congress against Frank Baumann, 17 year-old Steve says:
“I want people to hear a voice with no hate in it.”
When a high school friend decides to help Steve with his campaign, the friend comes up with a plan that will help Steve get votes. He tells Steve, “We need to make people think that you actually love going to church, and praying…”
Steve replies, “I do love going to church…”
However, Steve does have a different idea of God than Frank Baumann does…
Steve says, “Franklin Baumann talks about casting out. He talks about exclusion… I saw the faith I loved being used to hurt the people I cared about… We cannot choose hate. We have to choose each other.”
And that’s why he decides to run.
I think a lot of people have given up on God because they have seen the faith we love being used to hurt people. This is a big part of the reason I preach about the things I do. This is what I’ve learned from following Jesus for 44 years.
It’s not about hate. It’s not about judgment. It’s not about casting stones.
It’s about love, and wholeness, and reconciliation, and re-connecting. It’s about life, the life of the ages, the life eternal. It’s about the beloved community, the kingdom of peace and shalom. It’s about a God who doesn’t cause bad things to happen, but who loves each of us so much that God mourns with us, cries with us, and works with us to bring wholeness to this fragmented world.
No comments:
Post a Comment