A response to "Americans: Undecided about God?"

Yesterday's New York Times included this editorial.


I read it yesterday and it's kind of been rolling around in my head ever since.  Some of the claims make me really sad.  Claims like this one, "All we see is an angry God. He is constantly judging and smiting, and so are his followers."  I don't know about you, but that's not the God I experience.  It's not the God I preach (I hope!), nor is it the God I see the Scriptures pointing to.  No, in Scripture, I hear God pouring promises upon promises upon God's people.  Promises like the ones we heard yesterday from Isaiah 61, "I will make an everlasting covenant with them" and from First Thessalonians 5 "The one who calls you is faithful."  With the psalmist, I know a God who is "gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love," who is "good to all and his compassion is over all that he has made" (see Psalm 145:8-9).  I know a God who comes to us, whose name is Emmanuel, which means God-with-us (Matthew 1:23).  This very God is the one who eats with sinners and calls a bunch of rag-tag disciples who don't really get it (see pretty much every disciple story in Mark).  And while there are definitely some times where Jesus gets mad, it's usually for good reason, and is balanced with the many, many times he shows us the way to God's grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love.  With John, the writer of Revelation, I live into the promise that "the home of God is among mortals," that "God himself will be with them, he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more...." (Revelation 21:3-4).  Sorry, Mr. Weiner, but I think you need to read your Bible a little bit more, perhaps with a different eye--one that can help you see God's compassion and grace and mercy that are showing up constantly throughout Scripture.


Now, I can't speak for all of my Christian brothers and sisters, and I know that I'm not blameless, but we're not all judging and smiting, at least not all of the time.  One of my favorite moments of the church is when we come together at God's table for Holy Communion.  When we all come with our own baggage, whatever that is, and receive forgiveness.  When we come in no particular order, but all find a place at the table.  Where there's food for everyone and no one gets turned away.  


I also catch glimpses of the ways God is working in really amazing ways in and through and around us when we work together to do something good in the world--whether its volunteering in our community or on a Mission/Adventure trip, or by visiting an elderly member of our congregation, or filling bags for Food for Kidz, or whatever it is we do.  I see God working in the ways we care for one another and for complete and total strangers.  I see God working through us in really amazing ways that aren't judgey or smitey at all.  Yeah, it makes me sad that there are really nasty things that people do, claiming to do them in God's name, but I don't think they really understand God's message for the world.  I don't think they understand that what God requires from us is, as the prophet Micah wrote, "to do justice, and to love kindess, and to walk humbly with your God."  Sure, there's plenty of nastiness out there, but there's also a lot of really positive stuff.  A lot of people trying their best to love God and love their neighbor.  And, no, it's not always easy and we don't always succeed. It doesn't always get the most attention, but we do it because it's the way Jesus taught us to live.


Weiner also writes that "Precious few of our religious leaders laugh. They shout."  I think laughing is really important.  It's one of my favorite things to do with people.  I think laughing helps keep us whole.  I love laughing with the people at church.  I love laughing at silly jokes and those "kids say the darndest things" moments.  Laughter is good medicine.  I hope I can be included in this "precious few."  But most of the pastors I know laugh.  A lot.  And so do most of the Christians I know.  Maybe I'm hanging out with a unique crowd, but I don't think so.


At the end of the article, Mr. Weiner writes this:

We need a Steve Jobs of religion. Someone (or ones) who can invent not a new religion but, rather, a new way of being religious. Like Mr. Jobs’s creations, this new way would be straightforward and unencumbered and absolutely intuitive. Most important, it would be highly interactive. I imagine a religious space that celebrates doubt, encourages experimentation and allows one to utter the word God without embarrassment. A religious operating system for the Nones among us. And for all of us.

I don't disagree that we need space where doubts can be discussed, where experimentation isn't a bad thing, and where God is front and center.  But isn't that space called church?  I'm serious.  Maybe I live in some crazy dream world, but isn't that what church is about?  Isn't it a place where people gather in the name of the Triune God, so unafraid to proclaim God's name that they gather around a table and eat a meal that is given to us by Christ?  Isn't it a place where people are so unafraid to proclaim God's name that they bring their children to be baptized, promising to help them grow up to be people who trust God, and proclaim Christ through word and deed, who care for the world God made, and who work for justice and peace?  Isn't it a place where people gather around God's Word with their questions and their doubts and their insights?  Isn't it a place where we, while deeply rooted in Word and Sacrament, can experiment and try to figure out the ways God is still working in and through and around us?  Isn't that what church is all about?  That's certainly my hope and goal as a "religious leader," otherwise known as a child of God.


I don't think we need a Steve Jobs of religion.  We already have Jesus.  And he's Savior enough.  For all of us.