Faith Challenges: It Ain't All Comfort

Why do we seem always to miss the point when teaching Bible stories to children? It’s almost like we only care to teach them the most trivial aspects of the story at hand. We transform the story of David and Goliath into something far removed from determining who was the true God determining the outcome on the battlefield. We transform the story of Jericho into a wall falling down, rather than relying on God to do the impossible. We transform the stories of Samson as though to say that God wants men to be exceptionally strong, losing sight of just how Samson abused God’s power for his own purposes. We get to the story of Zacchaeus, and it’s all about how short he is and how he had to climb a tree to see Jesus. Not only are the kids cheated by the way we tell these stories, they grow up to be adults who have never reflected theologically on any story in their lives. The story of Jericho is about trusting God against insurmountable odds. It is about following through in ...

One of the most vile bits of popular theology I keep hearing is, "It's God's will." Excuse me, but not everything is God's will. If everything is God's will, by definition, sin does not exist. The God Jesus revealed does not exist in the worldview of the blanket statement that everything is God's will and design. I know that most people who resort to propagating the phrase and sentiment may mean well, but I'm pretty sure they have not thought it through. I am responsible for my inactions, my attitudes, my words, my decisions, and my actions. I have agency. I am more than a puppet on God's string. Some of the same voices who spew the notion that all things are God's will turn around and quickly tell others they are heretics, abominations, and God will spew them out of God's mouth. If everything is God's will, then why would God do so? The two concepts are at odds with each other. If what I am doing is condemnable by Go...

The Union County Pride Festival in Monroe, NC this last week was an experience like no other. On one hand, it was the second Pride I have ever attended. On the other, it was the first Pride I have ever helped organize. That made it an experience in which I had responsibility to help oversee aspects of the event and make sure it ran smoothly. Mostly, that responsibility lay along the lines of my ministerial role, even if I were not directly participating on behalf of the church I serve. Publicly, my first and foremost responsibility was for the Interfaith Celebration I wrote, organized, and directed ( unioncountypride.org/interfaith ). The service was planned to be inclusive for people of all and no faiths. That is in no way representative of any service I would normally lead. It was, however, necessary, given those for whom the celebration was prepared. Beyond simply being a celebration designed to call for inclusion and acceptance, the event was geared for people who have in...

All too often, we have packaged faith as being opposed to questions. It's as though God cannot handle being questioned or challenged. Then we look at the Psalms and see a host of questions and direct challenges to God. "Why do the wicked prosper?" "Arise, O Yahweh, and judge!" "How long, O Yahweh?" "How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?" "Will you be angry with us forever?" We turn to Job and find chapters of questions directed at God, pleading and begging for vindication, as well as arguing against God's seeming injustice. A faith that cannot abide questions is not a very Biblical faith. God can handle our questions. The Psalms are a liturgical collection of hymns for use in worship that include the lament, anguish, fears, and doubts of Yahweh's people. This is a faith that struggles to understand. It is a faith that questions. It is a faith that seeks to know...

I answered the church phone yesterday. It became an interesting conversation. Turns out, the caller was seeking information to substantiate a rumor she had heard about Drag Queen Story Hour being held at our church. “Is it true?” Well, not exactly. A lot of the details were wrong, and the event is not going to occur at our church. “So, the church decided not to hold it.” Again, not quite true. The church never made the decision to allow the event, but the decision not to hold it was not our own. The conversation shifted, as she brought up a verse in Leviticus about men and women wearing clothing of the other gender being considered an abomination. Well, the same term is used for eating shellfish, catfish, and people having had contact with bodily fluids then participating in cultic rites. It’s the same range of things deemed under the umbrella of ritual purity laws that Jesus ignored as irrelevant. Such definitions were about keeping fertility cult practices separate from the...

I had opportunity last night to attend a Monroe, NC City Council meeting. I was not sure what to expect, but I have to say I was not prepared for the display of Christian Nationalism that was so blatantly presented. I arrived with a group involved with planning for the Union County Pride events to occur next weekend. We had no specific agenda. We only knew that Union County Pride had been added to the council's agenda the day before. There had been no communication as to why the group was now on the agenda. There had been no communication referring to any concern the council had. There had only been a notice by the city attorney that we were on the council's agenda. The meeting opened with a very sectarian prayer, led by a local pastor. It had every intention of being a Christian prayer, seeking discussion and outcomes aligned with his particular tradition of Christianity. The prayer assumed that all present were Christians, at least in its phrasing, counting ...

There are several reasons for these words. They are about bidding farewell to a loved one who has passed from this reality into the next. They are about shared grief at Byron’s passing. They are a seeking of encouragement on facing our own mortality, experiencing the death of one we have loved and who has loved us and others. They are partly what I would have shared in a funeral service for my Father. Understanding the imponderables of life with all its uncertainties is aided by telling and retelling stories of our connections and experiences of those who have impacted us. Those stories also help us process our grief. There is always much to process as we bid loved ones adieu, and we cannot do that all at once. For each loss, our lives are impacted in different ways. In Byron’s passing some are impacted for his having been a father. For many, he was a friend. He was grandfather, brother, uncle, cousin, neighbor, coworker, pastor, professor, deacon, advocate, choir member, bow...