Reconciliation as a Job

The following is a cathartic exercise (or maybe exorcise is better) of the mind for me. This idea has been intensely in the forefront of my mind this morning, and I need to get it in written form. I have to give it legs or I won't fully function in my normal day to day.

The ideas I'm expressing aren't my own. They've been presented over and over again in books and sermons. I'm just trying to put them in my own words.

My own thoughts might be incomplete by the end of the post, but I need to put them down, here, for now.

There's been a "controversy" lately about what hell might actually be, if it is at all. It seems like a lot of people have faiths that are very static. If you try to move or remove one piece, they act as if the rest falls apart. I think this is understandable, especially if you've grown up from an early age with religion and faith.

As someone that didn't, I try to keep my faith more flexible. There's a core, but the extended pieces aren't all that earth shattering. I like to question and wrestle with things. Even if I've resolved something personally, I like to think that I'm never beyond discussing and possibly questioning it all again.

So the whisperings have involved whether or not there is a literal hell. The suggestion has come up that the traditional view of fire and brimstone might be incorrect.

One of the most common responses in the past few weeks has been to quote John 14:6.

…

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

…

Of course, there is more to the story than this one line. Jesus has just told his apostles that he's leaving, and they want to know how they can get to where he's going. He answers that he's going to be with God the Father. So, basically they're asking, how do we get to Heaven? Some would say that they're asking how they get in on what's coming next.

The assumption, and most common interpretation is that what Jesus says in his answer is that if you don't believe and follow him, you don't go to Heaven. Conversely, you must logically then go to hell(?).

What if that's not what he's saying at all?

What if what he's saying isn't a statement about us, but a statement about himself? Maybe he's saying "You want to get to God, and I'm going to get you there. That's my job!" He doesn't say he's doing this if you believe or do anything first. He's just taking on that role of getting people to God.

Throughout the Bible there are these scriptures about God wanting to reconcile all things to himself. Jesus is always talking about what God the Father has sent him to do. It's widely believed that this reconciliation is one of Jesus' primary responsibilities. If Jesus is a force of reconciliation, you might not need to follow him at all to actually tap into what he's doing.

It's also been suggested that people throughout history live out much of what Jesus taught despite never hearing of him. Perhaps what Jesus is saying in this line of scripture is that, if we're aligned with what he's doing, whether or not we've decided to follow him, we still get in on what's coming next because we're already helping to bring about the same results.

I don't think John 14:6 answers the question of hell. I don't think it even addresses hell at all. It certainly doesn't mention any of the common phrases that would be translated into the word 'hell' in English.

Embracing

At small group tonight, we covered part of Matthew 16. Jesus talks about embracing the suffering in life and dying to ourselves, becoming more selfless, less self centered.

Why embrace suffering? I think one of the main points is learning empathy for your fellow human beings. Nothing unites us like suffering.

On my way home I tuned into NPR. They were talking to an elderly woman. She is trying to survive on Social Security, Medicare, and Food Stamps. Her housing costs are higher than her Social Security earnings. The only food she has comes from her monthly food stamp allotment and what she can gather from a local food pantry. She’s behind on her rent. Medicare doesn’t cover copays, and neither can she.

She stated that purchasing a bar of soap would be a luxury most months. That hit home. We’ve been donating things like soap for almost a year now to local shelters. I always feel like it’s not enough, or that we’re flooding them with silly soap, but maybe not.

The interviewer went on to ask her about the current state of our country. You see, her parents had survived the Great Depression, and she remembers living through World War II, when times were likely tougher. She said, back then, people pulled together as communities. Those who had more, shared. It wasn’t perfect, but she’s not seeing that kind of thing now, not on such a wide scale, not with such selflessness.

Prodded further she shared that she believed we’ve undergone too wide of a disconnect between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. She said we’re too afraid of one another. Neighbors don’t even check in on neighbors. Fear of so many things, terrorism, violence, money scams, holds us back from helping one another.

I couldn’t help but think, this was exactly what Jesus was talking about. We fear the suffering. As a friend of mine would say, we insulate ourselves, comfort our own lives.

Because we have not suffered along side the have-nots, we have a disconnect. We lose any empathy. We don’t want to see other people’s problems because we seem to think that trouble might be contagious.

I don’t think Jesus was necessarily saying that those that have plenty should give it all up so they can understand the poor. I think he was saying that, when trouble hits, learn from it. When it hits other people, come along side them, not just to help, but to learn and experience it. Learn to have that empathy so you’re not afraid but empowered to give when and what you can. I think empathy kills off some of that fear too. In its absense, love and community can grow. It would be nice to live in a world where a 50¢ bar of soap isn’t a luxury.

Jesus and Rob Zombie

I've said before, music is a very spiritual thing to me. The following piece surprises even me, but every time I think about the song Scum of the Earth by Rob Zombie, I think of Jesus. When I hear this, I see him up there, straining against the nails to beckon us forward, gritting his teeth against the pain, screaming to those of us that count ourselves among the scum of the earth. In his pain, he's calling to us to come to him.

If you've never heard it, this song is a heavy metal anthem. It's got a fast, heavy drum track with electro synth beats added in. It's thrashy. Rob Zombie growls and shouts. What Jesus did with his life, whether you believe he was divine or not, was not often clean, easy, or dull. His message was radical enough to get him killed. I think that deserves a heavy metal anthem.

Scum of the earth

Come on

Yeah

Run and kill

Destroy the will

A hero that doesn't exist

Yeah

Smoking gun

Well I am the one

A bullet hole

In your fist

Yeah

Hey, I'm breathing

Hey, I'm bleeding

Hey, I'm screaming

Scum of the earth

Come on

Yeah

Wake up dead

Bleeding red

A world that doesn't exist

Yeah

Heaven waits

With the gates

Rusting in the mist

Yeah

Yeah

Hey, I'm breathing

Hey, I'm bleeding

Hey, I'm screaming

Scum of the earth

Come on

Do all the lyrics fit? Does it ever matter? Each poem or song can mean something completely different to any given reader. It doesn't even matter what the writer's original intentions were. At least, that's my opinion of music and poetry.

Let's break it down a bit (no pun intended).

The song repeats "A hero that doesn't exit," and I think of what the Prophet Isaiah said about Jesus' own people denying him, harming him. Jesus wasn't often treated as a hero while he was alive. Heroes don't end up on crosses.

"Smoking gun, well I am the one, a bullet hole in your fist." Jesus on the cross wanted to be nothing but guilty. That's what the cross was about, Jesus paying the price for everyone else's wrong doing. To me, a fist is the universal symbol of violence, and Jesus, time and again, symbolized and spoke out about non-violence being the best way to do anything. Holes in fists also remind me of the holes left from being crucified.

The parts about "a world that doesn't exist" and "Heaven's gates" remind me of the Kingdom of Heaven, which Jesus said was closer than we thought, it was upon us, and it was also coming. All mysterious statements about a world that doesn't quite exist yet, but then again, every time we try to make the world a better place, Heaven appears.

All this might seem like a stretch to you, gentle reader, but I have a very active imagination. This is what goes through my mind, this is what I feel when I hear this song.

Haiti

We don’t watch TV much anymore. When the box is on, it’s either fixed to the local PBS station or playing a DVD. When I went to bed last Tuesday night, I read a blurb about an earthquake in Haiti. The story didn’t say much. The headline didn’t hook me.

On Wednesday, my dad, brother Bob, and I went to see Avatar. My dad mentioned that they still were unable to contact anyone in Haiti, even those at the American embassy. I was shocked. I didn’t know it was that bad.

It’s hard not to be depressed when things like this happen. A lot of people ignore these things, close their emotions off from what is happening "so far away." I find it hard to do that. I dwell on my inability to help. If I had a job, if I didn’t have kids to care for right now, I believe I’d be on an airplane or at the very least, donating money.

My dad kept saying, "Oh, you wouldn't want to volunteer for that. It's not like they'd be putting you up in a hotel or anything." My dad and I differ a bit on these types of ideas.

“Evangelical” televangelist, Pat Robertson reared his ugly comments shortly after the tragedy. He claimed that Haiti had made a deal with the devil, and God was punishing them for it. That made me very angry. The Bible is full of scriptures that tell us that God doesn’t do those sorts of things. Jesus dispells the idea specifically. It angers me that someone portrays Christianity this way, with fear instead of love. Many spoke out against his comments.

Tony Campolo wrote:

"I don’t believe God called this disaster down on Haiti, but I do believe God’s grace and love, flowing through those of us who are surrendered to God’s will, can bring healing and redemption to our Haitian brothers and sisters."

One Christian blogger pointed out that none of us cared much for Haiti in past decades while its people lived lives of incredible poverty. Our politicians, our country has done little or nothing to help these people or their country. His plea was this:

“Please, please give generously to help Haiti get back on its feet. But in a week or so when the story has gone from our screens, let’s not forget them, and let’s try to get the systemic issues sorted out. They need debt forgiven. They need minimum wage agreements. They need symmetric fair trade agreements. They need to be given a fair chance, especially by the US.”
- Kester Brewin from his blog: // __ issues. in code. __ //

The problem, of course, is that there are tons of places all over the globe that need help. Individually, we can't help them all. I believe we could help most of them if we acted collectively, in an organized way, but I also realize that there are many that just don't care.

Unlike Mr. Robertson, I don't think God is currently reveling in revenge or anger. I believe He's in mourning. The Bible is pretty clear: He suffers with us and for us.