Are You Ready to Crash?

 Are you ready to “crash”?  I want to challenge you today to go out and crash into something, and in doing so, change a life and become a vehicle for God’s love in the world. 

 When we think of crashing, most of us usually have a negative image in our minds.  The most vivid “crash” that I have experienced occurred when another vehicle stopped very suddenly in front of our family van.  Crash!  The next thing I knew, I had an airbag in my lap, a stiff neck and back, and lot of hassle to replace the van. 

 Of course, there are less violent “crashes” that we experience.  After a long and difficult period at work or school, we talk about having to go home to “crash”.  Relationships or projects can “crash and burn”.  Usually, however, a “crash” is not a pleasant experience.  This year, the youth from Holy Spirit Lutheran who went to the Bass Lake Festival at Michi-Lu-Ca were challenged to “crash” into a person in their life, sharing God’s love with someone.  Here is a brief explanation of this concept…  

 Theme for 2010 Bass Lake—CRASH

 What does CRASH mean?  A “crash” is the name of a group of rhinoceros, like a flock of sheep or herd of cattle.  They receive this name because Rhinos have poor eyesight, and do not see things until they are right upon them.  Because of their size, rhinos take a lot of energy to start moving and to stop—so they often “crash” into things because they can’t stop until they are right upon it.

 What does this have to do with youth ministry (ministry/life in general)?

• We need to crash, or at least risk crashing.
• Often we don’t do anything because we can’t see the future—yet “we are called to ventures to which we cannot see the ending.”
• Obstacles we “crash” into doesn’t necessarily mean we should stop—sometimes they are roadblocks we need to crash through. 
• We not only called to be, also to do!
• We sometimes talk things to death before acting, there are things we need to just do.
• We fear doing something wrong, so we do nothing.  Yet we need to confess the things we failed to do!
• We don’t always need to get approval or a committee to do things.  We can crash individually and make a difference (stories of young people raising money for leukemia by selling lemonade, a young adult starting a community garden and people joining in)

 Many of us truly love Jesus and want to share Jesus with those around us, but life often gets in the way.  We get busy and distracted.  We are shy or uncertain of what we can say or do.  We lack motivation or desire.  2 Corinthians 3:12 challenges us with these words, “Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with boldness.”  You and I are blessed.  God is good, All the time.  These words are so true, and we can make these words real for someone else.  Simple acts of kindness, service, and love can turn a person’s day around, but even more, show them the true love of a Christ-like love of a Christian for their neighbor.

 So, why wait and procrastinate?  “Why not risk “crashing” ahead by showing God’s love to someone today?  Let’s redefine “crashing” as something we need to and want to do, rather than being something we avoid.

As a church, what would it look like to be a church that “crashes” forward in service to others.   Can we dare to start to radically call people to take the risk to crash forward, to crash into each other in love, to crash as a group through barriers like racism and classism?  How would our service and social missions ministries need to be different to enable people to “crash” out of the worship service into their daily lives?  Do our worship services motivate people to crash on the couch or crash into the world in service?  These are challenging questions, but important ones, if we are to live out our purpose of Following Jesus and Sharing God’s Word. 

What do you think?  What has been your experience of the institutional church?  What is the church called to do and to be in this day and age?  How can the church move forward as a place to “crash out into the world”?

Keeping Hope Alive

Tomorrow, thousands (we might wish it were millions) of folks from Michigan will go to the polls to participate in the process of electing leaders to lead our community, state, and nation during difficult times.  As I go to polls tomorrow, I go with a sense of hope that the selections I make will be able to begin to make a difference in turning things around and restoring hope.  At the same time, if I am honest, I do not have much confidence that those we elect this fall will be any more effective at bringing change and restoring hope to our communities.

 Where do I find hope today?  Do I find hope while watching TV and cable, reading the paper, or listening to talk radio?  Rarely.  Do I find hope for the future when I look at my retirement investments?  Hardly!  Do I find hope when I listen to politicians tell us their plans and hopes?  Occasionally.  Do I dream of hope when I listen to Jim Schwartz talk about his plans for the Detroit Lions Football team this fall – mistakenly, I sometimes do (a guy has to dream).  In most of these areas, we look for glimmers of hope and glimpses of a better future, but often these glimmers and glimpses are more of a mirage than a reality.

 Where do I find hope today?  I find hope in the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; the very one who kept all the promises made to them.  I find hope in the God of Jesus, who never abandoned Jesus to his fate, but was always there to share the worst that was to come.  I find hope in the God who kept the promise to raise Jesus from the dead, destroying the power of death, and granting us new life.

 Where do I find hope today?  I find hope in the God who walked with me through the many dark valleys in my life.  He was my companion, while I was growing up without a father (he died of Lymphoma when I was seven), sending me loving and supportive male mentors to guide me through many difficult situations.  He was my guide, leading me to meet my wife, who loves me (though I do not always know why) and tempers the excesses of my personality.  He was the rock I clung to over the past few years, as my mother struggled with various illnesses and near-death experiences.  He was my motivator, filling me with energy and enthusiasm for sharing his love with my church and the world around me.

 Where do I find hope today?  I find hope in local churches and individual Christians who reach out in faith and compassion, despite their own struggles and challenges.  Why does the church exist, if not to tell the world about Jesus and his love?  How can the church be relevant if it does not actively show God’s love by welcoming hurting people and attempting to help them in the best ways?  Churches need to be places where people can talk openly and honestly about their pain and struggles, their fears and desires, as well as their hopes and dreams for the future.  We are people of hope, because we worship a God who feeds multitudes (both by multiplying loaves and fishes, as well as through a semi-truck of food in a parking lot), parts seas (Red Seas, as well as figurative seas of hatred and racism), and brings healing and hope.  The church is a vessel of hope in the midst of stormy and troubled seas – this is our great calling today.

 Where do I find hope today?  I find hope when I see a child dip their finger in a baptismal font and make a cross on their forehead remembering that God is their Abba – their daddy – their constant companion and guide – the one who will never leave or forsake them.  May we all have the faith of a child, trusting and believing that we are all God’s beloved children.

Where do you find hope?  How do you keep your faith alive?

The Culture of “Me”

Recently, I was shopping in a local store, when I heard a child screaming at her mother.  As I pushed my shopping cart past this scene, I noticed that the child was pointing at an object on the shelf and demanding that her mother give it to her.  The mother refused, which led to the screaming fit.  I felt bad for the mother who appeared to be attempting to set some boundaries for her daughter.  My sympathy was tempered, when I noticed that the 7-year-old was holding a super-sized slurpee and an open pack of cookies – probably right off a shelf in the store.  This mother’s attempts to enforce a boundary were undermined by 1) the large quantity of sugar the child had consumed, and 2) the inconsistency of telling her “no”, while letting her open a pack of unpurchased cookies.  I hope this was simply an isolated incident or a bad day for this family.  Unfortunately, it is not an isolated incident in our culture. 

We live in a “Me, First” culture.  We are all familiar with the excesses of our society.  One example from the news this week – our local NFL football franchise, the Detroit Lions is negotiating a contract with a first-round draft pick for many millions of dollars – a franchise that has a perennial losing record.  The sum total of all the salaries on this losing team runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars.  At the same time, the school districts in the state (for a variety of reasons) are closing hundreds of buildings and failing to educate our young, thousands of local and county employees are being laid off, and thousands of children are living in hunger every day.  The contrast between the “haves” and “have-nots” is growing ever wider, and our culture tends to encourage these types of excesses. 

In the lessons that we cover this week, the writer of Ecclesiastes chapters 1 and 2 talks about the futility of work and labor – “Vanity, O vanity, all is vanity.” He is talking about the fact that we work our whole lives, and at the end of our lives, we leave it all behind.  Jesus also takes a dim view on the ultimate value of our possessions.  He tells a parable about a rich landowner who takes great pride in building bigger and bigger barns to hold all of his stuff.  The landowner is quite smug about his possessions and the life of luxury that they grant him.  However, at the end of the parable, God has a sharp word of condemnation for the landowner, saying that his life will be taken from him at that very moment.  Jesus wanted his followers to understand that a person’s happiness cannot be based on stuff, accumulation, wealth, security, or worldly concerns.  In the end, it will all return to dust, and we will have nothing.  The “Me, First” culture of north America often leads to disappointment and sadness, no matter how much stuff we accumulate.  In fact, some of the richest people often have some of the lowest levels of happiness.  Did you know, the majority of all professional football players are in bankruptcy within two years of retiring from football – Vanity, O vanity, all is vanity?

The old Bible song points us to the antidote….

Seek ye first the kingdom and his righteousness.

And all these things shall be added unto you.

Alelu, Alleluia.

We can best overcome the “Me, First” attitude, when we make sacrifices for God and God’s children.  We ome closest to God’s ideal for us, when we take time out of our schedules to volunteer to help those in need.

Next week, our church will be working on a Habitat for Humanity project in Burton.  Paid for by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, this Thrivent Build will ensure that a struggling family is able to buy a decent affordable house.  This is a great project to help us battle the “me, first” attitude on the world around us, by first encouraging us to put someone else first in our own lives.  For more info about the Habitat Humanity project and Thrivent Builds, follow this link: http://www.geneseehabitat.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=35&Itemid=91.  

Together, as individuals and as a church, we can battle the “Me, First” Mentality and replace it with a God-first mentality, which will lead us all to real life.

Is the Devil for Real?

When people think of the devil, they often have a figure in their mind that is eternally opposed to God, with the power to devastate and destroy those who love God.  In the media, the devil is often pictured as either a character in a red suit with pointy ears, a pointy tail, and pitchfork; or a smooth-talking, sharp-dressed character in an Armani suit.  In both cases, the characters are very obviously evil in their words and deeds.

Do I believe in ”the devil”?  If you mean the scary-looking guy in the red suit with a pitchfork, then the answer is “no”.  Instead, I believe in many small “devils” in our world, which are much more insidious and dangerous than one “devil” could ever be.  These devils are around us to subtly tempt us, telling is the very things we most desire and want to hear.

In the Bible, what we think of as “the devil” goes by various names – Satan, the devil, the adversary, and the serpent.  In each case, the entity is opposed to God and God’s agents.  We see Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness, trying to get him to look out for himself and turn away from God’s mission of salvation for the world.  In the Garden of Eden, the serpent tempts Adam and Eve to turn their backs on God and become like God themselves.  In each case, temptation is the tool that the Adversary to God uses.  One only needs to look around us in the world to see that temptation has been, and always will be, around us.  If temptation is present, there will be “devils” who attempt to lead us away from God.

I have just returned from a week at confirmation camp.  While there, the campers were cut off from the internet, with no access to media, computers, phones, and most technology.  Even the adults leaders had greatly reduced access to technology, which I can say was difficult at times.  Evidenced by the fact that I couldn’t write this blog until the end of the week. 

At the same time, there was a sense of freedom from being away from most emails, phone calls, TV shows, and computers with their websites and even blogs.  I took time to walk in the woods with Nathaniel (my son) watching deer and hunting for turtles, talking with good friends, and listening for God.  It is not that technology is evil.  Tehnology is a tool that can be used for good as well as evil purposes.  However, there are many times those who would turn us away from God use technology to draw us away from our ultimate source of hope, healing, and love.  When we use the media and technology around us, it gives us unlimited access to both the good, and the evil, in the world. 

Do I believe in devils?  Yes, I do.  They are all around us and they draw us away from God.  The Bible talks about powers and evil forces that are arrayed against us, that draw us away from God, and that seek to drive a wedge between us and God.  Jesus regularly cast out demons and evil spirits.  Those evil spirits did not go away with Jesus death and resurrection.  I believe they are still alive and well, working to subvert God’s people.  Maybe they work in more subtle ways, but they are still around.  The very fact that they work so subtly is perhaps the greatest - they are all around us tempting us with some of the greatest things we love and depend upon – replacing God with things of our own creation. 

Devils are certainly real, but so is God, and God is the one who has the greater power.  In Romans, St. Paul says, 

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

While there are certainly thing in creation that oppose God, God is the ultimate victor.  Jesus has defeated death and the devil or all time.  While devils are all around us to tempt us, they can never completely separate us from God.  Good is good, all the time, and all the time, God is good.

What Will Happen When I Die?

Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust.  Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.  These are the words I speak on Ash Wednesday, as I place ashes on the foreheads of those who come forward for the imposition of ashes.  The first phrase is also spoken at the graveside, as a person’s body is commited to the ground. 

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.  I have said those words fairly frequently lately at the gravesides of relatively young men – 3 in six months.  These men died much sooner than many would have thought that they should have died.  Their lives have been cut short, their families are grieving, and they will be missed.  Ashes to ashes and dust to dust – words that remind us of our mortality and the fragility of life. 

Ashes to Ashes and dust to dust.  Do our lives end in dust?  Are these men reduced to just a pile of ashes?  What happens now to these men?  And by implication, this question makes us also wonder, what happens to us when we die?

What happens to us when we die?  As a person of faith, I believe that when I die I will see God.  As Jesus says, “³⁹And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”   John 6:39-40  My faith tells me that when I die, both I and all of God’s other children, will be with God.  There is nothing, not even death itself, that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  When I die, I will be with God.

Being with God sounds great on the face of it, but what will heaven and the afterlife really be like?  As a child, I used to worry about heaven.  I imagined that heaven was this place that you went and just sat around thinking about God, singing, and going to church all day.  As a youth, that seemed as appealing as a long visit to the dentist’s office.  As a result, I was actually a bit afraid of heaven.  I was sure that I was going to be bored out of my mind.  I like singing, but that sounded like a bit too much singing, especially when it was going to last for all eternity!  Even the idea of eternity itself sounded a bit daunting, as eternity is soooo long – what could I possibly do for all that time without it getting incredibly dull? 

Today, I view heaven a bit differently.  The honest truth is that we do not know what heaven/the afterlife will be like – no one does.  Jesus tells us in John’s Gospel that he was “going to prepare a place for us.  In his father’s house, there are many rooms, and he was going to prepare them for us.”  Now, should we read that literally and believe that heaven will be a huge house with many rooms?  Probably not.  Jesus point was more that he was going to prepare a place for us to be with God, and he used the metaphor of a house, because that is what the disciples could most easily understand.  Further, he wanted the disciples to know that God also understood their individual needs – Jesus was preparing a specific place for them, taking into account their very specific needs.  The place that Jesus was preparing was for them.

Heaven is not a place to fear or about which we should worry.  Heaven is a place where God and his people will reside together, where “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, for the first things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).  On this side of death, there can be so much pain, loss, fear, and suffering.  When we die, we leave all of these things behind us.  Even though we may not know specifically what heaven is like, we can know that we will not need to fear the concerns that we have had in this world.

 Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life, the one believes in me will never die.”  This is my reason for hope.  Because Jesus rose from the dead, at the end, I will rise from the dead as well.  I no longer fear death.  While I may not know exactly what eternal life will be like, I know that at the minimum I will be with God.  If I am with God, it will most certainly be great! 

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.  I will be leading a memorial service at the end of this week.  For me, this is not a cause for great sorrow and fear.  There will certainly be sadness, because the man who died will certainly be missed by those who knew him – including loving parents, a caring sister, and two promising sons.  At the same time, his family knows that while the man’s earthly life is over, his next experience will be to see God and live in God’s presence.  While his earthly existence is over, he will spend eternity with God – and it won’t be just sitting around and singing, but it will be a time of eternal joy in God’s loving embrace.  Ashes to ashes and dust to dust – because of Jesus, this child of God will join all the others who have gone before in living for a joy-filled eternity in God’s joyous presence. 

Finally Free!

This weekend, we celebrate our freedom as a country.  As individuals, we have been given the great gift of freedom, bought and paid for by the blood of many patriots over the years.  Over this weekend of picnics, beach parties, parades, and fireworks, we cannot forget the reason we can celebrate.  Our freedom came with a price, a sacrifice many of us might pause before making.

At the same time, this weekend reminds me of my spiritual freedom.  God is a just God, a God who holds people accountable for their sins and errors, their disobedience and willfulness.  Every person sins, and therefore, every person has failed in the eyes of God.  No matter how good we try to live, we are captive, enslaved, prisoner to our sin and sinful nature.  Despite this, God has freed us through Jesus.  We are free, not because of anything we have done, but through the actions of Jesus.  We are free! 

This leads to the question – Will God still love us when we disappoint God?  

The Great News that God gives us is, “Yes!”  God loves us with a crazy, unbelievable, out-of-this-world love.  Jesus told the story of the Prodigal Son to help us to know this truth.  God not only welcomes us back home, God watches for us and rushes out to find us and bring us home again. 

There is a great song performed by Chris Tomlin that perfectly illustrates this truth called, “Come Home Running.”  Check out these words…
Oh heart of mine, why must you stray?
From one so fair you run away
And one more time you have to pay
The heaviness of needless shame

Oh heart of mine, come back home
You’ve been too long out on your own
And He’s been there all along
Watching for you down the road

So come home running
His arms are open wide
His name is Jesus
He understands
He is the answer
You are looking for
So come home running
Just as you are

Oh child of God so dearly loved
And ransomed by the Savior’s blood
And called by name, daughter and son
Wrapped in the robe of righteousness

Oh, Child of God, so dearly loved.  Come home running, just as you are!  You and I are dearly loved.  Have you ever experienced God’s love in this way?  Who shared that love with you?  Have you experienced this radical acceptance and forgiveness in your own life?  Maybe it was the forgiveness of a parent or significant other, a co-worker or friend.  We all need to feel this kind of forgiveness in life, even if it is only the forgiveness that God gives to us.  This kind of forgiveness and acceptance leads us to come home running.

On this Independence Day weekend, we celebrate our freedom as a nation, but we should also our spiritual freedom, won for us by Jesus.  Being able to celebrate our religious freedom and worship God is one of the freedoms that our forebears won for us.   This holiday weekend, find some way to worship God and give God thanks for all the freedoms that we enjoy! 

God is good, all the time, and all the time, God is good.

Will God still love me if I do bad things?

Will God Still Love me If I Do Bad Things?

I still remember the feeling…I was in my late teens and I had made some really bad choices and done things that left me feeling really guilty.  The guilt became so bad that I couldn’t even go forward on Sunday morning to take communion, because I didn’t feel worthy.  My sin had created an ever-widening gap between God and me.  I wasn’t actively rejecting God, in fact, there was a part of me that needed and wanted God more than ever.  At the same time, I didn’t feel like God could really love me, knowing the sin that was within me.  In the end, I worked through my feelings, confessed my sin to a trusted pastor, and once again felt at peace with God.  However, it took time and effort to work through everything.

Have you ever felt that way?  Have guilt and fear ever withered your spirit, like a newly planted flower on a swelteringly hot spring day?  Have you ever carried around a sin that you believed that God could never forgive? Perhaps, it isn’t your own sin that you have a hard time imagining that God could forgive.  Maybe, it is the sin of a family member, friend or co-worker that you cannot imagine God forgiving.  Does God still love us if we sin?  What do we do about our sin and the problems that our sin causes us?

The Bible is very clear about God’s response to our sin.  God hates sin and the effect that sin has on us, on our world, and on our relationships with God and one another.  God condemns sin and those who sin (which is everyone), as St. Paul says, “The wages (the price) of sin is death.”  The truth is that our sin destroys us, our relationships, and our world.  Just as surely as God condemns us, our actions condemn us and lead to our deaths.

At the same time, because of God’s great love for us, God sent Jesus to die for us.  Now, when God sees us, God doesn’t see the sin, God only sees Jesus, who gave his life for us.  John 3:16-17 states, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For the Son came not to condemn the world, but to save it.”  As he was being crucified, a convicted criminal hanging on a cross next to Jesus asked to be remembered in Paradise.  Jesus offered that criminal forgiveness, promising him that he would be with Jesus in Paradise.  Jesus offers us the same promise.  Our sins will be forgiven, and we will be with Jesus in Paradise.

There is a wonderful parable told by Jesus about a man with two sons.  The youngest demanded his inheritance, left home, and blew the money on wild living.  The oldest resented his younger brother and was bitter about his brother’s wild living, as well as his father’s leniency.  After losing everything, the youngest son comes home to throw himself on his father’s mercy.  The father, for his part, had been out watching every day for his son to return.  When he sees the son coming home, he runs and greets him, welcomes him home, and throws a massive party for him.  Because, “This son of mine was lost, but now he is found.”  The Father never demanded that the son repent or abmit his failings – instead the Father went to him. 

So, it is with us, dear friends.  We all are lost, and we all have been found by God.  We all have made mistakes, and we all are welcomed home again.         

Will God still love us, if we make a mistake?  Absolutely, unequivocally, without a doubt – YES!  God knew you before you were even born, warts and all, and he sent Jesus to die for you.

What Faith Can Do….

Here is a song from the contemporary musical group Kutless that many people have found helpful as they deal with doubt and difficult life situations.  It is called “What Faith Can Do”

Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes and make a new beginning
Anyone can feel the ache
You think its more than you can take
But you are stronger, stronger than you know
Don’t you give up now
The sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
Impossible is not a word
It’s just a reason for someone not to try
Everybody’s scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It’ll be alright
Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

Overcome the odds
You don’t have a chance
(That’s what faith can do)
When the world says you can’t
It’ll tell you that you can!

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do
That’s what faith can do!
Even if you fall sometimes
You will have the strength to rise

The words of this song are not necessarily an answer to the question about Christians and doubt, as much as they are words of hope and encouragement.  In those times when we fall, when we question God, when we struggle, God is there, giving us the faith to keep on believing and trusting in God.   In the book of Romans, St. Paul says that even when we cannot pray, when we lose heart, when grief breaks our will, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words to express.  God has faith for us – what a wonderful God we have!

Can a Christian Have Doubts?

Can a Christian Have Doubts?

Have you ever experienced a time when you wondered why God allowed something painful to happen to you? Have you ever struggled to understand one of the mysteries of faith, like where God came from? Have you ever wrestled with some of the beliefs of our faith, but were afraid to admit that you didn’t believe the same as what you imagined other Christians believed? These are all very real challenges for people of faith, and they all lead to the question, “Can a real Christian have doubts?”

The truth of the matter is that all Christians – all people – doubt. We all have times when our trust in God is not complete. Whether we are confronted with challenges that look to be impossible to overcome or are faced with situations that we cannot understand, we experience doubt and fear. These emotions are a regular part of human existence, and in fact, they may actually be helpful.

Lord Alfred Tennyson once said,
“There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds.”
– “In Memoriam A.H.H.”

Tennyson understood the important place that doubts and fears can play in our faith lives. Our doubts and fears keep our faith alive and active, growing and evolving. If we take everything as absolute fact, our faith can never grow and evolve from challenges that are overcome. We need doubts to nip at our preconceptions and assumptions, to force us to think through our faith and the reasons for it, and to lead us to rely on God and not on ourselves. Some of God’s most faithful followers and servants were people who had doubts and fears. Jesus regularly referred to the disciples as, “You, of little faith.” Later, of course, they went on to do great things. Along the way, though, they all had doubts. Doubt is a regular part of the human experience. Abraham and Sara doubted that God would give them a son at almost 100 years of age. Jonah was filled with doubts about God and God’s mission for him. The disciples in the terrible storm at sea doubted. And, famously, Thomas doubted the Resurrection of Jesus.

Doubt is a natural part of the human experience. It is healthy to question God, wondering out loud why things happen the way they do or where God can be found in various situations. In fact, these kind of doubts can help our faith, because engaging God with these questions can lead to a deeper and richer faith. Doubt becomes a problem when it causes us to pull away from God. This is why it is so important for the Christian person to have those in their lives that they can talk with about their fears and doubts. Sharing our questions allows us to work through them, without pulling away from God.
Can a Christian have doubts? Absolutely, in fact, they wouldn’t be honest if they pretended that they didn’t have any. The problem is not the doubts, but what you do with them. May God lead you to openly and honestly share your doubts. A final quote from Frederick Buechner – “Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don’t have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.”

Do you ever experience doubts and fears?  How have those doubts effected your faith life?  Have your doubts ever drawn you closer to God and God’s people?  Share some of your thoughts on doubt, as well as the ways that you have worked to overcome doubt before it can be too much for your faith.

Is Jesus The Only Way to God?

The tough question we will struggle with this week is: “Is Jesus the only way to God?”  Many Christians would not find this a difficult question to answer.  Yet, in a world which has become increasingly spiritual, while at the same time less tolerant of organized religion, this question takes on new relevance.  We all encounter people in our daily lives that are of different faiths from Christian, not to mention those who have no expressed faith in any religion.  Because of this, many of us know people who wrestle with the suggestion that those who are not Christian will not be saved.  At the same time, sharing our belief that “Jesus saves” is almost taboo in polite company.  So, what do we do with the question, “Is Jesus the only way to God?”  Does this statement exclude large numbers of people, or rather; is it a powerful testament of the lengths to which God acts to save us?

St. Paul writes these words in Romans 10, “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him form the dead, then you will be saved.”  “Jesus is Lord,” was the earliest confession of the Christian church and it was in use long before the church established the Apostle’s or Nicene creeds.  Before any of the other creeds, there was the confession, “Jesus is Lord.”  That statement is central to our understanding of our salvation, but even more, it is central to how we understand God interacting with us and all of humanity.

 

What does this mean for us today?  In John 14, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father, except through me.”   As Christian people, we first and foremost believe that it is through Jesus that God chose to save us.  There are many other religions, many other religious leaders and holy men, but Jesus is unique in his willingness to sacrifice himself, his innocent death, and his resurrection from the dead.  Saying, “Jesus is Lord”, we acknowledge what Jesus has done, we recognize that he made the sacrifice for us, and we commit to following Jesus.

Because we are saved, we have been given a great and wonderful free gift – a new relationship with God.  We haven’t done anything to earn this relationship, even our faith itself is the work of the Holy Spirit.  This new relationship means that our sins are forgiven, we have the promise of eternal life with God, and we are a made a part of the body of Christ, God’s church.  

What does this statement mean for those who do not believe in Jesus or follow him?  Jesus died to save all of humanity, not just an elite core.  Jesus said that his work was to draw all of humanity to himself.  God’s intent was that all would be saved, and Jesus was the means to save them. 

The problem for some people today is that they see the church as being over against the world and those who do not believe in Jesus.  Rather than loving all people and eagerly trying to draw them back to God, we see those who do not believe as we do as the enemy.  As a result, we vilify and avoid those who are different than us.  This was never Jesus’ intent.  “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it.”  John 3:17.

As Christians, our mission in the world is to share the story of God’s saving love with everyone around us, not with the goal of condemning people, but in the hope that they might know the joy of being loved by Jesus.

What does the question, “Is Jesus the only way to God?” mean to you?  Have you struggled to know what to say to someone who does not believe in Jesus?   Share your thoughts here and join the conversation as we explore what our faith means in daily life.