This week I have been reading Michael Coren’s new book Blasphemy on the Kindle. I have not finished it — just worked through the first three chapters. Now Mike is a Papist, and I’m reformed, but there is nothing in the first three chapters that I would disagree with. His identification that many people are anti Christian (and in Dan Brown’s case, virulently Anti-Catholic) is accurate, and his description of Brown as an (a) bad writer (b) lousy scholar and (c) frank liar — claiming that a novel, based on conspiracy theorists from a bunch of cultists is “based on truth” is correct.
This takes me to a conversation during the childrens talk at Kirk this morning. I did notknow the person next to me. Turns out he is the chaplian for the local Anglican Bishop (who is a good bishop and teaches the truth). I discussed how the division noways seems to be less around denominations — though both of us have worshipped in Anglican and Presbyterain circles most of our lives — but if you are serious or not.
If you take the belief of the church seriously, Dan Brown is risable. The questions that Michale Coren raises — around pain, around the bible being inaccurate, and juvenile, But the application of these is hard.
1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind: 2“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
4“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5Who determined its measurements – surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone 7when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?
8“Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? – 9when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, 10and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, 11and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?
1Then Job answered the LORD: 2“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’ 5I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
20… and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” 22And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” 23And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
28“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” — 30for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
31Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. 32A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” 33And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Now, the first passage speaks particularly to the issue of pain. Why is there cancer in my family. Why do good people suffer and die. Why is their famine in Africa again (or why does africa not have the resileince to handle a poor agricultural season). The answer is fairly harsh to Job and to us: we do not understand everything that is going on.
The sermon today was an examination of our motives to love the poor, the shunned, the stigmatized. Jono talked about his mixed motives when he lived in the rooming houses in Vancouver. He was discovering the poor as a theological topic, and ideas of being a hero. an intellectual explorer, and of doing his duty were admixed with any love he had for the people there. Some of them were indeed unlovable. At times he found himself in his room writing about love at the margins rather than living it.
And this still happens. I work with the mad, the stigmatized the hurt. And at times I actively dislike them. I forget they have the same image of God graven in them as I have. And at times I want to work with them to meet my agenda: get the research projects done, get promotion, make money.
For I am not God. Nor do I claim to be. Any love I have for the unlikeable comes from God. It sure does not come from me.
Which brings us to the risk we face. If we reject God, his message, his spirit, and then claim that we are correct, he is wrong… repetitively, we lose contrition.
And that is the unforgivable sin. To say to God that I will do things my way. When we confront God, we should end up, if we have any wisdom, like Job, saying that are arguments are weak, our objections fail, and that we repent. Otherwise, to quote Coren, who was quoting Lewis. God will say “THY will be done… and we will be left without any relationship with God.
There is an old name for that, It is called Hell.
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