I think we watch too much TV.
This week, a plethora of reports on a series of bombings in Bangkok. They were all botched in some way, the best--or, perhaps, the worst--being the guy who failed to eliminate his target but blew off both his legs. I think we watch too much TV.
We think we are all James Bond. We think that we can slip on a tuxedo, or other appropriate suspense-building attire, and become invincible. We get to decide who lives and dies. We know what is worthy of life and death. And we are sure we will accomplish our goals. And we throw our bomb and smile...waiting for the orchestral celebration that will signal our success.
And then the bomb we so deftly threw bounces off the car we didn't notice was approaching fast and lands at our feet and...we. are. headlines.
We just watch too much TV. Our opinion is the only one. Our agenda the best. Our way of doing things is certainly God's way. Our religion, our political stance, our preference for sugar or sweetener, our vegetarianism, our way is clearly the best, the only, the ultimate. We. are. Bond.
Except, we blow our legs off. We can't agree on health care, on budget balancing, on eliminating graft from congress, on worshipping. And we just flop around wondering why we failed when we know we should succeed.
Really, we need to remember that James Bond isn't James Bond. He's just wishful thinking in a tux. And we really need to live real lives and stop trying to play God or be something we cannot possibly be.
I wonder if real life wouldn't be pretty fun...talking and listening to each other...letting God be God...knowing we value our legs over destroying someone else...turning off the TV and all the mistaken assumptions it brings into our world.
(But leave the computer on...everything you read here is true and real...)
Friday, February 17, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Balloons...
We led worship at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond this week. Part of the end of worship is a powerful enactment of God's love written by a college friend of mine, Steve Phillips. After an entire service focused on living out God's love, the end of the service is interrupted by an obvious stranger. The question is, is the stranger in God's house shown God's love. The end of the dramatic piece is an influx of colorful balloons that represent the love of God, a different, demanding love that transforms ordinary of human life into the compelling, accepting, transforming, relational life that allows God to bring God's Kingdom to the here and now.
One of the Richmond students from Ghana read the scripture for the service. After the service was over, we chatted at lunch. He was holding his helium balloon and asked what kind of balloon was it that would float in the air. It took us a minute to figure out what he was asking. He thought it was the skin of the balloon that made the difference...that you could buy the special balloon, then blow it up and the rubber skin would make it float.
We explained that it was the gas inside that made it float, that any skin worked if it had the helium inside. And I kept thinking...that'll preach. Because it not our color or shape or gender preference that reveals God's love inside us...that makes us compelling and different. It is the inside component that makes us behave differently from all the other balloons in the world. And we can be shaped or colored like "religious" people, but if we are not filled with God's transforming love, we just lie on the floor with the rest of the balloons inflated with human breath.
Perhaps I am stretching the metaphor, but we seem to be so mired in the muck of lapel pins and labels, political and social stances, individual rights and collective propaganda that we just bounce around on the floor. Perhaps we need to let God's spirit move us in a different direction...where it is not our outside, but our inside that unites us. And it is the unity, I believe, that indicates whether or not we are filled with the right stuff. If we are not coming together in spite of our humanness, we are not walking in the footsteps Jesus left for us.
For sure, I am looking at helium balloons in a different light. I am going to try and look at life and love and Kingdom in that light as well.
One of the Richmond students from Ghana read the scripture for the service. After the service was over, we chatted at lunch. He was holding his helium balloon and asked what kind of balloon was it that would float in the air. It took us a minute to figure out what he was asking. He thought it was the skin of the balloon that made the difference...that you could buy the special balloon, then blow it up and the rubber skin would make it float.
We explained that it was the gas inside that made it float, that any skin worked if it had the helium inside. And I kept thinking...that'll preach. Because it not our color or shape or gender preference that reveals God's love inside us...that makes us compelling and different. It is the inside component that makes us behave differently from all the other balloons in the world. And we can be shaped or colored like "religious" people, but if we are not filled with God's transforming love, we just lie on the floor with the rest of the balloons inflated with human breath.
Perhaps I am stretching the metaphor, but we seem to be so mired in the muck of lapel pins and labels, political and social stances, individual rights and collective propaganda that we just bounce around on the floor. Perhaps we need to let God's spirit move us in a different direction...where it is not our outside, but our inside that unites us. And it is the unity, I believe, that indicates whether or not we are filled with the right stuff. If we are not coming together in spite of our humanness, we are not walking in the footsteps Jesus left for us.
For sure, I am looking at helium balloons in a different light. I am going to try and look at life and love and Kingdom in that light as well.
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