He Can't Stay Silent Anymore

In the wee hours of Friday morning, a bullied teen from western Snyder County, PA, left his home, walked over 10 miles in the dark to Hwy 11/15, waited by the side of the road for the next tractor-trailer to drive by, then jumped in front of it.

Andy is a pastor in western Snyder County. His sermon on Sunday was a response to this tragedy. He put the following comment up with his initial posting of the video to facebook:

OK here it is. It's hard to be an outspoken voice of moderation. This is a sermon to my congregations, with reference to our community tragedy this Friday. It should not be considered such a risky thing to do to proclaim God's love for gay teenagers, but I didn't have the guts until today.

He put additional comments up as he posted this to youtube:

In the wake of another teen suicide in our nation, this time in our community, it was time to finally say publicly what I have said privately many times: "God loves gay people too." This should not be so radical, but it is still eliciting resistance and hate. Due to the nature of many immature and anonymous youtube users, comments will be disabled. This video is on facebook already, but I hope that by using youtube, it may make its way to those who need to hear it. The voices of hate cannot be allowed to be the only voice heard, even and especially those who use the name of our Lord to justify it.

I have always been proud to call Andy my friend, but am especially proud of him for this particular witness to the Gospel. Preach it, brother.

Deep Thought for the Day

I heart Chris Scharen:

Grace, then, might better be understood as a work of God prior to our salvation, as the capacity for anything to be at all, and as the sense of beauty and possibility that infuses things. Out of this unfathomable grace and love, God seeks to turn us out of self-centeredness and to selflessness, as God is in God's own life as Trinity. Such abundant giving beyond oneself for the sake of a beautiful but broken world where God is already present, already loving and preserving, does not mean retreat from culture. Rather, it means immersion in it for the sake of God's desire to call all creation to new life, to a final reconciliation and peace that the biblical writers called "shalom."

From faith as a way of life (Eerdmans 2008) p. 103

Wanna Ha Gog?

Redemption comes in many forms.

Today, at the end of a very long day that was spent mostly with people too well acquainted with Death and All His Friends; today, in a space that I have most recently known only as a place of deep, unspeakable sorrow; today, redemption came in the waiting room of the maternity ward, as a smiling Alex handed me an empty plastic plate and asked, "Wanna ha gog?" (translation: Want a hot dog?). Today, resurrection broke in on all of us as we met and held his brand new baby brother.

Truly, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.

Thanks be to God.

Grace Makes Beauty Out of Ugly Things

So this week I'm finally reading Christian Scharen's One Step Closer: Why U2 Matters to Those Seeking God (only two years after Mary asked me to take a look at it - d'oh!).

The book is fantastic, and kind of ends up being an accessible little theological primer in itself, in addition to being a reflection on the theology of U2. In the first section, Scharen covers several Biblical forms of communication (thanksgiving and lament in the psalms, wisdom, prophecy, parable, and apocalypse), then in the second section covers the theological categories of faith, hope, love, and the now-and-not-yetness of our existence. In each chapter he first summarizes the form or the theology in question, then discusses how U2 expresses or exemplifies that form or idea in their music.

So there's my plug for the book as a whole. On a personal note, my jaw about hit the floor as I was reading today, because Scharen shares a story from his time in the parish, when someone informed him he was personally going to hell and accused him of leading his flock astray.

Why? Because "I was willing to say that God would have mercy and offer love and forgiveness to anyone. They [the accusers] desperately wanted to draw up lines with some in and some out. Because I didn't draw lines, I was clearly permissive, liberal, and probably loved sinners."

My jaw dropped in shock because I have, word for word, endured almost the exact same situation here (my person never went so far as to say to my face that I was going to hell, they just strongly implied there was a special place in hell being reserved for me, because I was leading my flock astray, because I had the audacity to preach and teach God's scandalous grace).

As Scharen notes, pastorally it puts one in a ugly spot, because at the same time that you are striving to defend God's graciousness, you are also struggling internally with a surging lack of graciousness felt toward your attacker.

On the one hand, it's kind of a relief to know I'm not the only pastor who's gone through this experience. On the other hand, it's kind of sad to know how many people out there have such a narrow and dictatorial understanding of God. And unfortunately, they seem to be the ones who talk the loudest. As Matt would say - no wonder so many people hate Christians.

Thank God for the grace that makes beauty out of ALL our ugly things.