HEARD AT CHURCH

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

Welcome back.  Let's think about how rotten life is.  

Our associate pastor, Reverend Lauren Colwell, opened her homily with a discussion about this year's Academy Award nominated movies.  

Everyone who knows her knows that she is a movie enthusiast.  So am I.  I love movies more than I love watching football games, and for me, that is saying something.

Reverend Colwell is right.  My wife and I saw Gravity and Blue Jasmine.  The latter I blogged about earlier.  We also saw Twelve Years a Slave.  Just the other night we viewed Captain Phillips.  Before that, my wife saw Dallas Buyer's Club with some friends.  

All of the movies this year are about terrible offerings served up by life.

Now, it's my opinion that the nominated movies are exceptionally good this year.  I hope I'm not writing that because my world view is basically bleak.

Without divulging whether or not Bruce Dern's character received the million bucks that he journeys to collect, Reverend Colwell spoke a lot about Nebraska.

I've been wanting to see it--now more than ever.  

The theme of her sermon was "Choose Life."  These movies with their despairing characters tempt us into believing that death is the underlying power that drives reality.

Indeed, we know that among people of faith Pollyannas thrive.  They believe that God wakes up every morning just to keep their way smooth and uncluttered with obstacles.

However, it is more Christian to acknowledge that the trials of Job await us all.  Sorrows are our lot in life.  Death be our inescapable fate.

Ancient Hebrews believed that God blessed the nation if they obeyed Torah and God punished the nation if they did not. As it turned out, Israel and Judah never seemed to enjoy prosperity for very long.  They were clobbered by any invading army that came along.

This Deuteronomic Theory of History, that the bad things that happen to nation, and a person, are a direct punishment for disobedience came under serious doubt after the Babylonian Captivity.  

After the Jewish people returned to Judah from Babylon there arose two movements:  the Apocalyptic Movement and the Wisdom Movement.

The Apocalyptic Movement preaches that the world is too unclean.  Gentiles violate the holy city.  They are on top.  God's chosen people are on bottom.  It’s a dirty, rotten world.

Only God can fix this mess; therefore, God will send a conquering hero to set things kosher again.

The other movement was the Wisdom Movement.  It is represented in the Jewish Bible in books like Job, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs.  

Wisdom says the world is what it is.  The world is God's world.  It's good and bad.  Men and women are virtuous and malevolent.  God blesses us when we trust God.

Jesus preached that our God of love wants us to bring about God's rule in this world. His message fits more aptly with the Wisdom Movement than the Apocalyptic Movement.  

Yes, the world disgusts us with how wicked people can be.

Yes, sorrow and death are inescapable.  

Yes, life stinks.

Yes, God wants us to see the good imbued in all creation.  

That is what I heard in church today.

So let us never despair, or if we do, let us wait for God to uplift us to that place where love and joy can follow healing.

Blessings...