Believing in God is Risky Business

I've been paying attention lately not only to what Jesus says, but also to how he says it. It's dawned on me that what's important about what Jesus says goes beyond the content of the message. An important part of Jesus' message is the way Jesus delivers his message.

Jesus seldom, if ever, begins his message with words like:
• My Mom said something strange to me at a wedding the other day
• I was in this living room when the ceiling suddenly fell in
• or a funny thing happened at the well when I went for a drink.

Jesus never seemed to star in his own stories. And I wonder if that's because Jesus wasn't, as politicians say, "on message." Rather, it was because Jesus was IN the message. That's different from that huge billboard on U.S. 31 in Kokomo that says, "Jesus is the answer." Whenever I see that billboard my first thought is always, "What's the question?"

Why do we insist on deciding which are the questions to which God is the answer? Why don't we ever seem to get to those days when God will write a new law in our hearts? Maybe it's because we don't want to go there; or more accurately, we believe we can get their on our own, under our own power.

As long as our definition of freedom is a statement that says, "Freedom is doing what I want, when I want;" - instead of a question that asks, "What would I do with freedom if I had it;" we'll not only not arrive - we'll never even set out on the journey. As long as we keep saying that life gives us a God problem; instead of asking what it means to live life with a God Abba, we'll always be afraid to jump in and never do more than dip our toes at the water's edge.

Jesus was never interested in giving a history lesson, scoring intellectual points, winning the political argument, or prevailing in the theological debate. He only wanted to liberate people from sin - which means - MISSING THE MARK. Jesus wants to move us from self-center, which is DEAD CENTER, to LIFE CENTER.

What Jesus offers is something new. Into the sameness of our self-made security; into the tried and trueness of our traditions, Jesus offers us hearts that are ever-new. Discipleship with Jesus is never a once and for all proposition. See? The old order - the order that says God's laws control our behavior, but also allow us to control God's behavior, always says: "Sure, I believe in God." By which we really mean, "OK, I can live in a universe where God exists." But the new order, the order of new hearts that beat by continuing in Jesus' Word, keeps asking: what does it mean, now - today - that you believe in God?

If I ask you, “Does God exist;” there are a thousand faith-escaping ways for you to say “yes" to that question. But if I ask you, “Do you believe in God” - if you've given your heart to God; you can only say "yes" by risking your life.

Jesus, in the message of the cross - the message of God's coming for us with a broken open and poured out love - offers us a new way of seeing God; hearing God; living in God; and, loving by God - that's the Good News. And it's not, no matter what world or culture says, that there's no better way - there just is no other way - to overcome: every misplaced question; every misguided answer; and, become the humanity God intends us to be.