Archives For Wrestling with Doubts

Whole Faith Thoughts in a Wholly Unholy Time

Nathan Aaberg —  November 3, 2020 — 2 Comments

I’m currently working on two blog posts. One is the transcription of a great conversation I had with a Wisconsin farm family about how their faith has led them to a form of livestock raising that rejuvenates the land, produces healthy food, and is good for the animals. The other examines Revelation 5:13 and what that means for our understanding of the whole arc of the Bible and of time itself. I’m also planning to partner on some future posts with Ryan O’Connor to share reviews of documentaries and other environment-focused resources that individuals and churches would find helpful.

I can’t, however, ignore these turbulent times and the election. So I am going to dive in with some observations in the form of a letter to a fictitious cousin. I present him as someone becoming curious about Jesus and the God of the whole Bible but confused and even unsettled by our current times.

Dear Wyatt;

I want to say how much I have enjoyed our renewed relationship. We’ll need to get together sometime some place in the middle with our wives and children. I know we’d have a great time. It’s a heartwarming to not only connect with family but then to find one shares many similar outlooks on the world.

I’ve welcomed the fact that we’ve begun discussing the Bible, Jesus, and how everything all fits together. Our common ancestors had some very deep religious roots, didn’t they? But those have not carried into the modern generation very well. Many of our extended family no longer believe in the God their ancestors did. Why that is the case would make for another good conversation.

But I write because in our last converation you expressed confusion and even cynicism about the veracity of what is in the Bible because of the state of our country and the upcoming election. Specifically, you did not understand how so many people calling themselves Christians can be strong supporters of President Trump and the Republican Party.

I didn’t have good answers, but I felt I should. This letter is my attempt to do that.

When I need to wrestle with hard questions, I turn to writing. Good writing can only come from clear thinking. So forcing myself to write coherrently on an issue forces my mind to think about the issue squarely. When I find a line of insight that hangs together well, I take it, even if it takes me in a surprising and unorthodox direction.

I’ll be honest. I am having a difficult time making sense of our country and the role many Christians are playing in its direction. I feel anger, frustration, fear, and sometimes pure hopelessness. But every morning I pray, and I try to hold on to faith. In Jesus I know that God also understands our suffering even as God also calls for us to live with the love and courage of Jesus.

So I offer my own opinions to the questions that seem to be at the heart of what you are struggling with. These are my opinions based on what I read in the Bible and what I believe I have learned about God and Jesus over the years.

What would a truly Christian approach to politics look like?

Every Single Thing: All of life would be lived out in ways that reflect God’s wishes and God’s ways. And that includes politics.

Even Words: Words are the fundamental foundation of politics. Our use of words is an ethical and spiritual act. The words of Christians must be full of truth and show love of neighbor, even in the world of politics. Politicians, of course, lie and misrepresent so often that we are calloused to it. But God is not. And it’s time for us to stop being calloused about it, too. Christian politicians, and the politicians Christians support, would be at a level of truth and integrity above all others.

Cautious About Power: Politics is largely about how power is used in and outside of a country. Governments have power to make rules, to enforce rules, and to exercise in our international relations. True Christian politics would be cautious about the use of power and would be concerned for the vulnerable and the poor. You cannot escape the concern in the Bible for the vulnerable and those who do not have power. Both oppressive governments and overly dominant business interests run counter to the grain of the Bible. This never means that power is to be avoided. Government can play a wise role in directing society’s common interests. Private entrepreneurial creativity can bring great benefits. But a Christian politics would continually push for the right balance.

God’s Kingdom and Values Above All: The loyalty of the Christian should always be first to God and God’s Kingdom. When the values of God’s Kingdom clash with our country’s interests or our party’s fortunes, God’s Kingdom must come first.

Rules and Laws: Christians and the people they allow to lead them should have the highest character. They should follow laws and rules zealously and be as fair as possible. Corruption and exploiting the system for personal or party gain are, again, grievous sins against God. Christians can’t accept these kinds of actions.

Humility and Openness to Rebuke: Christian politics are inherently humble. True Christians reocgnize that they are fallen and that they need God’s grace just as their neighors have fallen and also need God’s grace. True Christians are open to correction and rebuke and are ready to change their own ways.

How can we make sense of strong Christian support for Donald Trump and the modern day Republican Party?

I agree with everything you have said about the current president. He breaks all of the Christian norms of life and the principles of Christian politics I’ve just listed. That church-going Christians can vote for Trump reflects an approach to Christianity and life untethered from the Bible, Jesus, and the Spirit of God.

A vote for Trump, it appears to me, is part of a reaction among conservative Christians against a growing secular and atheistic culture. That culture appears openly hostile and dismissive of people of faith. This is a real thing. But that is no excuse for voting for Trump and the Republican Party he is making in his image.

How to explain it?

Start with the marriage between the Church and national power. When Chrisitanity first appeared, it was seen as a radical, strange, subversive movement that was antithetical to Roman values and Roman power. When Emperor Constantine made Christianity the Roman Empire’s religion, Roman interests and Christian interests were brought together in ways that resulted in a less pure practice of the Christian faith. When Christianity became married to nation states, the interests of the nation state and its dominant culture then tempted churches to compromise the values of Jesus. Vice President Pence epitomizes the moral compromises conservative Christianity is willing to make for national power to serve its interests.

It is not just American national power that conservative Christianity has become very comfortable with. Conservative Christianity tends to favor the corporate and individual’s freedom to use power almost without limit. It worships freedom without any hint that freedom must be balanced with responsibility and ethical concern for others and other life that God loves. It is also comfortable with the political system today that is lubricated largely by funding from business interests. Republican Christians look the other way when power is cunningly used to suppress voting and gerrymander voting districts.

You must still ask why does this cruel and unbiblical approach to power find a home in the hearts of some Christians? When you feel you are in a spiritual war, then I think it is easier to go along with harsh measures and to look away from the worst things your allies do. The dominant narrative of the End Times, which is not the only interpretation of Revelation possible, gives conservative Christians license to feel that we are in a take-no-prisoners struggle against evil. The ethics of Jesus no longer apply.

Finally, we need to be honest about race. President Trump has made the Republican Party the comfortable home for white power and white racism. Christian Republicans go along with this. Could this reflect the comfort that many churches had with cruel slavery for centuries?

But what about abortion?

Wyatt, I can read your thoughts. I know you and your wife have deep emotions and convictions around abortion, especially because of your experience with having difficultty conceiving. You and wife also know the intricacies of the life and development of a child in the womb.

It is this issue that causes many Christians to vote Republican. The concern of many Republican Christians for unborn babies is sincere, real, and full of true Christian compassion.

But there is something very wrong in how myopic Republicans apply their pro-life principles. I’ve already written about this. Use laws to limit abortions? Of course. The more the better. Use laws to limit polluition and chemicals that cause cancers and harm God’s life? No. That will harm our economy and limit our freedoms. Use laws and government bodies to protect vulnerable consumers? No. Too much government interference. Use laws to protect coverage for existing conditions and offer a public health care option? No. That might nudge us into the orbit of something that smells a little like socialism.

In short, the pro-life position of Republicans is, it seems to me, in direct contradiction to the Repubican Party’s larger fealty to a completely unfettered free market economy and culture that supports commercial interests over people and God’s earth. The cynic in me sees the Republican Party’s pro-life platform as a deal that doesn’t harm business interests but gives the party’s Darwinian approach to the economy a sheen of religious goodness.

Why do I not feel enthusiasm for Democrats?

A second term of president by Donald Trump would be a disaster for many true Christain values and for the ability of the faith to appeal to people like you for decades to come.

But the Democratic Party is also a hard place in which to find a home.

Here are just a few reasons why I say that.

Joe Biden, from all indications, is a fundamentally decent person. Our government under Joe Biden would work again and not be corrupt. His administration would adopt many specific policy measures that are more compassionate.

However, one of his deficiiencies, which is a Democratic deficiency, is an inability to speak of positive values that hold together the Democratic Party and would hold together America. The Democratic Party is too often a loose coalition of interest and identity groups. The Party doesn’t seem to have binding principles that would resonate with most Americans of good will.

What will hold our country together as one? What standards does everyone need to live by? I have not heard anything like that from Democrats. And the fact that the pro-lifers are largely unwelcome in Democratic circles indicates that Democrats are not fully committed to holding people accountable to protecting vulnerable life

It has also been stunning that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have not been able to speak against China what is doing internally  and externally. This is a ruthless empire within its own borders (see Hong Kong and with the Uighurs for examples) and beyond. Freedom and fairness mean nothing to its leaders. When Democratics go soft on China out of fear of loss of trade, one cannot help but think the Democratic Party’s concerns about justice are very selective.

And, of course, there is a tendency in some progessive circles to dismiss and ridicule people of faith, especially the Christian faith. Is some of it a reaction to the trends we’ve seen in conservative Christianity? Probably. But there is something more there as well. The ideas that there might be a God who holds people accountable for certain standards of life and there might be mysterious power in the universe that does not fit with orthodox science are profoundly threatening to the most progressive Democrats. And the most progressive Democrats tend to be comfortable with shutting down ideas and thoughts that don’t fit their own orthodoxies.

As a whole faith Christian, I’m sad to say I cannot truly be at home in either party. And our two party system freezes out true potlical diversity that could actually give us a party of integrity and coherent values.

If Christians can differ so much about American politics, what does it say about the Christian Faith?

My wife recently received an email from another church member strongly encouraging church members on the email chain to vote Republican. In a follow-up exchange with my wife, the church member called President Trump “a God-fearing man.”

If President Trump is considered a “God-fearing man” then the Scriptures and two thousand years of the Christian faith and thousands more of Jewish traditions are meaningless.

In short, we’ve crossed a line. The term “Christian” no longer means anything.

There is no commonly accepted definition for what the Christian faith-life really looks like.

There are some who will point to confessions and doctrines as giving us those distinctions. But doctrinal correctness matched with consistent patterns of behavior  and philosophy that are the opposite of virtue in the Bible is meaningless. In fact, it is worse than meaningless. It mars the goodness and truth of God and God’s wishes for the world.

A transformed life in communion with God is the point of giving one’s life to God, not an optional amenity.

Is there any reason to continue to look for a church or some other faith gathering?

The Bible is full of people living in communities of God-following people. So it is ideal to be with other people of faith. If you can find a church where God is worshipped and you feel comfortable and challenged, that is a beauiful thing. There are millions of sincere, loving Christians around the world, and many are in churches.

But I’ve concluded that you and I should not feel guilty if we find that our reading of the whole Bible makes us feel comfortable neither with conservative churches nor more liberal ones.

Remember, conventional church is not the only option. Prophets and prophetic communities can be needed when mainline religion is no longer a good fit. The early Christian gatherings were largely in people’s homes. Remember, the first monastic orders were in reaction to the excesses of the Roman Empire. It is also said that every 500 years or so the Judaic-Christian tradition goes through dramatic change and revision. I feel we are due for that.

There are stirrings of people longing for a diferent experience of faith and life in the service of Jesus and in communion with God. We may well be on the path to a new way of following Jesus with others in a whole faith way. They may offer a better way to reach people turned off by conventional Christianity or who have never really encountered a loving relationship around God.

I meet and communicate with many people like this. They are out there.

How does God’s earth fit into all this?

We’ve already had some good conversations about this as both of our families share love of hiking and growing healthy food. So I wanted to end this letter on this topic. The earth is not a disposable trifle. How any body of faith thinks and acts together towards Creation is a pretty good indicator of how whole its approach to faith is. It’s a bad sign when the fruits of a body faith are the ongoing destruction of God’s earth and an unwillingness to even try to deal with growing climate chaos. You are not alone in not understanding how you could follow a faith whose members support what President Trump has done to weaken protections for the health of God’s earth.

What I most want to say to you, Wyatt, is this – don’t give up on engaging with the Jesus and God of the Bible and being open to God’s Spirit in your family’s life. If you cannot find a church where you find a deep reverence for God, a willingness to be accountable to each other, and common commitment to learning together and transforming one’s character together, then be willing to be a spiritual nomad for awhile until new expressions emerge.

This is a world that is holy and full of meaning and that God needs us to engage in. Whatever the new forms of Jesus-centered communities and ministries will be, they will need good and creative and humble people like you and your family.

But be sure to find even one other family, one person, who can take that path with you. We would love to do that with you.

Fondly,

Nathan

P.S. To read a more hopeful and very insightful piece about divisions within Christianity during this election, check out this article in Christianity Today.

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The Village on the Hill

Nathan Aaberg —  November 5, 2019 — Leave a comment

There once was a village on a hill.

From the hill the people of the village enjoyed views of the lush meadows and thick forests all around. The spring on the side of the hill gave clear, fresh water.

Over time, some of the families of the village became dissatisfied. So they began to dig into the hill. Perhaps, they said to themselves, we will discover something.

And they did.

They discovered shiny stones. The families found the stones could be made into jewels and other beautiful things. Other people would trade for those jewels and beautiful things, Soon, many of the other families wanted to get their own shiny stones. They began to dig into the hill as well. Their village became known for its wealth.

A young girl asked her parents, “If we keep digging into the hill, what will our homes stand on?”

This made sense to her parents. Together they brought their concerns to the village council.

But the council members rejected these concerns. “You are wrong. There are only a few tunnels. The foundations of the hill are very strong. Besides, our village is thriving, and we are very smart. If there is a problem eventually, we can fix it with our cleverness.”

So many of the families continued to dig furiously, looking for the shiny stones. Then, in their digging, the villagers also found black rocks that would, when lit in a special way, burn hot for a long time. The villagers found many purposes for the fire’s heat. People from other villages wanted those rocks as well and would trade for them. The wealth of the village on the hill increased further.

The young girl told her parents, “I can now walk through tunnels from one side of the hill all the way to the other side. I’m very worried.”

Her family warned the village council again. The council retorted, “Don’t you want our village to prosper? You are jealous because you have not worked hard like us and dug your own tunnels. Our god gave us this hill to use. Our god is in control of everything. We have no reason to worry. You cannot tell us what to do.”

Digging intensified.

By now the the hill was honeycombed with tunnels. Villagers frequently ran into other families’ tunnels as they dug their own. Several homes suddenly collapsed into the ground. People and animals died. The spring no longer flowed from the side of the hill. It oozed muddy and dark through one of the tunnels.

The girl and her family were now in despair. They and a few other families appealed desperately to the council to stop the digging. “We have enough. Your digging is destroying our hill. We are destroying our home. You must stop.”

The families on the council who had dug the most and now had big homes made of stone angrily retorted. “You are lazy doubters. Digging under the hill has made our village strong and wealthy. People from all around envy us. Our lives are easy. And our god has promised that this hill would always be ours. Your faith is weak. Our god would not let something bad happen to us.”

So the girl and her family left the village, their eyes wet with tears.

A number of years later, the family was living in a home built of wood in a place where a forest and a meadow met. Fish danced and darted in the nearby stream.

During a time of famine, the family met a gaunt widow, her two sons, and their frail dog on the nearby road. The family took them in. After feeding the poor people and their dog, the daughter, who was now a young woman, asked the widow about her life.

While relating her sad fate, the widow mentioned that in their travels they had passed by the village on the hill. Her hosts eagerly asked for news of the village.

She shared that much of their village had now sunk into holes in the hill. Only a few large stone homes remained, protected by guards above and below ground. The people in the homes refused to give even a morsel of food to the mother, her children, and their dog.

The fate of the village mystified the poor widow.

Why could the villagers not see what they were doing? Why had the people not been content with their lives and the beauty around them? Did their god really want them to do what they had done to the hill?

The half-asleep widow looked around at the simple, comfortable home. She smiled as she saw her sons sleeping contentedly. She stroked the fur of the dog who lay at her feet and who had eaten so heartily of the food given to him.

And she asked the family, “Kind people, who is your god?”

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Back to Church for the Easter Weekend

Nathan Aaberg —  April 8, 2018 — Leave a comment

As I wrote earlier, I stopped going to church a while back for a variety of reasons. With my son back from college for spring break, however, my wife and I agreed that we should attend both a Good Friday service and a service on Easter Sunday.

Because of my conflicted feelings about church and my absence from services for a while, I had a heightened senstiviity to what I experienced at those two services. I want to share just a few of my feelings and perceptions.

We attended the Good Friday service at a church we had gone to in the past. I was struck by the power and creativity of the service. It brought together Scripture, music, poetry, and even physical sensation.

We had, for example, our hands washed ceremonially upon entering the sanctuary. And for most of the service we held a smooth stone in our hand as a reminder of our sins. As the service ended, we dropped it in a bucket before a large, rough-hewn cross near the altar.

There were a variety of sounds. Piano and organ music. We sang hymns. The sound of a whip snapping cruelly was heard at one point. We cried out, “Crucify Him!” at another point.

And the music, sounds, and words were offset by moments of silence for reflection on heart-challenging questions.

What struck me most were the gestures of warmth from a number of the congregation’s members, despite the fact that we had not attended regularly there in some time. Smiles from across the aisle. Strong handshakes. People making the effort to come over to us even though it was out of their way. Hugs.

Isn’t this a blessing of the highest order?

We went to the church of some friends on Easter Sunday. It, too, featured creativity and beauty. We first gathered outside on the lawn for opening prayers and words. As we moved into the narthex, we received candles, and these were then lit. We entered the sanctuary and used our candles to light the candles on the altar, on the window sills, and other places. This modestly-sized sanctuary became filled with nearly a hundred small flames giving out gentle, cheerful light. Holiness and hope.

There was great joy throughout the two-hour service in the songs and message. Songs. Clapping. A full-immersion baptism preceded by the singing of “Down to the River to Pray.”

There was one intriguing common element between the two services.  In both services, the beginning of Genesis was read and given prominence.

This was encouraging. By drawing our attention to the amazing goodness of the Creation and the tragedy of the Fall, the two churches drew attention to the full context of Good Friday and Easter. The story and truth of the Bible begins with all of creation in harmony and peace. In the Bible and in the world around us, we see what the Fall has brought – sin and brokeness causing pain to people and to all of Creation on an epic scale. Yet the Bible ends with a new heaven and a new earth where all of creation is again in harmony and peace with God.

Jesus – his life, his words, his death, and his resurrection – is at the heart of all this. God, our loving God, cares for people and all of Creation. Easter should remind all Christians of this. It is truly good news. Awesome news.

Was the note of all Creation being part of the salvation story part of your Holy Week? I hope so.

And I end this post admitting that there is a certain wistfulness in my heart after attending those services.

I long to have a community of faith where Creation matters and where worship and fellowship are part of the rhythm of our family’s life.

 

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I Couldn’t Go to Church on Sunday

Nathan Aaberg —  February 28, 2018 — Leave a comment

I couldn’t go to church this past Sunday. And I’m not sure when I will go back.

For many of you, this may seem extreme and even wrong, so I want to try to articulate why it has come to this.

It all starts with my conviction that a Christian theology that does not include Creation is fundamentally and significantly incomplete. The title of the book by theologians Howard Snyder and Joel Scandrett I am now rereading says it all – Salvation Means Creation Healed.

The back cover promotional text includes this summary statement: “The Bible promises the renewal of all creation – a new heaven and earth – based on the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For centuries this promise has been sidelined or misunderstood because of the church’s failure to grasp the full meaning of biblical teachings on creation and new creation.”

I am sensitive to the fact that Christians throughout the centuries have fallen into schism and division because of disagreements over fine points of theology that people outside of the Church would have found incomprehensible.

But this, to me, is different.

Church services tend to avoid even a passing reference to God’s Creation and its intrinsic value. Or, if it is referenced, the theological context is one of Creation being provided strictly for human needs and wishes.

I am tired, too, of churches not working proactively and systematically to build the character of Christians so that they live out the fruits of the spirit in every dimension of their lives. Christians will, of course, never be perfect but a systematic effort should be made to grow and to make ourselves vessels of God.

I am convinced that the way a church and its members interact with God’s earth on a daily and ongoing basis should be filtered through an ethic of restorative stewardship. We should be doing our best in every way to offer God’s love to people around us and also to promote the health and vitality of God’s earth. In how we use the land and in what we choose to eat, for example, we should be honoring God.

I am heartbroken by and furious at the diseased, degraded, and wounded condition of God’s earth.

Industrial chemicals are found in the breast milk of mothers and in newborn children. Plastic are filling the oceans. Factory farms are causing misery for people and animals in rural communities. Species, like the North-Atlantic right whale, are on the verge of being snuffed out forever. Disruption and devastation from climate change grows.

Where are the churches? Where are the churches that see all this as an affront to God and are working passionately to equip members to do something about it?

This is not politics. This is a question of our core values.

In Luke 14:5 we hear Jesus ask, “If one of you has a child or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?”

A child or ox that had fallen into a well would cry out in distress. To block out those cries and to ignore the plight of the child or ox would be the height of callousness. To do so would contradict the character God calls us to have. To be able to ignore a child or ox’s plight would be the fruit that revealed a heart completely untouched by God.

All of Creation has fallen into extreme distress. But we don’t listen. We choose not to see.

Christians should be the leading edge of dedicated, energetic, innovative guardianship of God’s earth. They are, in fact, playing just this role when it comes to rotational grazing and regenerative farming. But this is largely the exception.

Churches are either blessing the forces that are depleting God’s world or avoiding the topic out of fear and lack of conviction.

I heard a story of a couple in a rural community who had to leave their church because they couldn’t handle the hypocrisy and trauma of being served communion by their neighbor who had built a factory farm on his land and then destroyed the stream running through their land by releasing liquid animal feces from the manure lagoon into that stream. Where was the church in teaching that such an action was a a harmful sin to his neighbors?

My wife, who has long shared my concerns for the state of God’s earth, does have concerns about the direction I’m headed. She calls attention to the fact that we may be letting our 16-year old son down by not taking him to church and giving him the experience of being in a community of believers. (Please see her comments at the end of this piece to get her perspective.)

That is a valid concern. I am committed, however, to continuing to ground him in the Bible. We have already read through Genesis and Exodus together and are now working our way through Leviticus.

Is it possible that I’ve become so focused on one issue that I am becoming a source of divisiveness and am ignoring a Christian’s wider obligations?

I have reflected on this, and I will continue to do so.

But I also have to ask where is the concern that Christian equanimity toward the destruction and diminishment of God’s earth might actually be turning people away from Jesus? Is God really our master or is the bounty that comes from a money-focused, corporate-dominated economy the actual focus of our lives? Maybe this is temptation at a systemic, cultural, epic scale?

A recent poll found that Christians are no more concerned for the environment than they were 20 years ago, and that concern may actually be declining.

It is hard to explain to a non-Christian why people who believe God created earth feel free to degrade it and to lift restraints on how it is treated. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Christian numbers are declining, especially among Millennials?

My wife asks how churches will be more thoughtful about God’s earth if there aren’t voices within those churches calling for a change of direction. That’s also a good question.

On the other hand, I don’t sense much openness to this topic at all. What’s more, tacking on some token words in the occasional service is not enough. A different kind of Christian community is needed. New wineskins are needed.

I’m at a stage in my life where I’m listening to my heart and convictions more closely. Guilt will not overwhelm them. I need fellowship with others who share similar outlooks and who want to take action.

Have you wrestled with these same questions and feelings? Do you have advice for me?

I would very much like to hear from you.

 

Mayumi’s perspective:  I became a Christian 12 years into our marriage. Before that, I had been reluctant to become a Christian from our early years of courtship and into our marriage mainly because of how Christians disregarded and mistreated God’s Creation. Growing up in the Catholic church as a child in a small town in Wisconsin, I felt the presence of God in nature and not in any man-made church. Now the tables have turned. In the past, Nathan had encouraged me to go to church, and I was sometimes reluctant. Today, I am the one who believes we need to commit to a church community and be a voice within the church for whole faith living. I want our son to experience being among a community of believers, despite the fact that any church will share the good and bad aspects of our fallen humanity. I want our son to experience and be exposed to things that we can’t offer just at home with a Bible or with our own modeling: strong, healthy marriages and close family and friendship ties that support and encourage each other in the Christian walk. I want him to recognize that we can help to change and grow other Christians to include the care of God’s Creation. This is directly related to loving God and loving our neighbors. 

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Diving into John 3:16 (Part 1)

Nathan Aaberg —  March 22, 2017 — Leave a comment

You’ll find that Christians who make the case that being committed stewards of God’s earth is part and parcel of what it means to being a Christ follower rarely use verses from the Gospels for support of their conviction.

This is primarily because the Gospels have little directly to say about our responsibilities to and our relationship with God’s earth.

I won’t deny that at times that can feel like a problem.

Neverthless, if you read the Gospels with a wider and more whole vision of what is being communicated and if you seek to understand the Christian faith within the context of the whole Bible and the threads and frameworks you find in it, then I believe there is solid enough ground for our convictions.

Interestingly, the lack of explicit statements on almost any social issues by Jesus can be frustrating for anyone looking for clear guidance on those issues. For centuries, Chrisitan thinkers have had to extrapolate and conjecture, often with great creativity, about war, economic systems, slavery, democracy, abortion, and the other hot-button topics of any particular time.

So how are you and I to think about how the Good News and Jesus relate to how we relate to God’s earth?

In this and future posts to come, I’m going to tackle that question by diving into John 3:16. In the course of those posts I will tease out some threads that do relate to what a whole Christian faith is and do relate, at least indirectly, to what the Christian faith means for our relationship with God’s earth.

It’s an iconic verse that people know by heart and which appears at sporting events and many other venues, even under Tim Tebow’s eyes. There’s the assumption, in fact, that this single verse captures the very essence of the Gospel.

Max Lucado’s book of this title affirms the idea that John 3:16 presents the heart of the gospel.

When I actually began studying it a few weeks ago, however, things became more complicated. There is much more depth and nuance to the verse than is usually assumed. In fact, there’s a fair amount of disagreement about the meaning of the verse within some Christian circles. This all makes thinking about how the verse relates to our relationship with the rest of Creation challenging and intriguing.

I will begin the John 3:16 odyssey by calling your attention to the imperative at the center of the verse – “believe in.”

David Pawson has a different take than Lucado on what John 3:16 actually communicates.

David Pawson’s book, Is John 3:16 the Gospel?, has some insights that are very useful and other assertions which I would heartily disagree with. One of his useful insights is about these two critical words.

Too often the Christian faith is assumed to be about assenting to certain creeds and dctrines in an intellectual way. Pawson asserts this would be the right thing to think if we were called to “believe that.” “Believe that” conveys the acceptance of some sort of fact in an abstract, analytical way.

But what the verse asserts makes the difference between perishing and having life is whether you believe in Jesus. Here’s what Pawson says what that really entails:

“And believing in someone means two things: that you trust them and that you are willing to obey them.”

So I would assert that the essential calling of the Christian faith is to trust in the Jesus we find in the Gospels – his words, his actions, his death, his resurrection, and how that all fits within the context of the rest of the Bible – and to obey Jesus in how we live.

That means putting the whole weight of our convictions and the decisions we make and what we value on the God we experience and understand through Jesus with the guidance of what Christians call the Holy Spirit.

I don’t hear faith explained this way very often.

Nor do I hear enough churches helping their members in very tangible ways to translate trust in Jesus into obedience in the daily habits of their lives.

In The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard articulates the state of affairs like this:

“Whatever the ultimate explanation of it, the most telling thing about the contemporary Christian is that he or she simply has no compelling sense that understanding of and conformity with the clear teachings of Christ is of any vital importance to his or her life, and certainly not that it is in any way essential.”

When the Christian faith is reduced to a static, dogmatic, theological affirmation that is seen primarily as the price of admission to the life we will enjoy AFTER our deaths, then it is easy to understand why Christians have been able to do crazy, cruel, violent things to people and to God’s earth throughout history.

When the Christian faith is understood as the dynamic foundation for the lives we live every moment beginning here and now on this earth, then the way Christians will relate with people and other living things around them can’t help but be very different.

John 3:16, I believe, is calling us to this second understanding.

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