Notes on The Shack

So, I should just fess straight up: I'm a big fan of The Shack.

If -- let's just suppose for a moment-- the entirety of human history can be described as our endeavor to know and understand the nature, the essence, the heart of God... then I'd say The Shack was equivalent to some of humanity's best theology. And superior, probably, to at least one of the books of the Bible.

So I'm biased.

But I found great insight in this blog post from www.windrumors.com, William P Young's web site. And great comments from readers.

Check it out if you get the chance.

Adventures in Missing the Point

Great message today.

Actually, a great day in church all the way around: relatively few screw-ups in the worship set, great choice of tunes, a moment of quiet transcendence... it was good. Aaron's message was good, but...

I've been at this Christian thing for four or five years now. Sometimes it seems the closer I come to understanding Christ the further I move from fitting with his people. An impossible contradiction, but one I sense nevertheless.

A fair amount of today's discussion revolved around "eternity." It wasn't ABOUT eternity, but eternity played a key supporting role. The message was essentially about "why bad things happen to good people," even to Christians.

The problem is... I don't care much about eternity. I really don't. If the answer to the previous question is "Bad things happen in the here and now, but our reward is eternal," then I'm left a bit out of the loop.

Maybe if I could fully understand and appreciate what it means to be one with God, reconciled with God, a part of the divine Trinity in all its fullness and love... maybe then I would care more about eternity. But I'm not quite there.

Instead I see Jesus' message as being an emphatically HERE and NOW message. Matthew 11:4 was used today to extensively highlight the idea that what we expect God to do and act like is often not what he does and acts like.

Jesus responded to John's men in Matthew 11:4, "Go and tell John what you see and hear: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up and the poor have the good news preached to them..." In other words, there's no Messianic King here, but people are being healed and saved here and now, today, as we speak and with hearts expanding.

He never said in this exchange (as far as we know), "Brother John, the Kingdom is at hand because we'll all be together in eternity soon, and this BS we worry about -- you in prison and me on the run -- will just be a bad dream."

The people at church, though, seemed really moved by this message. Something about eternity to come rather than healing and kingdom-ness delivered here and now really warms and inspires them. But it makes me wonder what I'm missing.

Is it that I don't understand what eternity in the presence of the King would be like? Is it that I don't fully appreciate the concept of eternal peace, therefore I'm so willing to trade it for healing and forgiveness and peace in the here and now?

I don't know. But I know that I'm not very interested in my own eternal salvation. I leave that in the hands of God. And I really wish we'd all focus on ways we can make the kingdom happen here, TODAY, and not think too much about what it will be like in the "great by and by."

Feed homeless children. Care for widows in their distress. Make the crippled and ostracized feel valued and necessary. Let God dwell in our every gesture and word, from daily observances to grateful jubilees. These are the things Jesus showed John the Baptist.

Unless I am wrong, and poking helplessly around at the outside of a hard-boiled egg that's far too big for me to crack or understand.