A Christian Worldview from Silicon Valley

How is it that, if you build a circle of glass, and add some ice and hockey players on the other side, getting up close to that glass is so desirable it can cost more  $100?  Or instead if you add some water, sea otters, and toss them a few fish, getting up close to that glass will cause families to queue up 30 minutes early?

On the other hand, if you try to pen in an angry bull with a man and a red cape, or if you set a large hoop aflame and jump a car through it, people don’t want to be close at all but stand at a distance with rapt attention from our tense excitement.

But in church, there isn’t a wall of glass separating us from something so exciting to be so close.  And there’s certainly nothing worthy of fearful respect that requires a safety distance.

Really?

Some may argue that there is a difference between entertainment and worship, and I totally agree.  Still, shouldn’t worshipping God generate excitement and fear greater than our man-made creations?

The God of the universe has sacrificed His one and only Son so that He can be near us.  What a little sacrifice is it for us to be “near” to Him?  On the other hand, the Creator is the only One who commands the heavens and earth — certainly power to be fearful, and in awe of.  Anyone in their right mind would give that kind of power a little space.

Maybe God’s too common.  Things that are common in this world (like sand) are worth little.

Maybe God’s too invisible.  What’s the point of being “near” something you can’t see?

Maybe God’s too loving.  With arms as wide open and as big as God’s, who could be afraid?

But isn’t that the point?  He loves us so much, He wants us to be near Him so deeply, and He’s fearfully and wonderfully powerful.  God is all these things, and So Much More.  How much more need we be convinced that God is All?  Better yet, God IS.

When’s the last time you really sacrificed yourself to be near Him?

On my way to Bible study this morning I heard the news that an atheist group at the University of Texas in San Antonio was giving porn to anyone who would give them a “holy text,” including Bibles, copies of the Qur’an, and perhaps other books of a similar nature.

I thought about flying down to San Antonio to see if I could turn in my 9th edition The Macintosh Bible, but I suspect only the Mac faithful would think of it as a holy text.

Turns out this started back in 2005, and that year it made a big media splash, with Tucker Carlson of MSNBC both reporting on the story and debating a bit with the then president of Atheist Agenda, Thomas Jackson.

This year it seems that several folks took umbrage at this little annual parlor trick, from feminist groups to Muslims to Christians, and protests  and protesters made their presence known in the area. That made the news, and there wasn’t much else happening today, so this tempest in a teapot story made it all the way from Texas to my radio in California.

The best suggestion I’ve heard about how to respond came from Keith Mitchell, one of the elders at PACC, who said we ought to trade Bibles for porn. No doubt someone somewhere in the country, perhaps even in Texas, is already doing that.

But what I found most curious is that people would willingly give up light to receive darkness. Most people, it seems to me, are trying to find their way out of the dark, not descend more deeply into it. Of course my perspective may be skewed by the fact that I’m a preacher, but don’t you find it the same?

In the 2005 interview with Mr. Carlson, Mr. Jackson said they thought of it as “…trading something that’s very, very bad [a Bible] for something that’s only moderately bad [pornographic material].” Apparently even his goal was to move people toward more light, but if so this really is a case of the blind leading the blind, about which Jesus said, “And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

When that happens, we’ll be here with a rope, ready to pull them both out into the daylight.