Superglued

How tightly does God hold on to us? Does God have a good grip on us, or is there some wiggle room? Paul claims that not only is God's grip on us tight, we are superglued into God's arms! (Well, OK... Paul doesn't use EXACTLY those terms...) Now, that is really good news! Read my sermon if you would like to explore this in more detail!

A little over 5 years ago, a pastor named Rob Bell wrote a book about Christianity that caused quite a stir. People who read the book either loved it or hated it. Those who hated it claimed that Bell’s thinking wasn’t biblical. His harsher critics even accused him of being a heretic. That book led to Bell’s removal from the Mars Hill Bible Church, the church that he had founded in a suburb of Grand Rapids, Michigan and pastored for over 10 years. Despite the fact that under his leadership, that church had grown to a membership of nearly 10,000 people, many of its members decided that because of what Bell wrote in his book, he was not fit to lead a Christian congregation. What did Rob Bell write that caused such a ruckus? Did he deny that Christ was divine? No. Did he say that the Holy Spirit isn’t really a part of God? No. Did he claim that he was a new Messiah? No. Well, then, what in the world did he write? In his book Love Wins, he wrote that God loves us, and that nothing in this world can ever separate us from that love.

God loves us? We all know that! Isn’t that the good news of the gospel? It sure is! Don’t we Christians proclaim that as the very foundation of our faith? We sure do! Didn’t Jesus die for us because God loves us so much? He sure did! So, then… what’s the problem? The problem is this: Rob Bell claims that God doesn’t just love us here and now. He believes that God will love us forever, regardless of who we are or what we have done, or said, or thought. In particular, he rejects any beliefs that include scenes like The Last Judgement that Michelangelo painted on the wall above the altar of the Sistine Chapel. In the very center of the painting is Christ judging everyone who has ever lived. Above Christ are the redeemed who are ascending into heaven; while below him, the souls of the lost are sinking down into hell. It’s hard to miss the message of this painting: God’s grace won’t last forever. There will be a time when God’s love for some people runs out; and when it does… well, they’re out of luck. Some people will be eternally “in,” while others will be condemned to eternal punishment.

This, then, is what all the ruckus was about. Rob Bell would say that although images like Michelangelo’s Last Judgement may be fine art, they don’t reflect reality. This, he says, is the reality: that God embraces us with arms of love today, tomorrow, and forever. God loves us; Jesus died for us; and his resurrection proves God’s love for us! And nothing at all can ever separate us from that love. God will never condemn us, because God loves us! And Rob Bell didn’t make that up. He got it from none other than St. Paul himself, who wrote in the book of Romans (Romans 8:31-39): “Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We are superglued to God forever through Jesus Christ, who died and was resurrected for everyone who ever lived and who ever will live!

Most of us, though, don’t really believe that. We condemn all kinds of people without hesitation because we can’t believe that God loves them. We don’t believe that God’s grace covers people like drug dealers, gang members, human traffickers, child abusers, mass murderers, and terrorists. We all wonder, “What about people like Adolf Hitler or Osama Bin Laden? What about the terrorists who committed the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11? Surely God doesn’t love them!” That question deserves consideration; so here’s my answer (which is, by the way, firmly grounded in scripture). There is no doubt that the world is full of evil. But we have to be careful not confuse Evil (with a capital E) with the people who commit evils (with a small e). God hates Evil; but God loves even the people who commit evils. In fact, I believe that God pities them. What if, when all of our questions are answered in the next life, we find out that people we judge to be evil are really captives to Evil? What if Evil has such a hold on them that they have no other choice but to commit evils? And what if, in the Last Judgement that we imagine in such gruesome detail, what God condemns to hell is not people, but the Evil that held them captive? It is revealing that in the gospel stories, the only people who Jesus condemned were the religious leaders who were so ready to condemn others! Do you remember the story from the Gospel of John when Jesus was confronted with a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery (John 8:3-11)? The religious leaders wanted to stone her. After all, that was what justice required! But Jesus told her accusers, “Sure, go ahead, throw a stone at her – if you’ve never committed a sin yourself.” The uncomfortable truth – and it is, indeed, very uncomfortable – is that God is far more loving, merciful, and full of grace than we will ever be!

But let’s get back to ordinary people like us. None of us are Evil (with a capital E). We aren’t drug dealers or mass murderers. We live fairly good lives most of the time. We know God loves us, and we are certain that eternal life awaits us when we pass out of this world and into the next. And we’re right! But we’re filled with doubts about other folks – especially folks that we care about. What about my friend Carl? He’s an atheist. Does God love him? What about my Aunt Tillie, who thinks that religion is a bunch of nonsense? Will God condemn her? And what about my neighbor, who is a Jew… or a Muslim… or a Buddhist… or a Hindu? Is God’s grace big enough to embrace them, too? My answer is simply to repeat what St. Paul said so eloquently in the book of Romans: “Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” No matter what we do or say or think, all of us are permanently glued into God’s loving embrace.

“Blessed is the one who doesn’t take offense at me,” Jesus said. (Matthew 11:6) Blessed, indeed, are the ones who are not offended that we don’t get what deserve. Blessed are the ones who rejoice that all of us are embraced by a love that none of us deserve! God loves us beyond all reason. Maybe, in the end, that’s the whole point. We can’t understand God’s love through reason. All that we can do is to accept it, and give thanks for it, and to marvel at the miracle of grace. God is love – for you, and for me, and for everyone, everywhere, forever! Thanks be to God!