Liminality

The world didn’t end on May 21, 2011. Rev. Harold Camping was wrong. He thought we had to leave this world to be with God -- and that is what matters most. I disagree. Passages like John 14, Revelation 21, and Micah 6, scream out to me that the ‘here and now’ is what matters most. I admire Camping for his sense of expectancy but I’m afraid his energy is misplaced. Expectancy is not waiting on Jesus to bring you home to heaven. It’s, rather, believing in the ‘here and now,’ in the ‘ongoing creation of the world,’ in ‘heaven on earth’ (where we abide in God). I’d argue we’re already home. I believe this world matters. It matters so much that after Jesus dies, he comes back to it – physically and spiritually. This tells me there’s work to be done, lives to influence, environments to protect, messages to preach, families to love, and worlds to restore. So live with expectancy – expecting to see God, expecting the world to change, and expecting that through J

In John 10 Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.” He’s telling us things enter our world, intersect in our lives and rob us of our joys, our loves, our loved ones. At times, these sheep are us. We are taken from our home, we’re stripped from our core, true selves. Things enter our lives seeking to destroy who we are and what we’re meant to be. We lose sheep to cancer, to pain, to struggle, to divorce, to death. We have relationships stolen from us, children who die before we do, and just like the sheep – we don’t see it coming. And Jesus knows this. That’s why he tells us to be aware. Christians must know there’s evil in the world and all sheep need a shepherd. So that’s Jesus’ role – to be our shepherd? Right? He’s whom we look to in times of strife? Sort of. Jesus does say in scripture he is the good shepherd, but he also says, “I am the gate.” N

Churches this Sunday will give out a rose and clap for the oldest mother in the sanctuary. They will sing songs about family and pay no attention to the females who haven’t birthed a baby. They will preach children’s sermons that center on obedience and adult sermons that challenge everyone to call home. This Sunday, Christians across America will be challenged to honor their father and mother. Is it fair, though, to ask those whose parents abandoned or abuse them to honor their father and mother? What about females who accept a call from God to go to seminary despite their parents saying they are forbidden? What about the men who discover they are gay and are disbarred from the family tree? What about the young lady who never meets her dad? Or the crack baby born into a hostile environment? What about the girl whose parents give too little too late? Are these people required by God to “honor” their parents? It appears society’s answer is, “No!” In a recent edi