FCC | Easter Sermon | 4/5/15

April 5, 2015 Easter Sunday The Road to Easter - Resurrecting Faith

I used to exercise in a cemetery.  It was always a bit of an odd feeling, walking and jogging through a cemetery, although I have to admit it was a good source of motivation to work on my health.  One of the reasons why it was a sometimes an uncomfortable feeling is because of the people who would be in the cemetery as I walked and ran.  I was often surprised at how many people were in the cemetery, visiting the graves.  Some were tending flowers, and trimming grass and pulling weeds around the headstones.  Others would sit and talk to the deceased.  Some would pray.  I always felt as if I was intruding on a very personal moment.

But there was one thing I always knew to be true – no one goes to a cemetery expecting to find life.  That was true on the first Easter morning as well, as we find in today’s Scripture reading.  And yet life is what they found –  

1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.

5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?

6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:

7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”

8 Then they remembered his words.

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.

10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.

11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

Some years ago, as I took my seat on a flight, I started a conversation with the person in the seat next to me.  What’s one of the first questions you ask someone when you strike up a conversation?  What do you do for a living?  When the person asked me that question I replied I’m a minister, to which they responded oh, I’m sorry!  I’m not sorry and have never been sorry about what I do, but it occurred to me at that moment that something had changed in the way that people think about faith.

I think it is safe to say that the role of faith has reached an interesting station in our society.  There are more skeptics and critics of faith, of religion, and churches than ever before.  As a member of the clergy, I have become accustomed to the skepticism and negativity that is aimed at my work, that is aimed at churches and is aimed at faith itself. 

Although I don’t like the criticisms that are leveled at churches and people of faith, I have to admit that some of it is deserved.  Sometimes churches have been less than sensitive to people of other perspectives.  Sometimes churches have been too closely aligned with particular political methods and styles of politics that have alienated others.

When it comes to the word religion, to use the language of the day, we have some work to do on the brand.

As we gather on this Easter morning, we are, certainly, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.  We are celebrating this wonderful gift of life that was discovered, first, in the most unlikely of places – a cemetery.  We live in a world where so many expect to find life where life will never be found.  On the first Easter, life was found in the most unlikely of places – a cemetery.  

The resurrection forms the foundation of who we are as followers of Jesus, and I want to use the idea of resurrection in relation to Resurrecting Faith.  Faith has been somewhat battered and bruised in Western Society in recent years, although it is flourishing in other parts of the world.  I want to speak to what I believe are some essentials for Resurrecting Faith in the modern world.

To resurrect faith, some things must first die.

There are, unfortunately, too many members of what has been termed the “church alumni society.”  There are far too many people who have given up on the church.  They’ve seen the power struggles, the hypocrisy, the judgmentalism, or other failings, and they’ve said I’m out of here.  Perhaps you are one of those, and you are here today because you are either looking for a reason to give it one more try, or you are wondering if it is time to give up once and for all, or perhaps you are meeting some type of obligation that exists in your mind.

If you fit into any of those categories, if you don’t like a lot of what you see and hear from religion, take heart, because neither did Jesus.

In John 12:24 Jesus said Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

It is time for some things to die.  It is time for bigotry in the name of faith to die, it is time for self-righteousness to die, it is time for hypocrisy to die, it is time for those negative aspects of the church to fall into the ground and die so the true nature of God’s great gift of the church can grow and produce much fruit.

Sometimes I am a critic of the church, and the reason why I am a sometime critic of the church is because I love the church so much.  When I critique the church it is done with sadness, because I love the church and it has been and will be an indispensible part of my life until my final breath.  I can’t imagine anything that would ever bring me to give up on it, and I hope you feel that way as well.

There are days I see the church in the same way as one person described it – it’s a bit like Noah’s Ark; kind of chaotic and messy inside, sometimes even kind of smelly, but superior to the alternative that you find when you step out the door.

To resurrect faith we must reject the false narrative that religion and the church are the source of the world’s ills.

If you hear anyone passing this false narrative ask them if they paid for their education.  Do they have a college degree?  If so, they might want to ask for their money back.

Very few things get under my skin quite like this false narrative, which is factually untrue and can only be supported by a painful twisting of history and intentional ignorance of reality.  Turn down the church but at least use a reason that is not a reflection of such bad reasoning, bad logic, and false assumptions

In spite of the failings, church, religion, faith – whatever word you want to use – gets a bad rap, I believe, in too many instances.  Churches and religious people have earned some of the scorn they received.  Some.  Not all.  Unfortunately, many people adopt what I would call a false narrative.  The false narrative goes like this – religion has been the cause of all the major wars, has resulted in more death and more suffering, caused slavery and all the other ills suffered in human history, and might even be the reason UK lost in the NCAA tournament.  The false narrative is summed up in the title of Christopher Hitchen’s book – God Is Not Great:  How Religion Poisons Everything.  To which I would add the subtitle – How did such an intelligent man write such a misinformed and erroneous book?

To resurrect faith we must give up the obsession of right belief over right action. 

This is the basis of legalism.  Max Lucado defines legalism in this way – legalism has no pity on people.  Legalism makes my opinion your burden, makes my opinion your boundary, makes my opinion your obligation.  Nothing will keep a (person) more immature than tying to keep a long list of rules (Up Words, May 1993).

Legalism is even better explained by an old story of a young couple.  Recently married, one evening they had ham for dinner.  The young husband noticed that his wife had cut the ends off the ham before cooking it.  Intrigued by this, he asked, why did you cut the ends off the ham before cooking it?  To which she replied, that’s the way my mother cooked ham.  About a month later they went to her parent’s house for dinner, and guess what was served?  That’s right – ham.  And the young man took note that the ends had been cut off the ham.  Intrigued once again, he asked his mother-in-law I notice that you and your daughter both cut the ends off the ham before you cook it.  Why do you do this?  To which she replies, that’s the way my mother cooked ham.  About a month later the couple have dinner at her grandparents house, and guess what they have for dinner?  Fried chicken.  Just kidding – they have ham.  And guess what he notices about the ham?  That’s right, the ends were cut off before cooking.  By now the young man is overwhelmed with curiosity, so he asks the grandmother I notice that your daughter, and your granddaughter cut the ends off the end of the ham before cooking it.  They both get the practice from you.  Why do you cut the ends off the ham before cooking it?  To which she replied, it’s the only way it would fit in the pan!

That is legalism, where people eventually forget the function and begin to follow the form.  Legalism is remembering the commands but forgetting the spirit behind the commands.  Legalism is revering rules and regulations but forsaking the meaning and spirit behind them.

It’s not that beliefs aren’t important; they are.  If, for instance, you believe certain people are not equal to you it’s a very short step to marginalizing them and mistreating them.  But how much time, energy, and even love has been squandered in the countless arguments over making sure that everyone has the correct belief?  How many arguments do we need about Calvinism or some obscure theological point that is little more than arguing over how many angels can fit on the head of a pin or whether or not God can create a rock so large that it is impossible for him to life? 

Our world needs churches concerned with right action – with the action that comes from loving God and loving neighbor, not in loving an argument.  There are two churches in another part of Kentucky that came into being as a result of a church split.  Evidently, the congregation had a disagreement over a particular doctrine and they experienced a rather messy split.  The two new churches chose as their new names, without any comprehension of the irony, Harmony Church and Unity Church.  Do you think the community couldn’t see through those names?  Of course they could!

To resurrect faith we must take it to the streets.

Today’s religious atmosphere is remarkably similar to that of the time of Jesus in several ways, but primarily in this way – in the time of Jesus, people felt disconnected from the institutional religion of the day, saw it is as out of touch and somewhat irrelevant, and in need of some serious change and renewal.

Does that sound familiar?

One of the reasons why people had come to such a belief is because the religion of the day was, in too many cases, removed from the every day world where people lived.

I fear that sometimes, as people of faith, we have built a very comfortable but alternative universe within the larger universe.  We have a bubble in which we can live, a subculture that provides us with everything we need so we never have to venture out into the scary and intimidating real world.  But we have to move out of our comfort zones and into the streets of the world (I will refrain from singing Takin’ It to the Streets by the Doobie Brothers, but you can listen to it when you get home.  It’s a great message – taking it to the streets).

This is a great facility.  I am grateful we have such a great building. I’m grateful our congregation is generous and welcoming with our building, opening the doors to a lot of groups from our community.  But as much as I enjoy and appreciate our building, one thing is true of every church building – if you stay in the building, eventually you die.  The goal of a church is more than getting people inside our building; the goal of a church is to connect people to God and to help them utilize the gifts and talents given them by God to reach out to other people.

Easter is about resurrection, even resurrecting faith itself.  And the Easter proclamation, the affirmation that is the fuel for our faith is, He is risen!  He is risen indeed! He is risen!  He is risen indeed! He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

May we go forth in a resurrected faith that comes through the power of the resurrection of Jesus!

April 5, 2015 - Easter Sunrise Service: The Power of Faith

The Power of Faith

It is Easter morning!  It is also the end of Lent.  I arose at 12:01 a.m. this morning to eat a breakfast that included 12 boxes of marshmallow Peeps and 15 chocolate bunnies, so we’re going to ratchet up the energy level in this service!

I had an Indiana Jones moment years ago.  It was early in the summer after 5^th or 6^th grade.  One fine summer day I walked out into our front yard to a big, canvas hammock that we had strung up between two trees.  It was all bunched together, so I pulled it open and in one motion flopped into it.  As soon as I landed in the hammock I realized it was already occupied.  In the bottom of that hammock, squirming under my back, was a really, really big snake.  It was probably fifty feet long, at least.  Both of us were trying to get out of that hammock as fast as we could!

I don’t know if that’s why snakes strike fear in me or not, but I’m going to assume that episode had something to do with my absolute fear and dread of snakes.  I don’t think there is anything that would allow me to conquer that fear, unfortunately.

Think about your deepest fear, your greatest dread in life; how do we move beyond our fear?  When we read the resurrection stories in the gospels, the presence of fear is not only surprising, it is very palpable.

Listen to our Scripture reading from the gospel of Mark –

1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.

2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb

3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.

5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.

7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

9 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.

10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping.

11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.

12 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country.

13 These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.

14 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.

Did you note the presence of fear in the first witnesses of the empty tomb?  Now, considering the events of the previous week, and also the difficulty in comprehending Jesus’ prophecy that he would be resurrected, it’s not hard to understand why fear was present in those witnesses.

Fear is a powerful force in our lives.  At some point in recent days, every one of us was held back in some way because of fear.  Every one of us.  Every one of us will marvel at someone who is not bound by a fear that grips us, and every one of us will wonder why someone is bound by a fear that has no hold over us.

Jesus spent a lot of time trying to move his followers beyond fear.  At the moment of crucifixion, almost every one of them fled.  After the crucifixion, they had returned to the Upper Room and were hiding out in fear, and with good reason.  After witnessing the scourging and crucifixion of Jesus, who wouldn’t hide out, assuming they might be next on the list of those to be executed by the Romans.

So how do you transform a group of frightened, anxious, uncertain disciples into a group that turned the world upside down?

There is only one power I know that can accomplish such a feat, and that is The Power of Faith.

There are a lot of powerful forces in the world, and some of those forces are strong enough to move people to give up their lives.  Love is such a force.  Patriotism can be such a force. 

But there is something different about the power of faith that transformed those disciples.  Plenty of people have given their lives for someone they loved.  Plenty of people have given their lives for their country.  People will die for all manner of causes, but their sacrifices are not generally remembered beyond a rather limited amount of time.

Something was different with the disciples.  What was it?  It was the power of faith that allowed them to overcome their deepest fear, that transformed the way in which they looked at the world and other people; it transformed them so completely that almost everyone who came in contact with them was also transformed.

It is the power of faith that is fueled by the reality of the resurrection.

Mark begins the resurrection story by telling us that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome came to the tomb with spices to anoint the body of Jesus.  There was absolutely no expectation of a resurrection.  They fully expected to find the dead, lifeless body of Jesus.

We are the beneficiaries of 2,000 years of history, theology, and teaching about the resurrection.  Belief in the resurrection and the understanding of the resurrection as the pivotal event in human history is passed on from one generation to another almost as though it is a family heirloom.

Though Jesus spoke of resurrection, his followers didn’t really expect it, and had a hard time believing it was true, as the resurrection narratives in Scripture clearly show.

How do you comprehend something that is so completely outside your range of knowledge, experience, or expectation?  How do we, to use today’s overused language – think outside the box our minds have been molded into?  How do we accept the impossible as possible, and the implausible as plausible?  Through the power of faith.

So much of our world is based on power.  There is the power of politics.  There is the power of military might.  There is the power of money.  But this morning we are here to acknowledge and celebrate the ultimate power – a power that deals with ultimate matters of life and death, a power that is about changed and changing lives.  Easter is a celebration of the ultimate in power – the power of faith and the victory it brings of life over death.

The entire life of Jesus, but especially his final days, is a challenge to walk like him and to forsake the normal categories of power.  The Triumphal Entry challenges us to remember that to walk like Jesus means we forsake conquering power and pride and embrace humility.  The Last Supper challenges us to embrace the great command of love and a life of service rather than that of a defeating power.  The Garden of Gethsemane challenges us to walk in the paths of Jesus even when the walk is difficult and challenging and to seek the power of the will of God rather than the power of our own will.  The crucifixion challenges us to embrace the power of forgiveness, as did Jesus while he hung dying on the cross.  And finally then there is the resurrection, which challenges us to never forget the ultimate power – the power that allowed life to conquer death.

It was the power of that faith that allowed the early followers of Jesus to overcome their fear.  Aside from Judas Iscariot, who took his own life, every one of the disciples – with the exception of John, who died in exile – had their lives taken from them.  This small, ragtag band of fearful followers formed the first church.  They were our forbearers in faith and our church ancestors, and they become our role models for allowing The Power of Faith to move us beyond our fears and into the life to which God calls us.

It’s important that we emphasize what convinced those first followers was the reality of the resurrection – it was a personal experience with Jesus.  Jesus came to Mary, he came to the disciples, he came to others, and the reality of their experience brought to them the truth of his resurrection.

The essence of faith remains a personal experience with the risen Christ.  The Christian faith is not a belief system, it is not a theology, it is not an organization or an institution – it is a relationship founded upon an experience with the risen Christ.

We can seek to use theology and philosophy and reason in an attempt to convince people of the truth and reality of Jesus, but they are not enough.  Theology and philosophy and reason may open a person’s mind to faith, but it takes more – it takes a personal experience.

This is what happened to Peter.  Peter, who had denied Jesus three times in order to save his own skin, but later willingly gave his live.  It was an experience, on the road to Damascus, that transformed Paul, the great persecutor of the Church, into the great missionary pastor.

The power of faith that allows us to receive the resurrection is what transforms our lives, as it has so many millions before.  Without the resurrection we would know nothing of Jesus.  Without the resurrection Jesus might have achieved a status of a moral teacher of some renown, but it is the resurrection that moves him far beyond just a teacher of morality and into a very real and living presence.

There are countless people throughout history whose lives have been transformed by Jesus.  Some of them are notable – Peter, Paul, Francis of Assisi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer – but many more who remain nameless.  But notable or nameless matters not; what matters is the transformation that occurred in their lives because of The Power of Faith.

FCC | Sunrise Service | 4/20/15

March 22, 2015 The Journey To Easter: To Believe Or Not to Believe, That Is the Question

What do you see in this image –

The image is from the famous Rorschach test, which is a test administered by psychiatrists to determine certain characteristics and personality traits of a patient.  There aren’t any “answers” to the test, but it reveals the way in which people “project” their beliefs onto the pictures.

Beliefs are important, because they become the lens through which we see every facet of life.  This morning, as we continue our series of messages The Journey To Easter, we come to a passage in John’s gospel that is what I would call a spiritual Rorschach test.  It’s a passage where John tells us that Jesus had performed many miracles but despite the miracles, there were still some who would not believe in him.  John is careful to point out that the people who would not believe in Jesus did not hear of the miracles by second-hand information; John says those miracles were performed in their presence, but still they would not believe in him.  How is it that some reacted to the miracles with belief, while others reacted with non-belief?

The question of belief is, I think, the great question of life.  No one can dodge the question of belief in God.  Everyone is confronted by that question – to believe or not to believe, and in our modern era, it seems as though the gulf between belief and non-belief grows ever wider. 

Hear the story as John tells it –

37 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.

38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:

“Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:

40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.”

41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.

42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue;

43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.

44 Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me.

45 The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me.

46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

47 “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

This morning, our topic is To Believe Or Not To Believe, That Is the Question.  As Jesus was drawing very near to the final days of his ministry, there is this widening gulf between him and those who would not believe in him, similar to the way in which today there seems to be a widening gap between belief and unbelief. 

In considering this passage today, I want to ask three questions, the first of which is –

1.  Why do we believe what we believe?

I’m a fan of science fiction.  Last fall I went to see the movie Interstellar, which looked really interesting to me.  I was disappointed in the movie, but it had me thinking for weeks after about the universe and its unimaginable size and scope.  Though I didn’t find the movie to be very good, it did a good job in presenting the incomprehensible scale of the universe.  In thinking about the universe, it really puts into perspective how little we know.  Though we live in an age of unbelievable technology and amazing discovery, how much do we know about the universe and the principles by which it operates?  A millionth of a percent?  A billionth of a percent?  A billion trillion of a millionth of a percent?  Whatever we know, it is such an incredibly small amount of all the knowledge that exists in the universe (and that may be knowledge only of one universe.  There could be other universes of which we have absolutely no knowledge).  As that is true, it seems incredibly shortsighted, to me, to say there is enough knowledge to disprove the existence of God, and indeed, to claim that kind of knowledge seems to me very arrogant.

Why do we believe what we believe?  As I’ve said before, it is inaccurate to say that seeing is believing; the truth is that believing is seeing.  What we already believe, will determine what we see.  If a person holds to a scientific, materialistic, reductionist view of things, that is, if they believe you can only believe in what you see, then you won’t believe there is anything beyond the physical, which would rule out the existence of God.  What we believe dictates what we see, and in the view of scientific materialism, it is a very limited view.

But faith reorients what we believe so that we are then able to see in a different manner.  As we are in the midst of March Madness, allow me to use a basketball analogy.  How do we know when a referee makes a bad call?  I mean, really, how do we know?  Is it always obvious?  I believe we see the call according to what we already believe.  The truth is, when a referee makes a call he is viewed as wise and perceptive by half the crowd and as an incompetent idiot by the other half.  And the view that each fan has of the referee’s call is based upon what they already believe, not the particular actions or ruling of the referee.  The perception of each fan is colored by their loyalty to a team and whether or not the referee makes a call that is either for or against their team.  Just follow along on Facebook during a game or sit with a group of fans and you’ll see what I mean.  I walked through a hospital waiting room yesterday during the UK game, just in time to hear the room erupt with protests of he traveled!  In a parallel universe, located in Cincinnati, I imagine they were saying the complete opposite.  This is how we react; we see things a particular way because of what we believe.

I appreciate when someone tells me they enjoyed one of my sermons or one of my Sentinel columns, but I also understand what it often means – it means they agree with what I have to say.  “Like” becomes a synonym for “agree,” and we all want our beliefs to be reinforced.  That is one of the reasons we come to church, and it is one of the primary reasons why people leave church or change churches – because their beliefs are not given enough affirmation.  Jesus certainly did not affirm the beliefs of the religious establishment, and that is why they decided he must be put to death.

There isn’t anything inherently wrong with wanting our beliefs affirmed.  One of the reasons we feel uneasy with our rapidly changing world is the fear that our beliefs are being marginalized in a modern world.  We begin to feel out-of-step with things, and that is a difficult place to live.

But faith reorients our thinking, it moves us beyond the erroneous beliefs we hold so we will be able to understand truth, which leads to our next question –

2.  What Is Truth?

What is truth? Pilate asked Jesus.  That is an incredibly important question.  Who determines what is true?

Science claims to tell us what is true about our world and the universe, but can they really get down to what constitutes truth?  I don’t think so.  Science can tell us some of the facts about the way in which our universe operates, at least in our tiny little corner of the universe.  Who knows; physics may operate differently in another part of the universe, or in another universe all together.  Just because something is true in our part of creation doesn’t guarantee it is true in all of creation.

Can science tell us the purpose of creation, and of life?  No, because science only deals with those things we can observe, that we can see and touch and measure.  Science can’t get to that purpose, or discover it, or measure it.  That is the domain of faith.  According to some scientists, the universe is the result of random events, and if that is true, there is no inherent purpose or meaning.  Though one might believe there is a purpose and meaning in a random universe, there is not.

We are more than flesh and blood creatures; we are the handiwork of God and possess a soul.  You can’t take a soul and measure it in a test tube in a laboratory.  Faith reminds us there is something greater than what can be learned in a science experiment. 

Faith also reminds us that truth is anchored in something that is eternal and unchanging.  If the universe is random, there are no truths, beyond some basic scientific facts.  The only truths in a random universe are things such as the speed of light, which may not be constant everywhere in the unvierse; the amount of time in a day, which can vary as light is dispersed at greater distances in the universe; so even the constants of physics and science are not unalterable truths.  But faith links us to the eternal – to God – so the truths of love, compassion, and grace are not true just when a society says they are; they are always true.

Faith makes the claim that we are anchored in eternal, unchanging truths, one of which is love.  Love is not the result of a random act of nature, love is a creation of God, which leads us to our third question –

3.  How Can We Know God?

The primary question is, does God exist?  In terms of this question, our beliefs don’t matter.  That is, God exists whether or not I believe in him.  Reality is reality; God exists or not independently of our beliefs, although our beliefs are important because they have consequences.

In terms of evidence, there are several strong evidences, I believe, for the existence of God, but ultimately I think there is one great proof, and it is love.  If the universe is random, if there is nothing behind it but happenstance, then love is nothing more than the firing of neurons in our brain and the release of chemicals that make us feel good.  In that scenario, love is noting more than a trick of the brain, or a neurological activity.  But does anyone really believe that is all that constitutes love?  No, no even the strongest unbeliever.

Love is something more than just activity in our brains, love is more than the firing of neurological activity, and more than the release of brain chemicals; love is the proof that there is something transcendent in life and about life; it points to something greater and deeper.  It points, I believe, to God.

But how do we know the details about God?  We are people of revelation, that is, we believe God reveals truth to us.  One of the ways God reveals truth to us is through Scripture, but if you are speaking with a skeptic they will most likely reject any argument that is based from Scripture.  Is there, then, a more effective proof?  Yes.  Allow me to offer another metaphor, this time in the form of this novel that I’m holding.  Imagine you are one of the characters in this book.  How would you know anything about the author?  How would you know anything about the world beyond the one that exists in this book?  Could you even conceive that an author exists or have the capacity to comprehend an author or a world outside of the book?  You might think where did I come from?  I must have come from somewhere, so someone put me here.  Even recognizing that, however, the two realms – one within the book and one without – remain very distant and distinct from one another.  But imagine if the author puts himself into the book, into the story.  Literally, into the story.  That is exactly what God did.  In theological terms, we call it the Incarnation.  In everyday language, we call it Jesus.

The gulf between belief and unbelief may seem to be quite large, and in one sense, perhaps it is.  On the surface, at least, people believe or they don’t.  But we are all God’s children, and God loves each of his children – believers or not – and if he does, then so must we.  If God entered into this world, into the story of his own creation, to demonstrate his live, then so must we enter the story of the lives of others.