The Goodness of God

We like it when we see Jesus dealing so well and graciously with human chaos. He's so kind and loving. People reject him, harm him, ignore him, sin against him, and Jesus greets the world with love. It's truly awesome. By Matthew 9-10, Jesus begins the process of making it clear that it's not just him who will have to face all that chaos. He sends the disciples out into the world - completely empowered to do what he does - and with the reminder that these humans can be SUPER chaotic. We face the same and should at least approach this with eyes wide open.

Matthew writes a Gospel. Matthew walks with Jesus. Matthew was a tax collector. One of those facts should absolutely shock you. In the Roman Empire, tax collectors were not pedantic role enforcers. They were traitors to their own people who leveraged the the power of the evil empire for their own sordid gain. So, eating with a tax collect ranks right up there with being touched by a woman with a medical condition that rendered her ritually unclean and touching the dead. It shows that Jesus sees beauty where the world often doesn't.

Bang! God sweeps over the waves of chaos, and then, all of sudden, a universe explodes into intricate and beautiful being. The author of the opening of Genesis knew that they were writing the introduction to an anthology of God's early history with humanity, and he opens with a powerful poem - an ode to God's ability to transform chaos into beauty, into something that God can behold and declare good. This creative and transformational power is who God is.

It's Pentecost again! Every year, we look at the moment that the Holy Spirit descended and everything changed. It kicked off the age that we still live in, where the Holy Spirit is present, and we can do the same amazing things that we see in Acts of the Apostles. In fact, that's probably why Luke wrote the book at all, so you, a normal person, could look at what all of these other normal people did with the Holy Spirit as their power and feel the pull go to an do likewise.

In his journeys, Paul finds himself called right into the center of Athenian culture with one opportunity to make his case. Standing before Athens' ruling council, he artfully uses a combination of pieces of Greco-Roman culture to make a convincing and intelligent argument to a group of people who appreciate that exact kind of thing. Paul got to that point because the early church didn't have the option to sit in buildings of their own hoping that a skeptical world will wander in looking for something. He had to go out there and reach the people where they already were.

There are some real highs and lows to the religious experience. Stephen experiences all of them at once. He has this moment of direct connection with God and gets killed by a mob for speaking out against the religious authorities. Pushing forward God's Kingdom has always been difficult and remains so. We don't have to seek out the suffering. It just comes with the territory sometimes.

At some point, when asked, "what is church?" we end up with architecture. Even if we know on some level that the Church is people and not a building, we still probably picture those people in a building. Maybe, it's a grand steepled structure, a modern theater looking space, or something clapboard and down home. At the start, 2,000 years ago, there were no buildings that belonged to the church. They met in homes and the Temple. Instead, when it all went right at first, it was purely about devotion to God and devotion to each. That's what got it all started and can always be what we run on now.

Every once and while, we catch that moment of clarity. "Oh geez, I need to change." Reams of self help books and the bowels of the Internet will gladly give you some advice, but there's something much more ancient (and reliable) - God's Holy Spirit. At the tail end of his sermon in Acts 2, we see Peter striking a fine balance. He shows the crowd that they have a need to change. He hopes to lead them to that moment of clarity, but because of God's power and grace, we never to stay there. There's a better way forward.