The Shack: Don’t Read It Alone

Spirituality Column #90
July 29, 2008
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current! In Westfield (IN) newspaper

The Shack: Don’t Read It Alone
By Bob Walters

Everybody is talking about The Shack, the terrific 240-page paperback by novice writer William P. Young.

The Shack is a novel, not a Christian tract or self-help book. It’s not scripture or a new book of the Bible. I say that because Christians sometimes get carried away with how they misidentify especially helpful literature, sermons and preachers.

So let’s not worship this book … but by all means, read it. And if you can, read it with someone else. This is a book you will want to discuss.

The Shack reveals plain yet potentially startling Biblical perspectives – I’m inclined to call them truths – about the nature of God, the Trinity, humanity, religion, creation, good, evil, grace, forgiveness … and a whole lot of other stuff.

Like any good novel the basic story is captivating. Surprises abound. Curiosity is whetted. Emotions are intensely experienced. The writing is first rate. The factual and scriptural basis of the story – like one of Jesus’ parables or even a great sermon – allows for deeper understanding of our faith – and doubts – amid God’s enormous mystery.

Without giving away the story, something really evil involving great personal loss happens. Redemption ensues. And while some Christians’ favorite subjects are guilt and hell, Young avoids the traps of focusing on these defeating concepts. I say “defeating” because in my experience when guilt and hell comprise our inwardly-directed spiritual focus, we are a mess of inab ility to know God’s love; and when they are outwardly directed, we are unable to share God’s love.

Young’s focus is love and relationship, and his palette is truth and humanity. Christ imagery is a common literary device, but the image Young paints of Christ is fresh, surprising … and straight out of the Bible.

If there is a limitation on the broadness of the book’s potential popularity, it might be that it describes with absolute confidence – and stunning realism – the truth of the Trinity. It also blows apart many common mistakes made by Bible literalists, revisionists, and systematic theologies.

What the book describes is a God without limitations who craves a personal relationship with every person on this planet. It’s a God I want to love.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) has intentionally said almost nothing about the story content and theological muscle of The Shack. It’s too good to ruin.

The Cross Was an Inside Job

Spirituality Column #89
July 22, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

The Cross Was an Inside Job
By Bob Walters

Here is a picture of Christ Jesus and Christian doctrine that I’ve often heard explaining the crucifixion:

God punished Jesus instead of us. Jesus was sacrificed for our sins. Our sin debt was paid to God. Because of our guilt, we should have been punished – and probably ought to be punished – but Christ took the nails for us.

Y’know … it’s not in the Bible that way.

It makes for a very human story. We understand punishment and death and sin and even sacrifice; they are all very human things. They are among the awful ways we order our incredibly imperfect social hierarchy.

We humans have a power-motivated “do this or else” aesthetic that God can’t possibly share if He is a God of love and if God is truly represented by the Father-Son-Spirit Trinity, which I believe He is.

Why? The Trinity is not interdependent within itself for punishment and death and sin. God has no need for any of these. Yes, Christ sacrificed himself as a human to defeat human death. But how (and why) would Christ – and remember He is co-equal in the Trinity – sacrifice Himself to repay Himself as God?

Jesus died on the Cross to defeat death which was created by God in response to our sins (read Genesis 3). And considering God already owns and shares everything, there is no way on earth to repay a debt to God. We don’t “borrow” things from God.

Within the Trinity there is not what philosophers would call an “other.” God is not “other” from Jesus, nor Jesus from the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is the ultimate, cosmic team effort; It is the relationship of the universe. Yes It is three distinct persons, but the Trinity is One; a wholly loving – and lovingly interdependent – relational community.

That was God’s original plan for all humanity, and remains His eternal purpose.

So the idea of God punishing Jesus, or of Jesus repaying God – an oft-told story – cannot be true; and it is not described in the Bible that way. The Bible says “ … [God] gave his son … that [we] shall not perish” (John 3:16).

The Cross was an inside job; God required the Cross to defeat death, God (Jesus) was on the Cross, and God (Spirit) provides us – if we want it – with our faith in the Cross.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that in the Greek manuscripts, the specific word “punish” does not appear in the New Testament. It has been added by translators.

'God Loves Even You'

Spirituality Column #88
July 15, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current iIn Westfield (IN) newspaper

‘God Loves Even You’
By Bob Walters
Author of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

In the gently rolling western Indiana farmland near Shades State Park one perfect, sunny day earlier this summer, a tidy country church had these words on its welcome sign:

“God loves even you.”

In the spirit of backhanded compliments like “Hey, your face is clearing up,” I considered the sign and burst out laughing. A question popped into my head:

Do you suppose God has a marketing department?

The obvious answer is: Yes He does. It’s called the Church.

With thousands of Christian “denominations” worldwide, it isn’t surprising that the “marketing” of the Christian message splits off in many directions.

“God loves even you” tells me this church fearlessly proclaims the Gospel truth that each of us is a sinner, and that no matter the hideousness of our individual squalor, Jesus Christ is the only avenue to a loving, personal and eternal relationship with God.

No serious, thinking Christian will deny our sin problem or our guilt, but I wonder if God’s marketing focus is better stated in the famous John 3:16 …

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Then there’s the oft-overlooked John 3:17:

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Notice that sin is not mentioned. Condemnation is negated. Love and salvation compose the cornerstone of this passage, and of Christianity.

I suppose we each figure that in our sinfulness we are condemned … and well, OK, we are. That’s our guilt. But churches that market God’s product of love and salvation with a tagline hook focused on sin and guilt – and there are plenty of them – too often focus our Christian walk on our own sin, and therefore on our own works, and therefore on ourselves.

The danger is that if we focus only on our sin, we miss the more important and central point of God’s overwhelming love.

Simply knowing I’m a sinner will not put me in a church pew, or see me through tough times.

Knowing God loves me, will.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) once read that two things have to be present for humor to exist: truth and surprise. It was assuredly his own arrogance that made him laugh at the sign.

God's Plan ... Freedom, or Obedience?

Spirituality Column #87
July 8, 2008
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current! In Westfield (IN) newspaper

God’s Plan … Freedom or Obedience?
By Bob Walters

Once when facing a particularly difficult circumstance in my life, I made the comment to my friend Russ Blowers that the problem “must be part of God’s plan.”

Russ, the wonderful long-time preacher in Indianapolis, looked horrified. “Wait a minute, Bob,” he said. “Do you honestly think that a billion years ago or whenever He made his perfect plan for the world that God said, ‘Bob is going to [have this trouble]?’”

In his nearly 60 years of ministry, Russ had heard it all, and he was clearly not going to let me blame worldly problems in my own life on “God’s plan.”

That God has a plan is certain – He sent Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners by faith and thereby restore mankind to eternal life in glory at God’s side.

That each of us in the here and now has problems, challenges and issues, as well as dreams, desires and aspirations – is also certain.

So … what is God’s plan for my life?

Well, that’s a tough one. The Bible is long on principles and short on specifics.

“Love God and love others.” That may be the best, most important advice in the Bible, but it doesn’t exactly order our personal steps.

“Follow Christ by faith.” If you don’t do anything else, do that, but you’ll find that faith without action is a horribly incomplete equation.

The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-6-7) is perhaps the best collection of advice in scripture – Christ’s greatest hits, if you will. Memorize it … yet we still look at our personal circumstances and ask God, “Why?”

The thing is we are each fearfully and wonderfully made. We are each unique. We are personal to God, no matter our sin or circumstance. God’s plan for us certainly includes freedom which is critical to developing love, but only when that love produces faith can we then obey God freely. That’s God’s plan.

I’m not obsessed with knowing God’s exact plan for my life, roller coaster that it has been. But I pray every day that I don’t miss the clues – when He provides them – about how to stay on His path.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) suggests that instead of always asking God “Why?”, it is not a terrible idea to simply say “Thank You” in faith and pray He will help us be firm in our next step.

Freedom, Truth, Joy ... in Spite Of It All

Spirituality Column #86
July 1, 2008
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current! In Westfield (IN) newspaper

Freedom, Truth, Joy … in Spite of It All
Jesus brightens our path forward
By Bob Walters

"Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose … ", from the song Me and Bobby McGee, by Kris Kristofferson; sung by Janis Joplin, 1971

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free … ”, Galatians 5:1

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17

God’s gift of freedom, in the person of Jesus Christ, is in our redemption from past sins and in our hope for the future. Freedom is about opening the door before us; not about the door behind us, whether it is open or shut.

Freedom is about not being shackled to our past.

This July 4 we will celebrate 232 years of American self determination and independence. Not every American has had the same fair shake over that time, but the greatness of America has never been in our past.

The greatness of America has always been in our promise and opportunity for the future. The greatness of America is that anyone can become an American.

I don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on whether or not “America is a Christian country.” Is the Creator, i.e., God, mentioned in the Declaration of Independence? Yes. Was every jot and tittle of the Declaration an expression of Christian philosophy? No, not even close.

In a reference from Christ’s Sermon on The Mount (“salt and light,” see Matthew 5:18), is it fair to call America a shining “city on a hill,” as did John Winthrop’s Puritan sermon of 1630? I think that’s a great description of America, but nothing about the Puritan way of life had anything to do with freedom as we would call it today. It was about the strictest of religious legalism and obedience.

American freedom and Christian freedom may not be exactly the same thing, but the freedom we celebrate July 4 is a gift from God any way we slice it.

Freedom provides the opportunity for the truth to be known … hence truth and freedom are interdependent on each other. Inasmuch as Christ very plainly tells us He is the truth (“I am the way, and the truth,” etc., in John 14:6), we should be able to add freedom and truth together and get joy.

Consider this: Joy is not about what we have to lose; it’s about the Holy Spirit within us and the hope we have in Christ.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) understands that declaring joy is easier said than done. Joy is the first casualty when freedom and truth are compromised.