Gods and Superheroes

The scriptures referred to are Amos 8:1-12, Psalm 52 and Colossians 1:15-28.

In the latest Marvel film, Thor: Love and Thunder, the antagonist is a man who has lost his daughter as well as his faith in his uncaring god. He dispatches him with a magical sword that can kill even gods. Then as Gor the God-Butcher, he goes on a campaign of trying to kill all the gods. Which means Thor must stop him.

But when Thor goes to the celestial palace in which the gods of all the worlds and peoples have gathered to enjoy themselves and to hide from Gor, he finds that they don't want to face the God Butcher and don't care about the children he is holding as hostages to lure Thor into a confrontation. Zeus in particular is indifferent to their plight and has no desire to face possible death to save them.

And surprisingly this comic book movie reflects the way polytheistic gods were actually viewed, especially in the Greco-Roman world. Their religions reflected the patronage system around which their society was structured. Just as people served the rich and powerful in exchange for favors that might be bestowed on them, so too people tried to appease and bribe the gods to give them rain and crops and fertility and peace and prosperity. The gods did not do these things out of the goodness of their hearts.

Missing from this movie's gathering of gods, of course, is the Christian God. You can see why in our passage from Amos. Unlike the others, The God of the Bible is not indifferent but cares about those who suffer. The Lord is outraged at those who “trample on the needy, and bring ruin upon the poor of the land...” In Psalm 82, the Lord is depicted as judging the gods of the nations for their inaction and injustice. “Defend the cause of the poor and fatherless! Vindicate the oppressed and suffering! Rescue the poor and needy! Deliver them from the power of the wicked!” (Psalm 82:3-4) God in fact liberates an entire nation of slaves, teaching them not to worship those other gods, to love their neighbor and to act with justice and mercy. He would be a poor fit in this film.

There's also the problem that film is a visual medium and Yahweh would be almost impossible to depict. The same cannot be said for Jesus. But, let's face it, Jesus would not work well in a film about indifferent, unloving or multiple gods either, nor in any film that is about good triumphing over evil by shedding the blood of others.

In contrast to these petty limited gods, in our passage from Colossians we are told, “Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things were created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn of the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”

Some critics claim this high Christology, this exalted view of Jesus, cannot have been written within a few decades of Jesus' life. They say it must have been written later and by someone other than Paul. Yet we find these words and ideas in the undisputed letters of Paul. Jesus is called “the image of God” in 2 Corinthians 4:4. In Philippians 2:6 he is said to be “existing in the form of God” and yet does not consider his “equality with God something to be clung to.” In 1 Thessalonians, Paul's earliest surviving letter, in the very first verse he calls Jesus Christ “Lord,” a word Jews used instead of saying the divine name of God. He also says Jesus died and rose from the dead in that letter (1 Thessalonians 1:10, 4:14). Colossians doesn't so much give us unique ideas about Jesus as gather them all together and state the implications.

One of the implications is that when we are dealing with Jesus, we are dealing with God, not some lesser deity. All the fullness of God dwells in Jesus. As he himself said, “I and my Father are one.” (John 10:30) So we don't have to go through various lesser beings, like humans or demigods or some celestial bureaucracy, to speak to God. We can go straight to Jesus.

And because he is the image of the invisible God, if you want to know what God is like, you only have to look at Jesus. There are a lot of distorted images of God out there, like a hate-filled, always angry bully who wants to destroy the world and throw all the sinners into hell. This isn't even a true picture of God in the Old Testament. In Ezekiel he says he takes no delight in the death of the wicked but rather in them turning from their ways and turning to him and finding life. (Ezekiel 18:23, 32) For the clearest view of God, look at Jesus. Jesus proclaims, not a declaration of war on this wicked world, but the good news that he is here to save the world. (John 3:17) He teaches, not that God can't wait to punish sinners, but that God forgives us. (Luke 18:9-14) Jesus does not wield a sword; he heals the wounded. (Luke 22:49-51) Jesus does not shed the blood of his enemies but allows them to shed his blood, thereby saving even them. On the cross Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) And the centurion supervising Jesus' crucifixion afterward says, “Truly this man was God's Son!” (Mark 15:39) He saw in Christ the divine nature of God.

A persecutor of Christ's body, the church, also saw God in Jesus. Saul of Tarsus saw God's grace and love in Jesus reaching out to him. When known as Paul, he wrote to Timothy, “This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners'—and I am the worst of them.” (1 Timothy 1:15) Having received forgiveness, Paul wrote to the Romans, “But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) And because we did nothing to deserve this, this grace or favor which God shows us is not earned by our efforts. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) Unlike with those pagan gods, we cannot gain the Lord's favor through our sacrifices or anything we do; we can only accept it humbly and gratefully, by trusting in Jesus: in who he is and what he has done for us and is doing in us.

So I find it interesting that in this superhero movie the villain is right. These petty gods are not interested in justice or helping the helpless. They are no different than the target of Psalm 52. If they are in charge of the universe, then life is meaningless. These idols deserve to be destroyed.

But I did not anticipate that a film focusing on silly and fallible pagan gods would nevertheless come to the conclusion that there is one who is eternal and is greater than them. Or that self-sacrifice and love are what saves us in the end. Or that there is resurrection and an afterlife. There is even an implied forgiveness for the one who kills a god. These are prominent Christian themes that one would not expect to see in a movie whose main purpose is to entertain. But I think the writers and director realized that without them, there is no hope. Life would ultimately be just chaos, injustice and sadness. After all, the Norse mythology from which they plucked Thor ends with the death of Thor, Odin, Loki, Heimdall, and the other major gods, a singularly bleak conclusion for any pantheon. They cheated a bit in the movie Thor:Ragnarok, because who wants to see all the heroes die? Not that superheroes stay dead.

Which is something else filched from the gospel. Jesus of Nazareth actually died, not in battle but surrendering himself to those who perpetuated injustice in the name of law and order. He was officially executed in the most cruel way possible by Pontius Pilate, whom we know existed because of an inscription on stone which archaeologists have discovered. And yet the Jesus movement, unlike other Messianic movements, did not fall apart or disappear. Because his disciples went from cowardly hiding from the authorities to courageously proclaiming his resurrection. And they continued to proclaim it despite torture and their eventual executions. Why? Because when Jesus came back from death with the promise of eternal life, they didn't fear death any more. Life was no longer a matter of “live it up while you can because one day it's all over forever.” It's a matter of trusting Jesus and following the God who is love and life incarnate.

And the message of the gospel, the good news not merely of eternal life but of a God who loves people, was compelling. The old gods took care of the rich and powerful because they were able to provide sacrifices and sponsor festivals for the individual gods, an expensive proposition. But again this was transactional. You give to the god, he gives to you. But a God who graciously loves all people, even the poor and women and slaves and tax collectors and prostitutes? (Luke 6:20-21; Matthew 21:31) That's unheard of. Paul wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female—for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) In a society organized by class, where a quarter of the people were slaves, and where women were considered “unpredictable and fickle creatures” inferior to men, this was revolutionary. Christians were saying that all human beings were created in God's image and that Christ died for all. Every person has an inherent and equal value in God's eyes.

And that was one of the things that attracted people to the God revealed in Jesus Christ: a God who cares. A God who loves his creatures and is even willing to become one of them and die for them. A God who doesn't promise a shadowy half-life in Hades as we see in the Odyssey, where the ghost of Achilles says he would rather be a living slave than king of the dead, but a God who promises new life in a new creation where death and pain and mourning are no more. A God who came back to life to verify what he said.

In the movie Zeus complains that the gods have been replaced by superheroes. And he's right: they too are powerful but fallible beings, always fighting, supposedly for good but mostly to restore the status quo. In Avengers:Infinity War in response to an overpopulated universe outstripping its resources, the villain Thanos uses the Infinity Gauntlet's power to alter reality to simply eliminate half the people—rather than, say, to increase the available resources. And when the heroes get the gauntlet they use it to simply bring everyone back, and make the bad guys disappear, but not to fix the real problem Thanos points out. Like the tales of the Greek and Norse gods, these are great and entertaining stories. But they don't really change the world for the better.

Jesus didn't fight monsters or aliens or robots or gods. Or anyone really. He didn't have a magical artifact. He didn't wear a cool costume showing off his muscles. He wouldn't make a good superhero.

But then the evil Jesus fought wasn't found in costumed, superpowered beings. It doesn't come from outer space or some other dimension. Nor does evil come from belief in God. Like Gor the God-Butcher, two large nations tried to eliminate evil by eliminating, among other things, religion. And the Soviet Union and Communist China killed tens of millions more in 1 century than the abuse of religion did in 20 centuries. Erasing God from the equation doesn't erase evil. Because real evil isn't outside us; it's in us. As Jesus said, “For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from within and defile a person.” (Mark 7:21-23) We are our own worst enemies. Comic book supervillains need not apply.

Nor did Jesus deal with evil by killing bad guys, as practically all our heroes do. He did it by teaching and healing and turning bad guys into good guys. He turned an impulsive fisherman, and two hotheaded brothers, and a tax collector, and a zealous persecutor, and a woman who wrestled with her many demons, and a motley crew of ordinary people into followers of the God who is love and then ambassadors of his good news.

And he is doing that even today. Through his words and his Spirit, he is still changing lives. He calls us to be loving and forgiving and generous and to help the helpless and to give voice to the voiceless and to be peacemakers. And despite those who worship riches and power and who feel the answer to our problems is to sacrifice those who would disturb the status quo, people who actually listen to Jesus and answer his call are changing the world for the better. Followers of Jesus feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, take care of the sick, visit the imprisoned, and welcome the foreigner. They have set up schools and hospitals all over the world. They respond to disasters. Christians have hid Jews from the Nazis, set up the Underground Railroad to help escaped slaves get to freedom, worked for Civil Rights, run homeless shelters and more.

And that's another thing: in a superhero universe, ordinary people have no power to help. They can only scream and run while the defenders of the city destroy half of it to save it from the monsters. Here again this movie surprised me by having a god share his power with those who are not divine, just as Jesus shares his power with us, through his Holy Spirit. Not that we are to be warriors like in the film but rather witnesses to Jesus as well as “his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.” (Ephesians 2:10) Jesus even said that those who trust in him would do greater works than he. (John 14:12) Nor do we have to worry that this is more than we can handle. Instead he “by the power that is working within us is able to do far beyond all that we can ask or conceive of.” (Ephesians 3:20) Working together as the body of Christ, through the power of the Spirit, we can do wonders.

And we don't need magical hammers or axes or lightning bolts. We don't need to become like Thor. But we can become like Jesus. Will we be perfect at it? No. Which is why real followers of Jesus do self-examination and confess their sins and ask for forgiveness and for help. And with the power of the Spirit we can do better and become more Christlike, day by day. Besides, as we've seen, if you wait for what is perfect to come along, in the meantime things will get worse. If you don't have a doctor on hand, you do first aid: stop the bleeding, splint the leg, give the Narcan. In her book on pastoral care, Barbara J. McClure wrote, “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” And neither are we alone in doing this. We have our heavenly Father, we have Jesus, we have the Spirit: the one and only God who is love. And we can do all things through the one who strengthens us. (Philippians 4:13) 

How is My Neighbor?

The scriptures referred to are Luke 10:25-37.

It's been a crappy couple of years, hasn't it? The pandemic, which is still not quite over, has killed more than 6 million people worldwide, 1/6 of those in the US alone. And of the 500 million who got it and survived nearly half—49%—are struggling with long Covid, which strongly resembles ME/CFS, 4 months after their “recovery.” Considering the million who died and more than 200 million who have long Covid that might explain all the people not coming back to work.

In addition, mass shootings are now a regular feature of the news, with an average of more than 1 each day. We've had over 300 in the first 6 months of this year so far. A mass shooting is defined as one in which 4 or more people die. Far more frequent are suicides by firearms which make up more than half of the 45,000 gun deaths in this country annually.

Meanwhile, California is on fire, the Colorado River which provides water to the southwestern US is drying up, the ice caps are melting, the oceans are rising and global warming is an undeniable fact.

My point is we are all suffering. And if we aren't at present, others are. The question is: how will we respond?

The original question in our gospel is: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” It's asked by an expert in the law, the Torah. And Jesus does something typical. He responds to the question with a question. In the gospels Jesus is asked 183 questions. He only answers 3. However, he asks 301 questions. Jesus obviously favors the Socratic method of teaching.

In this case Jesus asks, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” And since the person making the inquiry is an expert in that area, it's a fair question. And he makes a good answer: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

You will notice that unlike in Matthew and Mark, in Luke it is the lawyer who says this, not Jesus. There are 2 possible explanations for this. First, the idea that, out of the 613 commandments in the Torah, there must be one or more that are absolutely key was not a new one. Indeed, the first commandment given here is part of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), the Jewish confession of faith, said daily in their prayers and on every Sabbath in the synagogue. So it is not surprising that either Jesus or any other pious Jew would choose it as the primary commandment. And the second commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself from Leviticus 19:18, is not a startling choice either. In fact you can see the first 4 of the Ten Commandments as being ways of showing your love for God and the remaining 6 as ways to show your love for your neighbor. Indeed in Matthew 22:40, Jesus says that all of the Law and the prophets are dependent on these two commandments. That is, they are derived from them. Ultimately the whole Bible is concerned with how we act towards God and how we act towards other human beings.

Which brings us to the second possibility for the lawyer choosing these two commandments: he could have heard Jesus say it before and is merely repeating it to get Jesus to agree. Again, the lawyer could have come up with these commandments independently but his follow-up question to Jesus makes this sound like this was a set-up. After Jesus commends his answer, we are told that the man asks his next question, “And who is my neighbor?”, in order to justify himself. How?

You could interpret the word “neighbor” in a narrow way. It could mean your fellow countryman, or fellow religious believer or simply the person living next door to you. And that leaves you open to treat people outside that narrow definition of neighbor badly. The Nazis could justify themselves as being good to their fellow “Aryan” Germans. But since they didn't consider the Jews, or gypsies, or Slavs or a lot of other people as being human, much less neighbors, they could do whatever they wanted to them. We see this in racists and nationalists and even certain so-called “Christians” who are good to their own kind but not to other people. The lawyer was probably thinking that as long as he treated his fellow Jews well, he was in the clear. He deserved eternal life.

But there is also a narrow way of defining the right way to act towards others. Most of the Ten Commandments are negative: do not have other gods, do not make idols, do not misuse God's name, do not murder, do not have sex with someone other than your spouse, do not steal, do not give false testimony against your neighbor, do not put your desire on what your neighbor has. Aside from keeping the Sabbath and honoring your parents, everything else is about refraining from bad actions and intentions. And indeed when asked to summarize the law, the great rabbi Hillel said, “What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor. That is the entire Torah. The rest is commentary.” Notice that his version of the Golden Rule is also negative. It is akin to the part of the oath doctors and nurses take which goes “First, do no harm.” Which is a good start for any ethical system.

But if not followed up by positive commandments, it could lead to benign neglect. Or outright neglect. If you see a person suffering but you don't add to it by murdering him or stealing from him or doing him further harm, you could say that technically you did not violate the Ten Commandments. There isn't a specific obligation there to help him.

Except that is just how most people act. On You Tube, in a segment from the ABC show What Would You Do? they had stunt people fall and lie seemingly unconscious on the pavement. When it was an attractive well-dressed woman, people responded in seconds. When it was an apparently homeless guy, it took minutes before anyone even called 911. And when it was a homeless guy clutching a beer, 88 people just walked by.

Sadly in real life, it's often worse. A homeless man was attacked on a busy sidewalk and hit his head and it took 19 minutes for anyone to do something about it. And when an elderly woman rolled off her chair onto the floor in an ER waiting room, it took 45 minutes for nursing personnel— who were aware of her lying there—to go to help her. In both of those cases, it was too late. And of course we all saw what happened recently when police stood around outside a school for more than an hour rather than go after a gunman or rescue wounded and traumatized children. And the Supreme Court has previously ruled that police are under no legal obligation to help people. These cops did, however, arrest a mother who tried to enter the school to rescue her children. Once she talked police into uncuffing her, she jumped a fence and got her kids. But then her children were more than neighbors to her.

To combat this limited idea of who is our neighbor and what constitutes loving them, Jesus tells the parable of the good Samaritan. And rather than going into the reason as to why the priest and the Levite didn't help the man who was beaten and left for dead—which as we have seen was not at all out of the ordinary—let's look at the focus of the story: the man who helped.

First off, Jesus explodes the idea that your neighbor has to have any connection to you. The injured man is presumably a Jew like the priest and Levite. The Samaritan is not. He would be considered a half-breed heretic by Jesus' audience. In fact the lawyer will not even mention what he is when Jesus asks who was a neighbor to the victim. He simply says, “The one who showed him mercy.” Which, oddly enough, is more relevant. Being a neighbor has nothing to do with race or religion or any other relationship to the other person, or even how you feel about him. It has to do with how you act: with mercy.

Secondly, Jesus blows up the idea that loving is merely not being harmful to someone. Love means actively helping them. It means doing what you can to make them better. As the Paul McCartney song says, it's a short step from “Live and let live” to “Live and let die.” Studies show that, as damaging as abuse is to children, what does the most damage is neglect. Love is not a luxury but a need. It's not enough simply not to harm people. That's only the first step. To love someone is to make their well-being a top priority.

So what does the good Samaritan do to show his love for his neighbor? First he goes to him. He doesn't act as a bystander. He doesn't send thoughts and prayers. He makes a move. In first aid classes, they recognize that the hardest thing to get people to do is to get them involved. Once someone goes to the person in distress, others are more likely to join in. We were actually taught to go to the person having an apparent heart attack and then start pointing at bystanders and telling them, “You: call 911! You: do you know CPR? What about you?” Once you act, others will, too.

And, sure enough, the next thing the Samaritan does is give first aid. He cleans the wounds with oil and wine, the antiseptics of the day, and bandages them. Every person, and especially every Christian, should take first aid classes. They are offered for free by the Red Cross and others. I just took a refresher in Marathon offered by the Islamorada fire chief. As a nurse I need to get my first aid and CPR certification renewed and every time I do I learn something new that first responders have come up with. And it's come in handy, especially with the number of car wrecks and bicyclists hit by cars I've stopped to attend to here in the Keys. And I've never been alone in helping the injured. There are always off-duty cops and firefighters and nurses who stop and help.

There are other kinds of first aid, though. As I mentioned earlier, suicide is a major problem today. One person dies by suicide every 11 minutes and the number of people who think about it or attempt it is even higher. It is among the top 9 leading causes of death for people from ages 10 to 64. It is the second leading cause of death between the ages of 10 and 14 and between the ages of 25 and 34. It is higher than average for non-Hispanic Native Americans as well as for older white men. Veterans, people who live in rural areas and people in physically demanding jobs like construction and mining and emotionally demanding jobs like doctors and police officers have higher suicide rates. LGBTQ youth also are at a higher risk for suicide. And there is suicide first aid, ways of helping a person who is thinking of killing themselves. It consists of listening to and not arguing with them about their feelings but finding out if they have a plan and the means to kill themselves, and then getting them to agree to a safety plan that specifies who will do what and when in regards to getting them help. Again there are courses you can take. And you can find the steps to take online.

Next the Samaritan gets additional help by putting the man on his animal and taking him to an inn. Today we would call 911 and an ambulance would come and take him to a hospital. But that wasn't a possibility in 1^st century Judea. So after giving first aid, instead of saying, “That's all I can do for you,” the Samaritan remains pro-active. He takes the man to an inn and takes care of the injured man himself. He no doubt gets him water and something to eat. He makes him as comfortable as he can. He watches over him. Unlike what you see on TV or in movies, anyone who has gone unconscious, even for a few seconds, is not all right if they awaken. They could relapse and die from an intracranial bleed. They should go to the hospital. But without that option, the Samaritan watches the man overnight so he doesn't die on him.

The next day the Samaritan, who has to go, gives the innkeeper the equivalent of 2 days' wages and tells him to take care of the man. And he promises to pay him back if he spends more. The Samaritan takes the cost of helping the man recover upon himself. And most industrialized countries do make sure everyone gets healthcare. Unfortunately more than 20,000 people die each year in the US because they lack health insurance. That's an average of 1 death every 24 minutes. The death rate for the uninsured is 18.4%, nearly double the 9.6% death rate of the insured.

The Samaritan shows his love by actively doing what he can to help restore the well-being of a stranger in distress whom he merely came upon. He does specific practical things and he does them despite the cost to himself in time, effort and even money. He wasn't a doctor nor had he taken a first aid course. He did what he could with what he had. He is Jesus' example of what loving your neighbor looks like and what every Christian should do.

We have greater resources today. We have hospitals and ambulances and Trauma Star to whisk people away to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami. And I think that makes us complacent and unable to see what we still lack. The US spends nearly twice the percentage of its GDP on healthcare as the average country in the 35 member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. And yet the US comes in last in the top 11 high-income countries in health outcomes. We have the highest infant mortality rate and the lowest life expectancy at age 60. Our rate of preventable deaths is more than double that of Switzerland. You would think the richest country in the world, which is also the most religious country among wealthy nations, would do better.

Paul said that the “thorn in his flesh” that afflicted him was to keep him humble and to realize how dependent he was on God's strength. (2 Corinthians 12:7-9) And I think the healthy and well-off find it easy to ignore those who are suffering because they doing fine—at present. In that What Would You Do? segment, 88 people pass by what looks like a homeless man lying on the ground unconscious and clutching a beer. The 89^th person is Linda Hamilton, a black homeless woman walking with a crutch. She sees the prone man and stops and pleads for people to call 911. She picks up and throws away the beer can and calls the man “Billy,” personalizing him. And the 26^th person to come by after Linda stopped to help does respond to her pleas and call 911. It took a woman who knew what it was to suffer to show compassion to another person suffering.

C.S. Lewis said, “Pain insists on being listened to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Perhaps what we have been going through is our “thorn in the flesh.” Perhaps in the pains we have been suffering God is shouting, “LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR. THEY'RE HURTING TOO.” Are we listening? Are we really, finally going to love our neighbor as we do ourselves? How many times does Jesus need to ask the question?

For Leanne

There are people who draw attention to themselves. They are flashy or loud or do big things that can't be ignored. And because of that, folks are convinced that such people are more important than the rest. But there are lots of people who are none of those things but who keep things running or who otherwise make the world a better place. Leanne was not flamboyant or noisy or given to grandiose gestures. She was sweet and down to earth with a wry sense of humor. And she made the world a better place.

And while she was not one to make a spectacle of herself, she did have an eye for, well, not so much spectacle as beauty. She loved beauty and she tried to capture it in her art. She even saw beauty in dead trees. She painted live ones too, and landscapes. Several of us have her paintings.

And she sought beauty through travel. She went to Alaska with her parents. She went to Europe with her mother. She went to Mexico with her nephews. She went to New York with her daughter and her choir. She went to Australia by herself. To look at a big rock: Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, over 1000 feet high. And she saw in it the same raw beauty she saw in dead trees. And she painted it.

She was also fortunate to be one of those people who loved her job, not only as a librarian but as a storyteller. She loved going to conferences for storytellers. She loved sharing stories and sharing her love of books with children at the story hour and igniting their imaginations.

One day her little nephew was crying about an orangutan who was run over by a Volkswagen. At least in his imagination. She entered into his imagination and they expanded the story and gave his imaginary friend a proper burial.

She entered into the worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling. She read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy often. Its page count is roughly that of the Bible and she could read the whole saga in a weekend!

Stories are the main way that we humans make sense of the world. Stories give everything meaning and our actions purpose. And this is why we have problems when someone like Leanne endures suffering and tragedy without a final triumph.

12 years ago Leanne had a stroke in the middle of the night. She was not discovered till morning. Doctors operated on her brain and stopped a life-threatening bleed. Ultimately their efforts left her alive but unfortunately they did not leave her intact. She lost control of much of her body. Nevertheless gradually her brain healed to a greater degree than we had hoped and her personality asserted itself and her wry sense of humor returned. She couldn't do much of what she had previously but she was still Leanne.

She lived the rest of her life in nursing homes. Her family watched over her and helped her and visited her and took her out for holidays and special occasions. They mastered ordering and driving vans for the disabled and securing her in them and in her wheelchair and built a ramp for the house her daughter and son-in-law  and niece lived so she could be brought there. We all talked with her over the phone...when she didn't call us during work or in the middle of the night. Leanne retained her love of travel, planning trips for her and for her friend. She wanted to visit my wife and me in Florida and go fishing with her brother. The logistics were often unworkable but she never stopped dreaming of travel.

What happens to our unfulfilled dreams? We spend a lot of time and energy and creativity on them. Is it all for naught? Since science tells us that energy cannot be destroyed, what happens to the energy we expend in dreaming, planning and creating?

There is another story that Leanne used to give her life meaning and purpose. It is the story we find in that book that is just about as long as Lord of the Rings. It is the gospel. Leanne put her trust in the good news that our Creator loves his creation and love us his creatures. That he does not desire that our stories end in disease, disability and death. That he entered into his creation in the person of his Son to tell and show us his love and healing. He too suffered pain and death. But that was not the end of his story. He rose and promises to all who follow him that death is not the end of their story, either. As we read in Revelation, just as God resurrected his Son, he will resurrect his creation. Though we have taken the paradise God gave us and done our best to turn it into hell on earth, he will restore it and renew it and recreate it and repopulate it. He will make us into what he created us to be: his children reflecting the God whom we experience as our heavenly Father, who is the very idea of love, and his Son, the incarnation of that love and his Spirit, the one who instills that love in us. As we read, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more—nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain, for the former things have ceased to exist. And the one seated on the throne said, 'Look! I am making all things new!'” That's good news.

If Leanne's story ended for good a week ago, if there is no sequel, then this is an unjust world. If there is no afterlife and no God who is love, there is no justice and no hope in this universe. But if there is another chapter to her story, one of restoration and renewal and healing and triumph, then this is just the part of the story where Gandalf faces the Balrog and falls into the abyss. And we know that one day we will seem him again in splendor.

And I can't think of a better way to paint the picture of our hope than the way Tolkien's good friend C.S. Lewis, without whose encouragement we would not have the Lord of the Rings, brought his own epic The Narnia Chronicles to an end: “But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All of their life in this world and all of their adventures...had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

See you again one day, Leanne. Can't wait to see the new paintings and hear all your new stories. 

Freedom in the Spirit

The scriptures referred to are Galatians 5:1, 13-25.

There is a weird contradiction in the way movies see freedom and self-control. On the one hand, there are tons of comedies where an uptight person is encouraged by a more carefree person to break the rules and have fun. And this usually leads to them getting drunk or high, having sex with someone they just met, finding themselves in car chases, breaking the law and getting into hilarious trouble. Because these are comedies they never lead to the person having their life ruined or going to prison. In fact, they often come out of it a “better” person. It's the basis for most screwball comedies and especially teen comedies about a good kid who does their homework and is self-discipled. Think Risky Business or The To Do List or What's Up, Doc?

And then there are serious movies about people whose same bad decisions do ruin their lives and yet they just keep making the same mistakes. They have trouble with alcohol, drugs, relationships and the law. These movies about self-destructive characters get praise from critics and garner awards but obviously these dramas aren't as popular as the comedies. Probably because in these films lack of control has consequences. Think Leaving Las Vegas or Requiem for a Dream or Thirteen.

And then, ever so often, you get a movie about someone who is focused and very much in control of him or herself and triumphs because of that. Think Sense and Sensibility or The Pursuit of Happyness or Brittany Runs a Marathon. Or just about any sports film.

The first category of movies tells you to use your freedom to do whatever gives you pleasure. The second category warns you that doing things that way can cost you a lot, including your freedom because you can become a slave to your habits. The third category tells you to use what freedom and abilities you have to do the right thing and pursue a worthy goal. And the last two are closer to what Paul is saying in today's passage from Galatians.

Paul writes, “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery....For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence...” There have always been those people who root for Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. They don't see how this relates to a world in which people do whatever they please. Want to ingest something that make you feel good for a short time despite doing lasting damage to your brain and body? Go ahead. Want to have sex with someone you know you shouldn't? Why not? Want to use your business acumen, not to create and sell something useful, but to take over a successful business and extract all the money you can out of it until it's unsustainable, like hedge fund managers have done to Payless, Toys R Us, Sears and K-Mart? It's a free country. Want to take over another country, despite miring yourself in an unwinnable conflict and possibly triggering World War 3? Take your shot.

To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum's character in the first Jurassic Park movie, we get so preoccupied with whether or not we can do something, we don't stop to ask if we should do it. Not thinking things through and considering the consequences is what the Bible calls folly. Today we might call it stupidity. And it has nothing to do with knowledge or intelligence. You don't have to have a college degree to be wise. And lots of smart people do stupid things, things that when they come to light, as they always do, prompt us to ask “What were they thinking?” The answer is “They weren't.”

People do what's wrong—things that harm themselves or others and consequently harm their relationships, including their relationship with God—for one of three reasons. If they truly didn't know any better, we call that ignorance. And the solution is for them to simply learn. All children start out ignorant and that's why they go to school and, one hopes, Sunday school.

If the person should have known better than to do something harmful—because they are not a child and ought to understand how things work—that's stupidity. Hopefully they will realize their error and learn to think first and consider the damage they can do before acting again.

If someone does know better, if they know they will cause harm by what they do, but do it anyway, that's just evil. It's also evil if they see a situation that is bad or going bad but refuse to help. Jesus condemns both sins of commission and sins of omission. So does human law in many cases. If a doctor or nurse sees evidence of child abuse or elder abuse and doesn't report it, that is also a crime. As someone pointed out, one way evil triumphs is when good people do nothing to stop it. When Hitler began his policy of killing the physically and mentally handicapped, the outcry of the German people caused him to stop. Imagine what might have happened if they had protested as vigorously at the killing of Jews, Slavs, Jehovah's Witnesses, gays, Poles, and Catholic and Protestant clergy who could not reconcile Christianity and Nazism! But they didn't. And 6 million Jews and 5 to 7 million non-Jews were exterminated in the camps.

One of the most chaotic periods in the history of Israel was the the time of the judges. Twice we are told “In those days Israel had no king. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6; 21:25) In other words, nobody was following God's law, just what they considered right. As Paul points out, in God's law, specifically in Leviticus 19:18, God's people were commanded to love their neighbors as they did themselves. In fact, in that one chapter from Leviticus alone, they were told to make sure the poor could eat, told not to steal or defraud each other, not to mistreat the disabled or the elderly, not to pervert justice in the courts, not to do anything that endangers others, not to take revenge and they are told to love the immigrant as themselves. (Leviticus 19:9-18, 32-35) These seem like common sense but if people weren't doing otherwise, God wouldn't have made these laws. The chapter before it was devoted to prohibiting incest and spelling out precisely what constituted it, including variations. There are also ritual laws and unfortunately some people put more weight on those matters than the other laws. It's much easier to fuss about diet and dress than to treat others lovingly. Jesus excoriated the Pharisees for being so concerned with such minutiae. He said, “...you neglect what is more important in the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness!” (Matthew 23:23)

Paul looks at what happens when people merely follow the flesh, ie, unredeemed human nature. “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, brutal lack of restraint, idolatry, drug-induced spells, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, divisions, factions, instances of envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (my translation) We see these things today and we even see them justified. Folks excuse them in celebrities, They excuse them in leaders, both religious and political. And so people think that sexual immorality, lack of restraint, outbursts of anger, drug use, magical thinking and factionalism are all right for them too. Everyone does what seems right in their own eyes. Which does not lead to the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is key. In Judges, we are told there was no king in Israel and so there was lawlessness in the land. But Paul, a zealous Pharisee, knows that the law is not sufficient. It can tell you what's wrong but it can't make you do what's right. But in Greek the word for kingdom means not merely a physical place where a king is but the reign or rule of a king. Unlike where humans reign, God's reign is internal. In Jeremiah God says of his new covenant, “I will put my law in their minds and write it in their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33) In Ezekiel he says, “I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:27) As Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21) God is to reign in our lives. If he is truly rules our hearts and minds, the things Paul warns us of will not come to dominate us.

That's why Paul says we are to live by the Spirit. Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home in him.” (John 14:23) This takes place in the form of the Holy Spirit. On the night he was betrayed, Jesus said of the Spirit, “you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:17) At Pentecost, the Spirit entered all who follow Jesus as king.

And just as the reign of someone ruled by his fallen human nature produces bad qualities, the reign of the Spirit of Christ within us produces a different set of qualities. You've heard the list of the fruit of the Spirit many times. But according to the NET Bible there are 2 ways of punctuating this sentence. The Greek has no punctuation. So when you translate verses 22 and 23, you can either put a comma after the word “love” making it the first in a list of qualities. Or you can put a colon. In other words the fruit of the Spirit is love. The words that follow describe that divine love. And that makes sense. When you love someone, you find joy in them. You wish them peace, which in the Bible means not just the absence of conflict but total well-being. You are patient when dealing with them. You treat them with kindness. You are generous with them. You are faithful and reliable. You are gentle with them. You exhibit self-control for their sake as well as yours.

Now some of these qualities might come easily to you but not all. For these qualities to take root and grow in us and in our lives we need God's Spirit reigning in our heart. That's why Paul contrasts it with those who let their own fallen human nature rule their lives. Paul says, “...those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” By this he doesn't mean that we are no longer ourselves. He's talking about that part of ourselves that was slave to the strong emotions and cravings which drive us away from spiritually healthy living. It is the person whom God created us to be who is raised with Jesus.

You'll notice that Paul uses the term slavery and he uses it in a paradoxical way. He begins by telling us not to submit to the yoke of slavery but then says “through love become slaves to one another.” What does he mean?

Elsewhere Paul says we were redeemed by Christ. (Galatians 3:13) “Redeem” literally means to “buy back.” It was used of a person who would buy back a kinsman sold into debt slavery. (Leviticus 25:25) God uses it to describe what he did when he liberated the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. (Exodus 6:6) The Israelites now belonged to God. And with his blood, Jesus redeemed us. (Revelations 5:9) We now belong to him.

Some people don't like using the word or the idea of slavery today. But in a world where slaves made up as much as 20% of the population, and up to 40% of those living in Rome and in Greece, it was a familiar part of life. And Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, everyone who practices sin is a slave of sin.” (John 8:34) How else do we explain people who keep doing the same harmful things over and over again? No one who gives into an impulse intends to become a slave to a destructive habit. On the other hand, there are good habits one should develop. I know people who were raised by parents who were focused on their children having regular routines and chores. At the time their kids thought their folks were too strict, especially compared to the laid-back parents of their friends. But these habit became part of them. Later, as adults, they were grateful for the self-discipline that was instilled in them and which helped lead them to success in life.

We often define freedom as freedom from things we don't like, such as being told what to do. That's every kid's complaint. Still we tell our children to brush their teeth, wash their hands, share, not fight with other kids, do their homework and all manner of onerous tasks. But we do it so that they will be free to do good things. Not brushing your teeth leads to tooth loss and gum disease, which can lead to heart disease. Not washing your hands can lead to the spread of disease. People with compromised health miss out on things healthy people are free to do. In the same way, not learning to share or get along with others will limit your chances of a happy life. Not learning to do things that are necessary but which you'd rather not do, like homework, will limit your ability to be a success in any field of endeavor.

True freedom is being free to do things that you couldn't otherwise. When Jesus healed people, he not only freed them from disease and disability, he freed them to live happier and better lives and to be able to participate in the life of the community.

But freedom without a guiding principle is chaos. Put a toddler in a room full of every kind of toy and the room will end up a mess as they first pull out one toy and then another and then get distracted by a third. Some people approach life that way. But not everything out there is good for you (1 Corinthians 6:12) and without a guide and a purpose, people pick up all kinds of unhealthy things, and drift into unhealthy habits of thinking and acting. They eventually accomplish nothing more than accumulated regrets over wasted opportunities and grief over the suffering they've caused themselves and others. They often say, “I wish someone had told me to do this or not to do that.” It seems we do need to be told, after all.

As Bob Dylan sang, you gotta serve somebody. It can be the self-destructive appetites and passions within us that can come to rule our lives. Or it can be the life-giving and healing Spirit of God, available to us when we put all our trust in Jesus. We can live for ourselves, only caring about others insofar as they delight us or benefit us, or we can live for Jesus, serving him by serving others, all of whom are either our brothers and sisters in Christ or our potential brothers and sisters in Christ.

Living in the Spirit can free you from something else: being in a rut. Because following the Spirit of Jesus is an adventure. The world becomes a series of opportunities to serve Jesus. Does someone need help? What kind? Do they need food or shelter or therapy or just someone to listen? Does their need fall within my gifts and abilities to fulfill or should I connect them with someone who is better able to help? We all have gifts: creating art or building or writing or singing or organizing or healing or generating ideas or analyzing and solving problems or encouraging people. If we let Jesus rule our hearts and minds, we will find ways to use them. The world will be full of opportunities to do good, to plant seeds in people's minds and hearts, to expand the kingdom of the God who is love, and all the joy, peace, and goodness that goes with serving his Spirit. 

Minds and Brains

The scriptures referred to are 1 Kings 19:1-15a, Psalms 42-43, and Luke 8:26-39.

Terry Bisson wrote a short story in which 2 aliens discuss the amazing findings of their UFO abductions and probes of human beings. As one alien puts it, “They're made out of meat!” The other alien simply cannot understand how meat made machines and the radio signals they've picked up. He doubts we have brains. The first says, “Oh, there is a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat.”

The other alien says, “So...what does the thinking?”

“You're not understanding, are you? The brain does the thinking. The meat.”

“Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!”

“Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal!”

The idea so disturbs them that they decide to not answer the radio signals from earth and to let the humans think that the rest of the universe is devoid of life.

It's hilarious and not very long. I reposted it to my Facebook page. And while it is a gross simplification, even from an anatomical standpoint—hello, we have bones, too—it does have a point. While we are more than just meat, we are not merely minds. We have physical bodies and physical brains. People may argue over whether our minds are merely the byproduct of our brains or inhabitants of them, but it is undeniable that each affects the other. Damage to or diseases of the brain can affect our thinking and moods. Psychoactive drugs physically affect the brain and change the way a person thinks and feels. But so do immaterial things like thoughts and feelings. If I tell you something you didn't previously know, without physically touching your head, I will cause neurons in your brain to make a connection. If it is vivid or surprising enough, I will have caused your brain to physically encode it as a strong memory. And if I tell you someone you loved died, even over a phone, I will nevertheless have activated the limbic system deep within your brain, which controls your emotions and behavior. In our brain the physical and the nonphysical meet and interact with each other.

And they can make lasting changes. As I said a few weeks ago the death of his first wife changed George Carlin's comedy and made it very dark and pessimistic. I think it was only the fact that he married again a year later that kept him alive. When a person has been married for decades and their spouse dies, the survivor has a 66% increased risk of death in the first 3 months. After that he still has a 15% increased chance of dying. By all accounts Carlin's second marriage was very happy. But when he stepped onstage to make people laugh, his mind still went to very dark places.

In our passage from 1 Kings we can see that the prophet Elijah was very depressed. He asked God to let him die. And while the death threat he got from Queen Jezebel might have factored into that, he had just triumphed over the prophets of Baal and announced the end of the drought in the land. He should feel exhilarated. But he is not. Perhaps he is exhausted. In response to Jezebel having the Lord's prophets killed, Elijah just had the prophets of Baal executed in accordance with the laws of Moses. (Deuteronomy 17:2-7) But it was a bloody business. It had to have affected him. He also felt isolated. He said he was the only prophet of Yahweh left. Had he forgotten that Obadiah told him he had hidden 100 other prophets in caves? (1 Kings 18:13) Clearly, his perceptions and memory were affected.

Depression can interfere with memory and thinking. And research has revealed a connection between systemic inflammation and depression. While depression is not merely an inflammatory disease, inflammation is a factor and doctors have found giving anti-inflammatory drugs alongside antidepressants can lead to better outcomes. Among the causes of inflammation is emotional trauma. Stress causes a physical response in the body. Short-term stress can be helpful but long-term stress can cause damage to the brain. It can even trigger a chronic reaction from the immune system.

Why am I going on about this? Because many people still have erroneous and even harmful ideas about mental health issues. They say they are all in your head. And they are right, but not in the way they think they are. Thanks to fMRIs and PET scans, we can see how the brain is physically changed. There are visible differences in the brains of people with major depression or with PTSD or with bipolar disease or with anorexia or with schizophrenia. If the brain has functional or structural problems, it can't operate as it ought. Indeed it looks like mental disorders are brain disorders. What we think of as a mental illness might just be the symptoms of a brain that isn't functioning normally.

But as we said, nonphysical things can affect the brain. You pile enough problems on someone and they can get depressed. Carlin lost his wife and had a history of at least 3 major heart attacks and continuing heart disease. That would depress anyone. Research has found that people who had 4 or more major adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were at a higher risk of both mental and physical health issues, as well as addiction and risky behaviors. Psychological trauma and stress affect the developing brains of children. Again the physical and nonphysical are intertwined in their effects on people.

All of which means that even believers in God can have mental health issues. It is not a sin to feel depressed nor is it necessarily the result of sin. Besides the experience of Elijah, we can look at the 2 psalms we read. Psalms 42 and 43 seem to be part of the same poem. The psalmist describes how he keeps crying, how his soul feels heavy, how his strength is gone and how he wonders where God is. He understands that this will pass and that he will be able to give thanks to God and worship him again some day. But this is not that day. And so he keeps reminding himself to put his trust in God.

It's almost as if he is doing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on himself. He is acknowledging and naming his feelings but he is not falling into the trap of thinking they are absolute or will last forever. Instead he is countering them by reminding himself that the Lord is forever and that he is good and just.

Elijah, however, was magnifying his awful feelings. His situation was not hopeless, nor was he alone in his stand for the true God. Were our lectionary passage not inexplicably cut short, we would read that God revealed to Elijah that he was far from alone: there were 7000 people left in Israel who had not worshiped Baal. (1 Kings 19:18)

Often we let our negative mood exaggerate the extent of our situation. It's not true that everyone hates us; it's just that one person has a problem with us and it may be that he really has a problem with himself. We are not totally worthless; we may have trouble with one issue but we have other skills and strengths; no one is perfect. Things are not hopeless; they may be bad at present but they need not stay that way forever. Everything is not ruined; one or two things might have gone wrong but they may very well be correctable. We need to do a reality check and not view everything as a catastrophe.

If you close one eye and hold a quarter close enough to the other you can block out your ability to see the rest of the world. Pull back from the problem, open both eyes and get a sense of perspective and proportion. Don't assume that obstacles are permanent or immovable. Don't assume there is only one path to your goal. Don't assume that because you can't accomplish something the exact way you wish to do it that it can't be done at all. All things change and there are some things you can change including your mind.

In Elijah's case, he needed basics like food and drink and a good sleep. Then he needed something to do. So he climbed the mountain of God and took up residence in a cave. God showed him a great wind and an earthquake and a fire. And while God caused them, they are not him. But they gave Elijah a demonstration of God's power and a sense of proportion. Are his problems greater than God's power to deal with them?

Then there follows the sound of a soft whisper (a better translation of the Hebrew). When he hears it, Elijah moves to the mouth of the cave. God asks him what he is doing here and Elijah tells him what is on his mind and on his heart. Then, in addition to the news of the 7000 Israelites still loyal to God, the Lord gives Elijah some tasks to do. One of his tasks is to find and anoint Elisha who will be his successor. Elijah's term as God's chief prophet in Israel is almost over. God is letting Elijah retire from his labors for him.

Sometimes a mental illness can't be dealt with so easily. In our gospel Jesus encounters a man who is living in the local graveyard, naked. His people cannot control him. When he has an episode, he can break his bonds and run off into the wild. Mark's account tells us that the man would cry out night and day and cut himself with stones. (Mark 5:5) He is literally battling his demons. When he sees Jesus, he knows who he is and asks that Jesus not torment him. Exorcising the man feels like torture to the entity within him. Jesus asks the man his name and the identity in control answers “Legion.” A legion was a division of the Roman army consisting of 6000 infantry plus cavalry. This man has been overwhelmed by the large number of evil voices at war within him.

He is beyond any talking cure. His problem is not a matter of shifting his perspective because the instrument through which he perceives the world and himself is totally compromised. Today we might classify him as psychotic. So Jesus throws out the identities that are tormenting the man. And when people from the city and countryside come, they find the man, “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.”

And they are freaked out—by the cure, not the disease. It may be that they think the cure was too costly to their local economy. Mark tells us the number of pigs drowned was about 2000. (Mark 5:13) That's a lot of pork. The question is whether saving a person is more important than pigs. We know what the answer is for many people. One reason we don't have adequate mental health care today is this swinish inversion of priorities, valuing wealth more than health. Jesus puts the man before money.

In Matthew 4:23 we read, “Jesus went throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of diseases and sickness among the people.” It gets repeated in practically the same words in Matthew 9:35. Because it is an excellent summary of Jesus' ministry: teaching, preaching and healing. Why have we largely dropped one third of Christ's mission? Why do people, including Christians, not show as much compassion for those whose physical illnesses are manifested in mental symptoms as they do for those whose afflictions are more obviously physical? And why would we ever equate any kind of illness with sin or a lack of faith? When his disciples saw a disabled man they asked, “Rabbi, who committed the sin that caused this man to be born blind, this man or his parents?” Jesus replied, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but he was born blind so that the acts of God may be revealed through what happens to him.” (John 9:2-3) Jesus' response to people suffering was not to assign blame but to help the person. And so should we.

According to the World Health Organization, there has been a 13% increase in mental health conditions all over the globe. Just under 20% of Americans have experienced a mental illness, around 50 million people. More than half do not receive treatment. The percentage of adults expressing serious thoughts of suicide has increased every year since 2012. It now stands at 4.5% of adults. 2/3s of those who die by suicide are men, with the highest rate among middle-aged white men. More than half are by firearms and 1/3 are found to have alcohol in their system. Triggers to suicide tend to be stressful life events, especially rejection, divorce, a financial crisis or another life transition or loss.

According to the American Association for Suicide Prevention, there are 5 main factors that can protect people from killing themselves. They are: access to mental health care and being proactive about mental health; feeling connected to family and community support; problem-solving and coping skills; limited access to lethal means; and cultural and religious beliefs that encourage connecting and help-seeking, that discourage suicidal behavior, and create a strong sense of purpose or self-esteem.

We Christians can help. We can be aware of when people are facing extremely stressful times in their lives. We can give support, both practical and emotional. We can listen. We can encourage the person to seek help by calling the new national suicide helpline, which is 988. We can remove lethal means from their home, keeping them or giving them to a friend for safekeeping until the suicidal person is healthy. And we can remind the person that they are inherently valuable, because they are created in God's image, loved by God, and redeemed by Jesus. We can help them find a purpose in life using the gifts and skills God has given them. Often people find helping others helps them.

Health is never a permanent state. We all get sick or injured from time to time. Sometimes the injury or illness is not visible. That doesn't make it less real. And people cannot just snap out of it anymore than they can snap out of a broken leg. Healing takes treatment and time. And just as I have a permanent limp from my physical trauma, people can retain scars and vulnerabilities from psychological trauma. Paul prayed 3 times for God to remove what he called his “thorn in the flesh.” But he learned to accept it humbly, realizing God could work through him nevertheless. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

Jesus made people better, not just spiritually but physically and psychologically. By healing lepers, the physically handicapped, and those possessed, he also overcame the barriers that kept them from being accepted as part of the community. We, like he, must act to overcome the stigma that attaches to the mentally ill and which often keeps people from seeking help. I think it helps to understand that the root of the problem may not be with a person's mind—the software—so much as their brain—the hardware running it. We all have our health issues. So like Paul, let us be humble and like Jesus, let us be compassionate towards all who suffer. And like the psalmist, let's put our trust in God. For one day we will receive the ultimate update—our software debugged and in very best hardware—when Jesus raises us up whole and healthy, with a head full of his wisdom and a heart full of his love. In that promise we find our hope.

Incomprehensible

The scriptures referred to are Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31, Psalm 8, Romans 5:1-5, and John 16:12-15.

Do you understand quantum physics? I am fascinated by the subject and I've read many articles about it but I cannot say I comprehend it. What about calculus? While I did really well in algebra and especially geometry, when I got to calculus I almost flunked. There is something humbling about knowing that your understanding has limits. And there are scientists who point out that we might never understand some things about the universe. That is, we might get to a point where we discover things that our brains simply cannot comprehend. For scientists, the explanation is that our brains did not evolve to do science. Our brains are designed to help us survive. So they help us determine whether or not we should eat something, or whether we should fight or flee or befriend or mate with someone. They help us with finding or making shelter, making tools, keeping our offspring alive, and cooperating with others in a group. The fact that we can also analyze stars and subatomic particles is remarkable. But we are finite and scientists think there will come a point at which we will encounter things that our brains cannot process. On top of that, mathematician Kurt Godel proved that all mathematical systems are incomplete, and that means so are the hard sciences that depend on them. Thus science can never discover all truths.

And yet when it comes to God, many people think the creator of this complex reality should be easy to grasp. In particular, I have met people who not only have problems understanding the Trinity but seem to be offended by the doctrine. They regard it as an unnecessary complication invented by theologians. But really the Trinity is not so much an explanation of God's nature as a name for the paradox we encounter in God.

The earliest Christians were all monotheistic Jews. Unlike the Greeks, Romans and just about every other culture, they believed in one God, full stop. He created the world and everything in it; he made the covenant with Abraham; he liberated the Israelites from slavery in Egypt; he gave them the law, he gave them a land and he gave them a kingdom under David and his descendants. God alone was to be worshiped.

But then the disciples spent 3 ½ years living with, traveling with, working with, listening to and observing Jesus. They concluded rightly that he was the Messiah, God's anointed prophet, priest and king. But then he got executed. In the words of the two disciples going to Emmaus, “...we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:21) Notice that they use the past tense. They never anticipated that God would allow his Messiah to die at the hands of his enemies, especially when he hadn't even established a kingdom of God.

But then Jesus rose from the dead. Before his crucifixion, Jesus had demonstrated mastery over weather, water, wine, demons, disease, and disability. But now he showed himself to be triumphant over death as well. The disciples had to rethink who Jesus was: not just a man used by God but God become man.

Among the things that influenced this were passages in the Hebrew Bible such as today's reading from Proverbs. Wisdom is personified and depicted as acting alongside God in creating the world. (Proverbs 8:30) The passage is poetic but it is the Word of God and there is truth in its concept of an aspect of God existing with God and working with God. And indeed Paul writes, “But to those who are called, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:24, emphasis mine) In the same vein, John uses the Greek and Jewish philosophical concept of the logos, the reason that underpins all creation, to start his gospel. “In the beginning was the Word (logos), and the Word was with God and the Word was God...Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.” (John 1:1, 14) John ties the Genesis account of God creating the world by simply speaking with the idea that Jesus is the Word or expression of God. And Hebrews puts it this way: “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.” (Hebrews 1:1-3) Just as an honest person's word reveals who he is, so Jesus Christ, God's Incarnate Word, reveals who God is.

OK, but how did Jews go from believing in God and the Son of God to adding the Holy Spirit to the Godhead? The Spirit of God is spoken of in the very first chapter of the first book in the Bible. Genesis starts with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Genesis 1:1-2) So the Spirit is also shown as participating in creation. In fact the Spirit can be seen as God's power in action.

The Spirit also empowers people to do what God wants. The first individual of whom this is said is Joseph. Pharaoh describes him as “one in whom the Spirit of God is present.” (Genesis 41:38) Joseph's spiritually granted gift is interpreting dreams. In Exodus God fills the artisans, the men who are to build the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant, with his Spirit. (Exodus 31:1-11) When Moses chooses 70 elders to shoulder the burden of administration with him, we are told, “And the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to them, and he took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but did not do so again.” (Numbers 11:25) This starts the tradition of the Spirit anointing leaders and kings of God's people as well as prophets. The Holy Spirit is not a mindless force but acts for God and speaks for God through those whom he calls.

And this brings us to the early church. As we read last week in Acts, what was remarkable was the Spirit being poured out on, not just the apostles, but all the believers. In the previous chapter we are told that the body of believers at that time included not just the Twelve but also “the women, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers...a gathering of about 120 people...” (Acts 1:14-15) Which makes sense since there is a list of more than 16 groups of people hearing the gospel in their own language. (Acts 2:8-11) Were the Spirit only given to the Twelve they'd have to speak two languages at once. But there were ten dozen Christians preaching the gospel in ways that everyone present could understand.

The point is that the Spirit is no longer given just to leaders but to all who come to Jesus. In fact we see a phenomenon in Acts where when a new group accepts Jesus they speak in tongues. We see it when Peter is sent to preach to a family of Gentiles (Acts 10:46) and when Paul baptizes a group in Ephesus who had previously only received the baptism of John. (Acts 19:6) These may have been one-time manifestations, as with the 70 elders, because the only place where we hear of people continuing to speak in tongues is in 1 Corinthians.

But the Spirit does not just produce miraculous signs. In the lives of those who are in Christ the Spirit produces qualities Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) Because what the Spirit is ultimately doing is making us more Christlike. The 8^th chapter of Romans is devoted to all the ways in which the Spirit works in Christians to conform them to the image of the Son of God.

And so that was the third way that the early Christians experienced God: as the Holy Spirit, God within us. So they knew God as creator, and as the crucified and risen Jesus, and as the Spirit who was transforming them and equipping them to become the children of God. And yet they remained monotheists. They affirmed that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God, but there is only one God. How does that work?

For the first three hundred years Christians tried to come up with ways to explain it. Some of these ideas were rejected but what the church decided on was not really an explanation of how God is three persons and yet one God. What they decided on was to preserve the paradox of the reality they experienced. And they called this paradox the Trinity: one God in three persons acting always in total unity of thought, will and love.

Science occasionally has to accept paradoxes, especially in quantum physics, which concerns the basic building blocks of reality. For instance, physicists could not decide if light was a particle or a wave. When they did experiments to determine if light was a particle, it indeed functioned like a particle. But when they did experiments to see if light was a wave, it functioned like a wave. It defied their neat categories and labels. So they finally accepted that it was both. What was pertinent was how you approached it.

And we can do the same with the Triune God. We can approach God as the Creator who made everything and is ultimately in charge. We can approach God as Jesus, the one who understands what it is to live and die as one of us but who also triumphs over sin and the sorrows that afflict us, including death. We can approach God as the Spirit within us who gives us spiritual gifts and strength and encouragement and leads us to the truth.

You don't need to understand the internal combustion engine to drive a car. You don't need to understand your smartphone to use its many functions. Heck, scientists don't even understand what consciousness is. How do 3 pounds of gelatinous fat, firing sparks of low level electricity, give rise to intelligence and personality and a sense of being an individual self? We don't know. But we use our brains nevertheless. So why do we feel we must or even can understand the exact nature of God? As someone said, a god small enough for your brain to fully comprehend would not be big enough to handle your problems.

I experience God the Creator every time I look at the night sky, or read about the human body, or watch a documentary on the marvelous ways nature works. I experience God the Son when I face problems in my life, knowing Jesus did as well, or when I am on the verge of losing hope, knowing he had a moment when he felt abandoned by God, or when I again fail to live up to his commandments, knowing he forgave the sins of all who came and asked for healing and help, or when I remember how dark it was in his tomb before the stone was rolled away and he came out into the light of Easter morning bringing his eternal life to all who believe. I experience God the Spirit when a thought or insight comes to me from I know not where, or when I suddenly find the words to defend the faith, or to impart a word of comfort or wisdom to someone who comes to me for help, or when I am at my lowest and find a strength that was not there before.

The real mystery is, as the Psalmist asks, “What is mankind, that you should notice them? What is humanity, that you should care for them?” (Psalm 8:4) Why does the God who is greater than our grandest conceptions of him spare any thought for us? Why did he reveal his Word to us? Why did he send his Son to save us? Why does he send his Spirit to transform us? The answer to all these puzzling questions is the biggest mystery of all: his divine love. And the only proper response to God's incomprehensible and gracious love is “Thank you!”

Seen and Unseen

The scriptures referred to are Acts 2:1-21, Romans 8:4-17, and John 14:8-27.

Humans have always believed in spirit. We have always believed in the reality of the unseen. We have always known there is more to this world than that which can be detected by our senses alone. Neanderthals did not just leave their dead behind but buried them with local flowers and flint tools that represented hours of hard work, things that were not only unnecessary to the corpse but which were resources the tribe could have used. Why? To accompany the unseen part of the dead person—his intelligence, wisdom, and personality, that which made him an individual—into an unseen habitat.

Some people have extended the idea of spirit to everything, some have limited it to every living thing, and some have limited it to humans. The idea that we and the people we interact with are merely bodies, the idea that we are nothing more than our sex, hair color, skin color, body shape, organs, and chemicals, is foreign to us. Tell an atheist his arguments against the existence of God are just the side effects of having a complex brain and do not represent anything more valid about reality than his dreams and he will suddenly make a case for the existence of an infallible superior intelligence: his. We all believe there is more to humans than meets the eye. And that affects what we do.

Other animals are motivated by their needs and fears. We are, too, but in addition we are motivated by the unseen. Like the desire not merely to belong but to be acknowledged as valuable. Or the desire to learn about things and create things, like art, that have no apparent survival value. Stephen Fry pointed out that we are the only animals who display more than a passing curiosity about other animals. A gorilla doesn't care if the world contains kangaroos. We send film crews and David Attenborough at great expense to Australia to study and video everything about them and report back to us on PBS.

We also love to communicate. Other animals may sing mating songs and make warning cries and purr with pleasure. We communicate stories and ideas. We teach, not merely by doing, but explaining in great detail things that, again, have no immediate survival value. We tell jokes that depend on mentally shifting another person's perspective on something just to make them laugh. Some people make their living doing this.

We preach. Not merely in churches but in editorials and in articles and in books and in You Tube videos. We tell people they need to improve how they think, speak and act in accordance with whatever our ideology is, whether spiritual or secular. We seek to motivate people to do things that do not always benefit them personally but are for the good of humanity or of other species or of the ecosystem. In certain circumstances, we feel an idea, an immaterial thought, is worth losing your physical life for.

The first followers of Jesus, all Jews, believed in God, of course. It is safe to say that they initially believed Jesus was a human being who was anointed by God's Spirit to act as the promised Messiah. After he rose from the dead, they had to rethink who Jesus was. They concluded he not only spoke for and acted for God but that he was in some sense God in the flesh. When he ascended, they began to experience God in yet another way as God's Holy Spirit within them. They found themselves saying and doing things they would never have believed they could. Jesus had promised them the Spirit but they did not expect what happened on Pentecost.

In our passage from Acts, the main thing the Spirit does is communicate. He communicates to everyone within earshot of the disciples, and in the language of everyone who can hear them. And the Spirit communicates not merely facts but a different interpretation of them. Peter ties the manifestation of the Spirit to a prophesy in the Old Testament. Then he goes on to offer a radically different interpretation of the ministry and recent execution of Jesus. This is the gospel, the idea that what God has done in Jesus and is doing with his Spirit is good news for those who hear and respond.

Though not a joke, the Spirit causes a shift in how things are perceived. Jesus was a popular preacher and healer who was executed by the Romans at the behest of the religious establishment. And that ended the popular idea that he was the Messiah. His death ended it for the disciples too...until his resurrection, which brought the idea that he was the Messiah back to life as well. But the crowd at Pentecost probably did not hear about it. They were Jews from the Diaspora, the ones living outside of Judea from all over the Roman Empire. Some have heard about Jesus, as Peter indicates, (Acts: 2:22) and they may have heard of his death. But Peter tells them that Jesus has risen, and he and the others are witnesses to that. Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of God and has poured out the Spirit on the believers. The evidence of the disciples speaking in various tongues convinces 3000 of the listeners to get baptized.

You may remember that Michael Grant said that as a historian he can't attest to the reality of the resurrection but without it he can't explain the persistence and spread of Christianity after Jesus' death. Certainly that affected the first Christians, who actually interacted with the risen Jesus. But it is the Spirit who worked in the hearts of those hearing the gospel and convinced them of the disciples' testimony.

In his long address on the night he was betrayed, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “the Spirit of truth” 3 times. Because, he says, “he will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:13) But, if we may quote Pilate's cynical reply to Jesus, “What is truth?”

A strictly scientific look at truth is one that deals only with what can be observed, measured and quantified. That's why, when studying the effects of religion on people, scientists go by how often one attends worship. They can't measure one's faith but they can measure attendance. And that's why, when they find that people who attend worship weekly have lower blood pressure, lower mortality rates, a reduced risk of diabetes and infectious disease, a lower risk of depression and suicide, a greater sense of hope and of a purpose in life, they tend to attribute it to the social support of the church, not to God. Because they can't observe the Spirit of God or quantify his power.

But is the only truth in life that which can be measured? You can look at some couples and tell they are in love. Can you reduce it to data and a spreadsheet? You can tell a really funny comedian from one who is not. But how do you quantify that? You can agree that we should treat others the same way we wish to be treated. But can you test that in an objective, measurable experiment? Here's another truth: science can tell you that some animals eat their young. It cannot tell you why humans shouldn't. That falls outside its domain.

You can't measure all truths, especially spiritual and ethical ones, using the scientific method any more than you can evaluate the truth of a love poem using a microscope. Shakespeare once did a sonnet tongue in cheek, making fun of the poetic language of love. Being as objective as possible, he wrote, “My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;/Coral is far more red, than her lips red:/If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;/If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head./I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,/But no such roses see I in her cheeks;/And in some perfumes is there more delight/Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks./I love to hear her speak, yet well I know/That music hath a far more pleasing sound:/I grant I never saw a goddess go,—/My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:/And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,/As any she belied with false compare.” Everything he says in the first dozen lines is factually true, but doesn't capture the truth of his love. And if all his sonnets were written in this manner, they would not have been treasured for 400 years.

By the same token, people need to stop treating the Bible as a science textbook. It was not written to reveal the physical workings of creation but the inner workings of the human heart, especially in relationship with our Creator. It is not interested in questions of “how” when it comes to creation but questions of why we are here and who we are and in which direction should we be going. It's not focused on achieving worldly success but on getting closer to God. It's not about scientific knowledge but spiritual wisdom.

The Holy Spirit is given to us to guide us into the truth of the God who is love and who is revealed in the teachings, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But that is not all the Spirit does. He makes us children of God, as our passage from Romans says.

And in our gospel passage Jesus gives the Spirit another title, which packs a lot into one word. The Greek word is parakletos, which is translated in the NRSV as “Advocate.” It has also been translated “comforter,” “counselor,” “intercessor” and “helper.” That's because it encapsulates all of those functions. It literally means “one who is called in” with the understanding that the person was called in to give aid or assistance. Thus it could be used in the legal world of someone who is called in as a character or defense witness or to plead one's case before another. This is why it is often rendered “advocate” or “intercessor.” And an attorney is still addressed as “counselor.”

But the verb form of the word was used to mean “to exhort or to urge” others. This was used of someone who rallied the troops about to go into battle. This person was to instill courage into them and that was the sense of the word “comforter” at the time of the King James translation. It comes from com fortis, the Latin for “with courage.” A modern form would be “encourager.”

All of this explains why some translations simply go with “helper.” The Spirit is called in by God to assist us with whatever help we need—with the truth, with a defense, with advocacy, with encouragement. The Spirit stands by us.

There is more that the Spirit does and we will touch on that next week. But here I want to emphasize the Spirit's role in giving people the words they need to communicate the spiritual truths that otherwise one might never guess about our existence. This revealed truth is essential because the hand of God in our lives is not always obvious. As we said last week, if you assume there is no God, then there is no hope. There are only animals, humans being the most arrogant and clever, fighting over resources and power, with those who grab the most offering scraps and privileges to those who support them. Morality and rights are just myths we have made up to console ourselves in a ruthless dog-eat-dog world. If our existence is only physical, there is no guarantee of moral progress when it comes to people or society. As we've seen, those rights that have been given to us can be denied and taken away. Ultimately the strongest get their way. And looking at things that way leaves us literally dispirited.

But when you believe that there is more to this world than what can be seen, that things like freedom and justice and grace and redemption are real, and that they can be given form in this world just as God took the form of a man in Jesus Christ, that the Spirit of God is at work in this world, and that we can have access to him, and he can work through us and produce in us love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and generosity and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control, and that we can plant the seeds of the kingdom of God in this world, and that what was and what is are not the limits of what can be, then there is hope. Open yourself to the Spirit of the God who is love, who made all things, seen and unseen, and let him lead you to the way, the truth and the life revealed in Jesus, who is God's love incarnate and who makes all things, including you, new.