What Seemed Most Natural

Some people say we humans are hard-wired to believe in God, that that is the natural state of mankind.

Forty-five years ago next Tuesday human beings circled another celestial body for the very first time. Stretched out beneath them the crew of Apollo 8 could see the gray, cratered wasteland of the Moon. And there, floating serenely in the ebony blackness, precious and lovely, was a tiny blue and white sphere that held every person, every form of life, every idea and deed they knew.

I have always thought it was interesting that in that moment the thing that seemed most natural was to speak God's primordial words of creation back to him:

"'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good,' (Book of Genesis, chapter 1 verses 1 - 10, King James Version)."

"...and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth!"

Three Short Videos: God Makes His Move

One of my core beliefs is that Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, but assumed to be trite, familiar, and boring and passed up for shinier things. As a result I'm a sucker for videos like these.

The comfortable, sanitized tale we all know of gentle Jesus in a manger walls us off from the shocking and rather scandalous story it truly is. Some of this site's Advent meditations will try to help us think about the scandal rather than the safe story. These three short videos also attempt to breach that wall by asking, "What if this had happened this month? What if God made his move today?"

Snarky Jesus Questions

Regetably, Fistful of Farthings and the video have since disappeared. But the questions remain.

I found this on Matthew Crowe's Fistful of Farthings blog sometime back. Actually, I think it would make an excellent sermon (or perhaps sermon series) if this were played as the "text" and then thoughtful, non-boilerplate answers were given. When you blow away the snarky prodigy attitude, there are some decent questions here that deserve to be answered. Most are just due to fuzzy theology that confuses a lot of people, not just kids with a team of writers behind them. Why did God kill Jesus if he was so precious to him, anyway?

Below the video I've listed the little twerp's 11 questions. How would you respond to them? I'll probably do another post this weekend where I make my own stab at it.




The 11 Snarky Questions
1. Why didn't baby Jesus zap King Herod?

2. Did baby Jesus hold off zapping Herod because he knew when Herod got to hell he could roast him till his eyeballs exploded?

3.Why does God only give the Sun 15000000000000000 (??) years before it dies?

4. Why didn't Jesus shapeshift into a Roman so he could kill them all without anyone suspecting?

5. If somebody took a rocket to Heaven and punched Jesus in the face would Jesus deck him? Or would he say, "Oooo, I forgive you?"

6. Wasn't it a bit selfish of humankind for Jesus to die for us?

7. Couldn't Jesus have done it a different way, such as writing a letter to everyone warning them to be good or something very bad would happen to them?

8. When he was crucified why didn't Jesus ask God to send a meteorite to kill all the soldiers?

9. If Jesus was the most precious thing to God, why did he kill him?

10. Would Jesus forgive somebody that stole his mobile phone?

11. What would Jesus do if a Polar Bear attacked him? (NOTE: "Zapping it" is the wrong answer because Polar Bears are virtually extinct. There are only 5 left.)