The Blue Church

After his successful and spectacular encounter with Ahab and the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18), Elijah famously runs away when he hears that Jezebel had sworn to kill him. The Bible tells us that he ran away because he was afraid.

Walking through my neighborhood a while back, I passed a church with a sign on the front lawn which read, “Under New Management.” I had to smile. Actually, I chuckled. Okay, laughed.

Many years ago a popular song included the lines. . .
“Across my dreams with nets of wonder
I chase the bright elusive butterfly of love.”

One of more often quoted C. S. Lewis lines is from his sermon, “Weight of Glory”: “We are far too easily pleased.”

The idea arrests us, cutting through our cultural Attention Deficit Disorder.

It often occurs to me that our common assumptions about Jesus really don’t square with the Gospel record. As we work our way through the Gospels, we see it even more clearly.

It was about ten years ago that a six-story statue of Jesus near Cincinnati was struck by lightning and destroyed. Having been formed with plastic foam and fiberglass on a steel frame,

When I was a child, upon hearing about Jesus, I never doubted either if He existed, or could hear me. Ah, the faith of a child.

You can’t plan them; they just happen.
You can’t recreate them; they never repeat.
You can’t define them; they defy description.
You can’t earn them; they are gifts.

It’s two syllables, easy to say, hard to comprehend, nearly impossible to experience. What is it, this enough? What is enough? Is there ever enough?

How often have we heard someone ask that, especially when we’ve said the wrong thing? How often have we reminded our children to be careful of their words? How often have we heard words abused?