Faith Works 7-10-21

Faith Works 7-10-21

Jeff Gill

What's wrong, and what's to be done?

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Having committed some inexcusable and apparently, to some, unforgivable lapses of optimism recently, I'm willing — but only in the context of my prevailing hopefulness — to share a few of my less encouraging, more worrisomely concerned takes.

As a Christian, let alone a person with a calling to faith community leadership in preaching and ministry, my hope is in the cross. That means I have a peculiar relationship to hope at best. Call it pessimistic optimism, or optimistic pessimism either way. I believe things will work out for the good, but likely through a very painful and temporarily unpleasant pathway. Like, say, the cross.

In the cross of Christ I glory, which means I have my hope anchored in heaven and eternity, but I see how the way there means suffering and sacrifice along that Way. It's in the Book, it's part of the operating manual, it's what we've been told to expect.

And I trust in God to use our mistakes, our missteps, for a greater good. My theology unpacks it this way: that in each moment, God is working for our blessing, and in almost every moment, we fall short of making the best use of everything God has given us, so God is eternally and infinitely working on Plan B. There's a vast and majestic Plan A guiding the whole, but in any one moment or life span we are all called to be co-creators, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling as Paul says, and to trust grace in how we will mess that up and that Divine Providence is constantly sweeping up behind us.

So for what's wrong, let's start small. Fireworks. I think it's a horrible, terrible, no-good idea to (as the vendors all agree and are preparing for) double the amount of consumer fireworks going into private hands and in many cases blowing up in them. Someone said on Twitter last weekend that we should keep in our prayers those for whom this is the last day they'll have ten fingers; the news has told us about how even youth and wealth are no protection from amateurs using not-quite-high explosives in their backyards, with death the occasional result. Am I happy about legalizing fireworks use? No. Is this a problem for the church? Well, we preachers can talk about stewardship and the care and keeping of fingers, I guess, but in general, no.

Sports betting on your phone. Hey folks, I have spent now over a year shuttling back and forth to my home state of Indiana, where sports books are all competing like mad for your $5 bets and credit card numbers with access to notifications on your devices. My social media as soon as I'm over the border lights up with betting ads and posts, thanks to geographic ID, and it's . . . well, to me, it's nauseating. Not because I think gambling is a deep moral evil per se, but because all the claims of "they'll bet anyhow" and "Ohio is losing money to other states" and "it's recreational" are belied by the tiny notices of where to call to deal with addiction and gambling. It's going to be what it always is: a tax on ignorance, a burden on those already behind the 8 ball (I'm fine with pool, you see), and the most regressive form of paying for public costs we could come up with. I hate it, and ask my son how I feel about the word "hate."

Yes, churches fought gambling in Ohio for years; when the constitutional amendment workaround prevailed on the ballot, most have given up and caved in. I don't encourage churches to spend much time shouting at the tide on sports betting as state policy, but I can assure you preachers will mostly be warning their flocks: it's not good stewardship.

More worries? Sure. How about guns? I'm not taking a position here on the Second Amendment or pacifism, I'm just going to say it: there are too many guns out there. We have more firearms than people in the US, and too many idiots (let alone lawbreakers) can easily get ahold of a pistol when they're in a mood. Do I think guns are evil? Nope. But our (everybody, now) stewardship of what we've been given should ask why we're spending so much on overpowered weaponry we don't know how to handle.

Enough for now? Next week, come back and we can worry about sex. How's that for concern trolling?

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he worries about plenty, thank you very much. Tell him about what you hope for at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.