Can we be from Missouri and still be a Christian?
Gosh, I hope so…come to think of it, my sister was born in Missouri, so the jury is still out (just kidding, dear sister…you know which one you are). Why would I say such a thing? Heck, my dad went to seminary in Missouri, so why pick on Missouri? Missouri is known as the “show me” state, so I am using it as a metaphor for “living by sight.” When it comes to religion, most people are from Missouri, and by this I mean to say: if they cannot see it, they do not want to have any part of it. Prior to Adam’s fall, he did live in Missouri…okay, it was Eden, but he walked in the garden with God, which means that he lived in the “show me” state. However, after Adam fell, he got thrown out of Missouri…uh, Eden, so he no longer walked in the garden with God. This was a change in paradigms—after the fall, Adam had to walk by faith rather than by sight, and this has been our plight ever since. This reality was brought home to me this morning as I was reading Deuteronomy 29 (which I highly recommend since it is chocked full of great stuff). As the story goes, Moses is approaching the end of his life and he has brought the Israelites to the plains of Moab and to the brink of the Promised Land. In verse 2, Moses points out that this generation of Israelites was an eyewitness to all that Yahweh had done in Egypt. At first blush, one would think that eyewitnesses would be enthusiastic followers of Yahweh, i.e., people from Missouri would be enthusiastic followers, but one would be wrong, seeing as the desert was littered with the bodies of their parents who proved that “seeing is not believing.” When Adam fell and the paradigm changed to a faith-based system, things became complicated, but Moses helps us understand the solution to this problem with verse 4: “But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.” God’s grace is indispensable in the paradigm of faith-based salvation. This idea is rolled forward to Luke 8 where Jesus preaches in parables and he says in verse 10: “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that “seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.”” John 20:29b summarizes things nicely: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”…just sayin’
