Sunday, April 09, 2006

The final answer

My wife and I saw Spielberg's latest film, Munich, last night. It's a complex bit of work that shows the struggles we humans go through when we take vengeance into our own hands. In the act of bringing retribution to those who were identified as responsible for the horrific events at the '72 Olympics the men assigned the job begin to unravel under the strain of being the instruments of their country's wrath. I walked away more convinced then ever that there will never be a resolution to the conflicts that have raged in the Middle East for thousands of years. There are few things more annoying to human beings than the lack of resolution. That's some of what has caused the church so much trouble through the years.

In my experience people want answers...more...they want resolution, final answers. The catch phrase made popular by Regis Philbin, "Is that your final answer," was alluring, not because of the money behind it, but the promise of finality. For centuries people have been asking church leaders the impossible. They want a final answer.
"Will my son, who committed suicide, go to heaven?"
"Is my Jewish grandfather saved?"
"Does God love homosexuals?"
"Can my infant be in heaven if she wasn't baptized?"
"Will I see my pet dog in heaven?"

Unfortunately far too many church leaders have fallen for these trick questions. The question behind these questions is, "Can you give me a final answer?" With all the bravado that comes from believing you are God's earthly stand-in, Christians have confidently answerd, "Yes! I can give you a final answer." That's a lie. These requests fall into the category I call God Questions. Meaning that the only true and final answer is God's to give, not ours. With a genuinely compassionate desire to help, we've usurped God's authority and claimed it as our own. Along the way we've misrepresented, offended and generally made the whole situation worse. It's as if those who are leaders in the church lack the capacity, genetically, to say, "I don't know, that's a God thing and I'm wrestling with that just like you."

In "Munich" there comes a point where it's obvious that there are people waiting in the wings to replace every person killed in retaliation for the Olympic massacre. When the hunters come to find out they are also being hunted, the futility of it all becomes starkly apparent. There's a reason God claims vengeance as his. When God exercises retribution there can be no argument. When God gives the final answer there are no competing choices. It is beyond the church's scope of responsibility to decide who is saved and who is not. It is enough for the church to speak the truth as they understand it based on our limited human capacity to grasp the word of God and, beyond that, God Himself. Far more important than answers is serving with love. The church must resist the temptation to answer questions only God can answer no matter how plaintively they are asked. If I can go to four different churches with the same question and get four different answers, are any of those answers final? Perhaps the world would take the church more seriously if it put away the crystal balls and academician's robes and donned some work gloves and a sturdy pair of steel-toed boots. There are many who are doing just that and, in my opinion, many more need to follow.

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