I have a lot of questions, and no answers

We did an airstrike against Iran, and the president stated that we obliterated their nuclear capacity. This after he stated that he fooled the Iranians in negotiations. Reports from intelligence say we didn’t obliterate, only slightly set back their program. If the president feels free to lie to another nation, and to the people of this nation, then my question is why should anyone believe anything he has to say ever?

There are religious figures (who often have political influence) in Christianity that hold tight to a belief that they need to some how either help set things in motion for Jesus to return in a “rapture” or feel they need to force God’s hand into bringing the “Rapture” to fruition. If your theology and belief system is such that you think God needs you for anything, or that you can somehow force God to do something, that’s not just bad theology. That’s egotistical to the core. If your theology and beliefs are such that you look forward to the death of multitudes and the destruction of creation, then why in the world should anyone listen to you? There’s nothing life giving about that. Unless you are so arrogant to believe that only you are right and that God believes as you do and that you are somehow divinely touched while everyone else is disposable.

The biggest question we have been facing as a nation is this – who is America? To some degree we have been debating that question since the founding. And we have never settled on an answer for very long. I have argued that since the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union we have been debating this question. We have been debating it for about 3 and 1/2 decades now with no answer.

Here’s a question that really comes from an observation – why do we seem so hell bent on moving towards a dystopian future? Why do we feel that type of future is inevitable? What is the appeal of it?

We live in a world with endless war – and it really doesn’t even matter what the war is about any more. It’s just normalized.

We live in a world with endless cruelty.

We seem content to be the richest nation in human history with a large portion of the population who are either in poverty or just barely above poverty. Yet we don’t see the irony of the situation. More often than not, we are more concerned with the situation of billionaires than we are with the people who Jesus hung around with. And somehow we claim to be a Christian nation. That’s one screwed version of Christianity.

We live in a world run by greed. How can we get the most, even if that means taking it away from people, or conning them out of it? Greed will never be satisfied. Yet we fool ourselves by saying – “just one more…”

We live in a world where we are destroying the environment. And for what? Short term profit?

All of these things never seem to end. And in some cases they have been going on for a long time – maybe even in our DNA. I don’t know.

I have lots of questions, but no answers. At least no answers that are satisfying. Why do we allow these things to persist, especially when we know they are not good? What does that say about us? What does it say about us as a nation? What does it say about humanity?

These things will come to an end, one way or another. I feel confident in saying that just from the simple fact that they are not sustainable. So even if we don’t have the will to change, the weight of them will collapse it all. Brokeness is not sustainable. It will burn out.

None of this is oriented towards wholeness. It’s not oriented towards healing. And it will not last. I don’t have much faith in humanity to fix any of this. We made most of these messes after all. And humanity has this propensity to be awfully arrogant – which is a part of the problem. We often lack the humility to see our role in it all. We think of ourselves as saviors fixing something that someone else caused.

I know that the imagery of the Garden of Eden is allegory. Especially Genesis 3. And I wonder if the talking serpent came to humanity now and offered the fruit, would we take it? I think we would not only bite into it, we would demand more, blaming God for the lack, bringing in agents with guns to claim the tree, then cut it down for profit. That’s humanity’s history and habit.

And in spite of all of that, I have hope. I don’t hope in many things. I don’t have faith in many things either. But what I have hope and faith in, have never failed me. Everything else is temporary and will fall away. But God persists. God is the persistent yes in a world of no. God is the persistent invitation in a world of division. God is the persistent bigger table in a world of manufactured scarcity. God is the persistent healing in a world that insists on causing harm. God is the persistent welcoming in a world that scapegoats and excludes. God is the persistent love in a world that is apathetic. God is the persistent presence in a world that thinks attention is currency. God is the persistent order in a world that is addicted to power for the sake of control. God is the persistent truth in a world sucked into conspiracies. God is the persistence in a world that has to keep coming up with something new because nothing it offers is sustainable.

God is persistent. And that I have faith in. That is what I hope in.