God, Trampolines, and Bricks

Mary Rodgers, May 21, 2006

I have a new man in my life. He's married and has two children. He's funny and faithful, thought-provoking and real. My kind of guy. I'm also in the middle of a faith crisis (and no, it's not because of the married guy). It's because of a fleeting question that was thrown out in a group I was in. It was a rhetorical question and as much as I wanted not to answer it and to dismiss it, it stuck and has been bugging me ever since. The question was: "If Jesus came back today would he be a Christian?" Now to be fair, it's not the question that has bothered me so much it's the answer. Or rather my answer, the one that percolates just beneath the surface of what I want to be the truth. If Jesus came back and modeled his behavior on the Christians of today would he still choose to be a Christian? I'm not so sure. That's a hard thing to say from a pulpit, it's a hard thing to admit when your job, your life, your call is to bring Christ to other people. Now don't get me wrong. Of course Jesus would believe in himself but being a Christian goes far beyond belief. And I'm just not so sure that if Jesus came back he'd be a Christian. Can you see why I am having a crisis?

This is where my new man comes in. I do not think that it was by fate or coincidence that a week or so after my faith crisis began, I opened up one of his books and right there on the page was the same question: Isn't it just like God to throw someone in your path to help you give voice to things you can't articulate, someone to help you get unstuck, and help you wrestle with the questions until you are blessed? When this happens to a preacher, the congregation becomes a part of the conversation through sermons. You may remember some of my other mentors: Barbara Brown Taylor and Frederick Buechner. Rob Bell, is the newest. And most of what I will say today is the result of his own wrestling, with some of my own commentary thrown in.

It's funny. When I asked a couple of church member's this same question I got an "I don't know." And a "no" filled with guilt and shame. Why is that? Why do we not immediately answer yes! Of course he would be a Christian. Maybe it has something to do with trampolines and bricks.

If you have ever been on a trampoline before then you know how much fun it is. Rob and his boys have logged hours on a trampoline. When Rob's son was five he figured out that if he timed his jump just right with his dad's he could go a lot higher. He was so thrilled with his new trick that he called his mom to watch him bounce off his dad's bounce. Now up until this point he was maybe getting a foot higher because of his new technique. But that one particular time, when Mom was watching for the first time, something freakish happened on the time space continuum. When Rob's son jumped, there was this perfect convergence of his weight and his dad's weight and his jump and his dad's jump and he went really, really high. Not a few feet off the mat, but way over his Dad's head. Forty pounds of boy, clawing the air like a cat thrown from a second story window, and a husband making eye contact with a wife and thinking this is not good. She told them she didn't think their new trick was very safe and that they should be careful. Which they were. Until she went inside. Rob says on that on that day, laying on their backs giggling and breathing hard and looking at the clouds on that sunned warm mat God began to make sense. It occurred to him that day that everyone believes in something. Even atheists believe in not believing in God. As Christians we have chosen a certain way, it's our trampoline, Christ is where we have decided to jump. Now if you are a jumper, a trampoline jumper, then you know how important the springs are. They hold you, and support you, they help you go higher. As Rob says, these springs are simply statements and beliefs about our faith that help give words to the depth of what we are experiencing in our jumping. These are the doctrines, the teachings of Christian faith. Here's an example of a spring. Think about the doctrine of the Trinity which says One God, three ways of working in the world: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This doctrine is central to Christian orthodox faith. Yet the word trinity is not found anywhere in the Bible. To our knowledge Jesus never used the word. But over time this "spring" this doctrine or teaching has become central to how Christians understand who God is. We can take it out and examine it, probe it and question it because it's flexible. It's firmly attached to the frame and the mat yet it has room to move. It's a spring but remember people jumped for hundreds of years without it. It was added later. Which is why we have to remember that our springs are not God or Jesus they are simply teaching about God. We take them seriously but we keep them in proper prospective. Springs: flexible, fluid, wonder producing, statements about God. They are GREAT! Until they become bricks. This happens when they are not kept in proper prospective. Now don't get me wrong bricks are strong, but in order to build something they have to be stacked on top of one another, and what happens if you take one or two away? The whole thing comes tumbling down.

One reason why I'm not so sure that Jesus would be a Christian if he came back today is that it seems like our springs are looking more and more like bricks. Especially to outsiders. If you want to find a brick then look on the back of a car. Bumper stickers are notorious for being bricks. Listen to a few of these:

Darwin's Dead, Jesus isn't.
God spoke and BANG it happened. (Must have been a diplomat)
Don't put a question mark where God put a period. (I wonder what makes them think that they know where all of the period's go? Do they know the mind of God?)

Is it any wonder that many outsiders look at us, Christianity, and the behavior of Christians and say why bother? Springs or bricks?

In our passage for today the first Christians find themselves having to make a huge decision about what it means to be a Christians. Rob tells the story this way: "To understand what they are facing we have to understand that they are Jewish-Jewish believers who are circumcised and eat Kosher and recite Jewish prayers and celebrate Jewish feasts. They are Jewish followers of a Jewish Messiah who live a Jewish life in a Jewish nation. But all sorts of Gentiles (people who aren't Jewish) have become followers of Jesus. People who don't eat Kosher, who aren't circumcised, people who don't dress and talk and look like them. So what do they do with all those followers?

Do they expect Gentiles to be Jewish? If so what would that mean? What would that look like? Can you imagine? Grown men being told that if they are really serious about being Christians then there's this small surgery they need to have… So they convene a council or a committee and they discussed it, knowing that you learn as much from the discussion of a passage as you do from the passage itself. They have to make decisions about what it means to be a Christian in that time in that place. And they do it. When they come out of committee here's what they said: It seemed good to Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements. They gave the list, and circumcision (the issue at hand) was not on the list. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. You know I would have never noticed the word seemed if it hadn't been pointed out to me. They are making a monumental decision and it seems good. I love that! It's a spring! Not a brick. They have stepped up, made a decision, they have acknowledged a strong sense of God's guidance but they still remain humble. They leave room to admit that they may not have nailed it perfectly the first time. They hold their action and God's action in healthy tension. They act but they also understand that God is at work as well. It seems good to the Holy Spirit and us. A spring. It's strong, connected, but flexible and most of all it's humble. If they had wanted to create a brick they would have stamped "No circumcision, no savior" on the backsides of all the camels.

It seems there is a lot of brick laying going on. Not so much in this congregation but in much of the news coverage, on TV, and in newspapers and magazines. The problem with bricks is that they ultimately say: I'm right, you're wrong, I'm in you're out. Inevitably they build walls that keep people out and often it appears to those on the outside that you have to agree with all the bricks exactly as they are or you can't join in. What happens then is that the wall becomes the sum total of the beliefs, and God becomes only as big as the wall. But here's the thing: God is bigger than any wall. God is bigger than any religion. God is bigger than any worldview and God is bigger than the Christian faith.

I am thankful that God dropped Rob Bell into my life. Although I haven't met him he's become a part of my faith community, helping me to wrestle with the question until I am blessed. He's helped me to realize that whether I meant to or not every now and then I have thrown out a few bricks of my own. Without him I would never have noticed the word "seems" a five letter word that can make the difference between a spring and a brick, between humility and arrogance. Without him I would have most likely needed to be right instead of humble. Without him I would have never been reminded that you rarely have to defend a trampoline. You invite people to jump on it with you. Jumping is joyful. Brick laying is cumbersome. So let's jump! Invite others to jump with you. Tell them how jumping has affected your life.

Sometimes when Rob and his boys are jumping one of them starts to laugh and then they all start laughing. They are jumping and laughing and are short of breath and when they are too exhausted to jump anymore they lie down on the mat stare up at the great blue sky and watch the clouds go by and listen to the breeze as it moves the leaves over-head. And Rob says a short prayer: "God, I can't believe I get to live this life! Thanks for jumping with me today.

Amen

© Copyright, 2006, Rev. Mary Rodgers
All Rights Reserved.
Providence Presbyterian Church
Fairfax, Virginia