beginning

Introduction

The road is long, with many a winding turn, that leads us to who knows where, who knows where--“He ain’t Heavy, He’s my Brother”—a song by the Hollies circa 88’

“Miles to go — before I sleep…”—a reflective story from the one who reflects the unseen God.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

The title of this book is a play on words. First of all, “Miles to Go” has to do with the discovery of Jack Miles, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of GOD: A biography. I stumbled on him through a musician friend named Drew Nelson. This book has been surprisingly instrumental in setting me free to dream at just the right time in my life. Miles is a bit out there when you come from the small town I come from, but I take comfort in knowing our evangelical friend Philip Yancey, one of the finest writers in modern Christianity, has read Miles and quoted him to boot. Miles book set my mind to imagination. His book (and the sequel Jesus: a Crisis in the Life of God) attempts to see God develop through the writings of the Tanakh as a literary figure. The book while being admittedly speculative and subjective has been a great source of wonder and imagination to me. I am glad I stumbled upon it.

I was about to cash in my chips when the book came round.

Secondly, “Miles to Go”—before I sleep” is a familiar poem from the pen of Robert Frost It is recited by almost every school kid in America or at least it once was. It has a simple cadence and haunting lilt. I appreciate the poem now because I have begun to get it. I know that I am like Frost, that I need a place to reflect, to stop, and following that, rest. I suspect have a bit to go before I sleep—and the sleep I refer to is the sleep of death.

What’s funny is that I remembered that poem here, out of seemingly nowhere, today. It is, like so many thoughts, resident deep in the hard drive of my mind, recalled from a time in my journey when I first had to recite it to the class of Whitehall Junior High. That was 40 years ago and although no one really cares about the many intrusive thoughts of my or anyone else’s mind for that matter, it meant something to me. I don’t know why these things come to mind. But I like to pay attention.

For at last, I am alone, in the woods. Alone is where we are forced to contemplate.

In this snowy silence there is no one to talk to; all the people I know are busy driving the horse out of the woods as fast as they can. They are not reflecting because they cannot pause. They can’t really afford it, or let it happen to them. It’s too risky, too costly, and too hard. So they glance into the theological woods and they scamper by. I don’t blame them. The woods are like a jungle and you never know what lurks behind a tree. I wouldn’t stop and wander in here either but the pause button was pushed by someone, somewhere.

Probably I incited it.

I have discussions with myself when I am lonely—or alone. I believe I come by that honestly. You see, I believe God was alone at one time, alone with the trinity of His thoughts, Himself and Who He is, and I am created in His image. That means I am like Him. And in some ways He is like me.

When God was ‘too alone’ with his thoughts He decided to do something to step out on the water, and so He created ‘in our own image’…to see who He really was. He imagined a beautiful reflection, like Narcissus in the reflective pond. He was eager to see. The creation was superb. But something happened. Something terrible interrupted. The bottom of the beautiful creation suddenly fell out. Theology calls this simply”the fall". When the bottom fell out of the creation that He had brought forth He made a decision based on His character, on His love, and on Himself.

He descended. It is vital to get that etched in our mind to appreciate the unveiling of the Story. He descended.

When He gazed at mankind the image that reflected back to him by the created jewel called Man it was painful. What was once created as good—no very good--was now marred and ugly. He didn’t like what He saw. He interacted with it, His creation, He reasoned with it, His creation, and finally He died for it, His creation. It was shocking to Him to experience the unmitigated fallen-ness of the world. He the eternal One entered and became somewhat subjected to a new concept called ‘time’. In ‘time’ He sought to bring His fallen creation back to eternal. Eternity, the dimension where God exists; heaven if you will has no ‘time’. If it did it would, of course, be temporal or temporary which is the antithesis of eternal. Death for instance is a product of temporal, finite, or mortal. God in His nature is not subject to temporal. He is life and does not end in death. This is the reason why death is described in the Bible as the final enemy. His dimension, for lack of a better word at this point, is immortal.

After years, decades, and centuries of engagement He ‘hit the wall’. As I will describe as we move through this book it occurred late in the expression of the Tanakh. When he came to this juncture in time He pulled away from the pond and pondered. In between the testaments or covenants, that period of silence, I picture God as thinking—resolving—in the period following His last discussion with Job—He thought, He contemplated.

It was like a lonely time stopping by the woods on a snowy evening. And he didn’t scurry by. He went into the dark woods.

After a long period of silence He decided to “re-make” himself, a courageous move that saved God, delivered all of us from evil, and made it so that we along with Him can lie down in green pastures knowing more of the cost of the field we rest in.

When we tasted of the tree of “good and evil” we discovered some things. We fell into something of a chasm, a fall into a “lower story”. And so did God. We fell by ignorance, he descended by choice.

Movies are modern narratives created to move us along. “Cold Mountain” moved me.

The main characters, Inman and Ada, are torn apart from Cold Mountain Carolina by the dream they bought into. The propaganda described freedom for the south. The reality was it became a nightmare called the bloody Civil War. Inman joins the confederacy and experiences all manner of deprivation. War is hell. William Tecumseh Sherman said,

"I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell."

Inman and Ada know that to be true and they want out of the devastation, the death, the ugly cold grip of war and long for the moment they can reunite. They finally do and spend a “Song of Solomon” night together. They share intimacy. The next day Inman is killed. It happens on a cold wintry day and the scene is filmed in bright white amidst grey tones. As Inman lie dying his lover holds his head and the camera ascends till we are looking down on the scene from on high. Inman is spread eagle; his blood runs deep red in the pure white snow. We could as easily be looking at Mary Magdalene at the lifeless terrain of Golgotha at the conclusion of ‘The Passion of the Christ’. It is violent, bloody. Inman actually looks like he is on a cross.

It's over.

But this is not the end.

The final scene of the movie is one of great peace; simple serenity that could not be understood had the violence not invaded. The family sits at a table on a warm, sunny Carolina day beneath a shady tree; they are having a meal with friends. Music is made, pleasantries enjoyed. One person, of course, is sadly absent, and always somehow around. Inman is here, but gone. Another person is mercifully present. The outcome of the “song” sits happily, innocently, with her the family. She has no idea what the cost was for this moment. She doesn’t know the price that was paid, the blood that was shed on this mountain or on that hill. But a song plays in her ear and she hears it so distant yet always somehow here—presently.

Perhaps one day in the sunny warmth of the kingdom of God we will be like her, happy and oblivious. But the atmosphere will be filled with the emotions and memories of the others at the table. Somehow we will know that this table was very costly. Blood was shed for this peace. When Ada departs from the table and recalls, thinks of what is here and what has happened, I can feel it too. The story helps me feel. So valuable, this table, such cost. And we will never, never trifle with it again.

Heaven, as such, is really ‘better’ than Eden. I think it is better because we collectively will ‘know’ something that will cause us to cling tightly to the things of God, and God Himself. Déjà vu may come from time to time but it will pass away as quickly as it comes over us. ‘It’s like a song that I hear playing right in my ear—that I can’t sing—but I can’t help listening.’

After my resignation as pastor of the church I played midwife for and nurtured for 19 years there has been a lot of alone time. As I begin this book it is March in Michigan, a grey time in a cold place where alone feels abandoned. I long for spring, for Cold Mountain, for Camelot, for Kingdom, for God.

It’s odd. Once you are in demand—the next day—not at all. In fact, it makes you feel you are what you do—and you are not so important—for whom you are.

My friend Rick Beerhorst told me a story yesterday. Johnny Cash was aging and began shopping himself around because he “wasn’t done” and music was his life. He found no takers amongst the known “movers and shakers” in the music scene. Old news, old man, disposed of politely or sometimes not. One man, Rick Rubin, not such a well known quantity at the time, did take notice. He hounded Johnny until Cash finally called back. They sat down and the "American series" albums were the outcome.

The sessions are legend to young artists and musicians in the know. He is found as an underground hero. His voice and legacy, as the original “man in black” reborn, has made him a cult classic. It was his last ride. A cult sometimes births a movement. And the legacy grows.

So I am at 52 feeling a bit washed up, old news, disposed of. I am, and this is a bit unnerving and humbling, shopping myself. I have decided that if there are no takers I will stop by this “woods on a snowy evening” and dream of the Camelot to come, the Cold Mountain of spring around the bend, a place where you can lay a child in the crib with an asp without concern, a place where a lion will lie down with a lamb. God is that Lion you know, and He is that Lamb. And they are good friends and might I say—they are lovers. They always knew that, but now we as we watch their lives unfold in this ‘lower story’ where we live--we can 'know it', too.

It is so good for Him, and me, and us, to lie down together, for it is not good to be alone…with yourself with no one to lift you up. God never was and we never are. You might notice that I mention several people in this prologue and this hence the teaser is “He ain’t heavy, He’s my brother”…you see, there are other pilgrims on this road with many a winding turn. And they inadvertently lead because they are eager to walk along. And they do help me see myself, too. Collectively we are being wooed to a dimension where we can be brothers without the curse of Cain. We will beat our swords into plowshares.

Why? The reason is simple, they, too, and we all, are created in the image of the God who walked in the cool of the garden so long ago. They are like Him who is like them. We are made in and for relationship. It is not good to be alone.

We aren’t.

Finally, “Miles to go before I sleep” has to do with the picture above and on the cover of this book. Jesus seems to be looking up from a deep hole; He has a monumental climb ahead. In reality He is in a hole. The world is at risk. He has descended purposefully. And He looks up. For Him this is the conclusion of a long, long journey that began a long time ago. It began when He was with God ‘in the beginning’. When He looks up from the lower story I think he sees the ascension as His destiny. The upper story is His home. The huge hands at the top of the cross are God’s hands, His Father’s hands, the One who loves Him, cleaves to Him, and will lift Him up. The lights will guide Him home. Indeed he has miles to go before he sleeps on this day—a day of the Lord like unto a thousand years—but the journey is nearly done—and He is settled on the ending. The ending which is, of course, in the end, unveiled as the beginning of a new day He can already envision.

When he hangs there spread eagle, dying, red blood drips on the proverbial white snow He knows His work is done.. And it is finished--but it is not over. This is the resolution, revelation, and redemption of God. Here at the cross we view the climax of one story and the beginning of another—better story.

He is the singer, God is the song, and we must at last get lost in this masterpiece. This is His story and this is our story. May the songbird sing to you as we travel together.

The approach to this book

Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Warsaw-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians of the 20th century. His book The Prophets started out as his Ph.D. thesis in German, which he later expanded and translated into English. Originally published in a two-volume edition, this work studies the books of the Hebrew prophets. It covers their life and the historical context that their missions were set in, summarizes their work, and discusses their psychological state. In it Heschel forwards what would become a central idea in his theology: that the prophetic (and, ultimately, Jewish) view of God is best understood not as anthropomorphic (that God takes human form) but rather as anthropopathic — that God has human feelings.

In Miles to Go, which I tend to think of as in the vein of a literary narrative which informs theology without corralling God, I will be tracing the face of God, the character of God, through an anthropopathic lens. I will be trying to discern beneath the words of the story. We are familiar with this method. We do it all the time. We read people’s motives. Sometimes right, sometimes wrong. Listening to a song we engage in imagination. Watching a movie we engage in feelings, we enter a character’s world for a time. These stories and songs are more vivid than the words or images they employ to tell them.

I do this with God, as we all do, so no excuse need be made for it. In fact we have been designed to do just that. We are created with this capacity to think about God, to try to grasp God. So I will look at what He was feeling as the narrative of the Tanakh (Jewish Scriptures) and New Testament unfolds. In Part One I will develop the book taking snapshots of God, portraits I call them, using the traditional distinctions of the Jewish Scriptures from the typical order of Story (the narrative) to the Prophets (conversation and memoirs ) to the Writings (experiential knowledge).

Certain themes will emerge giving us a heartful type understanding of God.

I will weave a web more than draw a line. I will be referring to the Tanakh often. The Tanakh is the name for the Jewish scriptures. Their order and timeline of Torah—Prophets—Writings are important to the unveiling of the transitions of God.

Part Two of Miles to Go has to do with the resolution of God on the other side of silence. The resolution, like a rock rolling down a hill in the rather short life of God in the flesh, is the primary message of the Bible—it is about what Jesus does. It describes how He strips the fall of its power, takes responsibility as God for creation and covenant, and recreates. The story culminates in an extraordinary way if we engage it well and let it be told. It is the unveiling of the victory of God over the fall of creation. The Jews, of course, had one expectation during the time of Jesus. They had reasons to believe what they believed. If we were them at the time of Christ we would most likely come to the same conclusions. But in the end they were wrong.

This is the surprise ending Paul saw, the mystery unveiled by the Christ, spoke of extensively by the Apostle. The revelation of Jesus should be likened unto the opening of a curtain on a stage in the final act of a play. It is revealing, surprising and disorienting to the traditional powers and in the end to ‘power’ and domination itself. The Christ event is clearly the commencement of one way (Christianity) and the conclusion of another (Judaism). It, the Christ event, is the center point of the history of mankind.

But what really was done on that cross?

A new way is unveiled.

We can make the Bible about whatever we want it to be, we have in the past, we do in the present, and we may in the future, but I am convinced of this: The resolution of the dilemma of God, and the release of the cosmos from the tyranny of the fall, is the key question answered in the Bible. It is the purpose of the Bible. All else hinges on this issue...all else falls like so many dominos, once this issue is brought to terms and laid to rest. This is Biblical, Pauline language for the work of God in Christ. The curtain has fallen and the epilogue is being played out. We live in this story and it feels familiar at times. Déjà vu is the feeling that we have been in a present emotion at another time. There is something familiar going on. This story told in scripture being everyman’s story—is just like that.

peace

I love this song by Rich Mullins...

Though we're strangers, still I love you
I love you more than your mask
And you know you have to trust this to be true
And I know that's much to ask
But lay down your fears, come and join this feast
He has called us here, you and me

And may peace rain down from Heaven
Like little pieces of the sky
Little keepers of the promise
Falling on these souls
This drought has dried

In His Blood and in His Body
In the Bread and in this Wine
Peace to you
Peace of Christ to you

And though I love you, still we're strangers
Prisoners in these lonely hearts
And though our blindness separates us
Still His light shines in the dark

And His outstretched arms are still strong enough to reach
Behind these prison bars to set us free

So may peace rain down from Heaven
Like little pieces of the sky
Little keepers of the promise
Falling on these souls the drought has dried

In His Blood and in His Body
In this Bread and in this Wine
Peace to you
Peace of Christ to you

ending

"We're a long long way from home Bob,
home's a long, long way from us,
I feel a dirty wind a blowing..."--'Devils and Dust' written by Bruce Springsteen

And after the day came the night. And they took him before the council of the Sanhedrin where it was determined that He was a genuine threat to the peace of the community who lived under the tyranny of Rome. It was a sound decision fueled by tremendous fear...with the finger on the trigger. And they all agreed together, they were of one mind, and they made a pact. They were sure of their position. They were 'right'. And this needed to be done for the sake of the community.

We've got God on our side
We're just trying to survive,
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love

Fear's a powerful thing
It'll turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust

Fear's a powerful thing, it'll turn your heart black you can trust...take your God filled soul and turn it to devils and dust. And they are afraid. Let sleeping dogs lie. And they took him to the steps of 'justice' where it was determined that he had done nothing wrong. And Pilate washed his hands while she dreamed a dream. And the elders went home to rest.

Dawn broke.

And He began a long, long journey home. A long way away from home, home a long, long way from Him. And if I recall there was a dirty wind blowing that night. Something rancid in the air. Rotten in Denmark you say. And it was night on that day in that hour, darker at 3:00 in the afternoon than at the pitchest time of the deep dark night. And the earth trembled as death won the day. And God trembled as He breathed His final breathe. And the earth felt His breathe and shook.

"Where are you going?" asks Pita. "Home, I'm going home" replies John Creasy. And he trudges along the suspension bridge to the other side. But this time someone walks alongside him. I see dead men walking. It is Jesus.

It isn't done. The sun will come up another day. The sun will come up tomorrow. And we will forget this ever happened.

"Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I'm free at last..." was the whisper of God that would turn to a shout. The peasant who would be King. The pauper that owned the earth. Unrecognized by His 'own' He is handled, managed, and not so discreetly put away. Silenced. In His own words he acquiesced or so it seems...'it is finished'. Well thank God for that. Perhaps we can put it all behind us. Get on with life. This has all been so disturbing to me. But in the night it all comes back to haunt. Your guard drops in the deep sleep of the night. You can't control your dreams or your nightmares. I dreamed of Jesus as 'strange fruit' swaying yet still on a tree. He is spread eagle and the blood runs red.

Well I dreamed of you last night
In a field of blood and stone
The blood began to dry
The smell began to rise

Well I dreamed of you last night, Bobby
In a field of mud and bone
Your blood began to dry
And the smell began to rise

At last it's over. This bloody mess. Who's to blame? Am I my brother's keeper? He should have kept His mouth shut. He put us in a bad situation. You can't defy Lord Caesar and live. There is too much Egypt in all of these criminals.

What kind of friend would pull a knife when it's him or you and his kid needs shoes? What kind of man will do you in when the bomb goes off and the shelter's his? Don't be naive, why, we all know that everyman does these things when pressed into a corner. We all do. But what if what you do to survive, to get by, to stay afloat, kills something deep down inside you. What if your fear kills the thing you love. What of dignity, bravery, courage and all that stuff. Fables, fairy tales and fantasy. When it comes down to it we save our own skin. We look after number one. We are no different than the crowd gathered on the Portico steps.

Still.

Something beckons us to be better than that. Actually if we only knew, it's Someone. And we want to be heroic. We don't imagine ourselves as Peter or God forbid Judas. We dream of passing through the crucible intact.

Now every woman and every man
They wanna take a righteous stand
Find the love that God wills
And the faith that He commands

We want to be heroic. But when the gun is pointed as us. When it's loaded. When it's Rome. When it's your pension. What kind of friends do friends become when the musical chairs are down to one? Will you knock me out of the chair, throw me under the bus, leave me hanging out to dry? And what kind of friend am I? Would I do you in?

Another waits in heaven. With open arms for His one true love.

When Edward asks,"So what happens after he climbs up the tower and rescues her?" Vivian replies; "She rescues him right back."

Mortality loses its grip on this day and has no more strength. Eternity is on the other side of darkness. The deliverer is nigh. God's reputation has been rescued here on this cross...and Jesus...the One who rescues God...He will be rescued right back.

buggin'

This is going to be a 400 page book. It may emerge in the end as half that size but trust me it was a 400 page book. It began as one thing and emerged into another thing. I stared at one point and ended up in a place I hadn’t really anticipated. A lot of pages ended up in the garbage bin. A lot of ideas were given up. Others came forth. In other words this book unfolded.

It emerged.

Much like the story of God.

I don’t believe God ‘knew’ exactly what was going to happen in His long oft times difficult quest to bring his lost treasure back to the garden safe. I doubt he knew what it would be like to experience temporal, time constrained, mortality. It unfolded. It was ‘new’ to Him.

The Bible emerged out of a quest, a crisis, and what I call a blip in heaven. It’s like the sound you hear when you are on your computer and a message hits your inbox. You hear a blip, as sound. You can choose to ignore the blip and go on as if it never even happened. No one would know. But if you give it your attention and you open the box you become involved and a decision must be made. Depending on the message you may casually hit delete. Darn spam mail anyway. But if it is significant enough to garner your attention you enter into the story. You didn’t ask for it, you could avoid it, but you choose not to.

God responded to the blip in heaven. He became involved in something that may have been small to heaven but grand on the earth. I say this because heaven is so unfathomable and earth is so finite.

I took my granddaughter to see the movie “Horton Hears a Who”. We loaded up the Rendezvous, opened up the back and experienced a drive-in movie on a warm summer night in Woodbury, Tennessee. She liked the movie, loved the concessions stand (we made several trips), and really enjoyed stretching out between grandma and grandpa beneath the stars.

On the other hand I loved the movie.

I loved the movie because I see things through a particular lens. I see God in movies, songs, and stories. For those unaware ‘Horton Hears a Who’ is a Dr, Seuss tale about an elephant who discovers there is a town contained in a speck of dust. It is filled with theological overtones. The story is told on Wikipedia by one of the faceless inhabitants of the Whoville of modern earth—there was nothing similar to the concept of Wiki just twenty years back—now isn’t that amazing—this isn’t the same world it was just a short time ago.

In the Jungle of Nool, a caring, imaginative elephant named Horton (Jim Carrey), the jungle's nature teacher, takes a dip in the pool. A dust speck floats past him in the air, and he hears a tiny yelp coming from it. Believing that an entire family of microscopic creatures is living on that speck, he places it on top of a clover that he holds in his trunk.

In fact, he finds out the speck harbors the city of Whoville and all its inhabitants, led by Mayor Ned McDodd (Steve Carell). He has a loving wife, Sally (Amy Poehler), 96 daughters (all voiced by Selena Gomez), and one son named JoJo (Jesse McCartney), who, by Who custom, is next in line for the mayoral position, and as such, gives it his best effort to give JoJo enough attention. Unaware to Ned, JoJo doesn't understand his father's wish. Ned is aware, though, that JoJo doesn't speak and tries to befriend him to get him to speak.

The Mayor finds out from Dr. Larue that Whoville will be destroyed if Horton doesn't find a "safer more stable home." So Horton resolves to place the speck atop Mt. Nool, the safest place in the jungle. This outlook earns Horton nothing but ridicule from the inhabitants of Nool, especially from the strict official of the jungle, the Sour Kangaroo (Carol Burnett), who tries to get Horton to give up the speck, so as not to put ridiculous ideas into the heads of the children. Ever faithful to his motto, "A person's a person, no matter how small," Horton refuses. Also taking force toward Horton are the Wickersham brothers (all voiced by Dan Fogler), a group of bullying monkeys who love making misery.

All the small incidents that Horton experiences on his trek across the jungle have a catastrophic effect on Whoville. He almost falls off a rickety bridge, which causes a dentist's needle to accidentally slip into the Mayor's arm while getting a root canal taken care of. At night, leaving the clover outside will cause it to frost, which creates winter in the summer down in Whoville. As the other Whos become suspicious, the Mayor finally reveals the truth, but at first, the Whos don't believe him any more than the animals believe Horton.

In the meantime, the Kangaroo has enlisted a nefarious "black-bottomed eagle" named Vlad Vladikoff (Will Arnett) to get rid of the speck by force. Vlad manages to steal the speck and drop it from hundreds of feet into a valley full of identical clovers. The impact nearly demolishes Whoville like an earthquake, yet Horton finds the right clover, after painstakingly picking 2,999,999 clovers through the field. The earthquake is enough to convince the rest of the Whos that the mayor is not crazy, and they all tell Horton they believe in him.

Kangaroo finds out that Horton still has the speck, and, as her patience completely runs out, forms a mob by telling lies to get rid of the speck once and for all. The animals plan to rope and cage Horton, but Kangaroo turns this into a chance for attention, and offers Horton an ultimatum: give up the speck and "admit" he was wrong, or pay the price. Despite a heartfelt speech from Horton that clearly touches the animals, Kangaroo still takes this refusal as an insult, orders them to proceed with the torture, and drop the speck into a pot of boiling beezlenut oil, which is shown to have acidic properties.

The Mayor enlists all of his people to make noise by shouting, "We are here!", so the animals can hear them. JoJo runs off to Whoville's abandoned Star-Studying Tower and soon Ned takes off after him. Inside, he reveals his ingenious invention: the Symphonyphone, a giant machine that serves as an orchestra, and proceeds to add it to the mix of sounds. Still, the sound isn't loud enough. The animals don't hear anything and Kangaroo, who has now caged Horton, takes the clover with a chuckle, holds it over the oil, and lets go. In a last-ditch effort to be heard, JoJo grabs the horn used to project Horton's voice, runs up the highest tower and yells "YOPP!" A sound wave emerges and ripples up to the clouds, which are already under a lot of stress from the other sounds, and collides with them, causing an explosion.

Hearing the Whos' cries, Rudy (Josh Flitter), the Kangaroo's son, grabs the clover and returns it to Horton, refusing his mother's orders to return to her pouch.

The animals finally realize the atrocity they almost committed.

The Kangaroo is humiliated and ashamed, but Horton forgives her, and offers his friendship, to which the Kangaroo accepts. At the end of the film, everyone helps Horton carry the speck up to the top of Mt. Nool. After a big number of the cast singing REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling", the camera zooms out, revealing that along with numerous other worlds in our universe, the jungle of Nool is just one speck among numerous others like our planet.

So many lessons. The big caring for the small. Standing firm in the face of ridicule. The idea that the many can do what one alone cannot. The power of 'the way it is' groupthink. The animals realization of the 'attrocity' they were about to commit. The concept of repentance. Forgiveness. And imagination and wonder. I love this story.

We are but a speck, this is but one story, but for those of us that inhabit this Whoville known as the earth the story is large and so very important. But something is shaking on this speck. Something is going on in Christianity in America. "The Great Emergence' as Phyllis Tickle has so appropriately described it is here. It is not going away but building steam as it circles round and round again. What is happening in this particular crucial time in the town of Whoville called Evangelical Christianity is this—a lot of Who’s are believing in a ‘Horton’ and joining together to ‘cry out’. Their religion, their Christianity is expanding, enlarging so as to include...well everyone. Their number is growing. It is a good thing. I hope they will be heard. I hope we don’t push delete on them.

In one of the prophetic books known as Hosea we are told to ‘cry out against your mother, cry out’ against the motherland. Speak out against that which gave you birth. Rise up on my behalf and say ‘no more’. The mother in the context in which it was originally written was the nation of Israel, but in the context to which we now live this can be applied to the church. Some will scoff and deride me for being melodramatic, but I believe the mother has sold out for other ‘lovers’. I understand that this message can be deleted at any time. Call me a nuisance, curse me as a ‘troublemaker’ but I believe I am not alone and the motherland will fall if she doesn’t heed some of the children of Whoville.

“Plead with your mother, plead—
for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband—
that she put away her whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts;
lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born,
and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.

Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom.
For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

Rob Bell and Don Golden have written a book entitled “Jesus Wants to Save Christians”. In the book they describe how Egypt is depicted as the oppressor and Israel as the held down, underling, oppressed, brick makers. The brick makers build the kingdoms and places of the wealthy ruling elite. The elite rule with an iron fist. They make the argument that all of us have a little ‘Egypt’ in us. In other words we, when we are given power, have this instinct that makes us want to ‘rule it over others just like the Gentiles’, a phase coined initially by Jesus to deride James and John for their ambition to power. Once we have the upper hand we forget where we come from. We horde and stash away power so that we don’t lose our grip. We hold onto the advantage less we fall from the mountain we worked so hard to climb. We become the oppressors.

Bell and Golden have considered this to be such an important issue as to name their book—“Jesus Want to Save Christians”. In other words they suggest that this idea of power being a right needs be challenged because it flies in the face of what it means to be ‘truly Christian’. To be Christian means ‘you have come to serve and not be served’. The idea wasn’t original to Bell and Golden. Jesus said it first. He came and spoke out against His ‘mother’. Jesus came to change the human tendency towards power and oppression.

How irritating. Especially when you have the power. And we in America—in the church of America—certainly do have the power.

In ‘Rattle and Hum’, a movie about U2’s Joshua Tree tour made in 1988, lead singer/prophet Bono begins to make a plea for the poor, the broken, the least of these. After a rather passionate introduction to one of the songs he pokes the audience saying—“Am I buggin’ you—I don’t mean to bug ya”—but of course he does mean to bug us.

And I think Rob Bell and Don Golden are ‘buggin’ a lot of folks right now. They are poking people in the sides, saying ‘when the children plead for the mother to stop doing what she is doing’—she had better listen or they may be surprised when it comes time to enter the pearly gates.

Matthew 25:31

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’—Jesus.

Bono, Bell, Hosea, and Jesus. They all said the most irritating things.

And we can delete their message.

Or we can listen and become involved.

Psalm 116 and Psalm 40

Psalm 116

I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.

Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

What shall I render to the Lord
for all his benefits to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord,
I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints.

Psalm 40

I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.