Saturday Night Theologian
31 December 2006

1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 (first published 28 Dec 2003)

Proverbs 22:6 says that if you raise children in the right ways, when they are old they will not depart from those ways. Some people make the mistake of believing that this verse is a hard and fast rule, rather than a general principle. I've even heard misguided Bible teachers use this verse to prove that, because a child has departed from the right way, the parents must not have raised that child properly to begin with. Such a misapplication of the Bible only underscores the teacher's failure to understand both the nature of the Bible in general and of proverbial material in particular. Training children to trust God, to spend time in prayer, and to treat others the way they would want to be treated is vitally important, and even if the child rebels at a certain age, as many do, the good teachings of youth will usually bring that child back to his or her spiritual and moral moorings at some point. Samuel was a child who served in the Shiloh temple from a very early age. He was raised by Eli the priest, and he participated in the worship that went on in the temple, even prior to his first personal encounter with God (described in 1 Samuel 3). The biblical text portrays Samuel as a man who continued to be faithful to God all his life, serving as prophet, priest, and judge, and ultimately anointing Israel's first two kings. While one might reject the idea of his parents leaving their young son in the care of religious authorities rather than raising him themselves, one must remember the cultural differences between that time and ours, including the commitment that was implied when one made a vow to God. We certainly can't argue with the results. Samuel was raised by a godly man, Eli, and he was initiated into the formalities of worship while he was still young. The Roman Catholic Church for years has used altar boys--and now altar girls--as assistants to the priests during mass, a practice that too few Protestants have imitated successfully. Church leaders need to include children in their services on a regular basis, not just at Christmas time or when the children's choir sings. Both liturgical and non-liturgical churches can figure out ways to include children and teenagers into their services: reading scripture, taking up the offering, lighting candles, distributing bulletins or fliers, playing musical instruments, or assisting adults in other ways. I read a story in today's paper that said that Japanese churches were having a hard time keeping young people interested in Christianity--and the problem is hardly exclusive to Japan. If we don't figure out ways to integrate our children into the church today, we are in danger of losing them tomorrow.

Psalm 148 (first published 9 May 2004)

The May 2004 issue of Scientific American contains an article that proposes that the earliest point in time might not have been the Big Bang some 13 to 15 billion years ago. The author suggests that string theory provides an alternative history of the universe, one that goes back beyond the Big Bang in possibly measurable ways. As science expands our knowledge of the universe, exhortations to the natural world to praise God may seem quaint to some people. Where are the heavens, where the angels dwell? Where are the highest heavens, which contain the sun, moon, and starts? Where are the waters above the heavens? What do we in the modern world mean when we talk about God as creator? It is true that many have abandoned the idea of God, preferring to think of a universe based entirely on measurable scientific principles and observable data. A corollary of abandoning the idea of God is that the world no longer has any real meaning; it only has meaning that humans may arbitrarily assign to it. Other modern inhabitants of the world reject scientific principles such as the Big Bang theory and evolution, believing them to be contradictory to belief in God. These are not stupid people, any more than Galileo's antagonists, who refused to believe that the earth revolved around the sun, were stupid. The problem is not that they don't understand science; many don't, though the same can be said of many believers who accept the findings of modern science. No, the real problem is that they don't understand God. I believe in the scientific principle that has given rise in the past century and a half to theories such as evolution, general relativity, quantum mechanics, and the Big Bang. I also believe in a God who somehow exists beyond the universe yet at the same time infuses the universe. My idea of God may not be the same as that of my more conservative brothers and sisters, but it is just as real. I don't reject scientific theories because they conflict with my theology. Instead, I hold a theology that is big enough to embrace science--all fields of science, whether biology, cosmology, physics, or whatever other area--while at the same time continuing to accept the existence, indeed the praiseworthiness, of God. When many Christians during the Middle Ages were wallowing in ignorance, Muslims were making great strides in mathematics and science, yet they continued to hold a strong belief in God. Modern Christians can be full citizens of the scientific, postmodern world, while at the same time joining with our Muslim neighbors in proclaiming Allahu Akhbar: God is great! We can also join the psalmist the psalmist, who says, "Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven"

Colossians 3:12-17 (first published 28 December 2003)

No one would ever say such things, yet people who claim the name of Christ do drop bombs, participate in state-sponsored executions, declare war, pollute, and refuse to help the poor. When they do it, they just hope that no one will remind them of what Paul instructed believers in Colossians: "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus." Before we make an important decision, we Christians need to ask ourselves whether we're doing it in the name of Jesus. Before we reply to an unkind comment, we need to ask whether we can say what we'd like to say in the name of Jesus. Before we cast our vote to support a politician, we need to ask ourselves whether one could honestly say of the bulk of his or her policies that they were designed and will be carried out in the name of Jesus. When a politician asks you if you're better off now than you were four years ago--regardless of whether they want you to answer yes or no--they're asking you to think selfishly. What we really should be asking is, are the policies this person advocates consistent with the teachings of Jesus? Do this person's deeds, not merely his words, reflect positively on the name of Jesus? It's time to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and it's time to hold our leaders to a higher standard as well. That standard should be that both we and our leaders speak and especially act in a manner that will reflect well on the name of Jesus.

Luke 2:41-52

When my wife and I first got married, we occasionally saw couples at the mall or the amusement park holding a leash attached to their young child. We usually laughed when we saw it, imagining that the parents of these children either weren't paying enough attention to their children or weren't raising them to be obedient enough. Then we had kids of our own. Our first daughter never required a leash--we had sworn to ourselves that we would never use such a barbaric instrument on our children, but the second was a different story. She was forever wandering off to explore strange surroundings, no matter how hard we tried to keep our eyes on her. Even when we had more adults than children in our group she would manage to slip away to look at whatever caught her attention. Finally we gave in and bought a leash for her. It had a long, flexible cord, and attached to a harness around her chest that was not uncomfortable. We didn't use it often, but on those occasions when we were in crowded, unfamiliar places, we sometimes broke it out and used it to keep her on a short leash, so to speak. We no longer use the leash, but as an adolescent she's still a wanderer from time to time, so we use the electronic equivalent of a leash, a cell phone. Based on the only story in the gospels that describes a scene from Jesus' childhood, Jesus' parents could have used a leash or a cell phone as well. After a visit to Jerusalem, Jesus parents turned around on the journey home and realized that they had lost him. Retracing their steps, they finally found him three days later in the temple, talking with the teachers. Despite their relief at finding him, I imagine that Jesus' parents were pretty annoyed with him, to say the least. "How could you do this to us?" they might have asked. "Don't you know we were worried sick?" Jesus' response was typical for an adolescent: he was incredulous. "How could you not know where I was?" he replied. Modern Christians tend to get sidetracked by his next comment, "Didn't you know that I had to be about my Father's business?" because it shifts the focus away from Jesus as a boy to Jesus as the incarnate Christ (or Luke's equivalent, the Spirit-led Christ). Laying aside that part of Jesus' answer, however, we can find an application that is relevant for our children today. It's important to note that Jesus wasn't doing anything bad. He wasn't joyriding on stolen donkeys, he wasn't running wild in the streets, and he wasn't breaking the glass out of the temple's windows. He had seen something that interested him, and he was exploring it. An inability to understand a parent's concern is par for the course for most adolescents. As parents and other leaders of children, we need to learn to allow children to explore their interests in a safe, structured way. Sometimes those interests will fade with time, as new interests arise. At some point, however, our children will latch onto something that truly captivates them, perhaps something that will shape the course of the rest of their lives. Sometimes we need to keep our children on a short leash, particularly when they're young, but as they get older, we need to give them more slack and allow them--even encourage them--to discover their passion. Childhood is a preparation for adulthood, and children whose imaginations are not stimulated will often grow to be adults with little imagination. We hardly need more adults like that!