A reaction to John Van Sloten's, The Day Metallica Came To Church: Searching For The Everywhere God in Everything, 2010.
This book caused me to rethink some of my foundational theologies, specifically Creation and the Fall. If God created us in His image and declared His creation as ‘very good’, what consequences did the sin of Adam and Eve have upon us? How deep does it go? I have some very strong thinking patterns that hold everything as either good or bad, God’s or Satan’s, black or white. This either/or (dualistic?) outlook doesn’t leave room for the mysterious. But what if all of these things were meant to lead me to something more? What if I always stopped short because I was led to believe that when I came to a certain point I had arrived—mission complete--stop here and move on to another subject? And what if that wasn't true?
I was challenged by the thought of how God speaks to us outside of the Bible. I have believed that God speaks to me through many things (creation, others, His Spirit, circumstances) but they would always be under the Scriptural rule--the Bible was more important than anything else. The final step therefore was knowing the Bible. But what if that isn’t the final step? What if there is more? What if other things can speak just as authoritatively?
John Calvin believed, “All truth is inspired by the Holy Spirit” and therefore all truth is God’s truth—wherever we find it. The author states, “God is described in the Bible; in creation He is observed, felt and experienced. To know God in both senses we need both reading glasses and a telescope” (74). Calvin is again quoted, “Wherever we cast our gaze we can spot signs of God’s glory, disclosed in the whole workmanship of the universe” (24). My challenge is then: Developing the skills in recognizing wherever God’s Spirit is at work. I could just be a consumer who has forgotten God has given me taste buds. What does this say about God? Why not a mouth to consume and another to talk so I could do both at the same time? What do tasting, chewing, savoring, and the making of recipes say about God?
I was challenged in a similar way a few years ago when the United Methodist’s Women’s group in the church I was pastoring stated they didn’t want to be involved as UM Women but did periodically meet together for ladies fellowship. The reason was because the funds that were contributed to the UMW were being spent in ways they believed they shouldn’t be—specifically the support of the United Way. The United Way has been known to give funding to groups whom the UM women didn’t want to support--and didn't want UMW at a national level to do so either. When asked by the UMW President in our district why the women’s group at the church wasn’t involved, I explained this reasoning to her. Her comment was: “The United Way does so many good things for people; would we give up on a person just because he or she did one thing wrong?” I know God doesn't give up on me in the many times I have been wrong.
“How much darkness do I endure to find one beacon of light?” The author's answer was, “The LINE often moves.” There is NO piece of this good yet broken world that God does not claim as His own (119). If we are going to follow Jesus’ lead then we must be willing to cross over some lines—or extend them further ahead of us than we previously had thought. I struggle with this. When I as a manager, I had control over the radio. I dialed in stations that offered Christian programming. One of the workers approached me and asked that during certain times of the day if we could share the air—and have their station play at this time and my station play at another. I conceded but was plagued with the belief that I shouldn’t be listening to that music. I wrote it off as a "no control/no conflict" situation. I wish I had been mature enough to look at it differently.
Behind our backs we have all been hacked--we all have a virus called sin—a worm that takes over our hard drive hearts. We have all been taken control of by an outside spirit, at one time or another. But another thing is happening behind our backs too--we are being saved (109). “Yes, sin infects everything but it does not have the capacity to destroy anything” (120). The worst people imaginable still bear the image of their Creator. It’s their inherently good gifts that get twisted and perverted for evil (121). My hope is they can be pulled back into the light to use their gifts for good in this world before they have a sudden exit. Is this where you would place the music group Metallica? What would you DO if Metallica came to YOUR church?