Incomplete Scripture

I would never want to be a pastor. When your organization is a non profit and the money that sustains it is purely from donations, you're in the place where the pressure is to please everyone. At least that's how the donors seem to approach it. It's kind of an odd thing, if you consider it, most people in churches are giving their money to have someone stand on stage and preach to them, a message they of course want to agree with. Therefore the attendees have a vested interest in hearing something that pleases their ears. I'm not saying this is how it should be, the ideal, merely how it is currently playing out.

If I don't discuss the sermon with others after church, then I wonder what the purpose of going ever was. At least for me, it was probably so I don't have to answer the much hated question "why weren't you in church?" If I don't engage in community then I question if I'm merely being indoctrinated by being told what to believe.

Often a comment made in response to the message will acknowledge its worth, however there is a "but" thrown in there, being "but he didn't mention...." For an example plenty of online reviewers of Rob Bell's filming of his 'The Gods Aren't Angry' tour expressed their disappointment that he didn't emphasize the wrath or related holy anger of God. It seems silly to me that we expect a complete exploration of every aspect of God's character in a 25 minute message or flags are tossed like an international football match to protest a particular part being left out.

One of the most powerful lessons I've ever learned in regards to relationships is to meet the person where they are, and not where you want them to be. We often will be disappointed for a person not doing as we expect them to, and when we approach relationships this way we are bound to be failed.

In my mind, the Bible isn't complete, or maybe better stated, exhaustive. It doesn't present a full picture of God. At best it stops at a first century understanding of him. Not even with 20+ contributing authors could they capture him. I could write twice as many books as Max Lucado (which would put the number in the triple digits) and never get the total picture, merely the (tiny) snipet I have received. And that's okay.

We will spend the rest of existence, which is to say infinity, exploring and better understanding God. My favorite quote is from Einstein, one I parallel to God: "We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us."

I hope that when we discuss God we can all allow grace for another to not get upset if we feel that they are doing the fullness of God injustice. Because we all are. And in my mind, even if we get it wrong, forgiveness remains unchanged.