Is God stupid?

That's the first question that crossed my mind when I read the parable of the wicked tenants yesterday (Mark 12:1-12). I've never spent much time with this parable because it's never made a lot of sense to me, but as I'm making my way through Mark during my devotion time, I couldn't escape it.

Every time I've read this text in the past, my first reaction is, this vineyard owner must be stupid. A quick synopsis: Jesus tells this parable about this man who planted a vineyard and then leased it to tenants. The vineyard owner left the country and then sent workers ("slaves" as the text says) back to the vineyard to collect his share. The tenants, though, kept beating the slaves up and the slaves would return empty handed. The vineyard owner, not to be deterred, would continue this process. He'd send slaves. Tenants would beat them up and sometimes even kill them. The owner eventually sends his own son and they kill him, too. First reaction: Why would you keep sending slaves? Clearly this tactic isn't working!

Of course, this parable isn't about commerce and that finally clicked for me yesterday. I haven't read the commentaries to see if this interpretation is "right," but it seems to me that God keeps sending people our way (prophets, teachers, priests, even, as I believe, his son) and we keep ignoring, rejecting, even killing them. And yet God doesn't stop the process. When you first think about it, that's kind of stupid. Why would you keep sending them? Because, simply, God loves and every once in a while we receive the prophet/teacher/Jesus and begin to clue in.

This parable also has a pretty harsh warning for the tenants: "(The owner) will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others." So there's that and I don't want to simply ignore that part of the text either, but yesterday, I found it comforting that God continually does "stupid" things like bestowing love even when we ignore these entreaties.

Who do you love?

Hopefully by this time next week, at least a few people will be hearing or reading about Urban Village Church for the first time. We're investing in an ad campaign on the CTA so five L stops (Roosevelt, Addison, Merchandise Mart, Damen, and Southport), Red Line cars, and buses throughout the city will have Urban Village posters and cards posted.

There are five different ads. The main text will be the same on all five: "Bored or burned by religion in the past? We're doing church differently. Urban Village Church begins worship on March 28/10:15 a.m./Spertus Institute/610 S. Michigan." The headlines for each ad will be different, however:

We love gay people/We love straight people
We love Democrats/We love Republicans
We love tattoos/We love suits
We love doubters/We love believers
We love Sox fans/We love Cub fans

We're pleased with the way the ads turned out and hope that, even if people don't come to our church, they'll at least think for a moment about what it means to love the way Jesus loved. "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..."

That's Jesus talking. Matthew 5:43-44. That passage rarely fails to make me pause and think about who I claim to love. Because of this ad campaign I've created my own list, including those people I find hard to love. People who irritate me, who are insensitive, rude, and annoying. If I really want to follow in the way of Jesus, it means I love rude people and I love insensitive people. It means I pray for them. It also means that I'm humble enough to know that I have my days of being irritating, insensitive, rude, and annoying. And I'm thankful that others still love me anyway.

A reminder of God's love

We all have our routines before we go to bed and I'm glad to say that reading Harry Potter aloud to my daughter has become one for us (I don't know whether she appreciates my doing a variety of voices for all the characters, but I have a lot of fun with it).

In addition to J.K. Rowling and prayers and brushing teeth, I always tell her I love her before I head out of her room. Every once in a while, though, I want to make sure she really hears me so I kneel down at her level and I her ask her if she really knows how proud her mom and I are of her and how deeply we love her. A smile usually comes across her face and she nods her head. I think she appreciates that extra effort.

The news that God loves us may not be novel. For some, this may be a radical thing, but others spent many a Sunday School class singing "Jesus loves me, this I know" over and over and over. Every once in a while, though, I think God stops and tries to convey this in a different way so that we really know the depth of that love. I read something by the spiritual writer Henri Nouwen this week that was a good reminder for me. Nouwen writes how he imagines what God might be saying to him:

"I have called you by name, from the very beginning. You are mine and I am yours. You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother's womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace. I look at you with infinite tenderness and care for you with a care more intimate than that of a mother and her child. I have counted every hair on your head and guided you at every step. Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch. I will give you food that will satisfy all your hunger and drink that will quench all your thirst. I will not hide my face from you. You know me as your own as I know you as my own. You belong to me. I am your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your lover and your spouse...yes, even your child...wherever you are I will be. Nothing will ever separate us. We are one."

I believe God says this to all of us. All. Of. Us. May we never forget it.