Friends, the internet is a jerk.
I mean, maybe it’s the people, but online is such an easy
place to be rude—I’ve done it myself! It’s an easy place not to do research, to
demand people take you seriously regardless of what you’re saying. It can be a
deeply connecting place as well, a place to be educated, to be inspired, but
for God’s sake, don’t read the comments. Like, ever. I made the mistake this
past week of reading a few comments on news stories about Ferguson, Missouri.
They were…disgusting.
And I don’t know of you’re aware of the stolen, nude photos
of actress Jennifer Lawrence? Basically, Jennifer Lawrence had some nude photos
of herself for her own purposes. Someone hacked into her accounts and stole
them. Some guys on the website 4chan shared them but then a group of folks on
another website Reddit spread the photos around far and wide. Jennifer Lawrence
was embarrassed, people who saw it were embarrassed, and eventually the folks
on Reddit were embarrassed. They had a change of heart—they took the photos
down and then did a fundraiser for a cancer charity that Jennifer Lawerence had
been associated with. When they sent the thousands of dollars they’d raised to
the charity, their note said they were trying to make up for their lapses in
judgment and included jokes about what had happened. The charity…said, “no.”
Basically, “no, we’re not taking your money, you can’t pay for forgiveness.”
Not to be deterred, the Reddit guys sent the money to a water charity with a
similar note and with an addendum about how surely this charity would take the donation, they’d be fools not to. And
the water charity…said, “no.” No, you don’t get to do something jerk-y and then
do one nice thing and expect the scales to be balanced.
It’s not just the internet, though. The Bible is a jerk. Did
you notice in that Ezekiel reading, “But if you warn the wicked to turn from
their ways, and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their
iniquity, but you will have saved your life.” Basically, tell people how
they’re sinning because otherwise you’ll burn with them. Somehow, we are saved
because we have pointed out others’ sins. I’ve met well-meaning Christians who
take this as license to insist on their understanding of good and evil and to
try to convert me to that. Our scriptures have can be a deeply connecting place
as well, a place to be educated, to be inspired, but for God’s sake, don’t read
the comments. Or, well, take the centuries of commentary and contemporary, me-first
theology together and with a healthy grain of salt.
The thing is, we are about law AND gospel. Yes, the Law says
to be righteous and righteously judge your neighbor for their misdeeds. It also
says NOT to judge your neighbor—that’s not just Jesus’ line.
No, the Law can be good because I certainly drive better when
there’s a cop nearby, don’t you? It’s so easy to justify my own selfishness if
I just let a law slide here and there. But the gospel is about something else.
Gospel is literally “good news”—it’s a challenge or a comfort that enters into
your place of bad news, of really shitty news and transforms it into something
beautiful. This is not to say that believing in Jesus makes everything go right
for us from finding a parking place to cancer remission. Good news is about
hope.
And Ezekiel’s version of good news involves repentance. For
him, repentance is about hope. Because we recognize the terrible things we do
and say, because we commit to not doing them—even though we’ll fail many
times—we have hope that things can be different, will be different. Instead of
a cycle of violence that we see enacted in the world all the time, when we
admit our failings, we participate in a cycle of forgiveness.
It’s true that the internet is a jerk—it’s a true fact, look
it up. But it’s also true that the internet is a beacon of hope. I just
recently discovered the vlogbrothers—I’m late to the party, I know—and their videos
are the most perfect example of hope I can think of right now. In case you’re
also running late for the party, here’s the executive summary: they’re
brothers, one a novelist, one a scientist, who do short weekly videos to each
other about all kinds of things and have developed a huge following and
collaborative community around them. I don’t think they mention it much these
days, but back in the day, John mentioned offhandedly that he’s a religious man
and at several points Hank has mentioned that he is not. But the words of
wonder at the universe and love of collaboration and delight in decreasing
world suck—these all speak to me in my language of the creative presence of God
constantly grinning like an idiot and saying, “Yes! And…?” Their videos suggest
to me the theology of God the primal mover: God acts first, then we respond.
John and Hank made videos and then tons of people responded, like a huge sigh
of relief—we can make a difference! And for Christians, God loves us first, and
when we see that, when we feel it beyond words on a page, suddenly the air is
cleaner in our lungs and our eyesight clearer—we can make a difference.
So here are two undying truths from across generations of
Christians and, indeed, across generations and faiths of human beings:
Don’t be a jerk.
and
God loves you even though you are a jerk.
Amen.
* * *
Here's a link to a great vlogbrothers video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc_XWlqURTg
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