Good, Godly and genuine truths

Mark 16:15-20

          I can understand the arrogance of some believers as they feel they have thee answer to humanity set forth by God. The faithful are commissioned to go forth and tell all of creation. How valuable must this word be if they are to proclaim it to all? And then the problems began.

           How often do we hear words, any words, not just the word of God, and come away with assurety that what they have seen and heard is thee way?  Like a bull in the china shop then, they surge forward taking no prisoners. We know the right path, we know the truth. It becomes our way or the highway. Isn't that so often the truth? Whether it is in church, in our homes with our families and our relationships, in our entire lives?

           One of the things that I tend to rail about here is about the sins of humanity that have been perpetuated in the name of God, in the name of "the state" or in the name of our religion.  Today is the feast of St. Francis Xavier. He wrote a letter to the King of Portugal because the Portuguese soldiers were brutal in their treatment of the natives. Francis was compelled to inform the King that we could easily be held accountable for this, no doubt based on this very scripture passage and that God is the creator ( and lover ) of all.  God loves "them" at least as much as God loves us. I have found from history that churches and religions have not acted according to the very beliefs they profess. The Roman Church is notorious in their actions towards native Americans and Africans who were viewed as less than human and even without souls. 

          Part of any journey to proclaim the Good News to humanity, whether it is an individual journey or some kind of crusade, ( though I dislike that word), is to open one's eyes and to hear what the rest of God's creation says.  We can proclaim the Good News of life and in our lives but what is the Good News God proclaims through others? We, as a person or as a faith, may have truths to convey, good, Godly and genuine truths, but what truths does the rest of God's creation have to convey to us?

         A case in point is Genesis. It conveys the truth that God is our creator.  This book is not scientific and does not profess to be. It explained fundamental truths to a people in a way they could comprehend. They certainly would not have understood atomic particles or the big bang. Moving forward though, it took thousands of years for humanity to grasp some other fundamental truths. For example, the Earth was not the center of the universe. It is almost funny how the world revolved and accepted same sex relationships for so long and without specific names only to be bastardized by fundamentalists in a revisionist histroy way, again using Genesis as their guide.  What needs to happen is for 'the truth' to be tempered by cultures, existing history (accurately portrayed) and acknowledging God's revealed world which also speaks to us loudly. There are in fact scores of examples in God's creation of same sex attraction and relationships in the animal kingdom.  In our arrogance can we deny the messages God gives us from his very creation? Whether it is the movement of the planets and atomic particles or the reality of how we have been created, animals one and all, there are truths there as well that guides and compliments truths of Scripture. 

         All this this speaks sternly against our own arrogance and argues for listening, looking and learning with earnestness and zeal about all of God's creation. We are not smart enough, wise enough or holy enough to make proclamations for God. We simply cannot comrehend it all.  It seems the only message we can truly run rampant proclaiming is God's unending and unfathomable love for each one of us. 

And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. 

The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.’

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.