More Than Stone

Sunday morning’s service opened with a video from a local news station. The story was talking about James Cameron’s “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”. A local professor of religion was interviewed about the documentary. She said,

“For some people this is going to be threatening to their faith to think what does this really mean, but for most Christians I think it’s not going to change their faith one way or the other.”

The pastor’s sermon focused on the question “Does the truth of the resurrection matter?” It was a good sermon and the use of the video clip was a great way to address current news events and answer the questions that they may leave.

My tirade today is not about the sermon. It’s about the woman that was sitting behind me in the church service. The professor that was being interviewed was not attacking Christianity. She did not say hateful or insulting things. She simply revealed a basic (but massive) misunderstanding about orthodox Christianity. The professor declared that bones or no bones, the tenets of the faith wouldn’t be altered, because Jesus taught “good” principles.

As the video ended, the picture froze on the professor’s face. The woman behind me, in her outdoor voice, said “She looks better with her mouth closed.” Her husband said “Sounds better, too!”

Now, my children were with me. This is not the type of Christian behavior I want portrayed to them. Why did this woman feel that she needed to make smart-ass and adolescent comments about this professor? Why did the professor’s comments incite anger in this woman instead of compassion? Why did this woman feel the need to attack instead of love? What is it in us, (or some of us) which cause us to spew forth such hatred to non-believers or those who do not understand an orthodox faith?

This woman proceeded to “talk out loud” throughout the whole sermon. You know the drill, “That’s right”, “Amen”, “AMEN!” “MMhm”. First of all, it was distracting. Secondly, she’d already lost credibility by being so hateful.

I wondered…

if I happened to be a non-believer or a young believer walking into that church on an Easter morning….

and I happened to sit in front of this woman…

and perhaps, because I didn’t have a good understanding of the faith, I agreed with the professor…

out of misunderstanding, not contempt….

but, I never really heard the rest of the sermon about why the resurrection matters…

because if being a Christian meant I was supposed to act like that….

I’ll pass.

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