As well, my favorite spiritual teacher, Thomas Merton, also said, “In one sense we are always traveling, and traveling as if we did not know where we were going. In another sense we have already arrived. We cannot arrive at the perfect possession of God in this life, and that is why we are traveling and in darkness. But we already possess Him by grace, and therefore, in that sense, we have arrived and are dwelling in the light. But oh! How far have I to go to find You in Whom I have already arrived!”

I— and, I believe, my generation — resonate with thoughts like these. The Christian faith, for us, isn’t about having arrived in perfect possession of God. We are struggling (even daily) with all sorts of doubts. We doubt God’s existence in our day-to-day life. We doubt God’s existence through times of great struggle. We doubt our beliefs in God. We doubt the Church. For us, it’s not about certitude. It’s not, as Merton says about arriving at the perfect possession of God in this life. For us, being a Christian is about a becoming. Being a Christian is not a destination, but a journey and process to be lived. For us, it will be less about Orthodoxy (although there is a place for that, although I don’t think many people even know what that means.), and more about finding God in the everyday moment.

We want a sacred journey. We want a meaningful story. We want to be realistic in the fact that this is something that we ourselves are working out, and that God is working out in us. We want to make space for the whole journey. And, in so doing, be about the mission and do God’s work here and now, not just worry about whether we are going to heaven or going to hell. I imagine that we will agree with N.T Wright’s words, “Heaven is important, but it’s not the end of the world.”

Speaking for Yahweh, Ezekiel says “I treat you as respect for my own name requires and not as your own wicked behavior and corrupt actions deserve” (20:44). When Israel sins, and lies exposed like a naked whore, Yahweh only loves Israel more and at ever deeper levels (16:1-63). Yahweh uses the word “restore” six times here to describe how he will “punish” both Israel, their enemy Samaria, and their hated inferior Sodom. Here we have Yahweh beautifully loving and liberating all parties involved. Yahweh’s “punishment” comes precisely by loving and forgiving them and keeping his side of the covenant forever, which reduces them to “shame, silence, and confusion” (16:63). (This morphed into the medieval notion of purgatory, by the way!)

I always felt Paul was making the very same point when he quoted Proverbs to say that you should give food and drink to those who are enemies, and “heap red hot coals on their head” (Romans 12:20). He is leading up to “resist evil and conquer it with good,” which is the next line (12:21). Have you ever experienced the embarassed and red-faced look of shame and self-recognition on the face of anyone who has been loved gratuitously after they clearly done wrong? This is the way that God seduces us all into the economy of grace– by loving us in spite of ourselves in the very places where we cannot or will not or dare not love ourselves. God resists our evil and conquers it with good, or how could God ask the same of us? Think about that. God shocks and stuns us into love. God does not love us if we change, God loves us so that we can change. Only love effects true inner transformation, not duress, guilt, shunning, or social pressure. Love is not love unless it is totally free. Grace is not grace unless it is totally free. You would think Christian people would know that by now, but it is still a secret of the soul.

The usual and expected ego pattern is this:

sin———>punishment———>repentance———>transformation

This is totally recalibrated by Ezekiel, after experiencing the perfection of Yahweh’s love for Israel, which is always the purifying touchstone. For him the pattern is radically changed and becomes instead:

sin———>unconditional love———>transformation———>repentance

—with our now “embarrassed and humiliated face” being our ongoing punishment and conversion! Grace is always a punishment for us.

Ezekiel the prophet, through mounting and outrageous metaphors, first disqualifies Israel as worthy of any love by reason of their complete unfaithfulness, and then he completely requalifies them by reason of the totally one-sided “covenant love” of God!

- Richard Rohr (Breathing Under Water)

Millennials place a great deal of importance on relationships. Therefore, it is only natural that we would want an ecumenical, community-based idea of faith. We want the input of other individuals. We want the input of the other traditions around us. Maybe, because we aren’t scared because of the flat sphere around us, we are looking to integrate all of the wisdom of the traditions, both past and present. This ecumenical church holds a high regard for young and old, black and white, people who hold different values than we do. Because we have such a high emphasis on mission, we know that the work of the Church has to be done by all of us, not just by some of us. (After all, wouldn’t the Apostle Paul want that interdependence?)

I think (my generation) is growing tired of all the hostility, negativity, and diversion that has been placed in front of us. Last week we saw Catholics recognize how ridiculous their controversy over birth control is (since many to most Catholics use it). Last year, we saw how ridiculous Evangelicals responded to Love Wins, because the theology of Rob Bell wasn’t something they were used to (even though there have been theologians who have believed similarly before Bell).We see what happens when we place such strong political hatred towards one another in order to accomplish “God’s will”. I think this is why my generation looks to Stephen Colbert; he is willing to mock the religious and social idiosyncrasies that are before us. We are living in a time when we need each other. I think my generation gets that. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting new results. My generation needs new results to help overcome this global mess we are in, and, we need the Church to be a place where we can question, doubt, process, and develop new ways of responding to the reality we live in.

This is a growing reality every time I experience it, every time I hear it. People who are in a physical or existential death, are unbelievably close to God and we need to get near it.

For most of us who grew up in Christian circles (or even just saw it on TV), we watched churches refurbish sports stadiums into their new cathedrals. We were entertained by worship services that mimicked a Bon Jovi concert. We heard too much noise about not swearing, smoking, drinking, or going to second base with your girlfriend or boyfriend. At the end of the day, we know that largely this is all performance and the performance doesn’t connect us with God. (It connects us with religion). While the numbers of Christians in my generation are decreasing, for those of us who remain, I think we want God; we’re tired with the performance of religion.

I think what we long for is substance. The millennials are the first to step out of Christendom. We don’t want the institution that has so long dominated the generations before us, we want movement. We don’t want the Church to be about maintenance, we want it to be about mission. We don’t want to be known for appeasing the masses, we want to be about the minority. I don’t think they want to hear sermons about a God who has a plan for your life (the very fact that all human beings crave meaning ought to indicate that we know that life was meant to be lived and lived well). I think my generation wants substance that not moves us not only into an abundant life, but calls that abundant life into a social restoration. The performance did a great job of building a container for the institution, we want to know what is inside that container.

A few weeks I posted some thoughts on research that the Barna group did on science and the Church. When we look at why Christians are leaving the Church because of science, it is not because there aren’t answers out there, it’s because my generation believes that the Church isn’t integrating these answers into conversations, answers, and solutions. Some people are leaving the Church because they can’t stomach how Christianity could deny, what appears to them to be very clear answers about the functioning of the world. As well, others are leaving the Church because they’re tired or apathetic from the constant arguments. Regardless of where young Christians might stand, the Church is not attractive in it’s dealings with science. The days are leaving when we can have subjective answers and unhealthy discourse. My generation would rather be relevant, and integrative, rather than apathetic or compromising.

At the same time, my generation desires tradition. I see more and more people who are wanting to be devoted to a spiritual tradition. While my generation desires to be relevant, they also desired to be rooted. More and more people are devoting themselves to spiritual traditions than have in the past. You see people stepping away from their old traditions and into ones they feel have richer histories. They step away from modern spiritual practices and find ancient spiritual practices that they feel help them connect to God in a much more intimate way.

This generation is desiring not only a way to be more relevant but also more traditional. They want both extremes. They’re searching for God in a close, intimate way, but they don’t want to dismiss scientific data (or be divided by it). The Church of this generation will have to learn how to face this new way of thinking and living head-on if they’re going to be a welcoming space for this generation.

Once or twice a year I return to this song. I find immense hope in it because it reveals the honest doubt, shame, and searching that we all do. This song speaks to me every time I listen to it, I hope it speaks to you as well. I find great beauty less in catchy, sentimental phrases about Jesus, and more in the honest grit that faces our day-to-day lives. I think this songs captures that.