Sign Language

As many of you heard, a tornado touched down at the Churchwide Assembly last week. After the storm passed and everyone took a deep breath and realized no one was hurt & the damage minimal, there was a LOT of joking about the tornado being a sign from God.

Contextually important is that the storm hit in the midst of the Assembly's discussion and vote on the new social statement, "Human Sexuality: Gift & Trust," which passed by the skin of its teeth.

With their tongues in their cheeks, those opposed to the social statement asserted that the tornado must have been a portentious omen from a distressed and angry God. Meanwhile, those in favor of the statement noted that the tornado hit during the discussion, but that as soon as the vote was taken, the sun came out and the wind ceased.

In fact, in almost every conversation I've had about the social statement, the tornado comes up in one way or another. We seem to jump to this conversation (however glib we might be) about SIGNS.

I like the idea of signs from God, despite my typical skepticism about such things.

Just yesterday, I was on an airplane, and I looked out of the window to see a lit-up cross shining up at me from the ground. (It was a small town at night.) It reminded me of Jesus, and that's a good thing.

And, a few months ago, as I was being pulled over for speeding on 8th St (yes, it's true), I could see the Trinity window in my rear-view mirror, and it gave me a little bit of peace in the midst of a stressful situation. A sign? Who knows, but again, it reminded me of Jesus, and that's a good thing.

Years ago, I had a more profound experience with what I considered to be a sign from God. The year after college, I'd been experiencing a period of extreme doubt in the existence of God. It was a real struggle for me to pray, to go to church...to let myself believe. And so, one night, I opened my Bible, and asked God for a concrete sign that God was real...something I could hold onto. And, on the first page I opened to, the word "believe" was highlighted 7 or 8 times. A sign? Who knows...but it kept me going for a while. I don't think it was magic, and I don't know if it was a sign...but it showed me that some other person in this world felt the need to highlight that word over and over again. I saw that 'sign', and I didn't feel so alone in my struggle.

Not all signs are helpful. I'm from the south, where there are lots of billboards shouting at people to 'REPENT!' or to 'READ YOUR BIBLE!'. These aren't so helpful, I don't think. They mostly just make me roll my eyes & get a little angry.

Signs can point us in the wrong direction, if we aren't careful, because we can read them any way we want to. Like the tornado at Churchwide Assembly, the same sign can be read in opposite ways.

So if signs are dangerous, where do we go for direction, when we need help along the way?

We don't get a clear, Charlton Heston-God-voice out of the clouds.

We don't get Bible passages that say: "Marsha, here's your task for today"

Discernment is messier than that. Our recent debates on sexuality have shown us that, if we didn't know it already.

Well, I don't have all the answers (shocker!), but...we Lutherans do believe that the sure sign we do have is the CROSS. We have a clear revelation of who God is and what God wants of us in Jesus Christ - in the way he lived and the way he died...and the way he lived again. When we're unsure about life, we can look to Jesus' life. When we're unsure about our next steps, we can read about the steps Jesus took all over Galilee and Samaria and Jerusalem. When we need a sign, we have the cross.

Apart from the cross, things get murky.

But it's not the most ideal sign. It points us to conflict and sacrifice and death. But, it also points to new life after every suffering we face. It points to nonviolence, saving grace, and the biggest love there is. It points us to God...a God not of glory, but of LOVE. A God that doesn't send little magic signs like tornados and billboards, but a God that does much better - our God comes to us in Jesus...Godself in front of us, God present with us, 2000 years ago, and NOW. God is here. And we don't need tornados to tell us that.

Ok, I'm done preaching for now.

For more info on the Churchwide Assembly, check out www.elca.org/assembly.

posted by Marsha.