Noah’s story is NOT a kids story. Every children’s bible I’ve ever seen has it in there with cute little pictures of bears, elephants, and giraffes. I’d love to know how many kid books have been written on Noah. It has to be the most retold story in scripture.

As I stated this past week, I’ve yet to see a kid’s story deal with the 3 core difficult pieces of this story. Who exactly were the sons of God? What does it mean that God grieved and was sorry he had made mankind? By destroying the entire human race (save Noah) and the land animals, Did God call into question His goodness?

The Flood can be interpreted in two very different ways. It was the reaction of an angry, hurt, disappointed God. That mankind deserved this and God wanted a do-over. Somehow the killing of all of those people and animals appeased him. The rainbow stands as his apology of sorts that He won’t ever do it again. Noah somehow was the best of the worst and was ‘saved.’

Or maybe the Flood was just God bringing to the forefront the natural consequences of the choice humanity was making at that time. If the end game of all sin is death and something innocent dies with sin. If the utter reality of all sin is the ambushing of the human spirit and soul, God just brings the inevitable to the forefront with as little suffering as possible – relatively speaking. If every inclination was evil, death was the conclusion. The Ark then becomes a story of redemption.

How we view the story really hinges on how we view sin. Is it as bad as scriptures say it is or is just a flaw, a minor bother? Is sin really deadly or more of a nuisance?

Sherri was our artist for these pieces. Sherri has both learning and emotional disabilities that make expressing herself difficult. Art has given her a venue to show the rest of us what she sees and feels.

The idea that sin is out to ambush Cain…on purpose…with no remorse…to destroy him…that’s disturbing enough. That’s reality though, a reality I’m afraid that so few of us take seriously. Sin’s end aim for humanity is to kill and destroy. I learned in the Army that ambushes weren’t designed to have survivors and the best way to deal with ambushes was to avoid them all together. It’s hard at times to see my sin in this light…but it is whether I believe to be true or not.

But God’s words to Cain that he MUST, he CAN master it are equally disturbing. I’m pretty sure Cain didn’t feel that way. I’m pretty sure I don’t feel that way at times. It doesn’t FEEL like we can MASTER it but it is MASTERING us. God’s formula of mastering it – ‘do what is right’ – sounds both so ridiculously simple and difficult. Just do it. Don’t do what you feel, do what you know is right.

There’s the not-so-secret formula for avoiding ambushes and spiritual transformation in general – do what is right in spite of how you feel. That was Cain’s downfall – and mine at times – he let his emotions win, not his mind. He felt downcast and rejected because his offering wasn’t accepted by God. It wasn’t accepted because he did not do what he knew was right. God gave him the chance to fix it. When Cain didn’t, Sin pounced. The pattern is there in my own life — the feelings trump the facts, God doesn’t get the last word and when God doesn’t get the last word, sin does and sin always kills something innocent.

The 7 hands (can you find them all?) depict the 7 deadly sins (can you name them all?). I like the idea of the hands. It’s our hands that carry out the directive…we put ‘hands’ to the thought. I think there is something deeper at work here as well – that is there are no faces. A face would make the sin more deadly and therefore harder to dismiss and rationalize. Without the face, we can blame others, diminish the seriousness, ignore the victims, fall into a false sense of security that maybe the deadly sins aren’t really deadly. They aren’t. It’s just easier to justify living with them without faces.

What is Cain looking at? His past? His future? Why is he even given the opportunity to look in the first place? Why did God spare his life? Was allowing him to live but outside the presence of God really ‘sparing’ him? Sure Cain got to live but not really live – a wanderer, constant fighting with the land, the mark a constant reminder of his failure, not able to reconnect with the lover of his soul. It’s another layer of disturbing – God doesn’t avenge Abel. Grace wins again? Yet Cain’s banishment is the definition of hell – living outside the presence of God.

The auction will start at 5.30 pm on Friday night but Warehouse 414 is going to extend the auction throughout the entire month of February. After Friday, the art will be back on display at Western Hills for our services on Sunday then back to Warehouse 414 on Monday for the rest of the month. On February 28, the auction will close and the paintings sold to the highest bidder.

There has been quite a buzz generating throughout the city about this. In fact, Warehouse 414 published the following article to their art followers:

Students involved in Circle of Friends were given a blank canvas and the opportunity to tell one of the stories of ORIGINS found in Genesis. All of the pieces are available for silent auction with all proceeds going to Circle of Friends at Washburn Rural High School. The following is an interview with Grant English lead pastor at Western Hills regarding this show:

The result of all of this? Stunning. Art has always inspired and provoked. With this project we also get to be a part of the healing.”

So if you are in Topeka this Friday night, come see me at Warehouse 414 and see these incredible pieces.

So starts the review of a new video game coming out this year – “Left Behind.” Generally, I’m a positive person and enjoy sarcasm and the well placed barb with the best of them. For some reason this morning, this all hit me wrong…on multiple levels.

I was offended by the writer. I wondered if he had ever read C.S. Lewis, Donald Miller, or a host of other writers who are creative, thoughtful, insightful, and funny. I wondered if he was just as guilty as the “Christian sub-culture” – staying inside his particular world, never straying outside it to give the other side a fighting chance. I wondered if he had ever even met a real, thoughtful, Christ-follower.

But more than those feelings, there was another set rising in me. Why release a cheap, less than excellent video game? Why make corny, cheeseball movies that make everyone feel awkward and think they are watching a middle school production? Why scream and holler and generally make stupid comments of how God hates people? Why do all of these things then blame Jesus for it? And we tolerate it – we meaning the Christ-following subculture.

The gentleman at G4tv.com closed his article with this:
I’m not mocking Christians, the Bible, or Jesus. I’m poking fun at the man made junk that surrounds Christianity. The terrible cartoons, bad movies, half-***ed video games and obvious hucksterism is funny, no matter who you worship. … I wish Christians were being served with Art that is as great and formidable as their religion. With the exception of Mel Gibson films, the Christian entertainment I’ve seen is simplistic drivel.

I agree with him. The man-made junk that surrounds Christianity – I think Jesus’ reaction in the Temple gives a clear picture as to his opinion on the matter. I too desire Art that is as great and formidable as our faith. I’m hopeful the tide is turning – The Blind Side, The Book of Eli, and How To Save A Life all are movies that I think are great and formidable.

For years this was true – the masterpieces of Art that hang in museums around the world were done by people who loved God or were commissioned by the Church to paint them. In a world that valued military conquest and intellectualism, the Church for centuries was the only place that protected and elevated the arts.

I hope we’ve done this at Western Hills through this series. That wasn’t the goal…the goal was to create an experience for people to connect with God. I think ‘great and formidable’ art does this. I think it stretches us, demands more from us. I think it can take us to these thin places where God is easier to connect with.

I think if we – Christ-followers – would continue to uphold and demand this kind of art, Jesus would be easier to find. And the man-made junk that surrounds him would be easier to dismiss.

I think there are two opposite and incorrect extremes in understanding humanity. The first is seeing us as the center of the universe, the focal point. Refusing to acknowledge that we are broken in some way. In essence, making ourselves our own god.

But I think the opposite extreme is also wrong – thinking that mankind is so totally depraved and wrong of being of any value at all. The mere fact we are made in the image of God gives every human value and dignity, regardless of station in life.

We are beautiful, deep, broken, repairable, redeemable creations.

There are some subtleties in these paintings that if you are in a hurry, you will miss. The first is how every color in the palette is used to make Adam and Eve. Philip said, “I really don’t know what color they were so I used them all.”

The second thing to notice is the serpent. He’s there. He’s not overbearing, he’s not dominant. He’s subtle, like a whisper. Can you find him? I love this depiction of the serpent. He’s not offensive or overbearing, you can miss him. But once you recognize him for what he really is, you’ll never miss him again.