Mark Schnell

Eclectic thoughts on preaching, woodworking, grilling and life in general

The Value of Human Life: A Challenge to Myself and Other Christians

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I think the problem with so many of the voices today (and society in general) is that they don’t value life, at least not in the way Jesus did. Some devalue life when they only encourage immigration that allows for people they find personally valuable, a kind of a “what can you do for me” mentality. If you can add value to my life and won’t cost too much, then I want you here. If not, keep steppin’.

We devalue life when we worry so much about protecting our own place of privilege that we refuse to acknowledge that it even exists. It also happens when we stand on soapboxes about social ills of our day with no thought to why things got to be the way they are or how to make them better. We devalue life when we refuse to see the truth about the effects and reality of racism in our culture.

We devalue life when our words and actions contradict a love and care for it. Taunting potential shooters with a “Let’s teach them a lesson” challenge is just a step or two removed from “Kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out!” Are you kidding me? Reducing the idea of taking another human life into a taunt or a thing to cheer about must make Jesus cringe. It does me, anyway.

We devalue life when we place personal choice over it. I wonder how Jesus feels about the killing of actual human beings by the thousands, all in the name of choice. One child is delivered pre-term and is cherished and nursed to health. Another child is aborted at the same gestational age and we march in the streets to guarantee that doing this is always a legitimate choice. Really? We rail against the death penalty and at the same time march for the free choice to abortion. Really? Life is precious.

We devalue life when we say by our words and actions, “I only want you around if you act and believe like I do.” That’s not what Jesus did. He loved others without reservations. He told the truth to people, yes he did, but I would be very surprised if every person that he spent time with who was considered a “sinner”, even those he considered to be that, came to faith in him. Yet, he loved them and spent time with them anyways. He added value to others, he gave them dignity, he recognized that they were God’s children.

Folks, we live in a culture of violence — and it exists on so many levels. Even those that would never dream of owning a gun, and think no one else should either, might be buying into this culture of violence. Even the way we talk proves this. President Obama’s communications director, Jennifer Psaki, said of the president campaigning for Hillary Clinton, “”(Obama) has indicated he wants to spend a lot of time on the campaign trail, so when it’s time to do that, we’ll go out guns ablazing,” President Obama is staunchly pro-gun control, but even his team uses violent imagery in their communications. We and our children play video games that award high scores for shooting and killing others. We forget the fact that we are depicting the taking of human life. We watch movies and TV shows and cheer when the bad guy (or zombie!!) gets blown away, or decapitated or whatever. Our entertainment depicts police officers or soldiers that are forced to take another life and we cheer. But what we don’t see is the reality that soldiers or officers in the real world might spend months or years suffering from PTSD because they had to take another life. Whether or not they had a choice in the moment is beside the point, taking a life should never be easy. Making games out of taking life and being entertained by the flippant loss of it are not examples of the Jesus I want to emulate. Oh, and why stop now when I’m probably ticking people off – we play paintball and buy airsoft guns for our kids that are so real they are indistinguishable from real guns. You might be thinking, “Come on, Mark! Are you serious? – paintball, airsoft?” Well, think about it. The point of those things is to make a game at shooting one another. I’m not judging you, I’m just saying, we live in a culture of violence.

When I’m truly honest about these issues I know that my finger is pointing at myself as much as anyone. Some of my favorite movies from the past have been ones that celebrate, if not the flippant taking of human life, at least some kind of strange idea of honor on the battlefield. I cheer in a football game when a player is tackled so hard that they leave their feet or their head whips back. I have been raised in a culture of violence and have personally celebrated it far too often. These issues have been ones that I’ve been working through for a long time and I will continue to work through them my whole life, I’m sure. I don’t mean to judge anyone. But I ask myself, and maybe you might want to ask yourself, “Do my words, opinions and actions represent that life has value? Do I value life in the same way Jesus does?” I fall short of that question in many ways but I pray that the giver of life, the one who valued it enough to give his own, will change me, will transform me into his image. I pray that what Jesus values I will value.

God help me. God help us.

 

I’m With You, Fellers!

I’m With You, Fellers!

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One of my favorite movies, O Brother, Where Art Thou, has a great scene where the simple-minded Delmar O’Donnell(center), when forced to choose sides between his two forceful buddies, looks at them with a cheesy grin and says, “Okay… I’m with you fellers.” He’s so nice he can’t choose between the two. I’ve been like Delmar too many times, afraid to pick a side because I might make the other side mad at me. But I wonder, do we have to choose a side? And is it possible that both sides could be a little right and a little wrong?

With all the tragedies in the world lately involving gun violence and terrorism we have been hearing many voices calling for more gun laws. “If we only got rid of guns then these things wouldn’t happen.” Then we hear the other side, “No, you idiot! We need more guns, not less. Guns don’t kill people, bad guys do!”

Regarding immigration, we might hear that we need to open our borders and our arms to everyone in need. “Let ‘em all in, we’ve got room for more. We’ll find a way to pay for it.” Then we hear the other side, “Hey, it’s not our problem. If we let them all in who’s to say the terrorists we might miss. How will we pay for it?”

With racial matters we see that #blacklivesmatter, but another side says that #alllivesmatter and focusing on one race isn’t fair. But then, if we focus on #alllivesmatter it does harm to those that say #blacklivesmatter — it lessens their struggles. But then we hear other voices that say we’re ignoring the fact that thousands of unborn are being killed everyday and they say #unbornlivesmatter.

With all the issues and voices out there I can understand Delmar’s dilemma. When faced with picking sides I want to just look at all of them and say, “Okay… I’m with you fellers.” I can see that these issues, and so many others, are complex, with many sides. To be honest, I’m kind of afraid of those that try and say they aren’t. But it can be hard to pick a side.

Ultimately though, I don’t want to be like Delmar, I would rather say, “Okay…  I’m with Jesus, fellers.” I know, I know. It has to be pointed out that this statement is dependent on which Jesus you are talking about. Am I with the Jesus the Westboro Baptist church* embodies? No way! Am with the Jesus that Jerry Falwell Jr. embodied when speaking of the possibility that Muslim terrorists might show up on the campus of Liberty University said, “Let’s teach them a lesson if they ever show up here.” Nah, that doesn’t quite sound right to me. Should I be with the Jesus that really only cares that you are a good, moral person? This is the Jesus that might say your opinions and political views only belong to you and shouldn’t be visible to others, they’re nobody else’s business. This Jesus might say that all paths lead to God as long as they don’t make anyone else feel badly. No, that Jesus doesn’t quite line up with the one I read about in the Bible.

I’m with the Jesus that stepped away from the majesty and power of his divine self and in some mysterious way I don’t understand became fully human and fully divine. But that Jesus, he loved people. He even loved those that weren’t clean, or born in the right country or in the right social situation. He loved the ones that had no power and who couldn’t offer him anything in return. This Jesus loved people, even people that lived in ways that he didn’t agree with, and he loved enough to tell them the truth. More than that, he offered them the Way, the Truth and the Life through himself.

I’m just going to say it. I’m with the Jesus that loves like this, fellers.

*I refuse to give them a capital C, though grammatically it should capitalized.

That Looks Good, Pass Me A Cup

That Looks Good, Pass Me A Cup

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I’m weird. I don’t like coffee. I’ve finally come to realize that the bitter sensors in my tongue are on overdrive and I just can’t stand anything that tastes bitter. Dark chocolate — forget it! Grapefruit — blech! On top of that, I’m just not a fan of hot drinks.

But you know what might be even weirder? I want to like coffee. I really do. I see everyone enjoying their hot cup of Joe in the morning and I want that. I watch them with both hands wrapped around the cardboard sleeve of their venti brew on a cold morning and I wonder, “Why not me?” I see people walk into their local coffee house, Starbucks, Tim’s, or Dunkin Donuts and they order their favorite mocha docha frappa lappa ding dong, or whatever you coffee people call those things, and I feel like I’m missing out.

[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]I see people sitting in their trendy coffee shops and I feel like a hungry kid with his face pressed against the window of the bakery shop on donut day. “Please, sir. Can I have one too?”[/pullquote]

You know why I want to like coffee? It’s because I feel like I’m missing out on something. I feel like you coffee lovers share some kind of special bond or secret knowledge and I want to be a part of your club. I want to sit down next to you on the comfy couch of your hip coffee house and sip my expensive, bitter drink too. You coffee drinkers make it look so good, and I want what you have!

[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]But, truth be told, I don’t want your drink, I want your experience — I want your bond. I want to be a part of the fellowship of the bean![/pullquote]

When I think of these things it leads me to wonder about the life I display, the Christianity that I demonstrate to the world. I wonder about my church, my family and my friends. Do I — do we — show the world something they might want. I believe from the bottom of my heart that Christ is what the world needs, but would they even want the Christ we show them? Do they see the way we live, and love, and fellowship, and serve, and accept and think to themselves, “I’m not sure what that is, but I gotta get me some of that!” Or would they see the way we live, the way we tweet and post, or drive, or work, or judge and reject and say, “Nope, I’d rather sleep in on Sunday. I’ve got better things to do with my time. If that’s what Christianity is then you can keep it.”

Jesus told his followers that they were “the light of the world — like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”

I think Jesus is talking about a life of faith that is active and loving. I think he’s talking about the kind of religion that says to other religious people, “Yes, I know you have things that you’re against. I don’t find every single thing in the world acceptable either. But while you spend your time posting, and tweeting and running away from the things you’re against and people that are different from you, I’d rather love them. I’m going to shine a little bit of Light on ‘em. As a matter of fact, I’m kicking the basket off this light — pass me that stand over there. No, not that one. Give me that other one. Yeah, that one —the tall one. I want to lift this light, God’s light, even higher!”

Of course everyone won’t accept your faith, no matter how kind and loving it is, no matter how much the light of Christ shines from you. You know what, God gives them that choice.

[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]But there will be others that will see your life and love and they’ll be like that hungry kid pressing her face against the bakery shop window and say, “Can I come in? Can I sit with you? can I enjoy whatever it is that you’re having?” Then you and Christ will open the door and invite them in.[/pullquote]

As much as I’m convinced that I’ll never like coffee, I’m convinced that many people will find this kind, loving and light-filled life sweet. It’ll be sweeter than anything they’ve ever tasted and they’ll want more. They won’t be able to get enough of that sweet, bright taste of Christ. Then their lives will start to shine and the sweet aroma of Christ will drift all around them too. They’ll look around themselves and wonder who they can share it with. They’ll go to their friends and say, “You gotta try this, you’ll love it!”

About this blog

I’m as preacher and a teacher of preachers. But I’m also a person that enjoys an eclectic mix of things. This blog is a place to highlight my academic and ministerial interests, but also, some of the other stuff I enjoy. I hope I can also throw in a few things to help around your home too.

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