Osler's Razor

This morning I had the pleasure of going to two church services. I loved attending Carver Park Baptist Church, which this morning was a truly inspiring and joy-filled celebration of Christ.

Prior to that, though, I attended a forum at my own church, 7th and James, at which the Senior Minister, Raymond Bailey, answered the questions of kids in grades 3-6. Something really surprising happened there. I expected the kids to ask questions from a naive perspective about the Bible and God-- that is, questions which reflected ignorance. Instead, the questions often reflected the childrens' strong beliefs, some of which challenged the ideas of the minister. For example, one kid was focused on the idea that God is love, and questioned how that could be reconciled with some of the violence in the Old Testament.

The experience changed the way I had long thought about one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Luke 18:17 has Jesus, surrounded by children, teaching "Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." I had always thought that meant an approach that was simple and perhaps naive. However, after this morning, I think that it might mean that we need to come to God's Kingdom with a theology, but one like those of the children I heard this morning-- a belief that is uncompromised by the demands of the world, unalloyed by the accommodations we make to the rest of our lives. We have trouble with a God that is love, because that takes away our ability to judge in His name, which we want to do; we struggle with a God who teaches humility because we like to be exulted; and we resist a God who came to Earth as a poor man because we do not want to give up our wealth.