Being articulate and disillusioned about the church is popular. There is a lot of angst over a generation of people raised in the church who feel they were sold a bill of goods and are not afraid to talk about it. Many more drift away quietly.

Sarah Cunningham begins her book this way.

Dear Readers, I used to believe that the church was the most powerful source of hope on the planet. That is, until I got old enough to notice its defects.

Once in adult land, I quickly stumbled upon a list of religious flaws and a side of the church that was far from hopeful.

Unfortunately, I am not the only one who lost some admiration for the church along the way. Many of my fellow twenty-somethings ended up less than impressed with the church as well. And sadly, as my peers dropped out of local congregations, they were promptly welcomed into a multigenerational group of ex-church attenders.

Cunningham, Sarah Raymond (2009-08-30). Dear Church: Letters from a Disillusioned Generation (p. 10). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

Some will jettison the church but try to continue to “believe in God” or something. Others will become anti-Christian or anti-religious. Some will hunt after other religions and beliefs that seem to give them what they were looking for.

Mere Cynicism?

Many of these authors are young and as time goes by they like all of us continue to learn. The author of the above book just recently also wrote an article for a Christian blog entitled “I’ve grown Cynical of Cynicism” where she notes this:

In my 20s, you could have found me sitting cross-legged in a coffee shop, reading a real made-from-paper book with a dramatic title about economic inequality. Occasionally, I might’ve looked up at you to make clever, droll remarks about how the institutional church—and much of society—was missing the mark. Other days, I might’ve delivered a half-philosophical-diatribe, half stand-up comedy routine about the weaknesses of organized religion. And if you happened to jump in by highlighting your own list of social or religious flaws, we would’ve bantered back and forth like ESPN commentators until the coffee shop kicked us out at closing.

Add in the fact I was writing a book called Dear Church: Letters From a Disillusioned Generation, and I was pretty much the poster child for cynics toward religious institutions. It’s probably no surprise to you that this first book sold better than my second one, even though the later one was warmer and more positive and better crafted. It’s a testament to the preferences of our culture perhaps.

Let’s face it. Cynicism is sexy.

Not So Fast

Most of this stuff like this that crosses my screens comes from thoroughly comfortable, educated, middle class westerners. Given the amount of life and death suffering that happens in this world we shouldn’t be surprised that others wrestle with the question of God’s presence and the dependability of his promises. If you live long enough in the age of decay you will taste fear and loss and the question of God and his presence will be something that will be far from academic.

Common among the movement of contemporary skeptics of the church is skepticism about the Bible. Many rightly criticize the church for promoting a formulaic veneer on top of the Bible in an attempt to solicit allegiance and popularity for our religious cause. The longer I read the Bible the more I see how it actually grapples with the hard things of life in anything but a simplistic fashion. Nice churchy slogans usually break down when confronted with the breadth and diversity within the Christian canon. The Bible is more shocking, more alarming, and more resistant than much religious pablum regularly offered.

I would suggest that part of the reason the Bible continues to endure as a place where people turn when faced with real distress is because it is hard, not simple.

A Strange Guide

After the LORD delivered Israel from Egypt he made the following statement to Moses.

Exodus 13:17 (NET)

¹⁷ When Pharaoh released the people, God did not lead them by the way to the land of the Philistines, although that was nearby, for God said, “Lest the people change their minds and return to Egypt when they experience war.”

This verse might lead us to imagine that God will somehow make the way smooth for them. Continuing to read the story shows that would not be the case. Returning to Egypt would be continually on their minds.

• God leads them to a place where they will be trapped between the Reed Sea and Pharaoh’s army. There they will howl “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the desert?! Didn’t we tell you to leave us alone in Egypt!” They cried out against Moses and he complained to God. Then God delivers them and they celebrated. Change in circumstance, change in outlook. 
• God then leads them to the Desert of Sur where the water is bitter. The people murmured against Moses and God showed him a tree to make the water sweet and they drank. Then he took them to Elim where there were palm trees and good water wells and they liked that. Change in circumstance, change in outlook. 
• God then leads them into the Desert of Sin and they complained again against Moses and Aaron that there was no food and God gave them manna and quail. Change in circumstance, change in outlook. 

At each point God leads them, sometimes into distress, sometimes into relief. Poor unfortunate Moses is always caught in the middle. The story continues now at Rephidim.

Exodus 17:1–4 (NET)

¹ The whole community of the Israelites traveled on their journey from the Desert of Sin according to the Lord’s instruction, and they pitched camp in Rephidim. Now there was no water for the people to drink.² So the people contended with Moses, and they said, “Give us water to drink!” Moses said to them, “Why do you contend with me? Why do you test the Lord?” ³ But the people were very thirsty there for water, and they murmured against Moses and said, “Why in the world did you bring us up out of Egypt—to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” ⁴ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What will I do with this people?—a little more and they will stone me!”

Exodus 17:7 (NET)

⁷ He called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contending of the Israelites and because of their testing the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Literally

At a pastor’s meeting last week our meeting was interrupted by a gentleman who came by the pastor’s home we were meeting at. The pastor commented “this guy’s trying to make things right after he set fire to almost every house in the neighborhood last week” and the rest of us, who are seasoned pastors had one question “literally?”

The young pastor didn’t yet understand that many of us meant “literally” because if you work with people long enough you know how we use speech, but that people do literally set fires and burn things down. The world is like this.

When Moses says “they will stone me” I don’t believe he is exaggerating. Hunger and thirst will try a people to their core and given the pattern and the difficulties we should imagine that Moses is being quite serious, that things have gotten this bad.

The rest of the story is one of the most important, yet under-remembered stories in the Old Testament. The Passover and the Red Sea crossing gets all of the attention, but this little story is shocking and foundational in terms of what Yhwh is saying about himself and his commitment to his people.

Cynicism

Cynicism flourishes when we imagine that people are playing games and profiting from our own misery. We are cynical about religious leaders who say and do things that make them wealthy, popular or both. We are cynical about political leaders that will seem to say anything to get elected. We are cynical about institutions that use people to perpetuate their own power.

The people of Israel left Egypt with the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey, a land of rest, a land of promise and from the perspective of the Rephidim it seems Moses has sold them a bill of goods and they are fed up.

In Moses defense, it is not Moses who has been picking the route but Yhwh. It seems Yhwh is intentionally bringing them into these spaces and predicaments almost tempting them to cynicism. At each point, once he really has their attention, he seems to lay down a foundational lesson.

• At the Red Sea he shows himself to be master of the world against which no military empire can contest. He will save those he wishes to save and destroy those who come against him.
• In the Desert of Sur he shows himself to be their healer.
• In the Desert of Sin he shows himself to be the source of creational abundance capable of spreading a feast before a multitude in the wilderness.

Each of these lessons are important but this is where cynicism enters.  “Yes the institution, the functionary, the government has power, but it is for us or only for itself?” These acts show his power and his capacity, but here at Rephidim another question is pointedly asked, “but are you with US? Do you care about US?!” 

God on Trial

Exodus 17:5–6 (NET)

⁵ The Lord said to Moses, “Go over before the people; take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile and go. ⁶ I will be standing before you there on the rock in Horeb, and you will strike the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in plain view of the elders of Israel.

I don’t know if there is a more radical passage in the Old Testament beyond this one. It is shocking and disturbing, but you’re probably missing it because you don’t understand their culture and language.

It begins as the rescue stories usually do with God once again commanding Moses to do what he doesn’t want to do. Moses is to lead the people together with the elders to the place of God, where this whole journey began, to Horeb.

If you remember it was at Horeb where God first recruited Moses at the burning bush. Horeb was this place this all began.

Why have the elders in the lead with Moses? This entire scene is a legal dramatization of the people’s charge against God, that he has lied to them, cheated them, brought them out into the desert to die. All of the displays of power have been to his own glory and at their expense. They have had it with God and his program and want him denounced and condemned.

Moses is to bring the people to the rock at Horeb where God is to be tried, condemned and executed. Moses has feared that the people will stone him, this is where they are about to stone God.

Moses is commanded to take the staff of God, the staff that struck the Nile and parted the sea. The staff is the physical presence of the divine power that God has wielded to humiliate and destroy the gods of Egypt. This staff has been the weapon God has used to triumph over Pharaoh and him imperial army. We have already seen that there is no power that can contend with this in all of creation.

I Will Stand Before You

What God says he will do is shocking if you read your Bible carefully.

In the idiom of the Bible “to stand before” is the position of a servant who is about to be tried by a master, a king or a people. “To stand before” is the place of one who is being tried, one who may be condemned for missing the mark, for falling short, for failing at his duty to his master.

There is a passage in Genesis 18 where this comes up too. Most translations will read it this way.

Genesis 18:22–23 (NET)

²² The two men turned and headed toward Sodom, but Abraham was still standing before the Lord.²³ Abraham approached and said, “Will you sweep away the godly along with the wicked?

Your Bible might have a footnote, however, that indicates that ancient scribal traditions have the LORD standing before Abraham before Abraham asks his question. Commentators will note that this is unthinkable, the LORD stands before no one. Others will see the shocking logic of it, that Yhwh intentionally makes himself small, vulnerable, able to be judged by Abraham’s question.

Here God tells Moses, “They have been judging me. They have seen my power but because of their circumstances they doubt my faithfulness towards them, my commitment to them even at my own expense. They must see who I really am and the degree I am committed to their welfare, not just their temporary welfare that they are fixated upon, but their everlasting welfare. I will show this to them in a physical way they will need to remember. They wish to put me on trial, on trial I will go. They have declared me guilty and the weapon of execution will be my own power because no other power can defeat me. You will strike me with my own staff so that the people will live.”

Christ

Christians will of course pick up the thread. Paul in the first letter to the Corinthians declares that the rock is Christ. Why would he say such a strange thing? Because he understood what was happening.

Jesus came into this world and lived among his people and claimed that he and Yhwh were one. The people saw his power that he displayed in miracles and healings. Everyone was impressed with his power but that kind of power presents a problem. The power, or even just the reputation of power makes everyone around wonder if that power can be appropriated and aligned according to how we want it or think it should be applied.

Even in the midst of a polarized culture war, competing parties could agree on only one thing, the world would be better without Jesus.

When the Israelites asked the question “Is God among us or not?” what they really wanted to know was whether he was for them or not. How could he be for them, aligned with them, using his power for their welfare when they were suffering as they were? God’s answer was “I will give you life at the cost of my own.”

The drama that unfolded at Horeb was symbolic, Paul saw it as pointing to the literal drama on the cross, that outside of Jerusalem God himself again subjected himself to our justice. God would use the power of his rejection against himself so that the people could life. This was Paul’s gospel.

Can’t Let Go

If cynicism is sexy today it is because we can afford it. If we are young and wealthy and privileged we can play with ideas and adopt a cynical posture.

This story in the Old Testament would become emblematic of our nature. Meribah and Massah will be known for Israel “testing” God and God “testing” Israel. What is remembered is faithlessness.

The options today seem about the same as they were in Israel’s day. Israel at any time could have decided to abandon this “follow the cloud” thing they had going. They could have returned to Egypt and probably after a good whipping could have had all the Nile water they could drink. What then is finally the difference between belief in God’s commitment to us and abandonment of that belief?

What haunts much of the contemporary millennial doubt literature is the desire to not let it all go. They want to keep complaining about Moses but somehow keep clinging to God. To this God seems to say to Moses “make it clear, act against me to show who I really am.”

Silence

Japanese author Shusaku Endo wrote the book “Silence“. It is novel based around the attempt to end Christianity in Japan during the 17th century. In the novel a young priest is sent to investigate the apostasy of a Jesuit brother.

Christians are being arrested, tortured and killed. Those alive are being coerced to renounce their face by stepping on the “fumie”, a crudely carved image of Christ.

In the climax of the novel Christ breaks his silence and invites the priest to trample upon him.

Yet the face was different from that on which the priest had gazed so often in Portugal, in Rome, in Goa and in Macau. It was not Christ whose face was filled with majesty and glory; neither was it a face made beautiful by endurance to pain; nor was it a face with strength of a will that has repelled temptation. The face of the man who then lay at his feet [in the fumie] was sunken and utterly exhausted…The sorrow it had gazed up at him [Rodrigues] as the eyes spoke appealingly: ‘Trample! Trample! It is to be trampled on by you that I am here.’[4]

Invitation

You can leave. You can finally say “if there is a God he certainly doesn’t care” and then go and make a life for yourself to the degree that you can. The end of this is certain.

Or you can look at this God who offers himself to be smitten by his own power. You can believe that despite circumstance and trial that he is somehow will you and for you and that the things that assail you can be turned to your own good and to glory.

He offers himself to be judged, and convicted, and executed, and Christians believe after this he rose again to never die again. The choice is yours.