I've been working this summer on seven presentations for Walla Walla University's October "Week of Worship." The topic I've chosen to bite off (and really, I've sensed God's nudge in this direction) is ... shutter ... Christian apologetics. The Big Question, in two words: Is God?
There will be some students (perhaps the majority) who have never questioned God's existence. Will this week seem like an "already got that question figured out, let's move on?" Somehow I hope their faith will find strength and greater experience as they consider philosophical reasons to believe. I also hope they will see the week as a CPR class: preparing for when others (or even themselves) will benefit from what they have learned. (This is a mature approach to listening to sermons, by the way. To learn FOR OTHERS and to learn FOR YOUR FUTURE, even if the present does not resonate with the message.)
There will be some students who've never had serious questions about God's existence, but the darkness visits them from time to time (as it did Mother Teresa, Ellen White, Henri Nouwen, and, honestly, probably the majority of God-seekers). In some ways this group will be the easiest to speak to: they know the monsters that lurk. To hear reasons to believe will be of comfort.
Then there will be some students who have explored the big questions--and now have big, big questions. They will question whether any "arguments" really should or can be made. Christianity seems illogical, non-believable. In my faith tradition (Adventism) there are, like in other tribes, many who have serious, thoughtful doubts. I have many friends (from teenagers to retirees) who simply have given up believing. The challenge with this group will also be to make arguments in an honest, mature, humble way. The church has made so many arguments about so many things--and claimed that each of these topics is of paramount importance. We have cried wolf when there has been no wolf. We have sounded a "Level Five" alarm when the emergency has not been one. And so, to those weary of constant argumentation--a challenge to make any argument.
At the end of the day, we share our stories. We speak of our convictions. Everyone lawyers. We all communicate our view of the world. We do so respecting the other point of view. We try not to overstate or understate what we think we know, what we have come to believe. I like the language of NT Wright in his "Simply Christian." He speaks of hints of God. Whispers. Suggestions. God leaves bits of himself in science, morality, relationships, philosophy, history--we can find him as we seek. But he doesn't "slam dunk" his case in our face. And perhaps we should not "slam dunk" his case in the face of others.
Ultimately, I think, belief is found in personal experience. "I know he lives. He lives within my heart." Making the case doesn't hold a candle to knowing the Christ. And so he can be found in physics and math, Shakespeare and Twain, chocolate and 10Ks, and most certainly in a life devoted to justice, to compassion, to serving the least of these, who is, Jesus.
