Lent Day 15: WIGIAT? God is not CNN.

This post continues my daily, Lenten updates of my blog, focusing on WIGIAT? or Where is God in all this?

Today, I was stuck at the Toyota dealership as the standard maintenance on our car turned into a brake job. While there, the tv's in the waiting area were on CNN, where it was non-stop coverage of the airplane that went missing after it took off from Malaysia.

What happened to this airplane is certainly a mystery, and the stress and strain on the families and those who are close to the passengers is something I can't begin to imagine, but CNN spent hours not reporting any news, but speculating on it. In fact, their coverage seemed like it was cut out of the recent movie, Anchorman 2...and that was a ridiculous and very funny comedy. At one point, there was a camera shot of a bunch of reporters, and the CNN reporter described it as "remarkable". The other low-light was the continual coverage of the lithium batteries that were on board, which have apparently caused fires on other flights. The host of whatever show was asking someone about whether or not that could be why the flight had disappeared. While the guest said that is theoretically possible, all the logic points to that not being the case. The guest's logic didn't fit the speculation though, so the host quickly poo pooed it.

So, Where is God in all this? To many people, talk about religion and God is like the speculation that goes on in our 24 hour news cycles. People spend valuable time, and energy arguing and speculating on God and the things of God. Mostly, they're trying to tell everyone how right they are, and stand firm upon their complete fantasies that they parrot around as the "Gospel Truth". And, while yelling about how totally awesome their God is, these folks are usually yelling about how totally awful someone they don't like is. And, who can argue, because opinion is fact when you have the "Gospel Truth" of speculation.

Still wondering where God is? God is not in speculation, or the unknown, God is in the known. God of course is well beyond our understanding, but God has given us the means to understand and know, and even taste and see and feel who God is. God has done this in the human flesh that Jesus took on, and God has given us the truth of this flesh in the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. Baptism tells us who is beloved and why, everyone because God made them. Eucharist tells us what we can do to mess up that love, nothing, because God would even die for us because of this unending love. Through the sacraments, our God  gives us the life of Jesus, and calls us to share the God who has been given to us in this certain way, with all of creation.