Comments on: May Recommendation http://www.thewayithink.com/2007/05/15/may-recommendation/ Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:35:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: John Sherk http://www.thewayithink.com/2007/05/15/may-recommendation/#comment-7212 John Sherk Fri, 18 May 2007 10:19:04 +0000 http://www.thewayithink.com/2007/05/15/may-recommendation/#comment-7212 I never know for sure when things are meaningful just for me or are something bigger than just me. But when I partly read/partly skimmed the article on homosexuality it struck me: what a gift gay people are to those of us who have a more conservative Christian background. What comes to mind for me is a similarity to manna in the desert for the Israelites. It was their sole provision for 40 years (the quail incidents not withstanding). And it was literally named "What is it?" The core provision from God that allowed the people of God to survive their journey one more day and they never knew what it really was. (My theory is that it was the origninal Ramen Noodles. No one knows that those are either. Just a thought.) I've come to believe that one of central principles of the "desert experience" is receiving provision from God that leaves us mystified. It strikes me that to the degree the Church in America is in "desert days", the provision of God will provoke the same response from his people: "WHAT is THAT?" Wouldn't it be interesting to reflect on all the people and events in our culture that provoke that response from us ("WHAT is THAT?") and just pause to ask if it might be manna? Not everything is of course. 9/11 was not manna. But I do believe gay people are manna for us. Here's why: does anything nourish our souls like loving somebody else? Loving someone else is the only un-gimic-ized part of Christian spirituality left, I think. How soul nourishing would it be to make spiritual exercise out of finding a gay person and just saying, "You know, I can't say I really understand you. But honestly, I've made jokes about you and said nasty things about you without ever really knowing you as whole person. I just want to say I'm sorry for that and any pain it caused." WHAT is THAT? Manna. I never know for sure when things are meaningful just for me or are something bigger than just me. But when I partly read/partly skimmed the article on homosexuality it struck me: what a gift gay people are to those of us who have a more conservative Christian background. What comes to mind for me is a similarity to manna in the desert for the Israelites. It was their sole provision for 40 years (the quail incidents not withstanding). And it was literally named “What is it?” The core provision from God that allowed the people of God to survive their journey one more day and they never knew what it really was. (My theory is that it was the origninal Ramen Noodles. No one knows that those are either. Just a thought.)

I’ve come to believe that one of central principles of the “desert experience” is receiving provision from God that leaves us mystified. It strikes me that to the degree the Church in America is in “desert days”, the provision of God will provoke the same response from his people: “WHAT is THAT?” Wouldn’t it be interesting to reflect on all the people and events in our culture that provoke that response from us (”WHAT is THAT?”) and just pause to ask if it might be manna? Not everything is of course. 9/11 was not manna. But I do believe gay people are manna for us.

Here’s why: does anything nourish our souls like loving somebody else? Loving someone else is the only un-gimic-ized part of Christian spirituality left, I think. How soul nourishing would it be to make spiritual exercise out of finding a gay person and just saying, “You know, I can’t say I really understand you. But honestly, I’ve made jokes about you and said nasty things about you without ever really knowing you as whole person. I just want to say I’m sorry for that and any pain it caused.” WHAT is THAT? Manna.

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