Bummer, I swear just about fifteen seconds ago I had this major major (ok, no really) stuff to verbal vomit about, but now once I'm actually trying to type it all out, ZILCH, NADA, NOTHING, KOSONG.
Ok, let's take it slowly— slowly, surely, steadily.
This post is not gonna be an ambush against the Cosmos, though it may still be mindless and trivial (I mean hey, nothing on this blog has ever been otherwise anw), but I've decided to cut Cosmos some slack because, as evidenced by the numerous stage performances I attended—which by right I should not have, for the simple reason that I was supposed to be mugging for my papers— the poor Cosmos has been publicly battered and decimated quite horribly. I can never really and truly understand stage performances that make this epic showcase of an attempt of hating the world, you know: frantic clamouring, unwarranted struggling, intense frown into the abyss, et cetera. First of all, how do you get the inspiration for that? Do you wake up one fateful morning and suddenly say to yourself 'Hey! I've decided to hate the world for 5 minutes on stage.' I mean, what? How? Again, disclaimer: I'm not saying that these sorta items are bad (who am I to judge, right?), in fact, and I say this with all sincerity and humility, they are beyond me-- at least, beyond the grasp of my intellectual capacity. All I'm saying is that they are just not my cup of tea, not my bread and butter.
Anyhoo, all this dubiousness (yes, dubiousness is actually word) brings me to the next point. WHAT IS UP WITH PREACHERS THESE DAYS? *pause for dramatic effect* Ok, I gotta say I can be one critical sonofabitch at times when it comes down to preachy preachy asking-for-a-slap stuff. *cough cough Mitch Albom with Tuesday with Morrie* I've been so for quite some time now. But, what is up with preachers not integrating logic in their sermons? I know religion and logic have had a bad break-up nong nong time ago, their current relationship much like that between me and floor work— these two things are just not meant to be put in the same pot. BUT SERIOUSLY. And this only happened last Sunday.
Here's the thing: first of all the preacher said: God is (for the lack of a better word) magic/miraculous because He has made many miracles. At this point, Calvin did step 1: nodded in approval and comprehension. Then the preacher said: look at Adam (the first man to walk the earth, or so they— I mean, the Bible says), Adam is made from dust and ashes, NOT through man and woman. Calvin repeated step 1. The preacher continued: look at Eve (the first lady of... the world), Eve is made from Adam's rib bone, she is made through MAN, and NOT woman. Calvin did step one, albeit now in anticipation for some ingenuous revelation at the end. The preacher then said: look at Jesus— insert summary of the nativity story— He is made from WOMAN, and not man. Calvin stayed quiet in anticipation. Suddenly, THAT'S WHY GOD IS MAGIC, GOD IS MIRACULOUS, GOD HAS MADE MANY MIRACLES, blah blah, et cetera. Calvin literally made a face and yelped a loud 'HARH?'
Calvin's friends laughed at this impulsive reaction.
Again, I am not questioning the credibility of the premises the preacher relied on. I did, and do agree that God is all in all, all that jazz, almighty, all-knowing, Alabama, Aljazeera, Al-Ameen. However, as a preacher, you can't and shouldn't make a point simply by raising your voice and acting all worked up and convincing when in substance you are not making an argument. There's no causal thread pulling your very first statement and your conclusion together. I'm saying all this not because I've the law-student mentality (please dun give me this crap). It's just basic common sense. If there's no sense, there's nothing. Without a point, an interpretation, an argument, you are merely stating the obvious. To a born-Christian like me (bold statement huh?), the whole service would just become meaningless— captured in the cliched one-liner: Tell me something I don't know.
It is this sorta explanation (or the lack thereof) that makes people like me who are edging on the religious-agnostic border wanting even more to jump to other side. The very basis of Christianity is, well, belief— which means faith, which essentially means (and dun go one a hate rampage on me for this) blind faith. There's nothing wrong with that, and especially to me, acceptance of such blindness is relatively easier because I was young and naive when I had it, or to put it in more cynical terms: I didn't know any better. However, in spite of all this, Christianity has develop its internal logic, through which we derive understanding and comfort that there's coherence in it, that everything is not fallacious and amorphous— or worse still, bogus. (Sorry, this last sentence looks like an extract from Boringtown University Journal.)
So, coherence, logic, good argumentation, or whatever you wanna call it, you cannot— and I repeat— cannot lose it. Help me help you to convince me that you are making sense, that there's something there immanent in this spiritual, religious belief— from which revelations after revelations may flow through a vessel that is you, the preacher— that a faithful-wanna-be like this dude right here, genuinely hungering for the Word of God, can latch onto. It's not about speaking in tongue. It's not about making people deaf with a loud voice. It's not about beautiful singing. It's not about long prayers. It's about understanding (or more specifically, trying to understand) Him. If I do my part right, so should you, no?
P.S. Believe it or not, this is not what I had in mind 15 seconds before I sat down.
