The name of the even is kind of wild—Panda-mania. The graphics for the week have a picture of this crazy looking panda bear—and the subtitle on the curriculum “Where God is Wild about you.”It sounds like a lot of fun, but…

Now, honestly, I don’t often think about God being wild and crazy. I do however sometimes think of God’s people being a bit crazy (I include myself in that), and certainly the world does. So what’s up with this? Is it just another indication that people don’t take faith seriously enough, or that we’re pandering (no pun intended) to families to get them interested in the Christian faith or church? These are very good questions.

Taking these questions to the Bible itself, it turns out that this VBS title is a more accurate description of the character of the God that is the Bible’s protagonist than one might think. Our cultural images of God seem to fall into three or more different categories; 1) the serene, transcendent and apparently distant Being, 2) the grandfatherly, kindly, happy to get any attention at all from you type, or 3), the angry, vengeful strike you with a bolt of lightning type. Of course, there are many mixtures, variations and caricatures of these images.

The image that arises from the narrative of scripture is something quite different. The story is of a God who is passionate about his creation, and in particular, about these creatures it says are created in God’s image. It’s the passion of a parent whose child is lost, or a spouse whose soul-mate has gone and longs for reconcilliation. It’s a passion that will do all that it takes to reclaim the lost one. It is willing be willing to absorb the hurt of the betrayel and to become vulnerable to it again (See Luke 15,  Isaiah 54, Jeremiah 3, and Hosea). This is crazy love—and its stronger than death itself, even willing to appear foolish and weak to make that love known and win his beloved back (For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength—I Corinthians 1:25), and loving enough to risk rejection.

So I guess, if that’s the kind of God we Christ followers say we have, and we say that this crazy love has somehow invaded our own sensibilities, it makes sense that we might go a bit wild ourselves in pursuit of the objects of this love. That’s really the motive for all the preparation and the prayer and the invitations and the signs and the food and the skits and the songs and the lists of craft materials, and… (and really all the other stuff we do as a church family). 

So, let’s go wild—following the God whose love won’t be tamed.

Yours for the Journey,
Pastor Tom