Information is the answer?

Facts are what got us into this mess. Am I right or am I right? At some point, mankind decided that information was the answer, that we can know enough about enough to explain everything you ever needed to know.

Sounds good, but what happens when it doesn’t work? What happens when facts don’t make my life different or better or more importantly, more fulfilled? What happens when all the information and knowledge still doesn’t keep people from dieing of cancer? What happens when knowledge doesn’t stop another dictator from genocide? An AIDS epidemic? The more we find out as humans, the more we find out, there is more we don’t know.

What happens when information doesn’t make my life experience better? More rewarding? More alive?

In my youth the church emphasized facts. Do you know the right information? Did you have the right information when you were baptized? The problem is, it didn’t make it better.

Is it any surprise, when people see churches full of people with facts about Jesus, but little in the way of warmth, that doubt surfaces?

What happens when children, who lived in homes where mom and dad affirmed the right information while leaving them home alone, grow to be adults? Their church taught them a lot of facts but those facts didn’t help as they dealt with life. They didn’t change things when puberty arrived. Those facts didn’t help navigate their experience, and since they didn’t help, information has become suspect, especially from those viewed as authorities.

So what do you do when something like the Da Vinci Code comes up? If the facts that many were taught have been found lacking, will more information help clear the confusion?

These questions have been with us for years and have been answered but will that matter? If the information is suspect, if people have a distrust because people didn’t practice what they preached, how is adding more information going to help?

I am paid to add information, but how do I add information without seeming like I am adding information?

What excites me is the knowledge that Jesus came into a religious community in the exact same shape. The leaders had given their people plenty of information, and yet they didn’t live that information out.

Jesus says, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” Matthew 23:2-4

They were sharing good information, God’s law given to Moses, and yet they were creating quite the mess. It is important to notice that Jesus never said the information is bad, he just tells them that those presenting it don’t really get it. I wish we could understand this today.

I see too many wanting to jettison the entire idea of biblical inspiration just because they grew up finding the way the information was handled wanting. You don’t have to throw out the baby with the bathwater. We don’t have to rewrite the information just because religious people didn’t allow the information into their souls. The information is not the problem. The fact that people thought information was enough is.

This brings us to the main point. What do we do in a culture where information has been used so poorly? Where people have used it as a substitute for relationship? Again, in looking at Jesus, we find the answer. In John 4:4-26, Jesus meets a woman at a well. If you know the story then you know the woman has information. In fact, she attempts to make the conversation all about information; where are we suppose to worship? It reminds me so much of the information wars that different churches wage. You must know this, you have to worship like that, the Spirit comes when you do this. All a battle of information.

Clearly this woman had not been helped by the religion of the day. She has been through five marriages. That is a lot even in today’s standards. She is on her sixth relationship living with a man. Information has not helped her.

So what did Jesus do to reach this woman? Did he give her more information? You could say yes but I would disagree. He avoids the conversation about information, where should we worship, and takes a different tact. He offers her life. He offers her a drink that will truly satisfy.

How does he do this? What strikes me when I read this story is he tells her about her life, not his own. He engages her where she lives, not where he lives. He engages her with her dysfunction and in doing so shows that the offer stands for even someone like you.

I too often want to tell my story. How about you? I too often want to tell the story of the gospel, this is how it is, and yet because of experience I am just presenting more information. Not only am I presenting more information but I am probably presenting information that has already been discounted. I too often focus on what I know and I work to engage people into a discussion so I can share my facts. The information is good but if our culture suspects information I am destine to fail.

Jesus does the opposite. He comes to hear her story and engages it fully, with no punches pulled. No excuses given and no judgments made. I want something to be understood, he is not endorsing her behavior or lending acceptance, her response shows that. What I want to be certain to show is that he goes where her story lies, not his own. I too want to learn people’s stories.

I can work with this. In a world where information isn’t enough and stories matter, I can engage in this. I must start by asking their story. Tell me about your experience. What has your life been like? In engaging that story I can find a place to offer life.

That is the final thing I want to point out. Jesus promises her life. He offers God’s Spirit. He tells her that she can drink and be quenched. All the things she has searched for from these men have left her empty but she doesn’t have to be empty anymore.

Do you believe in the indwelling Spirit? Not as a fact? Not as a gimmick used to make worship more exciting, but as something that fills you and leaves you satisfied? I personally am afraid to offer this to people because I’m not sure I really believe it. How small of me.

We have a generation that is empty. It is seeking relationships and yet keeps finding dysfunction, just like this woman at the well. Do I have the guts to engage her on her terms? Find out her story and then instead of saying life is hard, will I reach out and say I believe in living water?

I will be honest, I am still working on that last part, too much information in my head I guess. How can I offer living water if I’m not convinced I have drank deeply of it myself?