Have you heard of the best seller The Shack? While on vacation my sister asked me what I thought about it. Not having read it did not discourage me one bit from giving my opinion. I condemned it right out. She didn't think that was fair. Then she talked about a group at her church that was reading it, and one guy was going through it for the 5th or 6th time.

I was on vacation. It was pretty relaxed. Why not? Why not look at it for a little bit? At least I would know what other people were reading. So I read a couple chapters. I also readily admit I approached it with a very closed mind.

I saw some good things. First, God is Triune in there, so He is closest to the Christian God. This was good. But the persons of the Trinity are really strange. The Father is presented as a large black woman who wants to be called "Papa." Sort of Aunt Jemima-ish. Jesus is a Jewish man, which I liked--because He was. The Holy Spirit is an Asian Woman, name Sarayu.

As you can tell, this is a god who doesn't fit too well into the Bible's understanding. The statements we have in the Athanasian Creed weren't considered. Apparently, neither was hardly anything in the Bible. The God of the shack knows no anger, no judgment. Jesus, although He hangs on the cross, is not enduring holy anger, suffering our punishment.

As far as I was concerned, that discredited the whole book. If He is not suffering our penalty, then He is there strictly as a demonstration of God's love and not accomplishing anything in reality. God's requirement for perfection has still not been met. According to a god like this, we are still lost.

Also from what I recall, the mystery of the Trinity is basically so we are reminded we aren't God. Things are made more complicated, so He appears to be more complex. In other words, if I read it right, the complexity is merely imposed.

Finally, I also noticed that it makes the big mistake I have noticed in American Christianity. It didn't know what to do with the Holy Spirit. The main character comes to a shack, invited by God, to discover the answer to his question about his daughter who had been murdered. But the point is, he meets him there--in a shack--not where God says He meets us in His Word and Sacraments. It's a slam against organized religion and the work of the Holy Spirit. It is saying, "You don't need to go to church where the Holy Spirit works. Furthermore, the church will only give you their distorted ideas."

This lead me to compare it to another popular book, The DaVinci Code. The DaVinci Code did a frontal attack on the Church. The Shack is more from the side. The DaVinci Code said, "Don't trust the organized Church, particularly the Roman Catholic Church. The Shack says, "You don't need it."

So what happens to the Lord's Supper, baptism, the word of absolution? What happens to God's gifts given out at the Divine Service? They are treated as unnecessary. We have seen that trend already for quite some time as people have been saying, "I can commune with Jesus on my own; I don't need to go to church," and this book would seem to give it a boost. The Holy Spirit is completely stripped of any reason for being.

One last thing: If you know of a friend or of someone else reading it who is genuinely interested in it, for that person's sake, read it so you can guide him through the errors.

But having said that, if you should read it, beware and do not make the same mistake as the author. He abandoned the historic descriptions of God Christians had always used. In fact, the reason the author presented God the Father as a woman was so the main character would not try to use the old models of God as a male. Never mind that this is how God describes Himself. I'm afraid, the author is like a little child trying to tie his own shoes and doesn't have a clue how to do it. "I'll do it myself," and then goes off and ties a huge knot, that you-know-who has to untie. "I'll do it myself," and then he comes up with a description that doesn't fit anywhere in the Bible.

The Athanasian creed, especially that first half--which we confessed a little bit ago--shows how followers of God have always understood the Trinity--even in the Old Testament--yes, even Old Testament Christians would have understood and confessed it the way we have stated it. It is to our peril, and the eternal peril of future generations, to ignore what it says.

At the same time, we have to admit, it's impossible to understand the concept of the Trinity, and we do a grave disservice to ourselves to make Him anything less than He is. He is glorious and majestic. This glory and majesty is clear in the Old Testament reading. The angels flying with three sets of wings; the smoke billowing around the altar; the calling of the thrice holy, one for each person of the Trinity, the voice of the Lord of hosts so powerful it shakes the foundations of the thresholds would cause anyone to react like Isaiah did. He cries out in terror. Paul, the apostle, continues the same point. "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been His counselor? How unsearchable are His judgments! How inscrutable His ways!"

We make a big mistake when we try to bring Him to our level. We like it when He is powerful, as long as it is in a way we can understand it. His mystery is appealing, as long as it doesn't make us uncomfortable. But Isaiah was far from comfortable. He had a great, big, wonderful God, but this great, big, wonderful God caused too much wonder. He was unsearchable and inscrutable, and that doesn't fly with us American Christians too well.

Give us the powerful God, who touches us, and makes us feel powerful, that makes us feel special. Now that we like. We don't want what Isaiah had. Let's go for something a little more cozy. This transcendence, this other-worldliness, that goes beyond us, that fails to make us comfortable, creeps us out.

Not because we are creeped out, but because we needed it, our Lord does become different. He becomes immanent. He no longer has this airiness about Him. He takes on flesh. His voice doesn't shake foundations. He is not surrounded by smoke. He doesn't seem to be so inscrutable. He becomes completely approachable.

In fact, Nicodemus makes the mistake of thinking He's no real big deal. He concludes, it doesn't matter what Jesus thinks. So, he insults Jesus by coming to Him at night. He sneaks around. Jesus goes from being someone who commands everyone's attention, to someone hardly recognized, who when a person does finally recognize, approaches only at night for fear this visit could hurt his reputation. Jesus goes from instilling fear in men to enduring those who fear other men more.

I would like to break in at this point to speak of someone who apparently didn't fear other men. By now you have heard about Dr. Tiller. Now, when I speak about a man who didn't fear other men, I am not referring to his assassin. His assassin was wrong. He had no right to kill Dr. Tiller. Two wrongs do not make a right. His assassin should be judged to the full extent of the law. What is less likely to be known, however, is that Dr. Tiller was once a member of an LCMS church. He ONCE WAS. He was excommunicated from his LCMS congregation. Apparently, the pastor and congregation were concerned about his soul and warned him that he should stop murdering unborn children or he was going to put himself outside of God's grace. He ignored their pleas. That left them no choice but to exclude him from the Lord's table and then from membership in the congregation. Their hopes were that he would recognize his sin and repent. That did not happen. He instead joined another church. I assume it was the one where he was shot. His former pastor did not fear other men as much as he feared what God said would happen to Tiller's soul and acted accordingly. What kind of flack he got for this decision, I don't know, but he considered Tiller's soul more important than his own comfort.

Nicodemus, on the other hand, does not show the same courage. He approaches Jesus at night, fearing men and thinking that Jesus is one whose reaction gives less reason to be concerned.

Jesus is not be treated like that. He speaks in a way that is not terribly comforting. He speaks in riddles. "You must be born again. The Spirit blows where it wishes. You don't understand earthly things, how do you think you could ever understand heavenly things?" He even chides Nicodemus, "Here you are a teacher, and you don't get it."

Jesus reminds me of Aslan, the lion in the Chronicles of Narnia series. In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, someone referring to Aslan as a lion asks, "Isn't He dangerous?" The response is, "Yes, of course, He is dangerous; but He is good."

Jesus is still God. He is dangerous, but He is good. You don't bring Him down to your terms. You don't make Him comfortable for you. He does for you what you need. To expect Him to do anything differently, is to act out of unbelief.

Indeed, He does for us exactly what we need. And not Jesus alone, but each person of the Trinity does exactly what we need. Each has His part. Of course, the Father gives His Son, even as Nicodemus acknowledges that Jesus comes from God. But it is through the Father's creation, where salvation is brought. Jesus said, "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Water. God used water to save us. He attached water, one of His objects of creation, a creature, He attaches it to words, another one of His creatures to bring us into His kingdom.

The Son of Man, the second person, was the one who was lifted up like the serpent in the wilderness. He was lifted up on the cross, to pay our penalty and earn the righteousness that would be credited to us. The punishment for our unbelief was carried out on the cross, and His righteousness was made available to us.

Finally, the Holy Spirit. This is what is missing in much of American Christianity and reflected in the book from the sermon opening. The Spirit brings the new birth. The Spirit brings to faith. The Spirit brings, through the gifts of worship, the righteousness Christ earned through His holy life and the credit of His death to you.

Water, wine and bread, words, a baby in a manger, a dying man on a cross--all these things are part of the things of this earth. It would seem to make God more approachable, a little more adaptable to us, but instead it makes Him even more mysterious. He has come down to us. He uses things that look and seem quite ordinary, but out of these He does extraordinary things, namely the salvation of our souls. Rather than making Him easier to understand, He becomes even more complicated. So be it. Saving faith doesn't call for us to achieve intellectual understanding of things we can't understand, things that are incomprehensible, it simply calls to God for His mercy, which He readily gives--Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

AMEN