"Plan A for Plan B" or "I'm the Vending Machine"

(Let me begin by stating this before i begin: the views i reflect on this blog post are not necessarily those expressed by my fellow staff members from either The Shippensburg First Church of God or the CCO [the Coalition for Christian Outreach] nor of either organization as a whole. But even my restating of this hopefully compels you to read on with the understanding of just how important this is to me, and how important i think this is to those who have ever or is currently involved in the life of the Shippensburg community.)

This is not a post about whether it's right or wrong for Shippensburg University to have a vending machine on it that dispenses the Plan B pill. This is a post about why it is Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, of all places that somehow managed to make national headlines because of a vending machine and its moral implications behind it. This is a post proposing a Plan A for Plan B.

The vending machine is a perfect analogy to represent the larger yet hidden story of all that is going on here, and in most of western civilization. A vending machine allows you to turn your back to the rest of the world, pay a small price in a private moment, and receive a momentary and hollow solution to your problems whether it's a possible pregnancy or a case of the munchies or feeding a caffeine fix. When someone pens up their anger and then types a coded status on Facebook or Twitter "expressing" themselves, they've just used a vending machine. When i text someone i should call, or call someone i should visit, i've used a vending machine again. When i say i'm ok and i'm not ok: vending machine. I turn my back on the world, make a tiny (yet too small of a) sacrifice and find a quick solution that does not fix a thing.

I'm thankful for a university that does employ people to help counsel people on all sorts of matters: academic, professional, health, physical, mental, and spiritual. And in fact, i think Shippensburg does it very well, all things considered. And yet this vending machine in the health center can't console a teenage girl who has made a choice she regrets and makes another choice she may regret as a result. It would be great to know that counseling would be offered as you engage the vending machine and not in a different corner of the campus from the vending machine. This is not to blame the university though. This is a reflection of the society, the system in which we live.

The system is one of fear. We don't want to admit we need help, that we hurt, yes, we ache with all sorts of burdens we've carried into desperate situations. And since we are all scared, and all ashamed, it's even easier to seek a vending machine for help. The vending machine is stoic (won't make fun of you) yet responds with exactly what you want it to respond with rather than what it should respond with: timely advice, hope, and ironically in this case, a plan.


Unfortunately we, as the body of Christ, have become all too good at pointing the finger in blame rather than towards a hopeful future. We quickly echo Adam in blaming someone else ("kids these days" or the government), or blaming what we've been given (i.e. a pluralistic society with lacking morals). Instead, shouldn't we be like the father in the Prodigal Son story, searching the horizon for those with aches and pains and debauched lives looking for a place to call home and providing them with family? Shouldn't we be the ones that echo our favorite of verses in Jeremiah 29:11 that says "I know the plans i have for you, plans with hope and with a future, and with prospering"? But even worse than not being the solution for a prodigal culture, i fear we are at the source of this vending machine culture.

I Peter 4:17 says, "For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God..." In Romans 5 it talks about how sin and death came through one man, Adam, and how righteousness and justification came through one man, Christ. You see, Scripture points to the "family of God," whether it was Adam years and years ago, Christ 2000 years ago, or the church now, it is the family of God that is the means through which the world receives its nourishment. "Can a spring bring both freshwater and saltwater?" begs James... no. And this is why God's judgment begins with the family of God, because God understands that the proposed solution for the world will happen through His children, not in spite of them nor will it be administered after their existence. However, if we take the curious case of the vending machine and do not take our own temperature and see what if anything is a result of us, then we will not notice our own need for a new plan to offer to the world. If we take the thermometer and put it in our own mouth we will see that it reads vending machine. We have mastered a vending machine version of the Gospel, and it's taking on flesh in the facets of our society.

You see, when we offer a gospel, "the good news," in a form where one can simply whisper a prayer, be forgiven of all misdeeds, and wait to one day fly away to heaven, we offer a gospel where you place a couple quarters in a machine and slowly watch the vending machine vend a high sugar high calorie sweet piece of candy devoid of relationship, devoid of care. We offer a solution that's quick to obtain, quick to receive, and easily discarded with after we receive its momentary benefits. (We offer eternal life, but is it really eternal if it doesn't come with lasting results on this side of heaven?) When really the good news is a Thanksgiving dinner in contrast to a mere Snickers bar.

The good news is that God came and is here and continues to chase after us all. He forgives and He offers hope on this side of heaven as well as a home in the other side. And not only that, but He recruits you and i to take part in the cosmic solution to all the world's deficiencies, aches, pains, homelessness, hurt and suffering. You become His superheroes, infused with His very Spirit. We become X-Men of a sort where are human bodies are infused with a supernatural call and ability. And one day, all of this work will usher in the fullness of God's joy and His ways and His healing as heaven comes and fully collides with earth shattering away all of its pain.

The problem is, when we offer a vending machine version of the gospel, we live a vending machine sort of life. We refuse to take risks. We don't value hope and "long-suffering" (the true translation of the word "patience" in the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5). We become very comfortable and even demand ease.

The worse problem is this: we offer a vending machine gospel and even if people don't believe it they live it out. And what do you get? A society where you can turn away from relationship and turn to a faceless, helpless machine for your hope... and receive it in pill form.

If we really want to make a difference in our society, we will throw away our vending machines in our every day lives and commit to providing an every day Thanksgiving dinner mentality to those who desperately need spiritual food, spiritual family and spiritual recreation (my family is the best at playing games on Thanksgiving evenings).

In the midst of the mocking and shocking headlines there is good news in all of this. Very good news.

Shippensburg has the ability to be a city on a hill, a beacon of hope to the world. How?

Do you need more proof? Is Tosh.0, Leno and Saturday Night Live not enough proof? What about CNN and all of the evening news shows and all of the news websites? A couple of my friends and i believe in Shippensburg. We've started families, joined churches, established businesses, bought homes, and invited others to join us. We pray and live for its well being (the exact prescription explained in the beginning of Jeremiah 29). And over this past winter break a few of us even began whispering, wondering and, especially looking in hindsight, prophesying that Shippensburg would have the anointing to be a light to the whole world.

But it's not New York City or L.A.? Right. One of my favorite passages in Scripture is when Philip (great name) invites Nathanael to come to see Jesus of Nazareth and Nathanael responds with "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" and Philip responds with "Come and see!"

The thing that changed Nazareth from a place of "Can anything good come from there?" to a place renown for being the hometown to the whole creation's Savior was a move of God witnessed by a man committed to sharing the news about it. The good news.

Listen, i've been there. I've had my doubts about Shippensburg. I've smelled the farms, i've stepped in buggy exhaust, i've seen people dancing drunk and naked outside at 6 in the morning (on Easter morning mind you). I've doubted it's importance. I've bemoaned the fact that i overheard my tenth graders i was student teaching at the time in a nearby school district were making plans to go to Shippensburg for the parties that weekend. My tenth graders.

I've also lived the vending machine life in many ways. Choosing laziness, video games, and personal ease over responsibility, being a good friend or attending the church or community function.

However, the only thing holding back Shippensburg from "light to the world" status is a group of people committed to not blaming the other person or the society, to not offering a vending machine version of the Gospel, and rather committed to discovering the full potential of the life afforded us while we are on this side of heaven and living it out.

There are several churches in the area that i know are viewing the good news in this way and are sharing. I go to one of them, and i'm excited about that. I know a bunch of great families committed to being a community of good news. Will you search for what the good news really is and not settle for anything that sounds too cheap and easy? Will you provide hope rather than pointing a finger anywhere other than at yourself? Will you confess that you've led a vending machine life too long already and you're willing to turn and be a Thanksgiving meal for others? Will you point to Shippensburg and say "Come and see!" while being busy making it a place worthy of such an invitation.

I hope you will.