We had an interesting discussion in the Sr. High Youth group on Sunday.

I am filling the role of Interim Sr. High Youth Minister here. Greg Troxell is our Interim Jr. High Youth Minister. We are getting lots of help. Tracy Kilmer provides great leadership with the High Schoolers and David and Edith Reed, Maggie Flamand, Mark Consani and JaeMitchell with the Middler Schoolers.

The plan is Greg and I will provide leadership with the youth until the stewardship practice of the church normalizes. We will then hire a relational Youth Minister. In the mean time, Greg and I are having a blast.

Last night I asked the kids what -- in their world -- makes them angry.

One mentioned a recent experience at a camp where one of his peers refused to participate with the group. For whatever reason, this kid consistently worked against the aims of the program. Our youth witnessed this as having the effect of eroding the esprit de corps of the camp community.

Another mentioned how a lower classman violated a long-standing tradition on the Cross Country Team. As a captain of the team, our youth stepped up to enforce established norms but he was not backed up by his co-captains. He witnessed this as a failure of leadership on the part of his peers.

Finally one mentioned a friend who behaves one way when they are together one-on-one, but a different way when they are they are together in a group. She exaggerates stories and draws the focus of the group on herself, remaining just this side of a lie. Our youth witnessed this as a lack of integrity and character on the part of her friend.

As interesting as these stories were – exploring as they did various violations of the human experience – of greater interest to me were the number of youth who did not register any anger. And even the ones who did lacked a certain passion.

I didn’t tell the kids this, but what sprang to mind was that awful, awful song from my era by Olivia Newton-John, “Have You Ever Been Mellow.” For readers who were blessed to have missed the music of the mid-1970s, the chorus goes:

Have you never been mellow?
Have you never tried to find a comfort from inside you?
Have you never been happy just to hear your song?
Have you never let someone else be strong?

As I listening to the kids I turned this song on its head. I asked:

Have you never been angry?
Have you never tried to find justice from outside you?
Have you never been troubled just to hear others cry?
Have you never prayed for courage to be strong?

I don’t fault these kids for what on the surface may appear to be a lack of passion. But I wonder how much of their mellow-mood reflects a culture that has learned to overlook injustice.

As part of our discussion some of the kids struggled to understand their own mellowness. Two of the kids made an attempt to associate their lack of passion about injustice with the heart of a forgiving God. But this simply revealed a failure to understand what it means for God to forgive.

I don’t fault these kids. Clearly they are formed by a culture that has reduced the Covenant-Making God of Israel to something less than who is revealed in scripture. In talking about a god of love, they describe an indulgent, permissive deity who overlooks the incessant violation found within the human experience. A god who shuts his eyes in the name of “love” to the violence done to a child, has no real capacity for love.

The Covenant-Making God of Israel refuses to overlook the smallest violation. He is truly a God of love. The Wrath of God is always and everywhere also an expression of God’s love. This is what the Bible means by the word “love.” Love is steadfastness in covenant commitment – it is the resolve to standby the covenant partner in time of affliction.

Clearly Psalm 52 is not the perspective of an indulgent, permissive god:

Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man?
The goodness of God endures continually.
Your tongue devises destruction,
Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
You love evil more than good,
Lying rather than speaking righteousness.
You love all devouring words,
You deceitful tongue.

God shall likewise destroy you forever;
He shall take you away, and pluck you out of your dwelling place,
And uproot you from the land of the living.

Well, there is much here to explore with our youth regarding the genuine nature of God. I am interested to see where our conversation takes us.