NOTE: A friend of mine recently sent this to me and I thought it's worth posting. Enjoy.
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My wife and I were reading a couple of chapters in Luke's Gospel this week, and I was struck by the fact that God does not seem to have a problem with using negative metaphors in reference to either himself or his followers.
First we read about Jesus comparing his followers to vultures in the 17th chapter. When the disciples asked Jesus where they should go to hide during the tribulation, he said, "Wherever the carcase is, that is where the vultures will be." The KJV kindly uses the word "eagle" there, but newer translations seem fairly confident that the scavenger he was really referring to is a vulture.
The answer he gave to his disciples is somewhat cryptic, but it does seem to imply that we will have to get over any hang-ups we might have about being looked down on as scavengers/vultures. It reminded me of my wife's article about us being "cockroaches for Christ". It just totally clangs with the respectable image that so many Christians cling to so desperately.
Then, in the 18th chapter of Luke, Jesus compared God to a mean old judge, who was too heartless to give in to an old woman's pleas for justice, until she finally wore him down just through her persistence. He actually admonishes us to be like that with God, i.e. to know what we want, and then to keep on asking until we get it. I've even seen it work for people praying quite selfishly, but hopefully we will be more inclined to ask for the kind of things that he listed in his prayer for us to pray.
Finally, I came across the story, in the 19th chapter of Luke's gospel, of a harsh ruler who had set off to have himself declared king. Although he entrusts three of his subjects with very large sums of money to be invested, we are told that the people in general did not like him. It sounds so much like what you hear these days about the angry God in the sky, with a long white beard, waiting to judge us if we do things wrong. The world (and the church too, sadly) has come to really despise such a God.
Yeah, sure, we see another side to God now, through his loving sacrifice of his own son to save the world; but it does not make a lie of what the Old Testament says about him also being what we might call a harsh (or even unfair) God. There are so many things in the Old Testament that really are hard for us to reconcile with a "loving God", but Old Testament aside, the fundamental message of the New Testament doesn't make him look much better, if he would be willing to see his own Son tortured to death as part of his plan for saving the human race.
It's nice to know that it was all done to rescue us from condemnation, but what kind of a Father does that make God in the eyes of his Only Begotten? On a human level, even if we could be convinced that a son had consented to such treatment, it would not stop us from seeing the father as a monster… and the son as having been brainwashed into accepting such a cruel decision.
Jesus tells us this story about the harsh ruler who sets off to become a king, and it says what happens when he returns:
15 “He sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.
16 “The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’
17 “‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’
18 “The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’
19 “His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’
20 “Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 21 I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’
Do you get the picture here? This servant knows that if he had lost or even poorly invested the money he had been given, he would have been forced to pay dearly for it. So he does what he thinks is the "safe" thing. He hides it. He knows that the new king is a harsh one, and that he makes his own rules according to his own apparently selfish standards. Yet, somehow, that knowledge did NOT lead him to invest the money.
The new king responds:
[FONT='Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]22 “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’[/font]
24 “Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’
25 “‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’
[FONT='Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]26 “He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 27 But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’”[/font]
I have a friend who once served God. But one day he decided that it was time for God to follow HIS rules instead. He turned on God in anger, and he produced a web site blaspheming and condemning God for not being loving enough. His hatred knew no bounds. And he was adept at listing the various complaints he had against God, not least of which was what he did to his only begotten Son.
The problem is that not one word of what my friend has said has made one iota of difference. God is still God, and he is still just a "very naughty boy". God has a RIGHT to make the rules, and it is a rebellious and sinful generation that says otherwise. We don't hear people complaining about having been given life, nor do they complain about the wonders of taste and sight and smell. They may revel in the pleasures of sex without a single positive thought for the one who created our ability to experience such pleasure.
But when something goes wrong… when someone dies who they would rather not see die, when circumstances turn against them, when they experience pain, God is the one to blame. Not once do they approach him humbly as the all-powerful all-wise God that he is. Not once do they listen honestly for an answer when they start screaming "Why?" All that matters is that they DON'T LIKE IT, and God gets the blame.
But, like I said, Jesus knew that from the start. He would be the first to admit (as he did in the passage quoted above) that God is a harsh judge at times. Oh, he can (and does) change his mind occasionally, as illustrated by the widow who begged and begged until she wore him down. But no one… not you… not me… not anyone is going to be able to tell God what he can or cannot do on judgment day.
Jesus warned that the road to heaven is narrow, and the road to hell is wide. He warned that there would be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for most people. He made demands on those who would like to think that they have faith in him. But all of this gets swept under the carpet when a few proof texts are rolled out to convince people not only that they don't have to do a single thing to be saved, but that if they say a magic prayer, not even God himself can stop them from claiming a right to heaven and all that it contains.
The Lord's Prayer starts out with a plea for God to make people reverence his name, and for God's kingdom to come to earth as it is in heaven. Certainly today, more than ever before, there is a need for people who will show the kind of reverence, awe, and worship of God that he deserves, and people who would let go of all their attachments to the present world system in order to even catch a glimpse of this coming world order, let by God himself.
This reverence can only start when we stop telling God how he must act (usually based on some half-baked interpretation of a few proof texts from the Bible), and start searching for what it is that he has told us to do, especially as he has spoken to us through his Son. I have no doubt that God is a god of love; but we must let him define just what that entails. There is much we could learn if we would let God be God, and open our minds to the possibility that our understanding of love is quite different at times.
------------------------------------
My wife and I were reading a couple of chapters in Luke's Gospel this week, and I was struck by the fact that God does not seem to have a problem with using negative metaphors in reference to either himself or his followers.
First we read about Jesus comparing his followers to vultures in the 17th chapter. When the disciples asked Jesus where they should go to hide during the tribulation, he said, "Wherever the carcase is, that is where the vultures will be." The KJV kindly uses the word "eagle" there, but newer translations seem fairly confident that the scavenger he was really referring to is a vulture.
The answer he gave to his disciples is somewhat cryptic, but it does seem to imply that we will have to get over any hang-ups we might have about being looked down on as scavengers/vultures. It reminded me of my wife's article about us being "cockroaches for Christ". It just totally clangs with the respectable image that so many Christians cling to so desperately.
Then, in the 18th chapter of Luke, Jesus compared God to a mean old judge, who was too heartless to give in to an old woman's pleas for justice, until she finally wore him down just through her persistence. He actually admonishes us to be like that with God, i.e. to know what we want, and then to keep on asking until we get it. I've even seen it work for people praying quite selfishly, but hopefully we will be more inclined to ask for the kind of things that he listed in his prayer for us to pray.
Finally, I came across the story, in the 19th chapter of Luke's gospel, of a harsh ruler who had set off to have himself declared king. Although he entrusts three of his subjects with very large sums of money to be invested, we are told that the people in general did not like him. It sounds so much like what you hear these days about the angry God in the sky, with a long white beard, waiting to judge us if we do things wrong. The world (and the church too, sadly) has come to really despise such a God.
Yeah, sure, we see another side to God now, through his loving sacrifice of his own son to save the world; but it does not make a lie of what the Old Testament says about him also being what we might call a harsh (or even unfair) God. There are so many things in the Old Testament that really are hard for us to reconcile with a "loving God", but Old Testament aside, the fundamental message of the New Testament doesn't make him look much better, if he would be willing to see his own Son tortured to death as part of his plan for saving the human race.
It's nice to know that it was all done to rescue us from condemnation, but what kind of a Father does that make God in the eyes of his Only Begotten? On a human level, even if we could be convinced that a son had consented to such treatment, it would not stop us from seeing the father as a monster… and the son as having been brainwashed into accepting such a cruel decision.
Jesus tells us this story about the harsh ruler who sets off to become a king, and it says what happens when he returns:
15 “He sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.
16 “The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’
17 “‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’
18 “The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’
19 “His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’
20 “Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 21 I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’
Do you get the picture here? This servant knows that if he had lost or even poorly invested the money he had been given, he would have been forced to pay dearly for it. So he does what he thinks is the "safe" thing. He hides it. He knows that the new king is a harsh one, and that he makes his own rules according to his own apparently selfish standards. Yet, somehow, that knowledge did NOT lead him to invest the money.
The new king responds:
[FONT='Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]22 “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’[/font]
24 “Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’
25 “‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’
[FONT='Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]26 “He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 27 But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’”[/font]
I have a friend who once served God. But one day he decided that it was time for God to follow HIS rules instead. He turned on God in anger, and he produced a web site blaspheming and condemning God for not being loving enough. His hatred knew no bounds. And he was adept at listing the various complaints he had against God, not least of which was what he did to his only begotten Son.
The problem is that not one word of what my friend has said has made one iota of difference. God is still God, and he is still just a "very naughty boy". God has a RIGHT to make the rules, and it is a rebellious and sinful generation that says otherwise. We don't hear people complaining about having been given life, nor do they complain about the wonders of taste and sight and smell. They may revel in the pleasures of sex without a single positive thought for the one who created our ability to experience such pleasure.
But when something goes wrong… when someone dies who they would rather not see die, when circumstances turn against them, when they experience pain, God is the one to blame. Not once do they approach him humbly as the all-powerful all-wise God that he is. Not once do they listen honestly for an answer when they start screaming "Why?" All that matters is that they DON'T LIKE IT, and God gets the blame.
But, like I said, Jesus knew that from the start. He would be the first to admit (as he did in the passage quoted above) that God is a harsh judge at times. Oh, he can (and does) change his mind occasionally, as illustrated by the widow who begged and begged until she wore him down. But no one… not you… not me… not anyone is going to be able to tell God what he can or cannot do on judgment day.
Jesus warned that the road to heaven is narrow, and the road to hell is wide. He warned that there would be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for most people. He made demands on those who would like to think that they have faith in him. But all of this gets swept under the carpet when a few proof texts are rolled out to convince people not only that they don't have to do a single thing to be saved, but that if they say a magic prayer, not even God himself can stop them from claiming a right to heaven and all that it contains.
The Lord's Prayer starts out with a plea for God to make people reverence his name, and for God's kingdom to come to earth as it is in heaven. Certainly today, more than ever before, there is a need for people who will show the kind of reverence, awe, and worship of God that he deserves, and people who would let go of all their attachments to the present world system in order to even catch a glimpse of this coming world order, let by God himself.
This reverence can only start when we stop telling God how he must act (usually based on some half-baked interpretation of a few proof texts from the Bible), and start searching for what it is that he has told us to do, especially as he has spoken to us through his Son. I have no doubt that God is a god of love; but we must let him define just what that entails. There is much we could learn if we would let God be God, and open our minds to the possibility that our understanding of love is quite different at times.
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