What we see in the romance and tragedy of Israel's history is that God loves and is loving, in a committed and jealous way. But the teaching – and ultimately of course the work - of Jesus takes us further into the essence of God himself, such that John can write, 1 John 4, God IS love. This is stronger even than what we have already learnt: not merely that God is loving, or that loves, but that he is, in essence, in his very being, LOVE.
What can this mean? Have a look at Jesus' teaching in John 5:
20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.
And in John 14:31
…the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
The father loves the son, and the son loves the father. What he reveals is that God is not just one, but is also three persons: and that that unity is made of love. Jesus prayed to the Father:
I pray also for those who will believe in me…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. John 17:20-21
They are so close they overlap: they live “in” each other. God exists, and has existed from before time began, as a holy relationship – a community of love. Our God, then, we know as the God who is by his nature love.
Thursday, 5 June 2008
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Irreconciliable differences?
The breakdown of a relationship can be the most painful and tragic thing in the world. In the literature we use the term "irreconciliable differences" to cover for the failure of love. One of the most famous break-ups in history was the end of The Beatles in 1970-1. Despite the harmony of what they produced, despite their later protestations of love for each other, despite their message of peace and love, they could not last as a working relationship. There was nothing that could reconcile them, even though it was too terrible to face. John Lennon said: "I didn't leave the Beatles. The Beatles have left the Beatles--but no-one wants to be the one to say the party's over." Explaining the motives behind the breakup, Paul McCartney said: "Personal differences, musical differences, business differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family." Then of course John Lennon's murder in 1980 made a reconciliation forever impossible. As George Harrison was to say: "As far as I'm concerned, there won't be a Beatles reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead." Which is a good point.
Reconciliation of God to his people seemed just as impossible: it was too far gone; his people were citing "irreconciliable differences". But with the covenant in tatters, what God promises is, on the one hand, a judgement, a day when justice would be delivered; but on the other hand, to make a new covenant with people. Hear the prophet Jeremiah:
31 "The time is coming," declares the LORD , "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD . 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD . "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD ,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD . "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." [Jeremiah 31]
This new covenant completely transforms the shape of God-human life together. It is a covenant, but only like the old one as a caterpillar is like a butterfly. The miracle of this love story is that despite the terrible divorce between God and his people God out of his hesed makes it even better than it was before.
Reconciliation of God to his people seemed just as impossible: it was too far gone; his people were citing "irreconciliable differences". But with the covenant in tatters, what God promises is, on the one hand, a judgement, a day when justice would be delivered; but on the other hand, to make a new covenant with people. Hear the prophet Jeremiah:
31 "The time is coming," declares the LORD , "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD . 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD . "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD ,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD . "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." [Jeremiah 31]
This new covenant completely transforms the shape of God-human life together. It is a covenant, but only like the old one as a caterpillar is like a butterfly. The miracle of this love story is that despite the terrible divorce between God and his people God out of his hesed makes it even better than it was before.
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
I want you back
His bond does not make his love for his people any less passionate. In fact, in pursuing his wayward people, God is more surprisingly and openly described as loving than ever before. Listen to how Isaiah quotes the words of the Lord:
Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be put to shame, for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.
For the Lord has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast of, says your God.
For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you.
In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer. (54:4-8)
I want you back: don't care what I have to do. It is almost as if God's love is even greater in seeking reconciliation and restoration with his people than it is in first making the covenant of love. There is a tension in these passages, a dilemma God seems to face: how can he maintain his bond of love and yet be jealous for it when the object of his love plays the tart?
Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be put to shame, for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.
For the Lord has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast of, says your God.
For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you.
In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer. (54:4-8)
I want you back: don't care what I have to do. It is almost as if God's love is even greater in seeking reconciliation and restoration with his people than it is in first making the covenant of love. There is a tension in these passages, a dilemma God seems to face: how can he maintain his bond of love and yet be jealous for it when the object of his love plays the tart?
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