There are plenty of reasons that I can think of for giving up on God. We have been waiting a long time for him to return and to makes things the way they should be. I don't know what it is that threatens your faith most: whether it is the dismissive attitude of your friends or your family, or whether it is the snail's pace at which God seems to act. Choosing to honour God may have cost you dear – it may have cost you a relationship or a job. And for what? The investment in faith in God seems a little slow to mature. I think right now for me it is the terminal illness of someone I know who is a strong Christian person that is challenging my belief in the justice and compassion of God most of all. I want to ask God, when are you going to act against the evil that allows that kind of illness in that kind of person? Why should I keep going in the Christian life?
The parable of the widow points us, in the funny way it has, to consider what this God we worship is really like. Does he not want the best for us? Does he not promise to put everything in order when he comes? Has he not done something in the death of Jesus that makes all of that inevitable?
So never give up. Never ever give up. Keep praying for God's will to be done and his kingdom to come, not because nagging will bring it closer, but because God will surely answer that prayer. Don't give up on God, but keep hoping in him, for it is far better to hope in him than in yourself.
Friday, 23 January 2009
Thursday, 22 January 2009
Hear my cry
At the core of the hope that Christians can have, then, is knowing what God is like, or rather what he is not like. He is not like the unjust judge. He overflows with a burning love for those who are is; and pursues justice remorselessly. Don’t doubt God's intention and power to answer our prayers. A better question to ask, says Jesus, is whether he returns, he will find faith on the earth? God will surely come: but will there be any ready to meet him; or will it be a complete surprise?
Jesus' first hearers had long prayed for their deliverance from the hands of the empires that had enslaved them. The evidence of God's good will towards them seemed pretty thin on the ground. Many of the Psalms of the Old Testament express the frustration that they felt in not knowing when God would rescue them. Psalm 10 says: "Why O Lord do you stand far off ? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?" Psalm 13 says: "How long O Lord will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?" In Psalm 22 we hear "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from the words of my groaning?" In Psalm 61: "Hear my cry O Lord, listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call to you as my heart grows faint…".
And yet, even as they were listening to Jesus' words, many of the hearers became convinced that God had answered these prayers right before their eyes. When he had been born, his mother had called him the name which means "God saves." And in his death God worked out both his justice, in punishing the sin and evil, and his love, in providing a way for us to be forgiven.
Jesus' first hearers had long prayed for their deliverance from the hands of the empires that had enslaved them. The evidence of God's good will towards them seemed pretty thin on the ground. Many of the Psalms of the Old Testament express the frustration that they felt in not knowing when God would rescue them. Psalm 10 says: "Why O Lord do you stand far off ? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?" Psalm 13 says: "How long O Lord will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?" In Psalm 22 we hear "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from the words of my groaning?" In Psalm 61: "Hear my cry O Lord, listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call to you as my heart grows faint…".
And yet, even as they were listening to Jesus' words, many of the hearers became convinced that God had answered these prayers right before their eyes. When he had been born, his mother had called him the name which means "God saves." And in his death God worked out both his justice, in punishing the sin and evil, and his love, in providing a way for us to be forgiven.
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Does nagging work with him?
"Listen", says Jesus, "to what the unjust judge says". Even without a sense of justice or any sense of compassion for the suffering of the widow, he was moved by her persistence. And here Jesus moves on to explain how this parables works. The point is not that God is like the unjust judge and we are like the widow; but rather how great the contrast is. If even a corrupt judge will eventually answer a nagging widow, how much more will God answer the cries of his special people? "Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?" Of course!
God is no unjust judge. Unlike the judge he is concerned for his own justice and cares deeply for his people. To get anything out of the unjust judge, you have to nag so that it is more inconvenient NOT to answer. If this is so, then surely we can hope for a speedy delivery of justice from the just and caring judge.
Be careful here: I don't think what Jesus is saying is "nagging worked for the widow with the judge, so if we nag God he is more likely to answer our prayers." Rather, he is saying you don't need to badger this caring and just God, because he wants to answer you. And just as the judge is different from God, so our position is different from the widow's: she was a stranger to the judge, where we are God's precious children; she was only one, whereas we are many; while the judge cared for no-one, we have a God who is for us (see Romans 8:31-32 - if God is for us, who can be against us?); where she had to plead her own case, in Jesus we have an advocate who pleads for us; and whereas the asking of the widow annoyed the judge, in our asking things of him God delights.
God is no unjust judge. Unlike the judge he is concerned for his own justice and cares deeply for his people. To get anything out of the unjust judge, you have to nag so that it is more inconvenient NOT to answer. If this is so, then surely we can hope for a speedy delivery of justice from the just and caring judge.
Be careful here: I don't think what Jesus is saying is "nagging worked for the widow with the judge, so if we nag God he is more likely to answer our prayers." Rather, he is saying you don't need to badger this caring and just God, because he wants to answer you. And just as the judge is different from God, so our position is different from the widow's: she was a stranger to the judge, where we are God's precious children; she was only one, whereas we are many; while the judge cared for no-one, we have a God who is for us (see Romans 8:31-32 - if God is for us, who can be against us?); where she had to plead her own case, in Jesus we have an advocate who pleads for us; and whereas the asking of the widow annoyed the judge, in our asking things of him God delights.
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Squeaky wheel
Jesus of Nazareth also delivered a short speech about persistence. We are told that this was a parable that Jesus told his disciples "to show them that should always pray and not give up" (18:1). But at the centre of Jesus' message was not some belief in the self nor hope for personal success. The hope that Jesus preaches depends on the God in whom we are to hope. What is he like? This parable shows us what he is like; but in a very strange way.
It's a parable about two characters. At first we meet a judge. What we learn about the judge is not exactly complimentary: (vs 2) he "neither feared God nor cared about men". This man has no regard for the justice of God nor any compassion for human beings. His job serves only to build up his own power and prestige – in fact he is a travesty of a judge, really.
The second character is a lowly widow, who kept on coming to see him. She was a real pest, clogging up his appointments dairy, badgering his secretary and filling up his answering machine. Someone had wronged her – we aren't told the details – and she wants justice. This she should have had: in the law of Israel widows and orphans were supposed to be given special consideration in matters of justice.
But at first he ignores her. "Perhaps she'll go away!" he thought to himself. But he underestimated the sticking power of the widow. Finally he gives in; though not, notice, out of compassion, or because his conscience was pricking him. Look what he says to himself: "Even though I don't fear God or care about people, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't continually wear me out with her coming!" The widow is causing him such inconvenience that he gives her justice just to shut her up in the end. Her nagging has worn him out. The squeaky wheel, as we say, has got the grease.
It's a parable about two characters. At first we meet a judge. What we learn about the judge is not exactly complimentary: (vs 2) he "neither feared God nor cared about men". This man has no regard for the justice of God nor any compassion for human beings. His job serves only to build up his own power and prestige – in fact he is a travesty of a judge, really.
The second character is a lowly widow, who kept on coming to see him. She was a real pest, clogging up his appointments dairy, badgering his secretary and filling up his answering machine. Someone had wronged her – we aren't told the details – and she wants justice. This she should have had: in the law of Israel widows and orphans were supposed to be given special consideration in matters of justice.
But at first he ignores her. "Perhaps she'll go away!" he thought to himself. But he underestimated the sticking power of the widow. Finally he gives in; though not, notice, out of compassion, or because his conscience was pricking him. Look what he says to himself: "Even though I don't fear God or care about people, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't continually wear me out with her coming!" The widow is causing him such inconvenience that he gives her justice just to shut her up in the end. Her nagging has worn him out. The squeaky wheel, as we say, has got the grease.
Monday, 19 January 2009
Never never
Winston Churchill, the famous British Prime Minister of the Second World War period was known for his stirring speeches that rallied a nation in its darkest hour. It was not surprising when, after the war, he was invited to address various graduations and speech day ceremonies at some of the prestigious universities and schools in Britain and the US. At one American university he was invited to address an expectant crowd of students and their families. The dean gave a long speech welcoming the great man and citing his accomplishments. They readied themselves, as you do, for a long speech. Winston left his chair, stood at the lectern and said just this: "Never give up. Never, ever, give up"; and then sat down, to the shock of those on the podium and no doubt to the delight of the students, who never forgot this speech.
It's an inspiring message, but why should you "never give up" in life? Sir Winston's message was one that he had himself embodied. He had persisted through a long career with more downs than ups to attain the highest office in the government; and had then persisted in the belief that the war could be won when the bombs were falling on London and the people were hiding like rats beneath the ground. At the heart of his message was an exceptional self-belief that had carried him throughout his life and brought him personal success and a place in history.
But self-belief is not enough, not for a real hope that things will work out in the end, and that good will triumph over evil. Even Churchill, who was an exceptional person and had some exceptional good luck, could not stave off the bitterness of his later years. Hope, in the end, if it is in something as flaky as the self, will surely disappoint...
It's an inspiring message, but why should you "never give up" in life? Sir Winston's message was one that he had himself embodied. He had persisted through a long career with more downs than ups to attain the highest office in the government; and had then persisted in the belief that the war could be won when the bombs were falling on London and the people were hiding like rats beneath the ground. At the heart of his message was an exceptional self-belief that had carried him throughout his life and brought him personal success and a place in history.
But self-belief is not enough, not for a real hope that things will work out in the end, and that good will triumph over evil. Even Churchill, who was an exceptional person and had some exceptional good luck, could not stave off the bitterness of his later years. Hope, in the end, if it is in something as flaky as the self, will surely disappoint...
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Being loved by God
So how do we respond to this love? Well, to modify Baz Luhrmann:
The greatest thing you'll ever learn/ is to be loved and just love in return.
At this point we make it far to complicated. It is very hard to just accept the love we are offered; we always feel like we should be giving something back. Or worse, we cannot put aside our pride.
Ephesians 5 is interesting here: if Christ takes the husbandly role of sacrificial love, what role is the church to take? She is to take the wifely role of submission: which is not much more than allowing yourself to be loved. This might be harder than we think. We have to surrender ourselves to him.
The Lord’s Supper can be extremely helpful for us in teaching us how dependent we are on the sacrifice of the body and blood of Jesus for our new life. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we vividly remember that we cannot live by bread alone; and it shows us how we need to accept the love of God in the death of his Son.
I was talking to a female friend of mine who asked me: "is it hard to relate to this as a guy, because I reckon it'd be heaps easier as a chick to desire these kind of attributes?" It was a really good question. We are dealing in stereotypes of course, but males on the whole do find help hard to accept, let alone love; especially when there is such an imbalance in a relationship like there is with God. We like to feel we are independent, or at least contributing.
But a response to the God who dies to love you requires us setting aside our futile, petty male (or female) independence, and allowing Christ to husband us. It may seem frustratingly passive. But we need this husband more than we can ever know. And tomorrow we will look at what it means to love this loving God back.
A man who understood his need to surrender to the love of God was the poet and preacher John Donne. You may have studied him in school. In the poem I am going to read to you he prays to God to break down the walls of his heart and take him over. But it is the last line that is the most shocking:
Batter my heart, three person'd God; for, you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow mee,'and bend
Your force, to breake, blow, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt towne, to'another due,
Labour to'admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weake or untrue.
Yet dearley'I love you,'and would be loved faine,
But am betroth'd unto your enemie:
Divorce mee,'untie, or breake that knot againe,
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you'enthrall mee, never shall be free,
Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.
It is an extraordinary way of expressing his need to completely surrender to the love of God. Can you surrender like that? Or is your freedom too precious?
The cross of Jesus Christ the Son of God tells us something astonishing about God’s love. I wonder if you know it in your life: God loves you, not because you are lovely, not because you are successful or talented or decent, not because you are good company, and certainly not because you are good looking: he loves you despite of, or maybe even through, your sin. He loves you to the extent that he is willing to knock down the wall between us, even at a huge personal cost. I wonder whether you have understood that God loves you in this way. It is an enormously liberating thing to learn. Will you accept it?
The greatest thing you'll ever learn/ is to be loved and just love in return.
At this point we make it far to complicated. It is very hard to just accept the love we are offered; we always feel like we should be giving something back. Or worse, we cannot put aside our pride.
Ephesians 5 is interesting here: if Christ takes the husbandly role of sacrificial love, what role is the church to take? She is to take the wifely role of submission: which is not much more than allowing yourself to be loved. This might be harder than we think. We have to surrender ourselves to him.
The Lord’s Supper can be extremely helpful for us in teaching us how dependent we are on the sacrifice of the body and blood of Jesus for our new life. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we vividly remember that we cannot live by bread alone; and it shows us how we need to accept the love of God in the death of his Son.
I was talking to a female friend of mine who asked me: "is it hard to relate to this as a guy, because I reckon it'd be heaps easier as a chick to desire these kind of attributes?" It was a really good question. We are dealing in stereotypes of course, but males on the whole do find help hard to accept, let alone love; especially when there is such an imbalance in a relationship like there is with God. We like to feel we are independent, or at least contributing.
But a response to the God who dies to love you requires us setting aside our futile, petty male (or female) independence, and allowing Christ to husband us. It may seem frustratingly passive. But we need this husband more than we can ever know. And tomorrow we will look at what it means to love this loving God back.
A man who understood his need to surrender to the love of God was the poet and preacher John Donne. You may have studied him in school. In the poem I am going to read to you he prays to God to break down the walls of his heart and take him over. But it is the last line that is the most shocking:
Batter my heart, three person'd God; for, you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow mee,'and bend
Your force, to breake, blow, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt towne, to'another due,
Labour to'admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weake or untrue.
Yet dearley'I love you,'and would be loved faine,
But am betroth'd unto your enemie:
Divorce mee,'untie, or breake that knot againe,
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you'enthrall mee, never shall be free,
Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.
It is an extraordinary way of expressing his need to completely surrender to the love of God. Can you surrender like that? Or is your freedom too precious?
The cross of Jesus Christ the Son of God tells us something astonishing about God’s love. I wonder if you know it in your life: God loves you, not because you are lovely, not because you are successful or talented or decent, not because you are good company, and certainly not because you are good looking: he loves you despite of, or maybe even through, your sin. He loves you to the extent that he is willing to knock down the wall between us, even at a huge personal cost. I wonder whether you have understood that God loves you in this way. It is an enormously liberating thing to learn. Will you accept it?
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
The love we all want
3. Eternal
So, having seen that God's new covenant of love reconciles him to his enemies and that it involved him sacrificing of himself, we turn to its third feature: it is eternal. You might remember that God's love, his hesed was characteristically long-lasting, to the thousandth generation if need be. In Hosea we heard him saying "how can I hand you over, O Israel"? because he was bound to them with bonds of love. His commitment is unbreakable, his covenant indestructible.
And what we see in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead makes good on this. Even death is not an obstacle to God's continuing love for his people in his Son. We could spend a good deal of time here, but Paul captured it best, in Romans 8:
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This kind of love we all want: a passionate love that lasts. We long to know that we are loved in exactly the way that God shows he loves us in Jesus.
So, having seen that God's new covenant of love reconciles him to his enemies and that it involved him sacrificing of himself, we turn to its third feature: it is eternal. You might remember that God's love, his hesed was characteristically long-lasting, to the thousandth generation if need be. In Hosea we heard him saying "how can I hand you over, O Israel"? because he was bound to them with bonds of love. His commitment is unbreakable, his covenant indestructible.
And what we see in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead makes good on this. Even death is not an obstacle to God's continuing love for his people in his Son. We could spend a good deal of time here, but Paul captured it best, in Romans 8:
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This kind of love we all want: a passionate love that lasts. We long to know that we are loved in exactly the way that God shows he loves us in Jesus.
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
The husband
In Ephesians 5, Paul riffs on the idea of God being the husband of his people, in order to explain marriage to us; but in doing so tells us a heap about God, too:
22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- 30for we are members of his body. 31"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Like a husband, Christ in love sacrificed himself for his bride, the church. And to what purpose? In order to purify her. And just as the wife and husband become one flesh, so that the husband's care for the wife is the same as his care for his own body, so Jesus cares for the church as his own body.
22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- 30for we are members of his body. 31"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Like a husband, Christ in love sacrificed himself for his bride, the church. And to what purpose? In order to purify her. And just as the wife and husband become one flesh, so that the husband's care for the wife is the same as his care for his own body, so Jesus cares for the church as his own body.
Monday, 12 January 2009
The most you can give
Giving yourself is the most you can give, isn't it? We speak of giving yourself in love, or in marriage. A father might give generous gifts to a child, but ultimately, giving of himself by being present for his children is more valuable than years of school fees. I remember the story of Kerry Packer’s helicopter pilot, who donated his kidney to his boss, an astonishing act of self-giving. But to give yourself in death? This takes self-giving to the ultimate level. And this precisely how God gives to us.
And if you think of the cross for the moment, you might catch a glimpse of what it cost him. At the moment Jesus cried out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" we see for a second a tearing occur in God himself. We see what is impossible and incredible: the suffering of God, and the vastness of the love of that suffering God. God's love is such that he – the almighty, the all-powerful, the creator – accepts the limits and the wounds of a human body, and the subjection of that body to even death itself, in order that we might live again in him and with him.
The cross is the love of God made real to us. Theologian R. Williams puts it this way: "The inconceivable self-emptying of God in the events of Good Friday and Holy Saturday is no arbitrary expression of the nature of God: this is what the life of the Trinity is, translated into our world."
And if you think of the cross for the moment, you might catch a glimpse of what it cost him. At the moment Jesus cried out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" we see for a second a tearing occur in God himself. We see what is impossible and incredible: the suffering of God, and the vastness of the love of that suffering God. God's love is such that he – the almighty, the all-powerful, the creator – accepts the limits and the wounds of a human body, and the subjection of that body to even death itself, in order that we might live again in him and with him.
The cross is the love of God made real to us. Theologian R. Williams puts it this way: "The inconceivable self-emptying of God in the events of Good Friday and Holy Saturday is no arbitrary expression of the nature of God: this is what the life of the Trinity is, translated into our world."
Sunday, 11 January 2009
A self-donation
2. God's gift of himself by sacrifice: "Self-donation"
Perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him, will not perish but have eternal life.
It's another verse about God's love; and what God's love caused him to do for the world that was the object of his love. The key word is gave. He gave his son, his only son in order to save the world.
It's a sacrifice, isn't it? You sacrifice something when you give it up, usually for some other purpose. And God sacrifices his son for our sins. 1 John 4:10 says:
In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
See the connection between love and sacrifice? What we learn here is that God's love involves a cost. Out of love he gives his Son. Out of love he sacrifices his Son. The most fulsome expression of God's love is the sending of his only Son to become a human being, to live in the realm of sin and death, and ultimately to be treated as weak and crucified. Some gift.
But when we speak of the sacrifice of sons, we are on dangerous turf: can a father really sacrifice a son? Shouldn't the love of a father for a son take priority over his love for others? Wouldn't it be unthinkable for a dad to offer the life of his boy in exchange for anyone else? I have two sons. I don't think anything could convince me to offer one of them for sacrifice, not even if it meant saving the lives of many others. It would be outrageous and immoral of me to do this.
But God the Father and the Son are much closer than me and my sons. Their relationship of love binds them together so that they are a unity. What they do, they do out of a shared purpose. They act together; they always did. The Son is not some innocent third party caught up in his Father's problems; as truly God, Jesus himself is right in the thick of it. And he wills what his Father wills. He both is given and gives himself. He both offers himself and is offered by his Father. He is sacrificed and lays down his own life. He is sent, and comes willingly.
So God does not just give his Son: God gives himself. His gift to us is him, slumming it with us and as human being, achieving what humanity could never achieve in reconciling the irreconcilable. One writer calls it God's "self-donation". At the same time that God welcomes his enemies in, he gives himself.
Perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him, will not perish but have eternal life.
It's another verse about God's love; and what God's love caused him to do for the world that was the object of his love. The key word is gave. He gave his son, his only son in order to save the world.
It's a sacrifice, isn't it? You sacrifice something when you give it up, usually for some other purpose. And God sacrifices his son for our sins. 1 John 4:10 says:
In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
See the connection between love and sacrifice? What we learn here is that God's love involves a cost. Out of love he gives his Son. Out of love he sacrifices his Son. The most fulsome expression of God's love is the sending of his only Son to become a human being, to live in the realm of sin and death, and ultimately to be treated as weak and crucified. Some gift.
But when we speak of the sacrifice of sons, we are on dangerous turf: can a father really sacrifice a son? Shouldn't the love of a father for a son take priority over his love for others? Wouldn't it be unthinkable for a dad to offer the life of his boy in exchange for anyone else? I have two sons. I don't think anything could convince me to offer one of them for sacrifice, not even if it meant saving the lives of many others. It would be outrageous and immoral of me to do this.
But God the Father and the Son are much closer than me and my sons. Their relationship of love binds them together so that they are a unity. What they do, they do out of a shared purpose. They act together; they always did. The Son is not some innocent third party caught up in his Father's problems; as truly God, Jesus himself is right in the thick of it. And he wills what his Father wills. He both is given and gives himself. He both offers himself and is offered by his Father. He is sacrificed and lays down his own life. He is sent, and comes willingly.
So God does not just give his Son: God gives himself. His gift to us is him, slumming it with us and as human being, achieving what humanity could never achieve in reconciling the irreconcilable. One writer calls it God's "self-donation". At the same time that God welcomes his enemies in, he gives himself.
Friday, 2 January 2009
The pouring out of love
The New Testament's word is that in the dying of Jesus of Nazareth on the cross, God was pouring out his love for human beings in excess. The night before he died, Jesus took a cup of wine and said "this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." The cross was the masterpiece of God's love for men and women. God did not merely declare his love; he made good on it in action. It was an act of love combined with a word of love.
The NT wants to tell us three things about this new covenant of love:
1. God's embrace of his enemies, humankind
On the cross, it is said that Jesus prayed "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do." Strangely enough, he was enacting these words as he said them.
In Romans 5, Paul writes some words you may already know:
6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
As sinners, we were God's enemies. And yet on the cross, God gives up himself in order not to give up on humanity. When Jesus had his arms outstretched on the cross it was an offer of embrace to human beings, even though they killed him. And how astonishing it is! Maybe you would die for a good person, or someone you were close to. But to die for your enemies? Only divine love makes sense of that.
The NT wants to tell us three things about this new covenant of love:
1. God's embrace of his enemies, humankind
On the cross, it is said that Jesus prayed "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do." Strangely enough, he was enacting these words as he said them.
In Romans 5, Paul writes some words you may already know:
6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
As sinners, we were God's enemies. And yet on the cross, God gives up himself in order not to give up on humanity. When Jesus had his arms outstretched on the cross it was an offer of embrace to human beings, even though they killed him. And how astonishing it is! Maybe you would die for a good person, or someone you were close to. But to die for your enemies? Only divine love makes sense of that.
Thursday, 1 January 2009
The Holy God and You
So: what does the holiness of this God mean for you?
1 – It means that we need to remember that the natural state of our relationship with God is not closeness, but distance. Without his intervention, we should be mystified and terrified of God. Too often we presume on God’s acceptance of us: that it is his job to accept us just as we are, unconditionally. This is not the Bible’s language. God does not love us unconditionally: he loves us graciously. What’s the difference? The conditions of God’s acceptance of us are met in Jesus and offered to us as a free gift. God’s holy love for us will not accept in us the things that are unholy.
This truth should completely govern the way we think about and relate to God. We should never presume on him, or take his acceptance of us for granted. When we pray to him as Father, it is as a privilege not as a right.
2 – Perhaps then, we need to relearn reverence for God. In Australia, we live in a very relaxed culture, a culture that doesn’t respect authority or hierarchy or like formality. The larrikin Australian spirit is alive in Aussie Christianity as well. And I think we learnt it from the Irish!! Some of it is good: but let’s be careful we don’t treat God with the same disrespect we treat our human leaders. I don’t mean we have to be pompous, or old-fashioned, or observe rituals or anything like that. But a previous generation of Christians perhaps had a better sense of what reverence for the holy God could be. Do we treat the things of the holy God with reverent fear? Do we honour the name of Jesus, the Holy One of God? Do we treat as precious his words in the holy scriptures, giving them careful thought and obeying them? Do we pray with the proper respect for the one to whom we are praying, not in the form of the words we say but in the attitudes of our hearts? Do we treat the gathering of holy ones or saints that we call “church” as holy?
3 – have we heard God’s call to “be holy, as I am holy” (Leviticus 19:2)? Having been made holy by God, our we now committed to living out our calling to be holy – to be different from the world, set apart, and pure in our lives? Do we honour God with our bodies, which Paul says are temples of the Holy Spirit?
1 – It means that we need to remember that the natural state of our relationship with God is not closeness, but distance. Without his intervention, we should be mystified and terrified of God. Too often we presume on God’s acceptance of us: that it is his job to accept us just as we are, unconditionally. This is not the Bible’s language. God does not love us unconditionally: he loves us graciously. What’s the difference? The conditions of God’s acceptance of us are met in Jesus and offered to us as a free gift. God’s holy love for us will not accept in us the things that are unholy.
This truth should completely govern the way we think about and relate to God. We should never presume on him, or take his acceptance of us for granted. When we pray to him as Father, it is as a privilege not as a right.
2 – Perhaps then, we need to relearn reverence for God. In Australia, we live in a very relaxed culture, a culture that doesn’t respect authority or hierarchy or like formality. The larrikin Australian spirit is alive in Aussie Christianity as well. And I think we learnt it from the Irish!! Some of it is good: but let’s be careful we don’t treat God with the same disrespect we treat our human leaders. I don’t mean we have to be pompous, or old-fashioned, or observe rituals or anything like that. But a previous generation of Christians perhaps had a better sense of what reverence for the holy God could be. Do we treat the things of the holy God with reverent fear? Do we honour the name of Jesus, the Holy One of God? Do we treat as precious his words in the holy scriptures, giving them careful thought and obeying them? Do we pray with the proper respect for the one to whom we are praying, not in the form of the words we say but in the attitudes of our hearts? Do we treat the gathering of holy ones or saints that we call “church” as holy?
3 – have we heard God’s call to “be holy, as I am holy” (Leviticus 19:2)? Having been made holy by God, our we now committed to living out our calling to be holy – to be different from the world, set apart, and pure in our lives? Do we honour God with our bodies, which Paul says are temples of the Holy Spirit?
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