A Different Kind Of Juice...

I Apologise in advance...

...but I'm going to get all theological and rambling...

Ant's post on Rob Bell stirred the old fires of debate and critical thinking up in me again.

Funny that, since Rob always seem to stir that in people. I like that. I like the fact that he says something, not to deliberately offend, but to get people thinking about their own views, and why they hold them.

I have to say that over the last three years I've done a heck of a lot of re-thinking on many issues, and it's almost felt like a re-birth in many ways, because I'm starting to question and query and meditate and chew things over in my mind that I saw as sacrosant a few years ago. Some people would define that as backsliding I'm sure, because I'm questioning things that traditionally the church has held as 'innerant'.

It's not that I'm questioning them for the sake of being difficult, it's just that I've held these "beliefs" for so long unquestioningly, that I need to look at why I hold them. It's absolutely pointless sticking to something just because you always have done, and I happen to think that having an open mind and having faith don't have to be incompatible.

What I'm struggling with at the moment, is what I have decided to call a "post-reformation hangover" in many of the preachers/speakers/evangelicals/ordinary christian bods I come across everyday. Let me explain.

We would happily agree as those coming from a protestant background, that we are saved by Grace and Justified by faith, they are the central tenents that most christians of a protestant bent would cling to. Howver, we seem to have forgotten the whole Grace idea in the last few hundred years, because all the books sermons I've heard lately somewhere along the line involve chastising us about "not praying enough" or "not reading your bible enough" or "not evangelising enough", as if God judges us purely on that basis, which, if you think about it enough, is a works based theology... again!!

One of our pastors was preaching today, and I found myself disagreeing with what he said, which was interesting. He's a great guy, and many times I've been blessed by God through his ministry, but this particular time I didn't agree with him. What he was talking about was the second part of Psalm 51, which is a brilliant Psalm and a brilliant subject.

He was talking about David's humility before God, and how we all need to be humble before God as Christians, which I agreed with. What I didn't agree with however, was the example/illustration he used, which was the Indianna Jones film, where Indy has to figure out some hebrew text to solve the puzzle, and it says something about the humble heart. Seconds before he's potentially decapitated, Indy realises that a person with a humble heart bopws in reverence, and he escapes the trap set for him! Then, my pastor said that that was an illustration of us before God... we are humble before God and avoid Destruction or Judgement.

See, this is where it gets complicated and I feel the new spiritual rebelliousness in me fighting against my old evangelical tendencies. Yes, Jesus paid the price for us, yes we are all sinners, yes it's through repentance and faith that we come into a new relationship with God and avoid the consequence of spiritual death, but is it really like that picture that my Pastor used?

I don't tend to think it is. The kind of God and Grace that is demonstrated in Jesus' willing sacrifice for us, is the not the kind of God who says to us "turn or burn" or any of those stupid slogans. I just can't see it. A God who is so loving, why would he be waiting to see whether we turned so that if we didn't he would decapitate us? nah I can't see that.

Now maybe part of the problem is the illustration, and I accept that. When you're talking about trying to define God, and explain his Character, you're never gonna find a water-tight illustration free from mis-interpretation, I accept that.

My problem is, if you do use that, what does it say to someone who hasn't met Jesus personally yet? That God is waiting for you to mess up, and when you do, he'll gibe you a chance to repent and if not He'll destroy you? It just doesn't tie-in, and for me, is bad theology.

This post-reformation hangover is the fact that we haven't really grasped the concept of grace still, and we're still trying to earn our relationship with God by the things we do and say. It just doesn't work like that. As C.S. Lewis once said, "God can't love you any more, and He can't love you any less". His love just doesn't change for us.

At ALL.

Anytime.

Yet we still strive to be "better" Christians, all out conferences and our literature and our courses and our outreach... all of it is based on this idea that we have to be at a certain level before God can accept us. We even do it with beliefs. You have to go to church for ex amount of months before going in a home group, then you have to have made a decision or signed a card, or put your hand up in a meeting, or had an experience. In my reading of the New Testament, the early disciples and followers of Jesus didn't see things as that black and white.

In Matthew, in the last verse, among the story being told about Jesus ascending, it has some very important verses that people sometimes miss in their reading.


MT 28:16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. *

(* = my emphasis)

See?

Jesus had conquered death, risen again, defeated the powers of darkness, come back in victory and was standing before his disciples on the mountaintop giving them authority from Heaven to make disciples....

and some still doubted!

Sorry to be irreverant here, but the Bible doesn't say here "and verily Jesus cast them away into the pits of Hell for their spirit of unbelief" or anything like that. It was ok to doubt. It was ok not to be sure, because following Jesus in the end as I've said before is not about knowing stuff, it's about doing stuff. Faith is not being able to recite every book in the Bible backwards, or being able to give a great homily on the Sermon On The Mount; it's about living Jesus' teaching out. It's about going and doing what He said. That's it.

Those disciples who doubted didn't have it all together I'm sure, and they had lot's of questions, but Jesus didn't ask them to "convert" anyone to their way of thinking, he didn't ask them to go and lecture people, he asked them to "do" his teaching, which was mainly practical. Those disciples who doubted weren't rejected by the others, it doesn't say they were thrown out of fellowship because they couldn't sign up to everything on a pre-determined list. In fact, Jesus didn't seemed to be bothered about that. What He did seem to want was people who were prepared to take Him at His word, and go and do and be, even those who weren't quite sure what was going on!!

That's why a person with learning disabilities can be as much of a follower of Jesus as I can, why someone with reduced mental capacity can be more of a graceful disciple of Jesus than me. That's part of what Jesus meant, I believe, when he said "My Kingdom is not of this world". I don't think he was particularly talking about angels on floaty clouds and other-worldly places, I think He meant His Kingdom runs on a different kind of juice!!

Our world judges things based on performance and knowledge, Jesus Kingdom doesn't. Our world says that you have to achieve to be noticed, Jesus Kingdom doesn't. Our world says the more knowledge and education you can get, the more advantages you will have. Jesus Kingdom is carried by the call of "Follow Me".

"Leave everything, leave it all behind, and do what I tell you", basically.

Yet we have our own spin, whatever it is, whether it's gifts of the spirit, or doctrine, or membership, or lifestyle, or the way we worship; something that we put in the way of genuine seekers of God. People have to reach a standard before we will accept them.

Jesus did no such thing.

Jesus calls everyone to Him, and when they know Him, they'll be so amazed by His love that they'll want to please Him with the way that they live, and the way they spend their money, the way they spend their time with others. Jesus asked for people to trust Him, and that doesn't involve carefully working out doctrines, or signing up to something, it involves a gritting of the teeth, even a "I don't know what I'm doing here but I'm gonna trust that you exist and You are who You say You are". That doesn't really match the decision card does it? It doesn't have the easily defined catergory to it does it?

That's because faith is never a clinically defined thing. Faith is Trust in a person. That's it.

That kind of faith is beautifully frustrating, because it won't allow itself to be pinned down into tiny, nice, easily fitting boxes for you to tick.

And neither does my God, my Jesus!!

*grins unashamedly*