no interest in any god who doesn’t intimately care about every person who has ever lived

The LORD is good to all,
and his compassion is over all that he has made.

Psalm 145:9

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Book of Common Prayer

Call it a protest against bad theology, or whatever, but I have no interest whatsoever in any god who doesn’t have an intimate concern for every human being who has ever lived or ever will live. I have to add to that animals, as well. I cringe when we watch Nature or something of the sort, noting the precarious nature of life, even the given of carnivorous existence to survive. Thankfully I realize that it’s really all beyond me. My own hope is that animals such as cats and dog, and I’ll add horses for my wife will be resurrected to experience the love in any new creation life to come.

But given the devastation that is all too common in the world today, and really has been throughout the earth’s existence, I have a hard time just saying that in the end it doesn’t matter, that there’s no love that continues, that once we’re born we die and that’s the end. Even worse, actually far worse for me is the idea that is commonly considered truth, even if hushed, that the vast majority of human beings will be damned to eternal suffering in hell fire forever and ever. Count me out. Any god that is even distantly related to that, or as is said, actually allows that, some saying even causes that, I think is worse than the devil, and I want nothing at all to do with that god. Period.

But thankfully God is Jesus, and in Jesus we see something quite different. And I would argue that over the scope of the entire Bible we end up with something quite different. God does intimately care for all, even for those who are not likeable. God is God, so much larger than us, completely whole in every way. God is love through and through and everything else that is good through and through. Yes God hates evil, and does get angry. We see that in Jesus when he made a whip and drove the money changers with their animals out of the temple. God is ticked off too, and evildoers will thoroughly be held accountable. But judgment is ultimately not retributive but restorative. Again I think when we turn the pages of Scripture we’ll find somewhat so again and again, and especially through the entire reading that God deals in what ultimately amounts to persistent love with each and everyone. I like the saying that if anyone remains in hell, Jesus is close to them.

That’s the God I see in Scripture and in Jesus. I have no interest whatsoever in the least with any other god.

did “love (really) come down at Christmas,” or judgment?

“No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

John 3:13-17

Reading through the version of “Love Came Down at Christmas” (Christian Rossetti) from our hymnal this morning made me again think about our witness and what is at the heart of the Christmas story.

Often in my lifetime and it seems all the more so in the present day, what I hear from Christians where I live is mostly the note of judgment, how God is going to have to judge America. As if America even from the beginning has had little or no, or at least comparatively less gaffes and issues. Pure fiction. And the fact that such in the past much of the time had a Christian cultural veneer surely makes that all the more egregious. God’s judgment fell. “The good ‘ole days” exist only to those who did not live during those times. But over and over and over again I hear judgment, judgment and more judgment.

But what happened at “Christmas” when Jesus was born? According to Jesus’s words to Nicodemus, not judgment. No, not judgment, but love. Love. Of course you can read on (click above link) and think that judgment does get in because people don’t believe in the Son and because their deeds are evil. Right. And we know why. Because Love is rejected, people are left to their own devices which is judgment in itself.

If love ruled the day for Christians, we wouldn’t see the culture wars going on, waged mainly by Christians. Instead we would see Christians going out of their way to find solutions to problems and doing so humbly within a pluralistic society in which people inevitably disagree. Real love gets down and dirty right into the world in which people live. And not only witnesses, but begins to feel with those who are victimized and hurt, with the full human experience itself. Unless the Christmas story isn’t true.

are we to be like the father in Jesus’s parable of “the prodigal son”?

Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the wealth that will belong to me.’ So he divided his assets between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant region, and there he squandered his wealth in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that region, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that region, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

“Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

Luke 15:11-32

mercy triumphs over judgment.

James 2:13b

There’s more than one way to look at Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son. Here is a most interesting take, which I think is quite legitimate, one you’ve likely never heard or read. 

What happens when we’re with someone who is acting in a way that is unhelpful, perhaps even harmful and disrespectful? And when it’s a situation in which ethics are ignored or even scorned? How are we to look at this situation and such a person? How are we to act?

To begin with, it probably would be good to begin with ourselves. Or at least I can speak for myself in this. It’s so easy for us to have all but too good short memories. We don’t remember how in our lives we’ve done or been a certain way which was anything but helpful and good. We need to consider ourselves before anyone else.

But we also have to live in the present. What do we do with the situation, with the person? First of all, we’re not going to condone their conduct either explicitly or implicitly. We may not be called, nor should we necessarily rebuke it. Though of course we should be ready to help them if they reach out to us. But chances are that’s not what the situation looks like. They’re likely gladly wallowing in the life and attitudes and action which accompany that.

We should never condone what they’re doing, but we should always look at them with mercy and hope. Prayers and waiting. Being an example ourselves of the better way. And like the father in Jesus’s story, longing for change with love. The father looked and looked, and was more than delighted, completely overjoyed at his son’s return.

We should not look down on others but look for them instead. Yes, as Jesus tells us elsewhere that we’re to be perfect and merciful as his heavenly Father is, we must inculcate in ourselves that same heart and attitude. Showed in our words, often lack of words, attitudes and actions.

Not seeing ourselves as superior but looking at everyone as at least potentially family. That we’re in this life together in love. The love of God in and through Jesus.

love: the perfect harmony

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Colossians 3:14; NRSVue

The love spoken of here is of Christ in Christ’s body, the church. But as we see in this letter from Paul to this particular church, this is not a given, not automatic. When it’s all said and done it is the love of God in Christ given to us by the Spirit worked out in our relationships and relationship with each other, which makes the harmony, indeed perfect harmony that’s needed.

The church and us as individuals together are told to clothe ourselves with love. This is a word about relationships which makes sense when you consider the meaning of love and made clear in this short saying. It is something we have to commit ourselves to, be committed to, realizing the great love of God for us, for each other, and actually for everyone.

Love is what makes it all work together and well, yes “in perfect harmony.” Without it nothing else matters (1 Corinthians 13). And it can’t just be there in the background as it were, simply existent. It must be what makes everything work. God’s love given to us by the Spirit in and through Jesus.

sometimes you can only endure (and that’s it)

You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

James 5:11b; NRSVue

If you read the book of Job, you’re not going to find a patient Job. Job was arguably and I think accurately impatient with both God and Job’s friends. And one possible reading of Job is that he holds out to the very end, not necessarily impressed with God’s answer (Pete Enns on Job). There is more than one way to read Job, and in Jewish tradition, that is normal. And we might even say there’s an openness to it in the Christian tradition through Lectio Divina and perhaps in other ways.

When it gets right down to it, there may be days and times that one has to endure, trudge and even grind their way through. You endure in the sense that you keep doing what you have to do, trying to always be loving and right in what you do. And just keep doing that. Or maybe like in the case of Job, the pain is so excruciating and the loss so hurtful, that you can only cry out in painful lament, while not letting go of faith, enduring as far as faith is concerned.

Job was declared right in the end, and his orthodox correct friends wrong, which is interesting (note link to Enns above). God is revealed in Christ, unbroken by the way in that God is fully present in Christ, and not somehow absent at the cross as if the Trinity could be divided. God takes on God’s Self all of our wrong, every bit of it, and turns that into forgiveness through death and the new life which follows. God endured in Christ too, out of love. And in that love, we too are often called to simply endure. Endure, endure and endure again. Especially during most difficult seasons, but day after day as well. In and through Jesus.

*nothing* separates us from God’s love in Jesus

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:35-39

I believe a passage somewhere in the Apocrypha along with the Book of Common Prayer tells us that God loves all God has made. I think within an orthodox reading of Scripture (see Gregory of Nyssa) you can make a case for a Christian universalism, which by grace always involves faith, repentance and change. I am open to such a view myself.

But we who are “in Christ” by grace through faith, along with baptism get to experience this love firsthand, though I would never say that others don’t experience God’s love. But Christ is central to this love being given and experienced by humankind.

It’s important to accept what amounts to the truth that God loves all. In Scripture when it seems to indicate otherwise, we can say that we need to read and understand that Scripture in light of Christ. The writer along with the Israelites or whoever was involved may have been mistaken. God does hate what violates love, but that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love all who are made in God’s image, and in some sense all of God’s creation. God in Christ is out to redeem and reconcile all things to God’s self, as well as to each other in proper relations.

But all of this, or the basic truth needs to get through to us, not just into our heads, but in our experience. We need to understand that God loves us in spite of ourselves, our many mistakes, missteps, even plain wrongdoings. That God is always present for us with open arms. And in a true sense as close to us as the air we breathe. Nothing at all that we go through as Christ followers can ever separate us from God’s love for us that is in Christ. Oh, that everyone, and I’ll even include myself in that, would step into this and learn to remain there. Whatever other experiences we go through in this life, oh that God’s love in and through Christ might overshadow them all!

In and through Jesus.

the love that wins

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Matthew 22:34-40

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

1  John 4:7-11

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:43-48

The active love of God in Christ carried on by us to each other and to the world is ultimately the love that wins. It begins and ends in Christ. It is an “in Christ” existence, but thus our real selves are found. And yet it’s in a world like where Jesus lived so that we are called to love in the same way God loves and has loved in Christ: the way of the cross, loving our enemies, turning the other cheek.

This all begins with the realization that we are loved, deeply loved by the God who created us and wants to remake us in Christ. Christ is the human who fulfilled this, and we enter into this fulfillment ourselves, to begin to live out and grow into this love-filled life even in the hard places, doing so together in Christ.

In and through Jesus.

they will be what they are (except for God’s grace)

“Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”

Revelation 22:11

Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

2 Corinthians 11:14b

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

John 10:10

I think it’s most helpful in differentiating between God and Satan along with the demonic, just to realize who we’re considering. God is God. And to begin to try to get a handle on that, we need to go to Scripture, though God makes God’s Self known in other ways as well. Scripture reveals that God dwells in darkness, that God’s light is too much for us humans to comprehend, even to contemplate. But God is revealed in Jesus, God’s Son. So that to understand what God is like, we have to look at God’s supreme revelation of God’s Self, who is himself all that God is, as well as being human: Jesus.

God is great, whose greatness has no bounds. God is good, whose goodness has no bounds. God is for us as shown in Jesus (Romans 8). God does not condemn us, but loves us, and wants to lift us up and help us. On the other hand, the spiritual enemy wants to make us think that it is right and that we can never measure up. That we ought to do this, that, something else, and always so much more. And that gives what the enemy sends us an appearance of goodness, even godliness. But that entire scenario is not God-like at all. In the end it only results in our condemnation, since we can never measure up. But after all, that’s what our spiritual enemy, the enemy of humankind does. And what God does is completely opposite. God loves, redeems, reconciles, befriends, etc.

The same is true of us humans. Why are we the way we are? Except for the grace of God, I would be just as lost as the next person. And actually, truthfully, I feel a sense of lostness right along. But that helps me to continue to look to God, be open to continual correction and direction along the way. This also helps us understand others, including our sisters and brothers in Christ who might be influenced in a bad way. So that we can find the good, but discern what is not. But first we need to look at ourselves. We have to be sure to take the log out of own eye before we can ever begin to really see the splinter in anyone else’s eye.

Just to know who we’re dealing with makes all the difference. Yes, I know I’m going to be harassed by Satan, rather his minion on a regular basis, because that’s what it does. But I’m going to be loved, understood in all my limitations, and helped by God. That God gives and sends all the help we need as we continue on, as wobbly as we might be, looking to God in faith.

In and through Jesus.

the love which drives out fear

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

1 John 4:16b-21

There are all sorts of reasons we humans are sometimes afraid in this life. And some fears are actually helpful, like the fear of making bad decisions or even honest mistakes which can be consequential. How we navigate such makes all the difference, so that hopefully we’re not lost in the grip and paralysis of fear.

What is referred to in this passage of Scripture is the fear of God’s judgment and possibly connected to that, the fear of death itself (click link for Eugene Peterson’s rendering in The Message). These can go hand in hand, though we humans are usually occupied with one concern at a time.

The John writing this is bringing God’s great love, in essence God God’s Self into the picture. That love, the love God is, is made known to us by the Spirit through Christ, something we especially experience as God’s children together, but also in our individual lives as we go about our days. 

This love casts out fear no less, the fear which can dominate and actually displace this sense of love from God, the love of God in Christ Jesus. So it’s either this unhealthy, paralyzing fear which can grip us, or the love of God poured into our hearts, one or the other. Though often we can go in and out between. But make no mistake, God’s love wins out in the end even in all things, including death itself.

What John tells us here is that we who know God’s love in Christ and therefore love God, are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, as well. I’m not sure we’ll ever reach “perfection in love” in this life, though I’m sure we can experience something of that in its fullness at times. But even keeping that in our memory, say from an experience, or experiences along the way, we should proceed accordingly. Refusing to allow our thoughts, actions, and words be dictated by fear, but rather by this love of God for us and for the world. In and through Jesus.

 

 

that we might love more (and better)

Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, beloved, to do so more and more…

1 Thessalonians 4:9-10

Regarding life together and getting along with each other, you don’t need me to tell you what to do. You’re God-taught in these matters. Just love one another! You’re already good at it; your friends all over the province of Macedonia are the evidence. Keep it up; get better and better at it.

1 Thessalonians 4:9-10; MSG

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:18-19

Rich Mullins probably in at least one song wrote how we really don’t love others well, certainly not the way we’re loved by the Lord. Life down here is not easy. There are so many demands, and when you either live with someone or work with them day after day, certain deficiencies in each other can rub the wrong way. Hopefully in the case of spouses and families, this is just a part of healthy growth together, because it’s inevitable given our incompleteness as well as actual sin as human beings.

But love is at the heart of the Christian message, the gospel, what Jesus Christ brought and brings. Yes, through his atoning sacrifice for us, we’re both taught what true love means, as well as recipients of that love from God which we enter into by simply receiving this in faith. And that gift sets us on a course of both love to God and to our neighbor, to everyone, even our enemies, and especially to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We need to grow in this love. A vital, even crucial part of our development as God’s children. So we need to make the effort from what’s already planted in our heart by God’s word and the Holy Spirit. And we need to pray and ask God to help us grow deeper and deeper, on and on in that love. In and through Jesus.