In the beginning, God
created skies and earth.
Greetings and salutations, God people. If you love metaphors, this post will be
Baskin Robbins to you.
Metaphor: a poetic
device that describes one thing as another thing. Example:
God is love.
God is love. Who can argue with that? Who would want to? It is such a lovely idea. It is so lovely, it must be factual.
We quote John 3:16 as if it has the factual power of a chemical formula that launches rockets into space. It must be a fact
that God sent his Son because he really and truly loved the world so so much.
Alas, it is not a fact. Regarded objectively, John 3:16 is an opinion, a theological assertion.
But take heart! There is another way of thinking about it, a more powerful and persuasive way than dry factual consideration. John 3:16 has always been poetry. We cannot write about God in any other way. Language about what is most elevated must itself be elevated. As such it has the power to move us more than facts.
But take heart! There is another way of thinking about it, a more powerful and persuasive way than dry factual consideration. John 3:16 has always been poetry. We cannot write about God in any other way. Language about what is most elevated must itself be elevated. As such it has the power to move us more than facts.
Only among minds so damaged by fear and loathing of
scientific knowledge does the fact that John 3:16 is not a fact become a stumbling block.
If to be a believer, we must deny what our senses and instruments are telling us about thn world we live in, then faith becomes cheap and nearly impossible to take seriously to an earnest seeker.
A statement like, “God said it. I believe it. That settles it,” turns faith into a fact checker. Nothing erodes faith like a withering fact checker because the slightest investigation or reflection reveals lot of errors. If our faith is based on writings without error, our minds are truly beset and without hope. We become sect people who ignore truth.
There was a time when I could no longer read the Bible. All I cared about was whether or not the book I loved had all its facts straight. Just about every page contained statements that were flat out errors. That diminished me, but God remained God.
That kind of faith harms faith. It does not nurture ultimate concern.
If to be a believer, we must deny what our senses and instruments are telling us about thn world we live in, then faith becomes cheap and nearly impossible to take seriously to an earnest seeker.
A statement like, “God said it. I believe it. That settles it,” turns faith into a fact checker. Nothing erodes faith like a withering fact checker because the slightest investigation or reflection reveals lot of errors. If our faith is based on writings without error, our minds are truly beset and without hope. We become sect people who ignore truth.
There was a time when I could no longer read the Bible. All I cared about was whether or not the book I loved had all its facts straight. Just about every page contained statements that were flat out errors. That diminished me, but God remained God.
That kind of faith harms faith. It does not nurture ultimate concern.
Let's go back to "God is love."
Jesus never said that. Jesus commanded us to love God ultimately. Love our neighbors too. Love our enemies too.
The 1st John writer, “God is love.” Not Jesus, not Paul, not anyone else in the Bible.
Jesus never said that. Jesus commanded us to love God ultimately. Love our neighbors too. Love our enemies too.
The 1st John writer, “God is love.” Not Jesus, not Paul, not anyone else in the Bible.
Jesus never said it, but his life proclaimed it as if every
singing voice that ever lived combined into one life that was itself a song of
God that sang loud and strong, “God is love.”
When I was a child, they said to me, “God is love.” I believed them. This seemed perfectly logical to me: if everyone believed God is love then everyone will
love. I yearned to believe that. I still do.
But I grew up in a world exploding with racial and economic
strife. I was told that the God who is love loves the sinner, hates
the sin. The difference seemed hazy.
Others, God hated.
God hated niggers, wet backs, kikes, chinks, Catholics, Mormons, communists, socialists, all who opposed America, femi-nazis, Hellywood, the devil's music, long hair, Martin Luther King, Jr., and anyone who had any sympathy for those whom God hated, that is, liberals.
God hates in every tense and every time. God hated. God had hated. God has hated. God was hating. God hates. God is hating. God will hate. God will have hated. God would have hated.
God hates.
God hates in every tense and every time so much so that he (no mother or father would do this) prepared a torture chamber for all whom he despised. In this idolatry god is truly what a man can be.
According to others, God really loves the people he consigned to the eternal torture chamber. Say that contradiction to yourself a hundred times until it becomes seamless and true. It's easy if you try.
God hates.
God hates in every tense and every time so much so that he (no mother or father would do this) prepared a torture chamber for all whom he despised. In this idolatry god is truly what a man can be.
According to others, God really loves the people he consigned to the eternal torture chamber. Say that contradiction to yourself a hundred times until it becomes seamless and true. It's easy if you try.
The other day, a man holding a Bible in one hand, held in
the other a sign that said: “God hates homosexuals.”
If I were such a pastor whom my congregation loved and trusted enough to believe what I said without question, they would never picket funerals, but their lives would be signs that say, "God loves us each and every one." None of my congregation would be accused of being a "hater enabler".
If I were such a pastor whom my congregation loved and trusted enough to believe what I said without question, they would never picket funerals, but their lives would be signs that say, "God loves us each and every one." None of my congregation would be accused of being a "hater enabler".
For if God hates one person, then God is not love.
I hope to see you here again tomorrow. Until then…blessings…
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